Sunday, May 30, 2010
Teaching is really another form of art. As a student, sometimes we don't undertand some of our teachers intentions. Now that I've also become a teacher, I can understand how my teacher felt when she told us certain things in the past.
Recently, I've just engaged myself in another music lesson: teaching erhu to a grp of three girls. Unlike my first student, their basics were shaky and one of them didn't even have any musical background. However, I enjoy teaching them becos they look sincere in learning. :) In my opinion, basics are the most fundamental to success. So I taught all of them frm the basics.
On the second lesson, I saw improvement in the bowing! I was really happy! At least it sounds less 杀鸡 alrdy! And their techniques r right! Haha! Next, I taught them how to listen n follow the beats. Among the three of them, the one who learnt erhu since p1 is the fastest learner, while the one w/o any prior knowledge is the slowest. However, my instinct tells me that the slowest girl will be the best among them. Although all r able to play correctly, she does the techniques the best. Teaching her would require much more time n patience. When teaching them how to follow beats, she could neither count the counts correctly nor enter on the beat. It took up quite some time trying the correct her. This is one of the challenging part for the teacher as u gotta make sure thenother two wouldn't be bored waiting for their friend, while u try hard to teach the slower learner. I made the others count for her n also point out her mistakes. I hope she wasn't feeling embarrassed when I made her play by herself. :x Eventually, she got the beat and could enter correctly! I was elated that she made it! :D Then I taught them how to read the scores cos they claimed that they're afraid of sight-reading n that this fear is hindering them frm trying grade 4. I taught them in a mathematical way n they were amazed at how music can be so closely related to math! Haha! I gave them several examples in the order of increasing difficulty. Whenever they saw complicated markings, they'd freak out. But after I broke it down note by note, they could understand it. I really hope they will apply it in any other scores n not freak out by te numbers and markings! :) I believe they'll be able to sight read soon. :)
A while ago, I just had lesson with my first student. Not sure if she's complacent (cos she has erhu background, a pretty good one), she doesn't seem sincere in practising. It's been weeks, yet she hasn't memorized 2 pieces, 3 pages long in total. Fyi, they're kuai gong n zong he lian xi. Even if she hasn't memorized, she's not even familiar with the scores. How to teach her the details when she' not even familiar with it? Well, at least she managed to improve her wrong techniques. At the end of the lesson, I pep talked her, telling her the importance of treasuring time esp in sec sch (when u have ample time for cca), n how much the quantity of practice matters now. I hope she'll start to 踏踏实实 to practise.
Today during my lesson with xu lao shi, she taught me how to practise a portion which clearly reflected my weakness. Then I understood something. I'm sure many of ushd have heard this: give a fisherman a fish, he'll be nourished for that day. Give the fisherman the skills to fish, it'll keep him nourished for life. Similarly, she's trying to teach me how to tackle with such challenges, so that I can apply the same thing in the future. Like her, I must also teach my students how to deal with problems themselves, so as to make them grow n learn.
Haha, after telling so much abt my lessons, what I wanna say is, I finally experience what xls felt when I improved n when I disappointed her. She's really a great teacher. W/o her, I wouldn't be who I m today. Thanks so much to her. Really, thanks a lot...
2:18 PM
Till we meet again..
Saturday, May 29, 2010
Whoa... The hectic week is finally coming to an end. Only had about 2-3h of sleep on tue and wed nights with CO everyday till 8.30pm. Yeah man, it's so tiring that im almost dying of fatigue. Good thing GP work is finally settled!
Had bike hike ytd. Sadly, my legs couldnt make it. Don't know why it was like that. Cycling from 11pm to about 7 the next morning wasnt a problem for me at all. Wonder why my legs hurt so much when I cycled last night that i had to give up half way. ): Good thing I managed to catch some sleep on the lorry before facing another day of hectic schedule.
