Boomwhackers with MacPherson Primary

I've just completed my very first assignment with Town 4 Kids at MacPherson Primary!
Missing the students now. ):

I was there as an assistant teacher and my main job was to assist the lead instructor in class.
It's like training for me, to watch how she teach and handle a class of 40.

The whole course wasn't all about learning music.
It was to use music learning to develop the students' character, especially in terms of their social behaviour.
So whenever a student displays a behaviour that's not accepted, we've got to get them to reflect on their own behaviour.


The class was really rowdy at first.
They came running into the classroom, shouting at the top of their voices.
When we splitted them into groups, the boys and the girls refused to mix.
They only wanted to be grouped with their friends.
Even after we got the groups all settled, the boys and the girls in each group couldn't get along with one another.
They fought over the roles each had to play, quarrelled over little things like group names etc.

But the lead instructor really handled the situation well.

I've learned so much from her in the 3 days I've been with her.


Towards the end of the whole course, we could see the students learning to work with one another.
Some even learning to take care of their group members, giving up the instruments or position they wanted just to maintain the harmony of the group.
The whole experience was really enjoyable.
The students were so amusing with their silly actions and words.


It was so nice seeing them all work together.
I was so proud of them, I video-ed every single performance on the last day.

This was the group I'm always around.
When they first worked together, the boys and the girls all refused to talk to one another.
The girls wanted all the girly names for group names, like "Jelly beans", "Cupcakes", "Gummy bears" etc, and the group finally decided on "Rainbow" because there were 7 people in the group.
Everyone was always fighting over the boomwhackers.


But watch the video!
They came up with one of the better performances towards the end.
The boy on the right was always giving in to his group members, giving up whichever boomwhacker he was holding to the one who wants it.
He was so patient with his classmates, guiding them through the song slowly.
They were so good with it in the video!

Look at them!
They practiced the song over and over just to perfect the performance.

And the students put up their performances in the last hour of the class.

The students in this group talked to one another as though they all hated each other.
The boy on the right was the big bully of the class.
During breaks, he'd just go around cornering the smaller kids or jump out of nowhere to scare the girls.
But he's always asking the class to keep quiet whenever they were too noisy.
I can see him as a discipline master in future.

Hahaha the boy with the sunglasses is the funny one.
He brings a different cap to class every single day and he never fails to bring his sunglasses.
He goes around shouting "Oppa gangnam style" and doing all the hip hop moves.


This oppa gangnam style thing is really getting on my nerves.
It's not even funny.

Rainbow!
They were so well prepared for the performance.


The boy on the left is from China and it seems like he doesn't really understand English.
Whenever we speak to him in English, he replies in Mandarin.


"Would you like to be the MC for the day?"
"What's an MC?" (In Chinese of course)
"It means you'll be standing in front with the microphone, hosting the whole performance."
"What MC? I'm not even sick."


HAHAHAHAHAHA
It was so hilarious the lead instructor and I couldn't stop laughing.

The boy on the right's the vocal one in class.
And he's really cheeky too.


"Teacher, can I use shakers for my performance?"
"Oh, you brought your own musical instrument?"
"Yup, I have it in my bag"
"Okay, since you brought it"


And he took out his pack of shaker fries from his bag.


That made my day too. Hahahahha.
It's so funny to talk to them.

Look at the boy doing the "go to sleep" action!
Soooooo cute.
And he's really good at shuffling and moon walk.

This group lovessssss to use anything and everything they can find in the classroom as props.
Most cooperative group ever when it comes to group work.

The most adorable class ever.

It seems like just yesterday that I entered NUS.
Meeting my guy friends who were in army back then was the time of my life. No educational talks, just chill and relax.


When the guys finally entered university, our talks revolved around school and work. And wow, I'll be graduating in 2 months' time!
How time flies.


Everyone has been asking if I've been looking for a job. Students in the same cohort have either found a job or have been called up interviews.
I've only been to career fairs which have been futile.


Went to the career fair at Suntec today.
It wasn't as useful as the career fair in NUS but I've talked to more people today.
Half of the career fair was for course seekers, people looking for courses to study in universities. The other half was mostly banks and issurance companies, and sales isn't exactly the job I'm looking for.


I was so happy when I was NParks's booth there.
They are usually not around during career fairs, so I went to enquire on the prospects in NParks. The booth turned out to be a department from NParks looking for workers to work in private landscaping companies. I wouldn't mind working in a landscaping firm but they were looking for gardeners. ):


After talking to the people there, I realized it's really hard for me to land my dream job.
Nature conservation is a niche job. It's not like the general sales/HR/admin jobs that any company can offer.


I want to do something similar to what I did in Field Studies.
Digging soils, moving upstream in the river, measuring turbidity of a river.
I want to work with plants and trees, conserve the nature reserves. Anything to do with environmental sustainability. Which means, I've only got NParks in my choice.


So hard to find a job I really like.

The Future of an Arts Student

This song truly depicts the predicament of all Arts students.
When you tell someone you're from Arts and Social Sciences, they'd be wondering if you really are studying. It's like our degree isn't worth as much as other degrees because we're not really studying.

