Today marks the first day of Ms Teo's absence, which will last for two weeks.
We had the vice principal Tan Jek Suan standing in for SD (big shot class gets big shot principal)
and a... comical guy to stand in for chemistry tutorials.

I'll start with the VP's lesson...
He's actually quite a funny and nice man, I realised. At the beginning of the year I thought he was just a bastard whose interests lay in suanning people (no, no pun intended. But he's actually quite open to the views of students, and also has a recognisable sense of humour (unlike the other Mr Tan...I'll touch on that later).
Anyway his lesson was on..."the needy and poor". To me it was pretty much just a funner version of the GP poverty lecture. It didn't teach me stuff I didn't already know... though I must admit it was pretty enjoyable.

In the course of the lesson he asked us to list down 5 possessions we will find hard to give up and why... Interesting question, though I think its kinda...private. I...certainly didn't answer it truthfully. Chem, Maths, Physics, GP, Chinese. Those are the things I listed. While Chem is rather important to me, its still not to the extent where I can't live without it...thats just weird. Er, the other subjects, I was lying, alright? Hit me lightning or something... but it doesn't make sense to announce what is precious to me.

However, if I were to do a proper ranking...what would the 5 possessions be? I'm not entirely sure myself... How do we define possessions? Do we "possess" our family and friends? For me, the answer is no... no matter how precious those people are, they are not things that have settled down in my life. They remain as variables...which may or may not stay in our lives as life progresses. On the other hand, it is true that my perception of friends is mildly ( if not astronomically ) different from that of others-- for instance, I don't count people I know as friends, unless a rather high level of mutual trust has been established. Hence, using either reasoning, friends and family will not be appearing on my list.

That probably sounds like I don't care bout relationships, but thats not what it means. Well, digest it yourself...

So, now that relationships are removed from the list of options, the whole thing is much easier to do. ( I would have much more difficulty doing this if I were to count people as "possessions", trust me ) . It'll probably be my Laptop, Handphone, Electone, PSP, and my dog. Which isn't very interesting, and doesn't deserve much elaboration.

Its getting kinda long and I haven't even started on the wannabe-chem-teacher... its the VP's fault, for asking such a question and making me think. I'll move on... rather than continue on this topic. ( I was gonna go on about how many of my classmates choose family, making me feel exceedinly cold blooded, but nevermind ).


Well, about Chem... This Mr Tan is also quite a funny man. Like the VP, he keeps making us laugh. However, in this case, half the time we are laughing at him instead of his jokes. But that does not undermine his ability to teach... he has his own style, I must admit, though I'm not quite used to it... it may be more compatible with the others. I have always been used to Ms Teo's method of teaching, where the procedure of events are foreplanned and fixed ( prepare tutorial, do tutorial on board, go through errors , add on to lacking areas . )This method, while efficient for people who are adept at the subject, may prove to be a lil tedious and stressful to others. ( Like... the class quizzes that can occur anytime constantly act as pressurizing factors, and people who do not understand the content completely may well find themselves copying answers/explanations on the board without truly understanding throughout the lesson) I'm not complaining... but thats what I feel.
On the other hand, this Mr Tan guy's method of teaching is relatively less planned/organised and the way it progresses relies hugely on response from the class. He just goes through tutorial questions in random order, and from the way the lesson progresses it can be seen that he doesn't have a list of stuff he has set for himself that he wants to complete in that lesson. Its just...random.

And who exactly am I to judge teachers, anyway? But I'm bored...so forgive me. Besides I should be observing how different teachers teach, if I want to be a good teacher, shouldn't I?