S.I.O.W: (S)o (I)n (O)ther (W)ords: 10/01/2010

Today marks the graduation for the VS Class of 2010

Let's see some interesting characters who have followed me through my years here!

Here's Fadzly, Kwek Daniel and Jinjie, whom I've taught since Sec 2

What are we pointing to? We're pointing to the blank spots on the honor rolls in hopes that one day their names will be there. Jin jie was VS first Wushu DSA candidate and he has grown from a small skinny boy...

But look at him now, look at all of them now.

All grown to men.
They took a bit longer than some of their peers but the time was well spent. No regrets, man; no regrets.

Of course, close to my heart are the wushu boys.
Here we have Ryan Goh, the Captain of the team who has learnt the most that I have to teach- Lion Dance, Wushu, Sparring, Balintawak...

You are a champion indeed Ryan.

Next is Tan Yuda, our dependable Vice-Captain, who complements us in all we do.
When Ryan is the Lion-Head, Yuda is the tail. When we spar, Yu Da is the ideal practice partner to match my size, when we do Wushu, he's always the dependable last member-- may not get so much glory, but without him, we couldn't pull it off too. (Imagine Lion Dance got no backside...)

Then we have Saw Eh Tha Khu and Kong Wei Chung:

Saw overcame the barriers in language to learn Sanshou from my own teacher and to gain a resounding win for VS in the SNWF Wushu Invitational Sanshou Free-sparring event. Proving that VS Wushu boys are not just about pretty moves and to top that, he's one of our top students!
Next to him is the one and only Mr Kong Wei Chung, our Malaysian scholar-who is the first overseas scholar in the VS Wushu team.
All members in the VS Wushu team unanimously agree that Weichung's roar can be heard all the way from Siglap to JB, some say KL even.
Next to WeiChung is Adrian Tan Jian Yang, one of the most outstanding NCC Cadets VS has ever produced.

Then we have Jin ZhenYu, who though academically weaker, has worked hard to receive the PSG Most Outstanding Improvement Award.

Keep it up, Mr Jin--- you'll be a global leader one day :)

And who can forget the scholars... it took me 7 years to have a daughter of my own cos all my time is taken up by these energtic 'sons' of mine!

First off, our neighrbourly Malyasians:

Malaysia BOLEH!

Then we have the silent, quiet but ever polite and diligent Vietnamese:

Also, the Mafia Wars gang from Bangkok, the Thai scholars:

And who can forget our Serious PE class of 2010

"Eng Lek, stop staring at your crotch"

Last but not least our various student leaders:
Ben and Laksman

The one and only Barry

The rest of the gang from 'The Climb'

As Mr Low our principal rightly put it today- a gift only has meaning when it takes on a life of its own.
Thank you boys for the gift of the best years of my life and in return it is a fitting final for us to give back. Every year, graduating Victorians pen down their thoughts in the Voices of Victoria journal, but this being my final year with VS I decided to collaborate with our Senior leaders and do a 'live' Voices of Victoria:

As part of our partnership with Argola de Our, the first Brazilian Capoeira school in Singapore, VS was able to incorporate capoeira into our PE lessons for 6 sessions to provide our boys with some exposure to a new culture that fused dance, martial arts and song all together.

Here, we see the boys putting what they've learnt into the roda- the game:

Here we see U-wen and Sherman battling it out in the Roda.

As the sessions progress, the boys are able to string together more complex moves:

Although, the boys only had a few sessions and could only accomplish some of the more basic moves but they learnt to take on different roles and utilise whole body movements to gain agility and co-ordination.

I'm sure this new found agility helped during our last PE lesson when the boys went back to soccer!