February 24th to February 29th

I have a new activity to add. I've joined a hip hop class from 7.15 to 8.15 on tuesday nights. The classes are conducted in New World Park.

~Hip hop: Classes were conducted by one teacher who was up on the stage. We were in the amphi-theatre and had to follow the steps that he did. The first thing we did was warming up, which reminded me a bit of the cheerleading warmups. After that, he asked us to walk and bounce to the music, while he watched us. Then he started us on doing a ball-step-walk, and then other one where you extend your right and left leg out in alternation. Later we combined all the moves into one continuous dance, and repeated it except starting on the opposite leg and doing all the steps in the opposite direction. The second half of the lesson was spent learning some 'Crunch'. Crunch is a very exaggerated and energetic dance form where you really have to accentuate your moves. The basic crunching involves breathing in and out so that your body moves up and down. This can then be combined with other steps. We learnt how to stomp without hurting ourselves. Again the teacher would go through different types of moves, and then combine all of them together to do a dance. We also had to cheorograph four beats of free-style moving.

~Chamber: Ms. Leong told us that we only have two weeks before our Ria performance. The dress code is again black and white. This week we went through the Kaiser Waltz twice and its sounded better. We also practised Air on G-string and worked on dynamics so as to make it more expressive.

~Math tutoring: I think christine made the right choice in doing the core paper. She got an 84% on the first paper she tried, so hopefully she'll be able to make it into the 90s when the exams come around. i think its good because it boosts her self-confidence and also helps her to understand the basics of math and the questions in general. I'm also hoping to do a timed practise test, just to make sure that she's able to work within the time limits. Another problem would be carelessness and lack of focus. I haven't thought of a way to overcome this yet, but hopefully it'll come to her with more practise.

~Piano: The teacher was sick so there was no lesson.

~Reading Buddies: This week we moved from the classroom to the library on the first floor. This week i had Hey Jin, Oliver and one japanese boy whose name i can't remember. The japanese boy was rather fluent, but i'm not sure if he fully understands what he reads. he was also rather shy with his responses. Hey Jin also read very well, and chose a very short book. Oliver as usual outdid himself and read both expressively and fluently.

~Netball: Netball was cancelled this week.

~Mentoring: Nikki forgot to turn up again.

~Theory: We learnt about fourth voicing today. Wilson showed us an example from the song called Autumn leaves that makes use of intervals of fourths in the baseline. He also showed us how fourth voices is commonly used in Jazz pieces, as they sound much more dissonant and open, as opposed to consonant chords like I, V, VI. he's allowed me to work on a piece including fourth voicing rather than to do the modality thing.

~Solfege: Solfege this week focused mainly on sight-singing. It was quite easy, and the dictation and harmony were also at a relatively simple level. The only problem i had this week was with following the tenor line in the harmony exercise.

~Badminton: Badminton was again playing more games and smashing. I tried to make my opponents run this week by alternating the direction in which i hit the shuttlecock. Its very fun to do so, and i have the feeling that I've got the makings of a saddist, if i'm not already one.

February 15th to February 23rd

Although we're having midterms this week, some activities were still continued.

Cheerleading~ On the 23rd we had our last cheerleading session under this coach. We did the usual warmup routine and also tried some double dutch skipping. i could enter the skipping rope but i couldn't follow up with the jumping. When we did some stretching today, the coach tried stretching us more than usual by forcibly spiltting our legs and making us do a mountain-shape to push us down and improve our flexibility. Later on, we tried to learn the basic manuover for doing a back flip. This is done by flapping your arms very quickly on a mat, and jumping so that you land on the small of your back, not your waist. We also did some bridges, and i can now do a bridge standing up, whereas previously i could only do it from downwards to up. One important thing we learnt today was how to fall stiffly, so that you don't hurt yourself. Its also a good training for strengthening the wrist.

Piano~ Piano this week was as per normal. The same pieces were played.

Solfege~Solfege was also normal. The piece we had to do for dictation though was really hard, and it had many strings of running notes. I think i did relatively okay, and my dictation is much better than it was when i first started.

Theory~ This week was spent practising for the performance of my composition piece. The performance was on Sunday and Penang Road, and it was recorded by my teacher. One lady later came up to me and told me that she really enjoyed the piece. For me, the best thing about my performance was getting to know her through her appreciation of my music. And it was very encouraging to know that she liked my piece. Most of the local people there seemed uninterested.

Badminton~ This week i learnt to smash. The coach threw shuttlecocks for us in the air and we would just hit them down. He would then correct our mistakes. And i also asked peter about how you deflect smashes and he showed me how you shift your grip to get more control over the racket so as to be able to flick the shuttle cock. We had to run 8 rounds around the court to practise different types of footwork, and also practise a stroke that trains the wrist 100 times. I'm trying to improve my stamina by playing continuously for the whole two hours.

