News in the paper

Blogpost News

Today, I read news about some young teenagers being cheated of their money. The paper reports the details of the event. According to the paper, the girls were being cheated a total of $5500 (if I’m not wrong) online. The teenagers saw an advertisement online selling IPhone at the price of $350, and buy 2 get 1 free. They thought that was a reasonable price and thus they ordered some. However, after they deposit the money, the dealer called to say that there need to be additional fees for the phone to transport from other country to Singapore. The teenagers deposit another huge sum of money blindly and in the end, realised that they got cheated.

In my opinion, I think the story was rather well described. It covers a lot of details like the sum of money and the detailed process of how the girls were being cheated. However, I think it would be better if the girls were to input their own reflections in the news. They could give simple warnings to the readers not to follow their footsteps and should be extra cautious when buying online goods next time. Overall, I think the news is very well-written and it covers all the information needed.

Different versions of story

Narrative:

The sun hung high up above the baby blue sky and the rays of the sun shone down upon the big patch of grass. It was a great day and an idea struck my head. Bingo! Let’s play racing! Jack suggested the idea of being a winner after fetching the water before running back down.

Both of us sprinted uphill as fast as lightning. Unfortunately, reckless Jack tripped over a stone on the ground and he fell down with a loud thud! I was appalled and my heart stopped. My heart stopped a beat after seeing blood gushing out from Jack’s forehead!

Instantaneously, I brought Jack home where he got treated with vinegar and brown paper. Phew, what a close shave!

Recount:

The sun hung high up above the baby blue sky and the rays of the sun shone down upon the big patch of grass. It was a great day and an idea struck my head. Bingo! Let’s play racing! Jack suggested the idea of being a winner after fetching the water before running back down.

We ran as fast as we could as the opposing wind went against my direction. It was tiring but yet, a loud thud broke my chain of thoughts. I turned around and Jack greeted me as he fell downhill! I was appalled and I rushed forward to lend a hand. On closer look, his forehead is bleeding. I panicked and I brought him home.

My parents treated him with vinegar and brown paper. I heaved a sigh of relief. Phew!

Reflections:

After I have done the assignment, I find this assignment rather interesting and fruitful. It really tests our ability to understand the different forms of text and we got a chance to apply this to the nursery. This is also very interesting as it’s the first time I’m doing this and our creativity can come to use especially when we write the narrative story.

Overall, I find this assignment really helpful to our understanding and also our application. I hope that there could be similar practices in the future.

Online Lesson 5

Group #4: The Civil Rights Movement
a. When did the civil rights movement begin?
b. What was the civil rights movement about?
c. State some of the significant incidents that took place in the civil rights movements (choose 2-3 incidents and state them briefly not in great detail)
d. Which American President supported the civil rights movement?
e. What was the outcome of this movement?
f. In what way is the Civil Rights movement related to TKAM?

Group #4: The Civil Rights Movement
a. When did the civil rights movement begin?
b. What was the civil rights movement about?

c. State some of the significant incidents that took place in the civil rights movements (choose 2-3 incidents and state them briefly not in great detail)
d. Which American President supported the civil rights movement?
e. What was the outcome of this movement?f. In what way is the Civil Rights movement related to TKAM?




Samuel- #a)

Started before World War 1 during the Great Depression. During the Great
Depression took place around 1929 and the early 1940s, it is believed that the seeds of the
Civil Rights Movement were planted at that time, and this would spark the Civil Rights Movement
later on. However the spike in the world wide Civil Rights Movement was around the 1950s and 1980s. And In
1948 Truman signs an Executive Order, which states the everyone in the armed forces are equal, and this was
the first step of the Civil Right Movement in the US.





Wei Jun- #b)

The civil rights movement was a political movement aiming for equality before the law occurring between the 1950s and 1980s. It was then followed by civil rest and in many countries, this movement did not reach its goals. It did let to many improvements in the law and legal rights of previously oppressed groups.

