Graduation Day Videos 2

Here is a video that we did not get to see on Graduation Day due to time constraints.
Again, it is another Serious PE Production from the bunch of horrigible but 'swee' boys in Sec 4B.

Where the previous video made many of us howl with laughter; this one nearly made me cry. Serious.
Why? It made me proud to be a teacher in 4B. D@mn proud.
See it and see what the 4B Serious PE boys are seriously capable of doing.


Some people subscribe to the belief that sportsmen are not academically inclined.
Some people feel that sportsmen themselves do not believe they are capable of academic excellence.
But the teachers in VS have always believed in you and after watching the pride you have exhibited as Victorians in this video, we know you believe in yourselves too!

I believe you boys, I know you will value-add and give us "SWEEEEEEEE" results
Har le, boys...; Har le

Graduation Day Videos 1

Some of you have been requesting for footage of the Graduation Day presentations and videos.
As I only have those from 4B, I'll post them here.
Here is the brilliant spoof done by Jeremy

Must say that Jeremy and gang fooled us all with your 'fake' interview; but it was indeed the most hilarious video I saw and each time I watch it, I can't help laughing.

2009 Sec 4 Graduation Ceremony & Farewell Dinner

Fri 9th Oct was Class of 2009's Sec 4 Graduation Ceremony and Farewell Dinner.

The ceremony began in the auditorium with Mr Low's address to the cohort.



Next came the various prize presentations for academic excellence and improvement.
The Serious PE Class of 4B was proud to annouce Jaren Thun as our best student:


Next came the CCA awards for achievement and service:


Our Victorians showed us that they had class as well as they celebrated their achievements in song. And it is heart-warming to see that your talents span both academic, literary, musical and sporting pursuits!


With the ceremony over, we proceeded to the hall for a formal sit-down dinner.
After 2 years of nagging, it was with a sense of pride as we sat down formally as a cohort of teachers and students for the last time to toast our triumphs in overcoming all our adversities:


It was a great-time for photos and I will cherish the memories of your batch. See my first batch of Serious PE students graduate fills me with strange sense of emotion. No less heart-warming are the handshakes, photos, hugs and thanks from the scholars, the student leaders and various other students that I have had the chance to come in contact with.



Stay strong and focused boys- we will finish this race together!

Serious PE Revision Schedule

Revision schedule for GCE PE (UPDATED)

Thu 8 Oct: 1.40pm to 3.00pm
Sat 10 Oct: 4.00pm to 6.00pm (Desmond to confirm if session on)
Mon 12 Oct: Need to reschedule, will update
Tue 13 Oct: 3.00pm - 5.00pm
Wed 14 Oct: 3.00pm - 5.00pm
Thu 15 Oct: 3.00pm - 5.00pm
Mon 19th Oct (Deepavali Holiday): 10.00am - 12.00pm
Tue 20th Oct: 6.00pm - 8.00pm

Schedules here will be subject to change depending on turn-out.
If there is any confusion or queries, call me boys.

Push on ok? Couple more weeks left.
Push On With Excellent Results: POWER !!!!

World Science Festival: Bobby McFerrin & Pentatonic Scales

I'm sure everybody's heard the song "Don't Worry, Be Happy" by Bobby McFerrin.

It's infectious, light-hearted and carefree :) The entire song is actually done in its entirety by Bobby's voice- using his own voice, he layered over to create the various effects.

In the following clip, he shows how science and art are not that seperate after all.

World Science Festival 2009: Bobby McFerrin Demonstrates the Power of the Pentatonic Scale from World Science Festival on Vimeo.

My hopes, my pride and my inspiration....

As the school celebrated our good performance in the O-Levels today, Wayne and Sean came up to me.
Wayne was the Wushu Team Captain and Sean, was one of my Vice-Captains- they were the first batch of students to graduate from the wushu team since we were first formalised.

Wayne score 7 points for his L1R5 and Sean got an astounding 6points!


I am damn proud of you both and all the other boys in the wushu team.
This post will be a testament to history that the first official Team Captain and our Vice Captain, not only won the Bronze for us in the B-Div Choreographed Sparring but also were part of the B-Div team that broke into top 4 in 2008 by clinching 3rd place through the hard work of all the team members.

In this blog post, I leave behind a glorious memory and inspiration for all your juniors to follow.
May all of you who walk through the gates of Victoria, emerge as Gentlemen, Professionals and Sportsmen- well-rounded individuals with the courage to fight for the right things and to never give up.

