PE lessons for Sec 1

Sec 1 boys have spent their first month in Victoria School and we can see that they are now completely at home in their new environment.

Here we see Sec 1E actively engaged in PE.

GCE PE Feedback Role-play for CA

Today, Sec 3B had a their first component of CA- a Role-play giving examples of Good and Bad Feedback.
Here was the assigned task:
In groups, of 5-6
Role-play the demonstration and teaching of one skill by a coach to his students
i.e. in soccer (heading, passing) or hockey (dribbling, juggling)

In your role play, present 2 scenarios:
1-Effective use of feedback in coaching
2-Ineffective/poor use of feedback in coaching
You will need to identify clear coaching points for the skill.
You will need to make sure all members in the group have a role to play

Began by getting the boys to set-up and prepare in the Flexsi Amphitheatre on the
4th Floor:


First group up was Naren's group (together with Marcus, Eugene, Irsyad, Muhyiddin and Shaun). They began by showing us examples of good feedback:


Then came examples of how poor feedback affects performance:

(Must commend Marcus for his flamboyant volleys as well as Naren for his polished delivery)

Next up was Amsyar together with Ryson, Jordan, Izzat and Dilip

(Don't you all think Jordan look like kindergarten kid with his new hair style?)

Our next group of Fadhil, Danial, Haaziq, Haseef and Hidayat used Hockey to showcase the use of feedback


Fadzly, Clement, Aldrin, Desmond and Chong Chieh also used Hockey to demonstrate their role-play.


We had Hong Kwang, JJ, Ernest, Alym and Jaren show us the use of feedback in Goal Keeping


The creme of the crop came from Group 6's performance by Wei Yang, Jeremy, Daren Tang, Khairul and Daniel.
They too showed the use of feedback in both positive and negative scenarios and were able to capture both the use of effective teaching points and the consequences of the use of negative feedback.


Well done boys, look out for your on-line PE CA in 2 weeks time!

Urban Shield Personal Protection Workshop

Victoria School was priviledge to have a team of guest speakers come down to deliver a session on personal protection and crime awareness.
Our panel of speakers comprised of Mr Nigel Februrary, who has done research into criminal methodology in South Africa; Mr Lloyd de Jongh, who works in close protection and has been the bodyguard of celebrities like Wesley Snipes and even Bill Gates, and Mr Corey Perry a former US Marine.

Our guests came to deliver a concept known as the Urban Shield to our students to show how physical assault is only the 4th Stage in a long series of events. Urban Shield presents the crime scenario as follows:

INTENT - This is where the person crosses a normal mental boundary.
INTERVIEW - This is where the criminal decides if you are safe to attack.
POSITIONING - This is the criminal putting himself in a place where he can attack you.
ATTACK - The attack is the criminal using force, or the threat of force to get what he wants.
REACTION – The aftermath of the assault, and potentially the most dangerous stage
In their words "During the first three stages, if you know and understand the consistent methods and signs, you can prevent an attack without the use of violence. These are where the criminal (or violent person) decides whether or not he can get away with it safely. He may want to (INTENT), but if he doesn't have the opportunity (POSITION) he cannot succeed. In the same vein, he's going to make sure he can successfully use violence against you (INTERVIEW and POSITIONING) before he commits himself to act. Once he is sure of his ability to succeed and as put you in a position where he can quickly overwhelm you, he will attack."

Our presenters showed presented this concept to the audience and showed how easy it was for a criminal to gain the trust of an unsuspecting civilian by the following role-play:

It was a sobering fact that only 2 students out of the group of 50 plus had noticed their young female friend leave with a stranger out of the designated presentation area.


Our presenters role-played the scenario and show how a criminal tries to close in on his victims personal space to assess and access the potential success of his intented crime.


Our presenters then presented us with the most common manifestation of violent crime-a knife attack. They show students how criminals commonly use misdirection and deception to rob us of our awareness to make us vulnerable to their attacks.


We then explored how we could safetly define and demarcate our personal safety zone through non-threatening gestures and use of verbal cues. A simple 'Stop!' and question to discern the intent of someone approaching you often gives you an added safety barrier in terms of time and personal space:


Our students enjoyed the session alot with the fast paced presentation and hands-on demonstrations.
I think the part that they enjoyed most was when our presenters used me as a victim and role-played the various mugging scenarios that commonly happen in South Africa:
yes, yes boys, you know who you are.... I saw that gleeful look in all your eyes! You all loved it when poor Mr Siow got 'mugged'! I'm so hurt that none of you came to my rescue :(

We hope this workshop was reinforce in all our students the need to be safe and aware and that their personal safety lies in their own hands

Release of GCE O Level Results- Victoria, Thy Triumphs Seek!

Today is Thu the 24th of Jan- it's the official release of the GCE O Level results in Victoria School.

Many of the graduating class of 2007 had arrived bright and early to await the announcement of results- some here as early as 7.30am. Many of the juniors showed up at 2.30pm in eager anticipation to lend support to their seniors.