Went back for CO then helped out in stage runner practice. It was the first time I tried Redbull and I realised that it's really effective! Then I had to go for tuition till 5pm. Kudos to me for being able to survive through the day! (:
Guess what im doing now. Im actually tearing. HAHA! Frankly speaking, I've been crying for the past hour or so, over a hk drama. LOL! Cant believe that I could get so sentimental over a show. Sighs... Damn sad lah.... And all thanks to Limyang. He sent a very hilarious msg to xianyue just at the moment when I was crying terribly. He put me into a split emotion; I actually laughed and cried at the same time, like a lunatic. LOL!
Ok, that's all im gonna blog today. Gonna move on to the next drama! WHOOOOOOO~!
8:36 PM
Till we meet again..
Friday, May 28, 2010
Whooo...! It's holidays n I've finally survive through the 'GP turmoil'! Yay! Fyi, 'GP turmoil' refers to all vocabulary exercises of Times magazine ws, min 40-50 words of wordbank which consists of meaning n self-constructed sentences of the words that we don't kkow the meaning n ALL sections of the time tunnel! Apparently, the entire class has been rushing these GP work since last week, of course, with some form of 'coorperation' incorporated. :P
For me, the work was even tougher to complete due to the hectic CO pracs we have everyday which end very late at night. Unfortunately, this also depicted that I had to compromise my sleep for my hw. On both tue n wed nights, I had very little sleep. By wed, I was sooooooo exhausted that I was literally SEMI-CONSCIOUS!
Evidence 1:
I wasn't paying attention in class at all, but partly also becos I was still rushing the last bit of GP in class.
Evidence 2:
Selective hearing. Ms Fok told us to draw an econs diagram to show her. Yet I stoned becos I didn't hear that we were supposed to draw it for her. Lol.
During dazu, Yingxuan told me to pass a piece of paper n a pouch around in the section, but I only passed the paper w/o even knowing the existence of the pouch though it was placed right before me. =.=
Evidence 3:
Falling asleep during CO. This is actually very dangerous as there were a few times when I nearly dropped my erhu! Nonetheless, I think I've mastered Shunta's skills of sleeping-yet-conscious-abt-surroundings. In other words, I may be sleeping, but I can still hear what ppl play, what the teacher is saying n enter correctly. Lol!! But, still far from Shunta's proness lah!
Evidence 4:
Errenous statement made in a conversation with Xueyan.
Sheila: hey! R u guys having dinner tgt YESTERDAY before bike hike?
Another illogical statement in a conversation with yingxuan. Both of us left early frm CO. She was meeting her seniors for jts. When she met her senior,
Sheila: So u're not going with me?? =.=
Good thing today's a public hol n I managed to catch sufficient sleep. Or else I'll really die of fatigue at this rate cos there's still bike hike today! Hohoho excitinggggggg!!! :)))
8:01 AM
Till we meet again..
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Wheee! Just got back frm the airport! Went to send layting off for her Europe trip! Had dinner tgt with her family too! We were planning to have dinner with our families tgt at the airport on 9 jun, before we set off for japan! Cool right? Haha!
Bleh, I'm beginning to feel jealous. I also wanna go to Europe. :x I've nvr been there before. Szemin has the same sentiments too! Haha! We both felt like flying to another country when we sent layting off lol! Then we got excited abt our japan trip cos we really look forward to flying overseas n going there with our friends!! It's also the first time layting, szemin, chewfei n I r going overseas tgt! Wheeee!!!
Met wenhao, Ian n Cheryl! They went there to send Danette off hehh. Sighs. Maybe I'm gonna miss layting for the next two weeks! Nonetheless, hope she'll have a safe trip n come back with lots of interesting stories to share with us! And hope Danette will recover soon! :) gahhh... I wonder if I'm still in te mood to study in this last week of sch. :x
11:36 PM
Till we meet again..
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Happy to know you! (:
9:38 PM
Till we meet again..
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Shucks. I'm back to the emo state again.
1. I hate to be a replacement of something else. You know, i really hope that im not just a replacement...
2.Sometimes I hope I can be left alone at the right time. Sorry for being anti-social, but I really need those times...