Release of GCE O-Level Results for 2008 batch

Today was the release of the GCE O-Level results. It was with bated breath that the entire cohort of 2008 eagerly waited for the arrival of our Principal, Mr Low.
The results of their seniors in 2007 had been one of the best in the past 10 years and the class of 2008 were eager to know if they were able to fill the shoes of their seniors


When Mr Low went up to announce the breakdown of distinctions and results compared to the national average, we could all feel the buzz. I will not spoil it for you, so click on the video to hear it from the man himself, our Principal, Mr Low:


We definitely have done well this year! To all the naysayers and wet-blankets that have hinted or implied that 2007's results were a fluke and that VS' future as a premiere BOY's school was in doubt, we can now proudly stake our claim and shout it out for all to hear that VS is here to stay. 2007 was no fluke, 2008 isn't by luck but through sheer blood, sweat, grit and tears from teachers and students, we proved that we are indeed something more.

Here are some of the outstanding heroes of the class of 2008:


And here are the Top 3 Classes for 2008:

I must say that in my years in VS, I am seeing more and more, the better balancing of the Professional with the Sportsmen. For years, everyone knew we could play and play well; but often people doubted our academic capacity. Now we know and we can prove it, that the same fervour we have on the field of play, we can brind to the exam hall.

The mean L1R5 for the class of 2008 at Prelims was 16.9. We, the staff and teachers here in VS were worried and concerned but we believed in you and we gave you the best we could in hopes that all of you would flourish. The mean L1R5 for Class of 2008 is......


VS boleh- Boys, we can do it, yes, we can.
Nil Sine Labore

VS Roadshow @ Gong Shang Primary School

Yesterday, VS did our second Roadshow for Primary Schools.
This time it was at Gong Shang Primary.

The primary school students were enthusiastic and really keen to find out more about VS.
Here we see Mr Amir engaging the boys in discussion about their interests and telling them more about Victoria School


It was with a strong feeling of pride as I watched our boys in the Regional Studies Program (RSP) take charge and front the questions from parents and primary 6 studies enquiring about our school.
When I heard the following, "Ya, I was an appeal case to Victoria; but look at what VS has made me- now I am 6th in class!"
That filled me with pride for all these boys who have done us and VS proud.

Sec 3 GCE PE Theory Paper

SERIOUS PE

Tommorow is Sec 3 GCE PE Theory Paper

Revision slides are on the LMS now.

Log in and revise

Good luck!

Voices of Victoria

It's been a frantic year.
But then again, each year in Oct, most of the teachers always have this feeling that the year has passed us by in the blink of an eye.

Well as the Sec 4s are 'graduating' this week and then withdrawing into their 'mountain caves' for the next 2 weeks to prepare for the GCE O-Levels, we would like to wish all of you the best for your coming exams!

Here are some pics of the Voices of Victoria- some statements penned down by this years graduating Sec 4s. Samples are pasted in the school canteen.
Enjoy!

Sec 3 Debate Finals

Today was the finals of the Sec 3 Debate.
The motion that was presented was "This house believes that rehabilitation is more useful than retribution in the judicial system"

Third speaker of the proposition, Haoling gave us an impassioned plea for the propositions case:


This was followed by a blazing rebuttal from Eusebio as the final speaker for the Opposition:


Our proposition came back with their guns blazing with a humourous and self-deprecating blow to the opponents use of statistical evidence:


Who won the debate?
Well, for those of you who missed it, here are the results:

Compulsory Study Time! 23rd Jul 2008

Today during CST, our Sec 3 scholars continued to work on their argumentative essays.
We went through Kai's essay on 'Young people have more problems than adults'
This session was conducted slightly differently than the last session. The first session, I did more presenting and highlighted the mistakes by using my laptop to correct the sentences directly on the projected image.
Today, I got them to correct the sentences themselves and practice re-writing.
The boys soon got the hang of it and were able to condense their long meandering sentences into more concise prose.

The group also spent sometime working to help brain storm for ideas for the boys who were involved in their class debates tomorrow. Kai's topic was "The World is Getting Smaller" with his group as proposition; Billy and Akshat were on opposing sides for the motion,"Sportsmen should be paid less"
We spent some time talking about how to properly define the motions such that both proposition and opposition teams can engage in good debate. Then we contributed strategies to help the various speakers with their points for the debate.
We had a fruitful 2 hour CST today and I'm glad that all of you participated actively and attentively

Compuslory Study Time!

Yesterday, was my turn to be the Duty Teacher Mentor for the Hostel.
In Victoria Hall, 8-10pm is scheduled as compulsory night study time for all Secondary boarders.

Yesterday, I took the opportunity to go through some fundamentals of essay writing with the ASEAN/A*star Scholars. It was a good session as 2 of the scholars (Kai and Brian) volunteered to let me used their essays for teaching.

The topic we covered yesterday was
"Young people have more problems than adults. Do you agree?"

This was a challenging topic to write about.
In the blogs that both Brian and Kai originally posted their essays, we can see that a common mistake is that students make the logically fallacy of assuming that if I have MANY problems, then I MUST HAVE MORE problems than you. MANY does not equal MORE.

What students need to do in this essay is to:
1) identify the key areas of life in which young people and adults have problems.(i.e. relationship, finance, stress, etc)
2) In this areas of life, what are the different problems that affect young people and adults; and how severe is this effect (i.e. the 'quantity' and 'quality' of the problems)
3) From then you can state your stand and provide evidence to support it; as well as presenting other considerations.