February 8th to February 14th

~Cheerleading- This is the penultimate session with this coach before he leaves to germany. Today we did more rope skipping drills and i finally managed to do a cartwheel. its not perfect yet, but i have to practise. I also did some air-born forward wheels and Evelyn and I and Rebecca were trying to help each other split. ryu was helping me with my handstand, but i have to learn to keep my arms straight. overall, i really enjoyed practise this week.

~Chamber Orchestra- This week we practised the songs again and got through the whole of the Kaiser Waltz. I found out that i have a cello solo, and also that there'll be a new cellist soon because Ms. leong asked someone to come in to play with me, her name's stephanie tye and she's really good! Ms. Leong's also decided to invite the choir to sing with us for 'when the going gets tough'. I think this is a really good idea.

~Reading Buddies- Reading buddies this week was very fun. i got to read with a new boy and oliver. Oliver's very talented at reading; he's reading books that i only read when i was twelve, and he's a slightly slower reader than i was, but its all very impressive when you take his age into consideration. The other boy was called Jason or Jonathan i think, and his reading was quite good too, but he skipped a lot of words and basically memorised the whole book.

~Piano- This week we went through the same pieces and played more of the Adagio. The adagio is really really beautiful, but its difficult because it contains things like triple timing against duple time and its meant to be very slow so it gets a bit complicated with timing and whatnot. Still, practise makes perfect.

~Math Tutoring- We cancelled this session because we had to work on our doors for respect week.

~Netball- This was my first session. What i learnt this week was mainly about my position as wing defender. I'm only allowed in the first two thirds of the court and the semi-circle. We didn't do any drills, but played games for the whole session. i tihnk it was because there were so few of us and also that the session started late. It was our fault because we were loitering around in the foyer instead of coming straight for practise, and ms.Denny yelled at us. I felt really bad about it and most of us apologised to her after. I promise never to be late for a meeting again.

~Mentoring- Nikki forgot to come again this week. I'll have to tell ms. dale about it. we've started organising things through phone this week cos i got her phone number, so i think maybe before the next session i'll give her a call to remind her properly.

~solfege, theory- Solfege this week was really hard. We did a lot of dictation, and i did pretty well for one but the other was really crap. THe other things were good though. Theory was also fine, Wilson said he'll teach us polymodality too. Next week he's preparing us to practice to perform at Penang Road.

~Badminton- badminton this week was mainly playing for fun. We didn't do drills this week, but we had to run laps around the court. i think its partially for footwork. later in teh afternoon, i went to play more badminton with a church group, and we played actually games. it was very useful to be able to play like that and apply teamwork for doubles, and attempt to do smashes that the coach taught me.

There will be a one week break from most activities as we're having half-term holidays.

1st February- 7th February

~Chamber Orchestra: went through the pieces again, this time was much better than last week. I think our main issue is because most of the senior (and also higher level) members are absent as they are busy with their exams. Hopefully some of them will return in time for the final performance.

~Math Tutoring: This week Christine told me that she made the choice to do core math. I've decided to go back to the basic and improve her mental math by doing multiplication exercises so that she can work through the questions faster. This will give her more time to check through the questions in the exam. Currently her time is about 3 minutes, and i hope you cut it down to 1.5 minutes. We went through proportion and also indices again, and i tested her by making her do some questions.

~Cheerleading: We did more body building exercises to firm quads, abs and triceps and biceps. I was aching for the whole week. we also did jump rope exercises and he taught me how to do a mini cartwheel. Hopefully i can move on to a full cartwheel soon. We also spent this session watching Ivan learn to do back flips and next week we'll try doing the basic exercises so as to build up to do the real thing. We've also learnt the shoulder sit and shoulder stand. It was really fun and invigorating.

~Relay for life: Our group of nine consists of Misato, Patty, Julie, Michelle, Genevieve, Bindiya, I Yune, Hui Ern and me. We've planned on doing fundraising activities like bake sales and so forth. THe main event that we're organising for so far would be from valentine's day. We've sent out order forms to the tutorgroups and made announcements as to what we're doing, and have collected back the forms. We also sold cupcakes, fudge and cookies and brownies on the side to make more profit. On friday, we'll be making deliveries to classes. I'm currently in charge of ordering the roses and Bindiya will then wrap them as her mom knows how to. I hope everything runs smoothly.

