Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Cool. Beautiful.
Gaia, Miss Amperiadis is the Caucasian teacher I'd like to have forever! Hmm let's just say first Australian teacher since I've had 4 French ones. She's brilliant!
Fantastic! Lovely! Wonderful!
She's actually brightening up English with fun activities! I mean well, I can't say all are fun to the extent that I'll go bonkers like the Teletubbies but hey, she tries. And sometimes, especially for today's activity, it was exceptionally successful. Interactive learning. Platform for expression. Laughing. That's what we need really in English. Not that I think Daniel's not a good teacher but for people who can listen and all, Desmond....Leonard, the more technical way definitely works. But imparting knowledge and equipping skills to those with an already weak foundation and less than desirable enthusiasm for the English language, I don't think the "dry" way works. Miss Amperiadis injects life into her lessons. Of course, there's the minute downside of being overly encouraging, which is not a bad thing per se actually since some of us in class really really appreciate the encouragement. But sometimes, some of us need to know the flaws we've made. For example, I know I stuttered a lot in debates etc. Daniel on the other hand is more critical and down-to-earth so you get the "harsher reality" from him and maybe that's precisely why some of our classmates well, don't really like his style of teaching. But let's face it, this is the stereotypical Singapore method. Dry drilling. Practise. Hard facts. Mechanics, scaffolding and all. It's daunting but no doubt efficient if one does put some effort and heart into the work.
Miss Amperiadis might just be the right enzyme that'll catalyse the reaction between SMTP4 substrate and English exam substrate to form A1 product. Daniel provided the foundation. Miss Amperiadis just needs to awaken the Shakespere within us. Provide the spark for the ignition of our linguistic passion. I digress from reality but you get my point. And she has done that! Today she came up with this brilliant idea of getting to create a spontaneous persuasive speech in 7 minutes and present it to the class! The catch is that you'd either be a superhero or supervillain and you'd have to convince the masses why you want to destroy supervillains/heroes. Oooh the fun because you get to be anyone and have any power. I of course was?
Poison Ivy. No prizes for guessing. Had a bloody good time but had quite a bloody bad ending. Oh well, doesn't matter. What I enjoyed most about English lesson today was the period after it! When me, Theron, Kevin, Shuin Jian and Yan Yu were discussing the various points of contention Miss Amperiadis had with Singapore's schooling system. First of all, the food! Now I realised why I had this gut feeling why I rejected the offer to go for the boarding school programme. Theron warned me before. So did Cameron from SLC (Who happens to be an Australian). Miss Amperiadis says that the boarding school food is BAD. And it just isn't enough! She's amazing isn't she?
Miss Amperiadis on boarding school food servings:
"Boys of your age need the nutrition to cope with your schoolwork. I mean, is it enough? The servings just don't convince me that you're having enough food!"
Miss Amperiadis on comprehension summary:
"Well I think getting you find fifteen points for the summary is just stupid."
Miss Amperiadis on the boarding fruit distribution:
"I think how the boarding school allows each of you to have only one piece of fruit is just plain stupid. I mean it's just one piece of damn fruit so why can't they just give you that piece of damn fruit?"
Miss Amperiadis on Theron:
"You're one full of smiles aren't ya? He's a happy child. Lovely smile."
And the best:
Miss Amperiadis on Wall-E:
"Oh, it was an embarrassing movie. Oh god, it was awful."
Somehow...I don't feel a bit sad that I got second-lowest score for Chinese test and that as predicted, I failed Math. I mean in the failure sense yes. But not despair. Today was strangely...A happier day. Maybe because we had badminton during P.E. and me and Yan Yu didn't get owned by Ming Xuan as badly. Or maybe 2/3 of SMTP4 crashed the JC canteen. Or...there was conversation again...
Right, about the third riddle. Answer to the first part is Persia since someone already guessed it. So work on the second part with Persia.
I'm a happy child too.
Dark Memories[8:26 PM]
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