When I tell people I'm studying Geography, people see rocks, volcanoes and plants.
My family sees me as jobless but I see myself working in a conservation.


Why do people get so skeptical about what you're really studying?
They generalize the subject you're studying but they don't exactly know what you're learning in school. Geography isn't just about nature.


Gah. Hate it when people put Geography majors down.

Just when I thought I've got my modules all settled, I had to face yet another problem.
I managed to secure Urban Sociology, one module which I really enjoy after attending the first lecture. I planned all my tutorials and was ready to file for graduation, only to realize I really did read an excess Geography module and now, I have one UE lacking. Which means... if I don't get this solved, I wouldn't be able to graduate in time.

Despite the severe puking and diarrhea the whole morning, I forced myself to head over to school to enquire at the Dean's office. All they said was I had to send in an appeal online. So, I went to the Geography department to look for Mrs Chong to ask for alternatives. She's a much nicer person to talk to but sadly, she was on leave. ): And the person who talked to me kept asking me to drop the excess Geography module. How to when I read it last semester?! Pttf.

In the end, I sent an appeal through Cors online. Something which I can always do at home. I made a wasted trip down to school through all that uncomfort.

CORS suck big time. My very last semester and I still have problems bidding.
Despite the declaration in Soci minor, I'm unable to bid from my minor modules in Round 2A. Tried to appeal, only to know that Soci is an open minor and I've got to wait for the next round, meaning that the modules would be super expensive to bid for and there will be less than 5 vacancies each time to fight for. What the heck's an open minor? So, why did I even declare minor for when I have to fight with everyone from all over NUS for my minor modules?

After throwing in all my points this round on a single soci minor, I've only got 400 points left, which is way below the sufficient level for any soci module, except stats and the seminar module. I wouldn't want to do stats because it is totally not required and I can't make it for the seminar module. Each module is at least 2000 points now and tomorrow's the last round of bidding. Why won't they just accept my appeal? I'm desperate to get my module to graduate!

Please please please let me secure my last module.

Bong Khrai

Today, we were assigned our groups for our topo map project. After breakfast at 7.30am, each group was given a GPS to navigate our way around the mountains. It's not the GPS you use when you drive. This GPS gives us the coordinates, elevation, bearings and altitude at each way point.


My group took the trail off the main road, into the forest. We walked on really steep slopes off the trail, trudged through mud and saw little huts and terrace cultivations along the way.



 
Little hut along the way

 
Mini landslide just below the house

After more than half an hour of walking, we reached the end of the trail. We were guessing that this is a farm/plantation. I was really curious to look at the toilet in that hut above the stairs but 2 huge dogs came charging towards us. They were just curious and wanted to check us out, but I freaked out and ran off as soon as they were sniffing my group members.


At some parts of the trail, some of us received SMSes from friends. It was such a joy. Everyone's faces lit up whenever someone's phone rang.


There was still some time before lunch, so we went back to the main road to look for another trail, taking the coordinates of our way points along the way. We went into MEC resorts to check if there's internet connection but we ended up at another plantation. By then, everyone was too tired to walk. We took a break and sat at a spot with reception.

Lunch was at 1.30pm.


After lunch, Dr Z said there wasn't anything for us to do and so, he's going to drop us off at the botanical gardens near the foot of the mountains and we can explore the entire place from 2.30-5.30pm. Most of us were expecting the botanical gardens to be something like Singapore's and we were quite reluctant to get down. But the botanical gardens here is way more exciting than Singapore's! Entrance fee was about 100 baht per person.

We went to look at the waterfall first. Because we went to the botanical gardens shortly after a rain, the waterfall was pretty fast. The water level was so high it flooded one of the paths. We tried moving up that path though, but our slippers were all stuck in the mud.

 
Random bone along the way

And we crossed a river!

At the cross junction, all of us chose the nature trail instead of the footpath. And again, because of the rain earlier on, the ground was muddy. All of us were struggling to keep on the path and we had to help one another up the slopes because they were too slippery.

 
Struggling to get up the slope


The glasshouse was the attraction in the botanical gardens so we were determined to find that place. We took a long walk up the mountains via the winding path. All the vehicles slowed down to stare at us and after reaching the top, we knew why they were staring at us. They must be thinking that we were crazy because the walk took us almost an hour and the paths at the top of the mountain were really steep. All of us were out of breath half way up the mountain.

This wasn't even at the top of the mountain yet. We took a break here only because it had a scenic view.

 
Glasshouse!

 
The fish that committed suicide by jumping on the leaf

 
Carnivorous plants

We went back up to the mountains at around 7.30pm for dinner and spent the rest of the night getting started on our topo map. It was really tedious, having to analyze the map and the trail we took. But I now know how to put together a contour map!




 
----- 

20 May, Bong Khrai



Again, we were not aware of what are the activities planned out for the day and because I need to bathe in the morning and there are 8 people in the house sharing that one little toilet, I woke up at 6.30am. While waiting for breakfast, I started doing on the topo map.


After breakfast, we were broken up into groups again for our soil pits, with 7 people in a group. When asked for a volunteer, one of my group members raised his hand and so, my group got assigned the soil pit furthest away from our house.