Alex- #c)


May 1961
The “Freedom Riders”

In May of 1961, a group of civil rights activists sought to “test” enforcement of a recent Supreme Court decision outlawing segregation in bus terminals. The group consisted of black and white, male and female. They boarded two busses in Washington, D.C. and were bound to New Orleans. Over the course of the journey, the Freedom Riders and sympathizers were beaten at an Alabama bus terminal. One of their buses was firebombed as well.

September 15, 1963
Birmingham Bombing

On Sunday morning, September 15, 1963, a bomb exploded in the 16th Street Baptist church in Birmingham, Alabama. The explosion killed four young girls who were in the church for Sunday school and injured another 20 people.

The FBI sent agents to investigate and four suspects were identified. However, the Director of the FBI, J. Edgar Hoover, refused and claimed that civil rights activists themselves bombed the church to gain public sympathy. The FBI initially closed the case in 1968.

The suspects were four members of the Ku Klux Klan. It took nearly 40 years for them to be brought to justice. Local prosecutors reopened the case and one suspect, was convicted of murder in 1977. Herman Cash died in 1994 as charges against him were being prepared. Both Blanton and Cherry were sentenced to life in prison.


Yu Hao-#d)

President Kennedy support for a civil right bill in 1963 was celebrated internationally. He also hope to put off addressing civil rights as he hope that the civil rights initiative does not affect his domestic proposal. Assasination of President Kennedy was to stop the pass of 1964 civil rights act. Thus, President Kennedy was the one who supported Civil Rights Movement and nearly died in the support.

Sheng Xiang- #e)

Because of the Civil Rights Movement, the Africans’ society changed drastically and have the same equal rights as the whites now. More and more opportunities and chances are given to the black and more of the leadership positions are taken up by the black, such as the President of United States, Barack Obama. The perspective and viewpoint of the white is also changing and they begin to accept the black slowly.

Yong Chun-#f)

The Civil Rights Movement is related to To Kill a Mockingbird as in To Kill a Mocking Bird, there were many examples of racism occurring in the country, as well as the fact that the people there were too stubborn to change. This is shown in the Civil Rights Movement as they had faced the problem of racism being influenced in the minds of the people, such as in To Kill a Mocking Bird despite 1 person having mental problems,
stabbing his parents’ leg, the judge still thought it was “inhumane” to place him together with the Negroes, or black Africans from the South, this is one example of racism in To Kill a Mocking bird, in the Civil Rights movement, whose aim was to clear racial discrimination and promote Human Rights among countries lower in the south such as Missisipi,and the problem of the KKK, preventing the black people from voicing out their opinion in TKAM as well, disallowing them of their rights.
Personally, I feel that this movement should be more effective in the sense that there are no riots and unrest that follow after this movement was started. This movement aims to promote equality. It aided the situation in the way of changing many people’s mindset and thinking towards the problem. Before it was even enforced, social discrimination was very common at the time. There was racial prejudice, for instance the “Whites” had the upper hand as compared to the “Blacks”. The situation aggravated as the time passes. Some of the ” Whites” did not use the law to punish the “Blacks”. Instead, they used underhand means, such as lynching.

Reflection:

After I done my research and reading through my friend answers, I realized that I had learnt a lot from this lesson. Before the lesson, I had no idea what is Civil Rights Movement, but after reading online, I learnt that it’s an act done by the government to actually promote equality and change the white’s perspective especially. This is done to accept the black into the society and give them equal opportunities as the others.

I think the act by the government speaks a lot about the government. It proves that the government is trying their best to counter the challenges of racism and prejudice. I’m doing the question about the outcome of Civil Rights Movement, and it proves that the measure is a success as the blacks are holding more and more leadership position such as Barack Obama, the President of United States.

I also learnt about the importance of peace and harmony and understand about the reason behind why government came up with this Civil Rights Movements. All in all, form this online lesson, I learnt more about the measures to counter the challenge of racism and the successful outcome of it. A fruitful lesson indeed!

