October 20th- October 26th

This week all activities were conducted as per normal.

-Sunshine old folks home~ Lidia came with us this week and again, we were assigned feeding jobs. The first person i fed was new to the place and although i encouraged her to eat, she only ate about 1/3 of the porridge. Ms. Tang told us though that this was normal, and that she would feed her again later on. I noticed that most of the residents watch a lot of television. This week, i was able to understand a bit more dialect, but am still not fluent enough to be confident in executing action without Ms. Tang's approval. The second lady i fed was a stroke victim and she was paralysed on the left side. As a result, i had to watch carefully as she liked eating quickly, but was susceptible to choking due to the paralysis. Ms. Tang also taught me how to move the patients and she stressed the importance of using the forearms, not the wrist, and the wrists are too fragile to handle weights and may snap under pressure. First one must lift the head before slipping one's arms around the body and locking the wrists together. After moving the patient's main body, carry the legs using both forearms. The second thing i learnt today was tube feeding. It is important to ensure that the tube is correctly lodged and to do this, you must withdraw the syringe to check for fluid, and when there is no fluid, place the tube in a cup of water. There should not be bubbles, or this would indicate that the tube is not in the oesophagus but rather in the trachea. Although i didn't get to talk to Mami today, i saw her giving Ms. Tang a hard time, but Ms. Tang was very collected about the whole affair and chaffed her laughingly. Cheryl and Lidia were listening to MC Lim- a patient with amnesia- who told them that they were very pretty and should choose their friends wisely. Overall, i had a good time at the home this week.

-Chamber Orchestra~ we have now decided to perform in Carols by Candlelight. This week consisted of us going through the christmas pieces so that we could play along while the others carol their hearts out. I look forward to the evening.

-Tutoring~ Christine got her math results- 31/60, which i found pretty decent. After going through the questions, i found that again it wasn't so much a matter of understanding the concept but rather of the problem and consequently application. To overcome this, i still think that we should stick to doing past papers. She doesn't seem to be able to do all the papers though, so i will be modifying the lesson plan soon.

-Musical practice~ practice has officially been elongated from wednesdays and thursdays lunchtime to wednesdays thursdays and fridays lunchtime. I didn't find out about the friday practice until the day itself and so i had to run back up the hill like a mad woman. Ms. Leong just laughed at me. We played the Cinderella song (Bibetty bubetty boo)and peter was there so he sang along, as well as All you need is Love by the Beetles, and the cleanup song from Barney. My part is relatively simple as of yet, but i still practice a bit at home.

October 13th- October 19th

This week's activity:

-Chamber orchestra~ There was a significant improvement since our first attempts at playing the songs. We're now able to run through all three pieces, and although there are still some tuning issues, everything sounds much better!

-Musical~ practice on wednesday was cancelled and shifted to friday instead. We did a new piece called the Teddy Bear's picnic that Ms.Leong asked me to find the chords for, and also I'm a believer. We had to photocopy the scores because there weren't enough between Japheth and I. He was absent on friday as well, so i got to be the pianist for the whole practice. It was very fun.

-Tutoring~ Christine didn't manage to complete most of the exercises i gave her so i think i may have to redo the lesson plan. Still no luck on finding a new supervisor. most of the administration aren't involved with student affairs directly. There was also a math test on sets and vectors, but the results aren't out yet. I think so far that Christine's main issue is understanding the problem not the actual math itself, so i'll see how i can help her with that- maybe make a list on guiding words.

-I have added a new CAS activity, that Cheryl and I are doing together. We're going to the Sunshine old folks home where we volunteered to help out. Lidia's joining us next monday. This first visit was basically just a tour of the place. We also helped with the feeding, and i was feeding this lady who likes to be called Mamee. Cheryl was feeding another old lady who was once a teacher, but who fractured her bones during a fall. The lady in charge, Miss Tang, said she was a very fussy patient, and i struggled a little to understand what it was that she wanted. Most of the patients there are permanent, with only a few temporary, and there are currently 25 residents. SOme are tube fed but others are require feeding. Miss Tang's a nurse and she's been looking after the old folks for 20 years. There were also other hired helpers around, and we were told that we could drop in anytime. Most of the people there seemed a bit disturbed by our presence but hopefully, they'll soon get used to us. It was a very thought-provoking experience. I wondered what most of the residents did and looked like during their youth, and i look forward to getting to know them, although there may be a few language barriers.

October 6th- October 12th.

All activites resumed this week as per normal, with the except of chamber orchestra that was cancelled due to the puppet show.

