walking in the rain

It has been raining a lot in the evening these past weeks. I am so desperate for the walks up the hill during the weekends that I've even walked under the hot sun at 12pm. For the past two weekends, we had been caught in the rain twice. The first time, we just scrambled all the way down...totally drenched. Last Saturday, I carried an umbrella and KC wore a raincoat. We covered quite a distance as we were not worried about getting wet. It's quite a lot of fun walking in the rain.

Managed to capture two pictures of God's creation before the rain came.

 Wild berries??

 Due to the rain, lots of mushrooms mushroomed. Just like the pictures in Enid Blyton books....just need the gnome or pixies to complete the magical feel.

KC in the raincoat....brown water flowing downhill....don't seem to capture the flowing water too well. A little slippery but definitely very enjoyable especially when we have the umbrella and raincoat. The stick helps a lot.

flowers flowers flowers everywhere

I don't have green fingers. But I think my patch of garden is green and beautiful....(my standards). All I do is water and fertilize the plants. Once a year KC and I will buy more soil and a few new pots and plants and add new plants to what we have. At the same time we may re-pot some of the old plants.

The result of the little effort I put in my garden is just so amazing. I think the fertilizer is good. The blooms this time round is really wonderful and in abundance.

This flower is not from my garden. We bumped into it on the way up the hill yesterday. Saw the first bloom on the ground. Thought it dropped from the tree. Then further up saw another two blooms. Went closer and saw it is growing from the ground...the root is bulb like. Really interesting. In the gray and brown of the hill....the red just stands out.

Open Book Exam

SPM History  for year 2013 will include a new paper...Paper 3. It's 3 hours and open book ie students are allowed to bring in books, references, printed materials etc. 8 questions with a total of 100 marks and rounds up to 20% of the overall History paper.

Paper 1 is objective questions, Paper 2 is structural and essay questions. These have been the type of papers the students had been sitting for.

My students just sat for the Paper 3 recently. I am in extreme busy mode marking. An average of 4 sheets of paper; 8 pages of writing from each student. There is just so much marking to do....pages after pages of words and they don't seem to get any lesser.

The set of question we used for this exam is based on the questions which the district History teachers did together in one of the workshops earlier this year. It was agreed in the workshop that during the year end exam, schools are to use the questions prepared in the workshop.

What I found out after the exam:A whole series of questions and answer schemes (which was emailed to me by the workshop coordinators) can be found over the internet. Somebody had posted the questions and answers!!!

Students who found the questions and printed the answer scheme were euphoric. Students who saw the question and didn't print the answer scheme were frustrated. Students who did the right thing....studied, searched, googled etc etc....were angry and frustrated. My own girl cried and said she will not bother to do research but zoom in straight to the questions  and answers next time.

As I marked, I felt upset and stupid. It's like seeing the same answers over and over....same sequence, same words. Students with the scheme just copied straight. No variety except for those who did extra thinking and sorting out of answers.

The first three questions are text book based. So with the text open, students can safely copy all the correct answers down. The rest of the questions are KBKK (creative and critical thinking) styled questions. Requires analysis, critical thinking, linking of knowledge to situation etc. So far, most of the answers I checked are monotonous, non-creative or critical...nothing original but obviously copied.

What are we teaching the students:
 Open book test means looking for answer schemes and bringing in to exam hall to copy. I saw many students bringing in answer schemes from various reference books.

What will happen and is happening to the students:
They turn into cut and paste people of the world. I see it happening over and over. Give them a project to do....they just go online, cut and paste on the topic given and claim the work as theirs. (I had a student who handed me an essay on Commonwealth Games....obviously a cut and paste work...at the end of it she put her name. I was horrified and blasted her for plagiarism.)

What is the purpose of this paper?
History is a compulsory pass subject beginning 2013. It is one subject which most students hate and many can't be bothered if they pass it or not. This open book paper is geared to help students pass this exam which I think is quite possible at this rate as we are teaching students to bring in whatever printed materials and just copy like crazy.