Letter to Editor

Dear editor,

Today, I’m going to comment on what lessons that Singapore can learn from the recent Japan earthquake and tsunamis, and whether we as a nation possess what it takes to handle a similar crisis.

Personally, I think we could learn a lot from this recent incident. It proves to us how vulnerable mankind is when compared to the unpredictable nature. For example, Japan had took measures to prevent earthquake by inserting a huge wall to prevent the water from gushing it. Unfortunately, they failed and the water just pushed the whole wall down effortlessly. It shows us that we should never waste our effort in trying to prevent earthquake, but instead ways to react to earthquake. We could actually practice evacuation or even inventing a device to identify a nearby potential earthquake, the height of it etc.

Singapore, being a small dot in the world-map, has absolutely no measures to handle similar crisis. In my opinion, the earthquake will just swipe the whole island away, and the island will never come into existence anymore. As such, we could never have prepared for the aftermath, but instead how to identify the earthquake and evacuate instantaneously after we identify.

Yours Sincerely,

Sheng Xiang

Definition of Literature

Definition of literature

In my opinion, literature is a type of way that English is phrased or written such that it’s more comprehensive and has deeper meaning for us to go decipher and understand. Literature could be seen in our daily life, if you notice. There are literature books in the library, we came across literature writings in our lesson. Literature can also exist in different forms, such as poems, a piece of passage etc.

Literature has a very huge significance in our daily life. They are important to us as it helps us to look at things at a different viewpoint. It hones our comprehension and reading skills too. All in all, literature will help us to understand way of life, learn to appreciate the art of literature, and hone our comprehension skills.

Measures to Racism

In my opinion, there was definitely not enough done to combat racism. People nowadays just gave the nonchalant attitude to racism, some don’t even know what is racism! Others do not even lend a hand, fearing that their safety might be in risk if they ever interfere, judging from the cruel ways that the KKK used to torture/kill the blacks. Some did help, but was not enough. They merely describe the current situation to the police, who is also prejudiced against the black, and thus it was futile after all! Therefore, there was not enough done to combat the issue of racism.

In my opinion, there wasn’t really much racism present in Singapore. This was probably due to the strict governing and also stern warning by the authorities. However, if we did witnessed racism in our daily lives, we should put a stop to it. One of the ways is to actually inform other people, most probably people with authorities, such as parents or even the teachers. We should also not continue the trend and should instill the mindset of harmony to our friends. All in all, it’s everybody’s effort to stop racism.

Measures to Racism

In my opinion, there was definitely not enough done to combat racism. People nowadays just gave the nonchalant attitude to racism, some don’t even know what is racism! Others do not even lend a hand, fearing that their safety might be in risk if they ever interfere, judging from the cruel ways that the KKK used to torture/kill the blacks. Some did help, but was not enough. They merely describe the current situation to the police, who is also prejudiced against the black, and thus it was futile after all! Therefore, there was not enough done to combat the issue of racism.

In my opinion, there wasn’t really much racism present in Singapore. This was probably due to the strict governing and also stern warning by the authorities. However, if we did witnessed racism in our daily lives, we should put a stop to it. One of the ways is to actually inform other people, most probably people with authorities, such as parents or even the teachers. We should also not continue the trend and should instill the mindset of harmony to our friends. All in all, it’s everybody’s effort to stop racism.

Measures to Racism

In my opinion, there was definitely not enough done to combat racism. People nowadays just gave the nonchalant attitude to racism, some don’t even know what is racism! Others do not even lend a hand, fearing that their safety might be in risk if they ever interfere, judging from the cruel ways that the KKK used to torture/kill the blacks. Some did help, but was not enough. They merely describe the current situation to the police, who is also prejudiced against the black, and thus it was futile after all! Therefore, there was not enough done to combat the issue of racism.