We began with Principal Mr Low giving a quick re-cap of the past year. We also remembered fellow Victorians, Azhri who was still recuperating in hospital; and Wrixon whom fate has taken from us. We spent a minute of silence celebrating the lives and memories of our cherished Victorians



As some of our tears flowed freely, we listened with pride and fierce determination when we heard how the cohort of 2007 defied the odds and perception surrounding VS to prove that even with some of our best students leaving for IP, we still performed above the national average in many subject areas:



Next came the annoucement of the Top Performing classes, I'm not going to spoil the surprise for those that weren't there, so here's the clip:



Next, we had our list of individual top performers:


In the words of Mr Low: "Victoria School continues to stand tall and stand proud because ALL of you here, CHOSE to STAY."
We have shown conclusively and undoubtedly that the best is present in each and everyone of us.
The class of 2007 has showned that even standing on our own two feet, without having to really on others for support, the class of 2007 has managed to deliver the best ever result for Victoria School in the last 10 years with a mean L1R5 of 10.5.


My heart swells with pride each time I see and hear the Victorian Anthem playing during this occasion. It is with great gratitude that I feel priviledge to be able to teach here and be part of your lives:


With all the boisteroud celebration of our good performance, I experienced a quite quiet joy of my own when Firdaus Ismail our soccer player and Camp Leader came to me with his results slip.

Firdaus was a dedicated student leader and passionate about the school. He starred as my 'Fed Ex' Delivery man in the video I made for our 130 Anniversary. But he had always struggled with studies.

Quietly, Firdause came up with me to shake my hand. I have never taught him any of his academic subjects. But nevertheless, when I saw his result slips, I knew in my heart that this the greatest triumph of any teacher- seeing the seeds we plant, blossom and flourish in the fruits of our student's labour

Firdaus had often faced diffuculties with his studies- and just looking at the result slip without knowing him, no one will know the blood, sweat and tears that he and all his subject teachers went through to pull through this final hurdle together


In the words of our Victorian from 2007, Liu Tianyuan, "Inside VS, we are proud of VS; outside VS, we are the PRIDE of VS"


Class of 2007, your excellence have made us proud.
Class of 2008, we wait with pride to celebrate your exceleence

Nil Sine Labore

Joint Mobility and Flow Movement

On Thu Morning, students of 3B were given a session in Joint Mobility and Flow Movement by Mr Lloyd de Jongh.

Lloyd was part of a team of 3 presenters here in Singapore to talk to our students on safety and awareness. Having worked as a bodyguard before, Lloyd shared with the boy's how to achieve a full-body workout in just 15min, integrating all the various muscles groups in the body through their full range of motion.

As we can see from this photo, the student that enjoyed it the most was Mr Dilip Thapa:
The extreme range of motion through which Dilip can move his gluteus maximus is simply astounding. He must have taken some belly dancing classes back in Nepal!

If we see his funky leg work, we can definitely see Dilip as a contender for the next season of "So You Think You Can Dance?"

GCE PE- Weight Training for Fitness (Week4)

We are now into Week 4 of Term 1
The boys are now engaged in their Weight Training.
Today we see them beginning to work on the breakdown of performance, starting from:
1) Starting Position
2) Action
3) Finishing Position

In this session, the boys are working in groups to give their partners feedback. First group, we see Marcus filling in the assignment worksheet while Hong Kuang films and gives feedback to Ernest Ong:


In this next clip, Izzat is given Eugene feedback on the Chest press:


To assist our boys, we have capitalised on the prevalence of mobile phone technology and used their video phones to help them capture footage of each other during the performance of weight training. This will help them in reviewing each other performance.

Color Changing Card Trick

Professor Richard Wiseman has created this interesting clip to show how our mind interprets information.



Remember what we talked about in class about the input, decision, output and feedback look for skills?
Well, what if there is an error introduced in the input stage of the process?
We can see that if it is undetected, it affects the decision making phase and ultimately the output channel.
In that case, feedback cannot be accurate because what we are assessing is NOT what we think we are assessing.
For more interesting psychology stuff, visit Prof Wiseman's site at http://www.quirkology.com.

Jay Chou 'World Tour' Singapore Segment

Yes, I know I'm a music junkie. And I'm nuts about martial arts.

Yes, yes, I know I look like some 'gina' fanboy in this photo but (eat your heart out Miss Sheikha, I know you closet Jay Chou fan too!)
But how not to like a guy that got songs named <双节棍>-Nunchaku, or having sung the theme song <霍元甲>for 'Fearless'

So having heard that Jay was gonna be in Singapore, how to miss, right?
But tickets for the 19th were sold out almost immediately once sales started-- Luckily, they opened another show on the 18th-- which turned out to be his birthday.
So lucky me and the wife bought the tix and waiting in anticipation for Jay's concert

(Yup, so I lied about waving the funny big hand around:P)

Well from the opening act to the encore, Jay sure did not disappoint.
The crowd literally went wild during the opening sequence- who says Singaporeans not happening?


His infectious 《牛仔很忙》-"Cowboys are damn Busy" was a big hit with the crowd! It was a refreshing change from his previous brooding, 'act-cool' image and showed his maturity and adaptibility as an entertainer


My personal favourite 《千里之外》-"Thousand Miles Away" led me to sing along like some demented drunk kopi-tiam uncle at the Comunnity Centre Karaoke (Sorry man, but if I could sing like Jay, I wouldn't be teaching now, would I?"