Musical: This week's practices were spent learning the time warp song. Some of the people missed practice and Miss Leong was slightly miffed at them. I find practice was constructive, but not as efficient and organised, what with some people not turning up. That's why we ended up playing the song for BOTH practices instead of just one. Hopefully everyone will turn up from now on. We also acquired a new member, Ted. Wouter's on the bass, Wen Lu on Keyboard, and now Ryu's on guitar, with me and Japheth on piano. I was also practicing the 'Dance of the Little Swans' pieces that Miss Leong gave to us over the weekend. I'm pretty sure some of the chords are wrong though, so i'll ask Miss Leong about it on wednesday.

Math Tutoring: Christine told me that she has a vectors test on tuesday, so i made notes for her on the sections that she'll be tested on in her notebook. I also passed her the past years papers, and am planning to get a clean copy from Finola or one of the math teachers. She was working on the paper 4, and has some difficulty with graphs and trigonometry, so i'll go through these topics with her once she completes the paper. I haven't found a new supervisor yet, but i'm starting to consider one of the people in administration, because they're already in school during the hours that we require supervision.

Maths Lesson plan

Math tutoring

Date
Lesson Plan:
September 18th 2008
Get to know session
September 25th 2008
Start on Sets and Vectors
October 2nd 2008
Raya Break
October 9th 2008
Start on Paper 4, May/June 2000, Q1-4. Assign Paper 2, May/June 2000 for homework.
October 16th 2008
Complete Paper 4, May/June 2000, Q5-7. Go through Paper 2. Assign Paper 2, May/June 2001.
October 23rd 2008
Evaluation of areas on weaknesses based on May/June 2000 Papers, and go through these topics.
October 30th 2008
Mid-Term Break. Assign Nov/Dec 2000 Papers.
November 3rd 2008
Go through Nov/Dec 2000 Papers. Again evaluate areas of weaknesses and go through topics. Assign Nov/Dec 2001, Paper 2.
November 10th 2008
Start on Paper 4, May/June 2001, Q1-4. Go through assigned Paper 2. Assign Paper 2, May/June 2002.
November 17th 2008
Complete Paper 4. Go through assigned paper 2. Assign Paper 2, Nov/Dec 2002
November 24th 2008
Start on Paper 4, Nov/Dec 2002, Q1-4. Go through assigned Paper 2. Assign Paper 2, May/June 2003.
December 1st 2008
Complete Paper 4. Go through assigned Paper 2. Assign Paper 2, May/June 2003.
December 8th 2008
Evaluate areas of weaknesses. Use Qs from secondary textbook to revise. Go through assigned paper 2.
December 15th 2008
Christmas Holidays. Complete all papers from May/June 2000 to Nov/Dec 2005. May arrange for further tutoring sessions to prepare for mock exams in January.

September 29th- October 5th

Chamber orchestra~ Practice was directed by Japheth today, and he's got more experience conducting so things went considerably better. The pieces are becoming smoother, although we still have difficulty in playing continously and in tune. I think one of our major problems would be that most people don't pay attention to what others are playing, and so there are harmonising issues. Even though Ms. Leong's pointed this out before, most people don't seem to be paying heed to her advice. I think that we should do sectionals and also study the conductors score to add dynamics to individual sections, so that important phrases are duely highlighted instead of being drowned out.

Due to the Raya holidays, tutoring and musical practice did not occur.

September 22nd- September 28th

This week's activities:

-Chamber orchestra~ We finally managed to go through the two gospel pieces that we're playing! Even though things sound a bit eerie and everyone's sliding around on their pitch, but its encouraging to know that we can at least play through the pieces. Kai Sheng was conducting today and he's still rather new to the position, so it'll be a while till he's accustomed to conducting. I find he looked rather stiff, but it was an enjoyable practice.

-Tutoring~ Christine and I have decided to work in the library so Rosie can supervise us. The problem is that the library closes at 4.00 but our tutoring session is supposed to last until 4.30, so i'll see if i can find a new supervisor. This week i made two sheets of notes of Christine with the basic notations for sets. Next week, i'll be starting her off with the past papers, and i plan to complete half a paper per week for paper four, and assign her one paper two for homework. Even though her class will be starting on the past papers soon, i have asked the math teachers for advice and Ms. Tan told me that its perfectly okay to do past papers twice or even more than that, so there's no problem there.

-Musical practice~ we had our first practice on wednesday and thursday's lunchtime. So far, we've ran through two songs, and Japheth and I alternate playing the piano. i also youtubed the songs that we're playing to help me understand the style of the songs. Ms. Leong asked me to create a string accompaniment for Wen Lu. Although the songs are still a little sloppy around the edges, the basic gist is there and besides, practice makes perfect. The practices are enjoyable and i'm comfortable with the people I'm working with.