~UES: UES this week involved my group of 5 and I in making a plan for a tree-planting project. So far, we've scouted the school grounds in search of a suitable location but space constraints caused us to change our plans to a gardening project. I thought of the idea of aquaponics, an activity that i used to have in my old school, as it might be a suitable activity for the younger years and is a good way of getting them involved. Aquaponics is relatively cheap compared to other agricultural projects and is also very easy to maintain. Now what we have to do is write a formal letter to Mr.Smith asking for permission, and also to approach primary teachers and ask for their support.

~Piano, theory, solfege: Piano this week was again the Czerny, Bach, Hannon and Beethoven. Saori was talking about reducing ornaments to just the main melody so as to recognise the original tune. We also talked about the second movement of the Beethoven piece, Adagio, that is supposed to be played very relaxed and loosely.

Theory class was spent discussing the Fete de la Musique as well as more discussion on our album pieces. So far i've come up with a theme for my dorian piece and will have to write this down for Wilson for the next lesson. The pieces aren't meant to be that long or difficult, but should contain the elements described in the preface.

Solfege this week had harmony, dictation and sight singing. we also explored the keys of Bb major and minor, as well as B minor and D major. Rhythmic clapping and singing exercises were conducted to improve our 6/8 timing, however it was very difficult to apply this to the dictation as they were too many notes for me to write down and listen simultaneously.

7th January- 31st January

All CAS activites have resumed! Just to clarify, the activities that i'll be participating in this term (term 2) are as follows:

• cheerleading
• netball
• chamber orchestra
• Reading buddies
• Mentoring
• Math tutoring
• theory
• solfege
• piano
• Relay for life
• Respect week
• Uplands Environmental Society
• Badminton and Tennis

I've added more Action activities as Mr. Skinner suggested after our CAS meeting on Dec. 4th, 2008.

~Cheerleading's on Monday and to date, we've only had one session. The trainer was called in by our captain, Rebecca Ng, and fees are approximately 60 ringgit for four sessions. This week we were basically doing some basic routines, where we learnt to fall properly by keeping our body stiff. We also did a bunch of stretching exercises to begin with and we also practised some simple things like cartwheels and forward rolls. We also learnt how to climb people- i'm not too sure what the exact stunt is called. The one thing that really interested me was watching a 'flyer' stand on the hands of two 'bases' who lifted her in the air. This is called an 'elavator'. My greatest acheivement this session was that i was able to do a split, for the first time in 8 years. I'm rather proud of myself.

~Chamber orchestra is basically the same as before. There were a few new people we're now playing two new pieces called the Kaiser waltz and also 'WHen the going gets tough'. We've had about two sessions so far, and will continue to practise for our first performance in march for Ria. Ria is something of a music festival where there are a variety of performances, not only by students from our school but also from other schools like Dalat and Tenby.

~Math tutoring- I've had two sessions with Christine so far. The first was where we discussed her mock results. She has to make the decision as to whether she'll be taking extended or core math. I personally think she should take extended but she'd have to work very hard and do a lot of past papers, but time constraints may prevent this from happening. In the event that she does choose the core paper, we'll be able to go at a faster pace and focus on the necessary topics. I also went through graphs again with her.

~Theory, Solfege and Piano- Theory lessons have resumed and Wilson has assigned us a new project whereby we have to write an album of six songs and even go through the routine of trying to get it published. He told us that the reason why he wanted us to attempt this was because publishing is something that is useful not only in the area of music but also in other subjects. Solfege lessons have been going on too, and now that we're in solfege three, the dictations are significantly harder and explore a wider range of keys. We also have a new sight-singing book, but i believe we're starting off from the basics and building it up from there. Piano lessons on Wednesday are back to playing studies like Czerny and Hannon and also the Bach Preludes. Saori is currently making me work on a Beethoven piece. Its a sonata from Opus 1 and i'm currently on the first movement. I really enjoy the piece.

~ For respect week this year, we volunteered to help teach the lower years two programmes that complimented the theme of "Being different, standing together" during our free periods. Jack and I were alone for the ILC class, and although the students were initially quiet, they got more responsive as the class progressed and were also very creative in their ideas. The second class we visited was the year 6 class and they too were very bubbly and full of ideas. The last class was the year 8s and they went through the activities very well. I think the programmes were successful because the pupils were able to understand the message that we brought to them, and were also able to use our points and embellish them with their own ideas. By distributing the workload among our partners and supervising the class, we were able to interact with the students and join in their brainstorming and discussions. The best part was that being students, the children were able to talk to us more easily than if we had been teachers. I really enjoyed this experience and if our academic schedule permits, hope to participate again next year.