In my opinion, there wasn’t really much racism present in Singapore. This was probably due to the strict governing and also stern warning by the authorities. However, if we did witnessed racism in our daily lives, we should put a stop to it. One of the ways is to actually inform other people, most probably people with authorities, such as parents or even the teachers. We should also not continue the trend and should instill the mindset of harmony to our friends. All in all, it’s everybody’s effort to stop racism.

Measures to Racism

In my opinion, there was definitely not enough done to combat racism. People nowadays just gave the nonchalant attitude to racism, some don’t even know what is racism! Others do not even lend a hand, fearing that their safety might be in risk if they ever interfere, judging from the cruel ways that the KKK used to torture/kill the blacks. Some did help, but was not enough. They merely describe the current situation to the police, who is also prejudiced against the black, and thus it was futile after all! Therefore, there was not enough done to combat the issue of racism.

In my opinion, there wasn’t really much racism present in Singapore. This was probably due to the strict governing and also stern warning by the authorities. However, if we did witnessed racism in our daily lives, we should put a stop to it. One of the ways is to actually inform other people, most probably people with authorities, such as parents or even the teachers. We should also not continue the trend and should instill the mindset of harmony to our friends. All in all, it’s everybody’s effort to stop racism.

Measures to Racism

In my opinion, there was definitely not enough done to combat racism. People nowadays just gave the nonchalant attitude to racism, some don’t even know what is racism! Others do not even lend a hand, fearing that their safety might be in risk if they ever interfere, judging from the cruel ways that the KKK used to torture/kill the blacks. Some did help, but was not enough. They merely describe the current situation to the police, who is also prejudiced against the black, and thus it was futile after all! Therefore, there was not enough done to combat the issue of racism.

In my opinion, there wasn’t really much racism present in Singapore. This was probably due to the strict governing and also stern warning by the authorities. However, if we did witnessed racism in our daily lives, we should put a stop to it. One of the ways is to actually inform other people, most probably people with authorities, such as parents or even the teachers. We should also not continue the trend and should instill the mindset of harmony to our friends. All in all, it’s everybody’s effort to stop racism.

Measures to Racism

In my opinion, there was definitely not enough done to combat racism. People nowadays just gave the nonchalant attitude to racism, some don’t even know what is racism! Others do not even lend a hand, fearing that their safety might be in risk if they ever interfere, judging from the cruel ways that the KKK used to torture/kill the blacks. Some did help, but was not enough. They merely describe the current situation to the police, who is also prejudiced against the black, and thus it was futile after all! Therefore, there was not enough done to combat the issue of racism.

In my opinion, there wasn’t really much racism present in Singapore. This was probably due to the strict governing and also stern warning by the authorities. However, if we did witnessed racism in our daily lives, we should put a stop to it. One of the ways is to actually inform other people, most probably people with authorities, such as parents or even the teachers. We should also not continue the trend and should instill the mindset of harmony to our friends. All in all, it’s everybody’s effort to stop racism.

Measures to Racism

In my opinion, there was definitely not enough done to combat racism. People nowadays just gave the nonchalant attitude to racism, some don’t even know what is racism! Others do not even lend a hand, fearing that their safety might be in risk if they ever interfere, judging from the cruel ways that the KKK used to torture/kill the blacks. Some did help, but was not enough. They merely describe the current situation to the police, who is also prejudiced against the black, and thus it was futile after all! Therefore, there was not enough done to combat the issue of racism.

In my opinion, there wasn’t really much racism present in Singapore. This was probably due to the strict governing and also stern warning by the authorities. However, if we did witnessed racism in our daily lives, we should put a stop to it. One of the ways is to actually inform other people, most probably people with authorities, such as parents or even the teachers. We should also not continue the trend and should instill the mindset of harmony to our friends. All in all, it’s everybody’s effort to stop racism.

Reflection on CIP activity

Reflection on CIP activity

We went to Jurong Point yesterday with the senior citizens from New Horizon Centre. They had dementia and we were told to take extreme care of them. Basically, we brought them for breakfast before actually going for a walk/shopping at the NTUC.