Here are the links to Kai's and Brian's Blog. (Thanks to both of them for sharing)
You will also see my corrections listed under the comments section

Kai's Blog: http://returnofkai.blogspot.com/
Brian's Blog: http://roneworube.wordpress.com/

Sec 3B Character Education: Presentation of Asian Festivals

Today, Sec 3B presented their group projects on various Asian Festivals.

Kudos to the T&F and X-Country Group that gave us an interest presentation on the Water Festival in Thailand.

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

Ignorance... the danger we face today

I came across the following clip on YouTube just the other day.

It was hilarious and tragic at the same time:


It is important boys that we ask ourselves what do we really know and what is the worth of our knowledge.

I used to be quite a talkative chap when I was a kid. I remember being told that " You don't have to say everything you know; but you must know everything you say."

As we are right smack in the middle of exams, I hope that you'll bear in mind how to distill the quantity of knowledge that you acquire in your studies such that it bears quality results.

Nil Sine Labore

Chemistry Powerpoint Slides for Sec 3 Revision

As part of their certification and endorsement process, Sec 3 Camp Instructors are asked to determine an area in which they can make an individual, personal contribution to the school.

Gavin Chandra from 3C decided to contribute to the school by preparing Powerpoint slides to help fellow Sec 3 students revise for Chemistry.

I have hosted the slides here for all to use and download:
1)Elements,Compounds & Mixtures
2)Oxidation and Reduction
3)The Mol

Kudos to Gavin for a job well-done!

This is a Sec 1 pic of him- so cute right :P

The Final Sprint! Go Sec 4s, go!

On Wed, morning Dr William Tan: brain scientist, doctor and wheel-chair athlete, touched us with his story of growing up paralysed from waist down with polio.

He shared with us how he pursued his dream of being a doctor and how he subsequently trained and was able to run 7 marathons in 7 continents in his wheel chair.

For more infor on Dr William Tan see his President's Social Service Award at this site

Dr William Tan shared with us his motivations for "The Final Sprint" and how he pushed the limits of his boundaries for each of his expeditions.

So as our Sec 4 Victorians head towards their Final Sprint for the exams, keep in mind that there is light at the end of the tunnel.
Don't see the ESP or Night Study Programs as torture; but look on the fact that even the teachers are investing their time, energy and personal life to support you.
We don't demand A's in results; but we do ask that you give an A for your effort.
Together, your work and our dedication will be able to work miracles.

Boys, we do all this because we believe in you. You must believe in yourselves too.

So don't get your head stuck in the wall now, but focus on the goal ahead!

Nil Sine Labore

Socratic Questioning Workshop

Here we see members of our Math's Department in serious discussion (except maybe Mdm Ernie who is busy posing for the camera, heh heh..)
Big Boss, Alvin Lim was leading his gang on to develop a lesson on graphical presentation of figures. Students were asked to convert textual information of Premier League soccer teams into graphical form.

What is the whole purpose of this?
Well, on Fri 22nd Jun, VS staff attended a workshop on Socratic Questioning conducted by Republic Polytechnic's Centre for Educational Development.
Basically, Socratic Questioning has 6 broad categories of questions:
1)Questions of Clarification
2)Questions of Assumptions
3)Questions that probe Reasons and Evidence
4)Questions about Viewpoints or Perspectives
5)Questions that probe Implications and Consequences
6)Questions about questions
For more info on Socratic Questioning, click here to access Wikipedia's site for a brief account.

Here we see the VS PE Dept in an animated discussion showing how we can integrate the Socratic Questioning method with our Games Concept Approach in delivering a soccer lesson focusing on passing and receiving.

Proving once and for all that conceptualising and delivering a PE lesson isn't just about rolling a ball out for the boys to play, and that yes, curriculum planning for PE is just as rigourous as any other subject- more so when we use knowledge inquiry methods like Socratic Questioning.

OPWS for Sec 2A

We've just completed our Online-Project Work with Sec 2A. Some of our groups have created interesting websites that you might be interested in visiting.

Dashpi volunteered to help out at the SPCA and their project on Pet Care can be found here at www.care4pets.blogspot.com

Group No Link did a project to promote Healthy Living and their blog can be seen here at healthyliving-no-link.blogspot.com

Eclipz rendered their services to groom pets for their neighbours and family. You can see the process and reviews from satisfied clients at www.combhairwashfur.blogspot.com

E_mc2 decided to create a public education kit on Natural Disasters and how to enhance personal safety. They put together a personal survival kit for less than $12 and you can find their site at www.freewebs.com/opwsclassof2007

Meepoz also focused on the environment by creating a website dedicated to educating the public on the danger and harmful effects of pollution. Their site is at meepozopw.blogspot.com

Hope you enjoy these samples of students work from Sec 2A