~UES- there's only been one meeting so far and we went through all the things we're planning to do this year. There's going to be a primary assembly whereby we'll have to do a powerpoint and interest them to help us in our environmental efforts. So far, our plan includes holding a interhouse competition whereby they'll compete to see which house collects the most bottles. WE'll have to make three large boxes to contain the bottles, and we're planning to joining several used cardboard boxing together in order to do this. Some of us also went to improve the original bottle collecting container that was already in existence by painting it green. Our other concern was finding a new newspaper agency who would come collect the newspapers that we had and pay us for them for our fundings. There will also be another secondary assembly to remind the secondary about our activities, and there'll also be a board that we're currently making to put in the foyer. I feel that UES is very constructive indeed.

~ i have already signed up for the other activities, but these have not started due to holidays and also the school prom. They should most probably begin next week.

7th December- 18th December

~Chamber Orchestra- This week consisted of practise with the choir and also the primary orchestra in preparation for Candles by Candlelights. On the actual day of Carol's by candlelight itself we had to wear black and white and come earlier to set up and prepare. We also had a secret santa exchange that i organised, and it was very fulfilling to perform what we've practised for so long. Unfortunately the setting was open air, so the sound balance was really off and nothing could really be heard except for the amplified or miked instruments. I look forward to new pieces next term.

~Old folks home- THis will probably be our last week visiting the home. Basically, we went through the same routine again, but the really interesting thing about today was that we got to see a guy who was fed with a tube directly to the stomach. Uncle CK's friend also came to visit today and they were showing him their notebook, which was really cool. We've also planned to make a card for Ms. Tang. I've really learnt a lot from helping out at this place.

~Theory and piano- lessons were cancelled as we had a different agenda.

~Reading buddies- the class was having a party so we weren't needed

~mentoring- Finally, i managed to meet up with Nikki. We were able to talk pretty well and she's very sociable. I helped her with her science experiment and we also talked about her grades and her family as well as school in general. I was gonna help her with her math too, but we ran out of time and she seemed pretty pleased about the present i gave her. I would definitely like to continue mentoring next term, but hopefully we can change it to another and execute our meetings more successfully.

~ Shoe boxing- We had to stay back on Friday and Thursday to complete all the wrapping and sort out all the clothes. I think its fair to say that all of us had a lot of fun, and it was very chaotic in a nice way. Peter was the group leader and he was basically sitting around and trying to organise anything without getting much done, but he was very encouraging and it was very fun to poke fun at him whilst working. We went to visit the children on monday (and had to miss old folks home in the process) to distribute the presents, and they were extremely extremely pleased with our presents, i feel glad that we were able to do something for them. I think peter misunderstand their finance status because he told us they had absolutely nothing when in fact they were quite well off. It was unfortunate that some of the children were absent, but hopefully we'll be able to meet them when we have the new year dinner. We also plan to invite them over to school to use the facilities and also help them in swimming and other activities.

December 1st - December 6th

~Chamber orchestra- More rehearsals in preparation for carols by candlelight and so on.

~Musical- The performance was this week on thursday, friday and saturday (4th, 5th, 6th) and we had a full day rehearsal on both monday and wednesday. Initially, Mr. Moss the director was really angry and upset because he felt that the actors weren't doing their part, but by Wednesday he was feeling better about things. Ms. Leong said that we were okay though, so what he was saying didn't really apply to us. I was wondering if its just a drama thing, where they always say its the worst performance ever so that you'll do better, like a kind of derogatory motivation. The performances themselves were received really really well, and it felt extremely satisfactory to perform. THe cast party at the end was very touching and everyone was a bit teary (not to mention the good food). It's been a really long process of putting the play together, but it was worth it. I think all of us bonded as a result of the pantomine- as in not just the musicians, but everyone involved.

~Old Folks home- as mentioned, we couldn't make it becuase of musical practise. I think Cheryl or Lidia called Ms. Tang.

~Tutoring- All sessions are postphoned until the holidays.

~Reading buddies- I was the only one to go this week (without Rebecca and Shaeny) and i was read with 3 kids. I'm quite surprised at how almost none of them have any reservations reading to a semi-stranger, except maybe one or two of them. i find that i enjoy reading with Jan Marco the most, because even though he doesn't really read very fluently, he shows an intelligent response to the book and good understanding, which is very encouraging.

~Mentoring- I couldn't meet up on Friday because of the pantomine so we've postphoned it to next week.

~Theory- Again no class. Wilson was performing at the jazz fest this week.

~Piano- This was the week before the piano concert and so i really really practised and Saori agreed that i should do all four pieces for the concert. The concert was on a Sunday and it was quite nerve-wrecking, but i'm glad i did it. Surprisingly i got the excellent performance award and also the audience's favourite award. I was rather shocked, but it was pleasant to achieve that.

~Solfege- I couldn't go this week because of the matinee of the pantomine