After the session with them, I learnt a lot of lessons. Some of the elderly were not that friendly and thus, we had to be flexible and strike up a conversation with them ourselves. One of the efficient ways is just to look and smile at them. The instructor at the New Horizon Centre mentioned that people that are not so wise in the brain are actually full of feelings and are very sensitive. Therefore, if we gave the elderly some nonchalant look, they will sense that we are hostile.

Another important lesson I learnt is of course, how to strike a conversation. At the start, I was not so familiar with them, and I could only smile at the elderly. However, the instructors there lend me a hand by striking a conversation with them and letting me continue. I realized that the instructors tend to ask about their welfare first before asking about herself and her family. They also tend to used prompting questions so that the elderly have more chances to speak.

Last but not least, I learnt the importance of communicating with the elderly and senior citizens. Our parents are going to aged one day, and we are going to repay them by taking care of them and giving them our best. If we can’t even take good care of the elderly yesterday, what about our parents? Are we going to be as unfilial to them? It speaks a lot about us, our manners and how our parents teach us. I learnt a lot from yesterday CIP activity, and I really hope that I could have more chances in the future to learn to communicate with the elderly so as to be filial to my parents in the future.

Reflections on Sec 1 Camp

Today, I just came back from my Term 1 sabbatical: Sec 1 camp

After I came back from my camp, I realise that I had learnt alot of facilitation and also soft skills that could be used in my daily life.

In fact, we the organising team had actually planned alot of interesting activities for the Sec 1s to enjoy. However, the weather was bad and it was raining cats and dogs on all the camp days. Thus, this made us very demoralised, as our planned activities had to be stopped and intervene due to the weather and we need to execute out the wet weather plan, which was not as fun as the activities played on the open field. This is actually similar to our daily life challenges. Whatever we planned to do, we must always get ready for the obstacles caused by external factors. Just like the ever-changing and unpredictable weather, we must always have a backup plan in case our original plan might not work due to unexpected dire factors.

When we let the Sec 1s had their lunch, there was chaos as the dining tentage was rather small and could not fit everyone inside. The students were loud and noisy and nobody is giving attention to the instructions, with students running everywhere and taking the food here and there, without cleaning up their mess. Therefore, we learnt our lesson from our first experience, and we all agreed to have order next time. Thus, we put safety tapes around the dining tentage except for a small opening, where people exit and enter from there. We staggered the timing, such that some went to bath while others went for their dinner and vice versa after a period of time. We also ensured that the 2^nd shift is to wait outside the opening before the 1^st shift moved in. Therefore from this, I could learnt that whenever we are managing a large group of people, we must always have order and a fixed rule to prevent chaos and getting into trouble. We could do this not just by shouting to get the attention, but also marked out a certain boundary and also people to patrol around to make sure that there are order and the people are adhering to the rules at all times.

After we set up the boundary and the safety tape, many of the students took shortcut and bent underneath the safety tapes or even cross over it. This is very chaotic, if all of them is to go up and down by the safety tapes and there was be no use in the safety tapes. Therefore, we sent some people to patrol around the safety tapes area and prevent people from crossing the safety tapes. This caused some of the students to be unhappy and one even tear down the safety tape. One of the teachers witnessed that and reprimanded that student. From this incident, I could learn that we must deal with people at the correct time and point them out individually so as to let them know their mistakes. We must also make sure that we must put ourselves in others shoes and talk to them politely, but of course not let them crawl over your head. If necessary, we could scold that student if he refuses to behave appropriately by not embarrassing him in front of the crowd, but just point out his mistakes after stopping him.

Overall, I realise that after my sabbatical (Sec 1 camp), I learnt better to act accordingly to the situation, like in the case of wet weather plan. I also learnt how to execute out my actions properly and let myself be heard in order to get the attention of the whole Sec 1 cohort. Overall, I had an enjoyable time in my sabbatical in serving the Sec 1s and watching them enjoy the camp.