At the end of the day, we will have 100% passes in History. We will pat ourselves on the back for an excellent job done but how many of the passes is actually valid?

This is the condition of our education system now. I still have tales to tell in regard to other changes and the doubts I have regarding them....well, no need to talk anymore. Getting bit long-winded.

A trip to the forests...

 6th October 2012 the CS made a trip to FRIM Kepong. This is the second time we have visited FRIM. There were 46 of us (some dropped out the last minute),  a busload with Edward and Darrissa in their car.

It's so nice to visit a forest in the city. Must say that the FRIM has done quite a good job in keeping the place and organizing the activities for us. We were divided to Team A and Team B. The tour guide took us around...visited the museum and then hiked into the forest. The guide did a great job in explaining the plants to us...I've learnt quite a lot that day.

The beginning of the hike....we were taken to a pond where we clapped hands to attract the attention of the big arowana fishes in the pond. Not sure how that works but we saw two huge arowanas.

 The guide explaining to us the various types of wood here. This has three types of wood...the first is the type used to build boats, bridges and it is still strong and solid. The third type of wood is already rotting. The children were very attentive and inquisitive. I am sure they have learnt more about the forest here than in their class.

 The canopy...this is something which this forest is well-known for. This very canopy had made its way to the National Geographic. Most impressive and majestic. Never fail to awe me....

 Something informative here. Look at the banana....it grows upwards. The guide told us that bananas that grow upwards instead of downwards is poisonous.

 The canopy walk....only four at a time and we were not allowed to group together. Those who didn't want to go for the canopy walk went back to base while the rest of us went on with our hike. Great experience even for a person who is afraid of heights like me. Get to see KL city too.

 When we came downhill, we were hot and sweaty. The kids saw water and they wanted to go in for a dip. Water is very clean and clear this end as it is higher up. They were not allowed to have a dip as we had to get to the base for lunch.

 Reached the base, had lunch and we were off again for treasure hunt. It was back into the forest again. This group....Awesome...was the first to complete the hunt but didn't win as their purpose was to complete the hunt as fast as they could.

 A trip to the waterfall.....the kids wanted this very much. They had great fun playing in the water.

A bigger view of the waterfall....The adults climbed to the higher point. The smaller children were at the lower point. Was quite scary as the rocks were slippery.

Left FRIM slightly after four. I was totally exhausted. Slept all the way back. Thank God for the great weather and protection. Was a good trip for all of us.

From Sitiawan to Kuala Selangor

Moving around with Ma is not easy. As she can't walk her wheelchair has to follow her. So for a family of six one car is not enough, we need two cars to move around with her. Last weekend, the kids were away for MYF Retreat. We took the opportunity to send her home for a fortnight. The last time we were home was for the CNY. So it was an exciting journey for her. We stayed in sister's house. 

The next morning it rained. Thought of going to Lumut for a stroll but after the drama of getting the kompiang, we only made it to Kampung Sitiawan. A sad place....very neglected and unkept (so Malaysian).

The river at Kampung Sitiawan. Low tide....very dirty. People say that the roti canai here is real good. It was over crowded. We decided not to patronise it.

Ma...her happy self. Managed to skype with brother and second sis in Vancouver before I left the house.

This is Siow Huang (Little Yellow)...sister's precious dog. She is fat and spoilt...quite a brat. I heard the radio discussed about the strawberry generation in China. Siow Huang reminds me of them. Fat, bratty, bored and she doesn't smile but have the look like the world owes her a favour. Unlike Zoe who is happy and always smiling unless she is tired, lazy or got a scolding.

We returned to Seremban in the afternoon. Decided to take the coastal road so that we can stop over at Kuala Selangor. So many traffic lights. No wonder we don't take this road. Google map brought us to this place....full of tourists. The water is dirty....styrofoam packs floating around. (Sigh...how Malaysian...will we ever overcome rubbish dumping mentality??)

