Singapore

We saw the giraffe when we were off-roading, it was pretty scary.

I hung out with that thirsty monkey on Friday at the beach. We shared a Coke.

Singapore means "Lion City" and this cool dude protects the city. The lion head is also a national symbol of courage, strength and excellence.

My Weekend In Singapore

Singapore was great, a definite change from the Island I'm living on. Singapore is a very young country, gained its independence in 1965. One of our cab drivers sad that Penang right now is like Singapore was in the 60's, Singapore is much more advanced then the rest of Malaysia. It is a very clean city, $500 fine for littering & it's enforced.

We spent one day on a beach called Sentosa Island, it is considered the most southern part of the Asia continent. We took a cable car to the Island, like at a ski resort. We spent most of the day on the beach, but traveled around the island on a tram, and visited an aquarium before we left.

We spent Saturday at the Singapore Zoo and Night Safari. I saw lions, giraffes, monkeys, elephants, and the list goes on. You can take your own tour of the Zoo by clicking HERE.

Nothing was planned for Sunday so I walked to a beached only 20 minutes from the hostel I was staying at. My friend Tashia and I were walking along the beach when we heard a party going on somewhere. I had to go check it out. What was going on ?? The colourful festival of Holi. It's celebrated on Phalgun Purnima which comes in February end or early March. Holi festival has an ancient origin and celebrates the triumph of 'good' over 'bad'. The colorful festival bridges the social gap and renew sweet relationships. On this day, people hug and wish each other 'Happy Holi'. They also cover themselves in all sorts of colours, by rubbing coloured powder and paste on each other. A lady invited us in, gave me lunch, and explained what was going on.


Click HERE for some more facts about Singapore.

Class Collaboration.

Here are some of the notes that Carey took during our first meeting.

Objectives:
See how we run our classes
Interaction with students
How we use technology


Ideas:
Geography
teach a class in skype
collaborate on the wikis
Blogs (maybe)
Make an introductory video
delicious tag: geography6p
delicious username: jackseri
delicious username: capohanka
unit planning on asia
send out a survey - set an assignments

access to curriculum


Class times:
9:05-9:50
11:45 - 12:30
1:35-2:20

Rider Commercial

So You Want To Solve The Rubiks Cube ???

2nd School Visit !!!

This morning we went to visit the Almashoor Islamic Girls' School, it's a secondary school. The girls met us at the gate with drums and singing, while they took pictures of us and we took pictures of them. Then we went up to the media room where we were given a presentation about the school and its history. We got a tour of the school, from our own personal tour guides. Finally we were served lunch and treated to some entertainment provided by the students. Oh, then we signed autographs. haha. not kidding.

I made a list of a few things I learned during my visit.

- exams determine what stream the students study in. Students are either Science students or Art students. In each each stream they divide the students into classes depending on their test scores. Almost every student strives to be in the top class.

- While we were there so were the dentists. The students receive annual check up from optometrists and dentists.

- Every student is required to participate in 3 extra curricular activities. One sport, one club, and one service activity.

- The students play a huge part in running the school. The students are their own police (check uniforms and watch for bad behaviour). The librarian is also a student and students work in the school store (students are allowed to eat sweets during class because they think it helps them stay awake). Students are also responsible for decorating their own home rooms, and changing bulletin boards monthly.

- Teachers work out of an office not a homeroom.(men work on one side of the office and women on the other side) Teachers go to the students homerooms to teach them. The department heads get an air conditioned office.

- Students are split into 2 streams (Art & Science) and Math and Science are the only subjects taught in English.

- The students attend classes from 7:40 - 2:15. They start early because of the heat, and classes are only 35 minutes long.

- Students take 12 courses in a semester.

- They have a prayer room at school, because many students are required to pray 5 times a day. Men and women pray in different parts of the room, a curtain divides them.

- They students have their own ID cards, but they're like debit cards. You can put a balance on the card and use the card to buy meals and items from the store. The cards are also used to do attendance. Students swipe the card when entering the class, this shows they are present and is also linked to the internet, which parents have access to, so they can see if their students are attending class.

- There are never discipline problems, the biggest problems they face are when a teacher asks a student to do one thing they want to do three.

PAINT-BALLING

After visiting the war museum I guess the guys felt inspired to go paintballing. 20 guys came out for the fun. They called this a speed course, games would only last 5-10 minutes. We played games similar to capture the flag. My team went undefeated.

Penang War Museum

Saturday morning I went with a group of English students to an outdoor war museum in Batu Maung. This was a base camp used by the British during WWII, it was later taken over by the Chinese.

We saw were prisoners were kept, toucher chambers, ammunition rooms, meeting rooms, we even climbed through underground tunnels that were used as escape exits (top picture).

The museum was all outdoors, and no one has tried to recreate any of the scenes. The way I saw it was the way it was in 1939.