TV Ad for Family

The first time I saw this ad, I was touched... the many beautiful imperfections in our partners that make our lives complete... thought the poignancy of the moment was captured wonderfully by the director... I know that has not much to do with Physics... well you can say the part where she was describing the motor sounds... you will learn about the motor in Physics in Sec 4...

But education is sometimes not simply learning about the facts and figures... the journey is equally important... learning Physics is not just learning about the facts and formulae... it is also about the journey of a student trying to grasp the amount of information around him and making sense of it all...

Don't give up on learning... certain things may seem to be difficult to understand but if you take some time to read through and think about the topic, I am sure you will be enlightened!

Just survived CNY

Wow... never had such a tiring CNY before... man... bringing Joash around to go visiting is really tiring... must juggle his feeding and sleeping schedule with our visitation... man... he just can't sleep cos there's so much activities going around him... can't blame him... cos he's so CUTE!!! I know I am biased as a parent but I honestly think he's very cute! Everyone's like carrying him and talking to him... how to sleep like that? The moment he's back in the car travelling to the next place, he immediately KO... and he promptly woke up at the next place... haha... he's so tired out by the end of the day... he fell asleep even before he hits the bed...

Now that back to school... back to the reality of my students' results... sigh... last year they really didn't do well... some were too complacent but generally I feel the cohort was not putting in effort... but this year I feel the students are starting off well... way to go graduating batch of '09! Let's work hard together to bring forth the best results ever!!!

Will look for nice videos to post soon... Mr Ng got some mean looking vids on his blog... go check it out!

Week 3 of 2009

I have been swarmed with work since the beginning of school... but am happy doing some of the work especially when I see some of my students putting in hard work for their lessons. The school I am teaching in caters to the lower ability students and generally their motivational level is not very high. To enthuse them and steer them to aim higher for themselves is an art. I am constantly training myself to perfect this skill yearly.

This year, I do think that the classes are more motivated. I am not claiming credit cos I don't think I did much. The school on the whole did a lot to improve the tone of the environment and I do think that it is taking effect. As a teacher, it gives me great joy to see a recalcitrant student turning over a new leaf and putting in effort to take charge of his/her life. I am seeing more and more such students and honestly, I am very proud of them. It is not easy to put brakes on a downward spiral especially when everyone around you is not doing so. I am proud of these students who are able to put brakes on their self-destructive habits and break free from the habits. I often wonder what will be my response if I were in their shoes.... I am proud of them because I think they are better than me when I was in my younger days. They put brakes on themselves, make a big U-turn and push themselves on against all flow to better themselves.

Man I am proud of these students. But I do hope that their change will last. It is not easy to build lasting change but I do hope this bud of change I am seeing is one of permanence. I will do all I can to water, nurture and grow these budding talents into maturing pillars of the society.

I will. I can. I am.

KING OF SCIENCE!!!!

Physics is the KING OF SCIENCE!!!! Haha... this is my tagline for all my new Physics students... My ex-students will remember how I used to shout this whenever I see them and they used to shout back at me the same tagline... the two videos are definitely a testimony of that!

How time flies and it is 2009. A new year has started and I am definitely looking forward to seeing new faces again for my classes. Although I know that making new year resolutions are definitely not my strength, I do want to try to maintain this blog more often than 2008. Haha... and I ensured that I will do this by making sure people pressure me now and then..

So you students out there... if you see this blog languishing in cyberspace... drop me a tag or just let me know in school!

Physics is the KING OF SCIENCE!!!

Joash has arrived!

My baby boy Joash has arrived in this world on 1 Sept 2008 at 8.35 am weighing a whooping 3.68 kg! Woohoo! The first time I carried him... the whole moment felt so surreal... you know... like when you anticipate anxiously and eagerly for something to happen and when it finally happens, you think that this cannot be it... he looks so cute! Not just because I am his father... but honestly I think my boy is the cutest! 

Will post pics later... but serious lack of sleep now. Wife had a c-section and needed time to recover as her wounds are very painful which leaves only me to run around and get everything done... 3 hourly feeds and the stream of visitors... leaves me no time to rest... 

Yeah! I am now officially a father! And next year... FINALLY... I can start receiving hong-baos again... for baby Joash... hehe....

Just finished the chapter on radioactivity with the students. So sad that this chapter is left out in the new syllabus. Very interesting chapter to talk about and teach. Oh well... here's a video for you to enjoy learning about radiation. Haha... in class we had interesting discussions about the radiation killing sperm and eggs, about how radiation causes cancer and we really do not know what is in our foods these few days...

Suck Egg into Bottle

This experiment can be tried at home with proper adult supervision... haha... v cool!

Radioactive decay

A simple animation about radioactive decay.

Radioactivity Experiment

A very clear video about radioactivity.

GM counter

GM counters... instruments to measure radioactivity. This video is more for instructional purposes.