There are two restaurants nearby and overlooking the river. The better restaurant is overcrowded so we went to the less crowded restaurant. Took a picture of the river from the restaurant. There is a counter to buy tickets for kelip-kelip (fireflies) tour....it's RM18 for adults. Not sure how it is now...we took the tour about 18 years ago and it was quite impressive. Like looking at christmas trees along the river.

The food we ordered....I like this a lot. Used a satay stick to get the flesh out. That weekend we ate lots of seafood....sis cooked lala and clams for us.

Kam heong crab....the ones at S2 is better. So nothing great about it. It was a lot of food for the two of us. Had noodles too. Finally when we asked for the bill, we were given a RM300 bill. Checked and it wasn't ours. The waiter returned later and told us someone had paid our bill. He left us....

After waiting for a while and realising that no one cares if we pay or not, we walked up to the counter and told the boss we wanted to pay for our meal. He checked....bill not there. So he recalculated and we paid him RM77.

When we arrived the parking was quite empty. By the time we left, people were double/triple parking.

Don't think we will come here to eat again. Nothing great.

Music classes

Dan's first experience with music class was at the age of four. He didn't like it; neither did I. After 6 months we stopped.

When he was in Standard Three we decided to give him another chance Told Mrs Ong to go slow with him and exam is not our purpose but to help him have knowledge of music and to enjoy it.

His purpose of learning the piano is to exercise his stubby fingers so they grow long like the sister's and he can play the guitar. That was the condition we gave him: if he wants to play the guitar he has to learn the piano first. (one day he told us that his fingers will never be slim because Mrs Ong's fingers are stubby too).

He has never shown any musical inclination. Spends less than ten minutes to practise the piano before class. Sometimes I feel that I'm wasting money. Thought of stopping
his music class if he shows no improvement.

This year, the whole scenario changed. He was asked to play the piano for the Christian fellowship in school. Lyn and I panicked on his behalf but with some coaching from the sister, he has mastered his chords well enough to play. Then the school choir was In desperate need of a pianist. He was asked to play for the choir which was going for competition the next day. Plucked out from the class the whole day to be drilled to play chords. He survived!!! (Lyn and I sweated at the thought of him playing at the competition).

Now he is the official pianist for
the school cf. His playing is still rough but he handles the chords pretty well. He will never be a professional musician but he can handle the instruments enough to get by.

The piano is being played by both kids many times a day for the fun of making music. Both kids help each other especially in playing new pop songs. Worth getting this new piano four years ago.

Dan plays the drum at the myf too. He is picking up the guitar now. At the moment the myf is desperate for guitarists. We are encouraging him to work hard at it so he can help the sister out when they train for carolling this year end.

Whenever I pick him up from music We would be so pleased. I am pleased that my money is well spent. He is pleased that he has music skills (not talents) that is helping him in school and church and most definitely socially too.

Perseverance and patience....worth it at the end of the day.

Tess of the D'Urbervilles

Long time ago before the kids came, when life was simpler....without macbook, iphone, ipod, ipad, wifi.....I used to read real books.

At the beginning of each holiday, I would go to the book store and buy a few books. One of my favourite author is Thomas Hardy. I think I have all the titles that are in the bookstores.

His books are not easy to read. The flow must not be broken otherwise it's easy to lose interest. So holiday before the kids came was the best time as I can just read on and on and on without anybody disturbing me.

I like his books as Hardy shows how women are the downtrodden species of the human race. Poverty, disappointment, class difference.....nothing has changed today.

Tess is one of his best books. I've quite forgotten the story until I saw the show on youtube. Not easy  to watch .... so sad. That's how Hardy's book is; melancholic and gray.

I'm into episode 3 now and I've stopped to blog because I'm so afraid to see what would happen next (though I know what would happen next). Sigh....the show must go on ...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0Wj2rOv308&feature=relmfu