The 'live' erhu lead it was great- the only thing it lacked was that Fei Yuqing wasn't here to do the full duet with him!

Jay also gave his protege “南拳妈妈” quite a bit of air-time, showcasing them as a group and as individuals. While they are no where as accomplished as him, they were quite entertaining to watch- especially during the spoof segments where they made fun of him!

Actually, can see Jay heading into show hosting as he ages-- hmmmm, may take over Jacky Wu (his mentor and discoverer actually) later on.

Jay showed that he can constantly re-invent him and spoof himself. He did an acoustic, blues re-mix of <双节棍>-Nunchaku

It was hilarious and one of the best moments of the concert!
Enjoy!

Safety Evacuation Drill

Today we had our safety evacuation drill,

From our Sec 1E class, we have 2 boys who are wheel-chair bound that will need help to be evacuated. Although the have been assigned buddies from their classes, Isaac and Shalom still need some strong, muscular help to ensure a safe and speedy evacuation during crisis.

Here, the GCE PE class of 3B came to the rescue, with our Hunk of the year, Daniel Lightfoot being tasked to carry Isaac.
Then we have our 3 Musketeers: Haziq, Jarren and Danial who were tasked with fitting Shalom with the carrying harness and transporting him down.
We can see our 'professional' rescue team in action here.



Well done boys!

Hand in Hand

Hi boys, my Dad forwarded me this video from YouTube.
This year, we've got some boys with handicaps in my classes.

I hope that this video will inspire you to know that even though some of you maybe handicapped, but you will never be disabled as long as your rise above the occasion.


Let us make something more of ourselves.

Hostel Food Stockpile

Yesterday, I was the Duty Teacher at Victoria Hall.
As I went on my rounds to check on the boys for CST, I stumbled on a little secret in Room H1-06-19.

You know that Singapore is now short of luncheon meat,right? If you ever wondered where it went, I'll show you here.



Looks like Tung and Minh can start up a 7-11 conveniece store on the 6th floor now.

GCE PE- Weight Training for Fitness (Week 2)

The GCE PE subject for Upper Sec boys comprises both an Academic component as well as a Coursework Component.

For the Coursework, the boys will be doing the compulsory module of Weight Training for Fitness in this Semester.

Here we see them in their first session in the gym. Coached by Mr Tan Chong Kiat, our PE teacher, Daniel Lightfoot is giving some feedback on his partner's performance of the bench-press.


In this module, students will not only need to be able to execute the correct movements and techniques but also to be able to give feedback on the way their partners and buddies execute their movements as well.

Here, Mr Tan guides students in arranging themselves to spot, observe and analyse each others technique in performing the crunch.

Hostel Cleanliness Check

It's the start of the new year and we have had a new batch of scholars moving into Victoria Hall. Principal, Mr Low has often lamented on the dismal state of cleanliness that some of the borders exhibit.
But I am proud to say that the VS ASEAN and A*Star scholars under me have had a high standard of room cleanliness. Last year, one of our rooms was awarded a prize by MOE Scholarship Div (I believe it was Duong's room)

Here are the room check results for this term
> H1-04-04 Grade: A
> H1-04-05 Grade: A
> H1-04-06 Grade: B+
> H1-04-15 Grade: A-
> H1-04-16 Grade: B
> H1-04-17 Grade: A
> H1-04-18 Grade: A+
> H1-04-19 Grade: A+
> H1-06-19 Grade: A+
> H1-06-20 Grade: A+

Juding from this, our 'gang' is off to a good start and I'm sure we can be proud to be the cleanest group of boarders in VS.

Let's check out one of the model rooms, H1-06-19.
The boarders are Ho Anh Tung and Tran Phuoc Minh

GCE PE: Skill-Related Fitness

With our GCE PE program on the way, Sec 3B was engaged in exploring various domains of skill related fitness.
We had a Skill Test Circuit today where students were tested on:
Agility
Co-ordination
Power
Reaction Time
Balance
Speed

Some outstanding performances were seen at the Agility station. Students were required to do the most number of consecutive double-leg jumps in a criss-cross fashion without stumbling or knocking the marking poles. Dilip Thapa amazed us with his incredbile Nepalese break-dancing.

Dilip's streak of 66 consecutive jumps seemed unbreakable until the determined attempt by Amsyar Omar who inched his way in and took him by 67 jumps to 66. Baik Amy! (oops, I mean Amsyar)

In the Reaction Test, participants were to lay on the floor. A partner releases a tennis ball over their stomach and the participant has to move his body away from the ball.
Naren showed us some hip wriggling in his attempt:

Maybe next time I will use bowling ball..... hmmmmm.

Victorian Heroes

We're finally back in school after the EDGE 2008 Sec 1 Orientation Camp.

Here's a tribute to our super-duper-steady-bom-pi-pi Camp Commandant, Mr Amir HMS
as well as our courageous Sec 1 'Heroes'

Enjoy!