We were supposed to look for a climate station and find a spot near the climate station to start digging our soil pit (1m x 2m x 2m). We walked along the road, further up the mountain but the climate station was nowhere in sight so we went back down and walked on the trail near our house. We ended up at a ginger plantation and there was no other path to take, so we've decided to get back to the meeting point to ask Dr Z for the exact location. And, he brought us back to the ginger plantation. A rain gauge, about the thickness of a lamp post, was hidden in one of the corners of the ginger plantation. Because all of us were looking out for the climate station, something we presumed to be large scale, we spent 2 hours looking for our spot while the other groups have started on their digging. In an hour, we dug about 70cm deep into our soil pit.


We found out that the other groups' soil pits were just behind our houses. All they needed was 2 minutes to walk from our daily meeting point to their soil pits, but my group need about 15 minutes. ): There wasn't much to do after lunch, so we were brought to the waterfall.

There were a total of 10 waterfalls at this place and we were told that the 10th one right at the top is the prettiest. So we climbed flights and flights of stairs up to the highest point and it turned out to be a so-so waterfall. It was nothing as compared to the ones in Mauritius. Everyone just sat in the water, feeling around for rocks to be collected.


We were back at around 5.30pm for dinner and to continue with our topo map.



-------


21 May, Bong Khrai


Woke up again at 6.30am to bathe and to do up on my group's topo map. Super proud of myself for waking up so early. By myself some more.


We did all the technical stuff today. Classes started right after breakfast with our soil group mates. My group was assigned Dr Spencer, a geologist from Chiang Mai University, so we had to visit a river in the nearby village. Because he had to return to pick the other half of the group, the few of us had to find our own way down to the river. We barged through the jungles, trudged on mud and I got stuck in the mud so much so that my boots went into the mud completely and I had to remove my boots to get them out of the mud.


Over there, we built a small dam with the soil, mostly clay, to test for water velocity and collected some water so that we can bring it back to test for turbidity, dissolved particles and ions.


After we were done with all the tests and plotting of graphs, we followed Joon to our soil sample site to tie a pail onto our makeshift stand under the bamboo trees.




We had to return to our site every morning to collect the rainwater to test for water quality. Then, we went back to learn about spectrophotometer. After collecting the rainwater samples from our site daily, we had to test them for nitrates, nitrites, ammonium and phosphorous using the spectrophotometer and write a report per group.


All of us were looking forward to lunch and soon after lunch, my group followed Dr Eric to the village again. This time, to test for air quality. All the time, Zee Zee followed us.

We were just walking around the village, holding onto the device. Whenever motorcycles drive pass us, the values on the device would jump really quickly.

 
Zee Zee, the village dog that followed my friends back to the place where we stayed and it stayed there the whole time we were there.

 
Chicks

It's very common to see chicks/chickens and dogs along the roads of Bong Khrai.


It was dinner after all the lessons, and it free and easy.
Some of us went to do up on the topo maps while the rest went to dig further into the soil pits.

My group's topo map!

Chiangmai - Bong Khrai

Had our daily breakfast at Chiangmai Residence and had to wait for our group's turn to receive our results for the photo essay. My group didn't do that well, but we had fun exploring the city!


It was our last lunch together before we split up.
The humanoids stayed in Chiangmai for 4 more days to discuss their readings, while we physicals headed for the mountains. Before heading up to the mountains, all of us dropped by a wet market to get our supplies - long sleeve shirts, boots, ponchos and extra towels.


We reached Bong Khrai at around 4pm and there wasn't really much to do.
The room wasn't exactly clean either. All of us couldn't get used to it. We were each given one bed comforter, which we used to lay on the bed before putting our sleeping bags on. After laying everything on our beds, the TAs came to tell us not to flush anything down the toilet bowl because it will clog up the entire system. The toilet itself didn't have any flush to begin with. We had to flush everything down manually and there were insects everywhere.


Because there wasn't anywhere to sit in the house, we went out to explore the area.

 
Some room behind the houses we were living in

 
Abandoned salad bar

  
This is what girls do when they're bored. They braid hairs.

 
Our daily meal


We have this for all our meals. Breakfast, lunch and dinner. It's always rice plus one or two other dishes. Once in awhile, we'd have noodles and when we are served that, everyone goes for a second serving.


After dinner, the lecturer said that we'd be watching Thai movies in the hall. We ended up watching a sappy love story based on 2 high school students - First love.

Anyway, this is the house we were sleeping in. On the very first night, we heard some weird noises coming from outside and it sounded very much like a human. Turned out to be a gecko.

 
Our dining/chillax corner

 
Toast area


Very popular hangout place. On days when we were served breakfast with spicy food, usually leftovers from dinner, the toast area would be super crowded. At any time of the day, as long as we're not at busy with our projects or at the soil pits, there'd be people at this corner. Milo, bread, butter, jam, peanut butter, nutella. The amount of toast I had here is more than the amount of toast I had in 21 years.

 
Our daily supply of water

 
Our hall!


I wasn't used to the living condition there at all on the first day. The toilet was gross max and I couldn't bring myself to lie on the bed. But I really really miss the place there now.