3. I hate to be weak. And now I feel like a weakling. Empty promises with no action. Why have I become someone who only knows how to criticize, yet passive in making a change to the situation? It's just another common challenge that many people face. Why am I so affected by it? Why cant I stop blaming? Why didnt I reorganize my thoughts instead and look for a solution? Im such a crybaby.
4. I hate to sacrifice things at the expense of my inability. Seriously, what's the point of feeling sorry after the sacrifice?
You know, there's so much going through my mind. I begin to wonder if I've changed, perhaps for the worse. ):
You know, sometimes I actually feel lost and I hope some wise soul can be there to guide me through the darkness...
Sighs. I'm sorry for the rant. I really need it.
11:31 PM
Till we meet again..
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Im tired, so im feeling kinda lazy to blog. BUT I still wanna mention certain things that happened this week cos I want those beautiful little events to be recognized! (: (pardon me for another incoherent post that's super summarized!)
1. I enjoyed laughing and crapping with the funny people around me! (e.g. angyingxuan, deborahlim etc.)
2. I enjoyed Scramble-ing with the girls in my class! (hoho, u guys cant beat my high score of 98 points! BLEAH!)
3. I enjoyed the fc's companion, cos they're my fav grp of ppl who nvr fail to make me laugh lol! (all thanks to Minron's ladder theory, the moth that took a free bus ride from tpy to NUS, yijiao's hilarious remarks and how she became minron's accomplice unknowingly, meeting Mr Teo's look-alike at choir concert etc.)
4. Had fun sight-reading manuscript with Sherry. Laughed over silly jokes like how I thought Jun Yan was the composer of erquan cos i forgot his name n saw 'Yan Jun' as the composer.
5. Had a great night today with my family and relatives! My nephews and niece are really adorable! :DDD (My niece is billingual! She said, "阿公的车是 green 色的！" HAHAHA! So cute! At a certain point of time, I lost my attention cos her pronunciation wasnt clear. Then the words '开刀' drew my aunt's and my attention. We immediately asked 什么东西开刀 in a worried tone, as we were scared that she'd learn the wrong things. Then she said, '婆婆讲小孩子不可以吃太多糖，要不然要开刀拿出来！这边开，那边开，全身都要开刀！' LOL!! SO CUTE RIGHT! Apparently my aunt and I burst into laughter after that! haha!)
Ok end of summary. Hope next wk's gonna be a better week!
11:35 PM
Till we meet again..
Sunday, May 09, 2010
Last night I dreamt that I was singing in the public. Amazingly, I was singing a hokkien song using a microphone! LOL! So random. So i went to dreammoods.com to check for the meaning. Here it is:
Singing To sing in your dream, represents happiness, harmony and joy in some situation or relationship. You are uplifting others with your positive attitude and cheerful disposition. Singing is a way to celebrate, communicate and express your feelings.
Haha... 'Happiness, harmony and joy in some situation'... perhaps not, but 'relationship', yes! (refer to my prev prev post!)
Ok, i just realised that this is a super random post!
Btw, I've a request. I hope that i can eat w/o growing fat cos nowadays i've been eating to make myself feel happier. lol...
PS: sorry for this incoherent post. not gonna matter anyway as long as i understand what it means. (:
11:17 PM
Till we meet again..
Uncanny coincidences... Hmmm...
12:33 AM
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Tuesday, May 04, 2010
I feel very happy today!
I've a plan for my dearest parents and godparents! Mother's Day and Father's Day are round the corner and my parents' bdays are nearing too! This yr is special cos it's the first time i work and earn money! So I intend to treat all four of them to a good meal! Hohoho!
All my relatives are quite distant, so I don't really feel the family committment. Perhaps because of this, I'm quite envy of my friends who often have family gatherings on weekends. And maybe becos I barely spend time with my relatives, Im actually very happy that the four of them, my 4 dearest family members, and I are going to have dinner tgt! It's also an added joy that it's the first time I'm treating them with my 2nd pay! (not 1st pay cos i wanted to save more for a better meal and also to celebrate those occasions :P)
I know I've said this many times, but I'm still gonna say it again.
WHEEEEEEEE IM VERY HAPPY!!! :D
10:39 PM
Till we meet again..
