24 Jul
3E3: I am very sorry that I was on MC and could not return you your essays.
For all of you, Ms Hayati has very kindly come up with a model essay for you to refer to for the common test.
You can download it here. Do take a look. It would be very useful.
13 Jul
For those of you who did not manage to create your online magazine in class, here is the powerpoint and instructions. Please leave your group’s URL in the comments by this week. Also do ensure all your members have a wetpaint account and access to your webpage.
6 Jul
Thank you 3E3 and 3E4 for completing your holiday homeworrk (at least most of you). I will read through all of them and comment as much as I can ok?
On another note, should anyone of you go on leave of absense because of the H1N1 virus, please visit this blog to get your homework for the week. I will not be uploading it to AsknLearn as many subjects will be doing that and it may not be able to cope with the stress.
3 Jul
Firstly, welcome back to school!
As you should be aware of by now (and if you are not, which rock were you under?), over the next 3 weeks or so, we will be dealing with feature articles in class.
Before we start, download your performance task sheet here. You can see that for the performance task, you will get the chance to produce your very own online magazine. At the end of this post, I have linked to various online magazines so you can take a look at them for inspiration. Don your creativity caps and I am quite excited to see your masterpieces.
What is a feature article?
A feature article is more than just a straight news story. A typical news story will inform you about what took place. In contrast, a feature article often goes one step further – it wants to entertain, engage and make its reader feel something.
For example, a news article about a car accident will simple give you what happened, who was hurt and so on. A feature article may have a long interview with the victim and the impact of the accident or may analyse how the accident occured and what could be done to prevent it.
As we progress through these lessons, we will be learning how to write engaging and exciting feature articles.
Some Online Magazines
Sports Magazines
Food Magazines
Entertainment Magazines
Animal Magazines
Travel Magazines
Know any more? Let me know.
23 Jun
I have a confession to make – I have been overseas the past week so that explains why my comments on your work has dried up. Well, I’m back in (extremely) hot Singapore and I’ll try to catch up with all the reading.
To those who still have not done their work, please don’t make me have to take action against you when school reopens. 
19 Jun
As a result of the increasing concern over the H1N1 bug, I need to collect your email addresses – the one you actually check. If you can, just drop a comment over at your class blog so I can capture your email address. Don’t put your email add in the comment itself unless you plan to get lots of spam emails.
Thanks!
17 Jun
It looks like a number of you still have not started on your holiday homework. I know it’s awful to have to spend your holiday doing work but sometimes we have to do things we hate. I’m going to sit here and hope that so many of you have not been doing your work because you are enjoying your holidays and have plans to do the work soon, because nothing is worse than not doing your holiday homework and having a crappy holiday as well.
Several of you didn’t do especially well in your mid-year examinations and told yourself you want to do better. Well, here is your chance to help yourself. I didn’t sit in front of my computer coming up with work for you to do because I am sadistic and like nothing better than seeing you suffer. It’s because this is supposed to help you.
SO DO YOUR HOMEWORK!
Ok, nagging over. Enjoy whatever is left of your holidays.
12 Jun
This is the last task for all of you!
Today, we are going to look at point-of-view (POV) which is basically the perspective of the narrator of a story. For example, if we have a story in which Jane and Jack are quarelling, we can write it either from Jane’s POV or Jack’s POV.
Often, we all have different POVs about the same event. We blame different people, we interpret actions differently and we react differently. When my friend says no to having lunch together, I might interpret it as an act of rejection. However, she might just think she has a lot of work to do. So when you write from different POVs, you could have very different stories.
Select from one of the prompts below. You should write at least 200 words.
Have fun!
11 Jun
Just a quick update. There will be one more task for the holidays. I’ll put it up soon (I promise!). I noticed a number of you have not started. Do remember to comment on your friends’ blogs. Comments make the world go round.
This is the summary practice given to those who came down for the remedials. Consider doing it as extra practice. I’ll upload the answers at the end of the holidays so you can check your own work.
5 Jun
And we are at number 3! Just one more to go before we are done.
This task is about imagining you are someone else. You will write an essay titled
Fill in the blank yourself with something that you are not. So if you are a soccer player, do not write about Confessions of a Soccer Player. Let’s be a little imaginative. Oh and please keep your imaginations tasteful! The word count should be between 300 and 500.
Now, it’s unfair for me to ask you to do something without actually doing it myself so here’s my confessions.
I was sitting around with my best friends, sipping tea and eating pretty little homemade cookies. My son, Jason, stumbled up to me, beaming and offering a flower he had picked from the garden. My friends smiled at the gesture and ooh and ahh as Jason dimpled beguilingly at them. After a while, he went off to read in his room. I picked up my cup as I listened to my friends gush over my immaculate house and my cute and well-behaved son. This was bliss.
This was also nothing like my life.
Dirty dishes in the sink. Unmade beds. Laundry half in the washing machine waiting to be hung up, the other half already hung up. Jason sprawling on the floor crying his lungs out because I said he could not have another ice cream. The telephone screaming at me to pick it up and me trying desperately to cook dinner before my husband came home. That was a losing battle. He was due home in about ten minutes and I had barely washed the rice.
I no longer know what it is like to have a good night sleep. I have no idea what is showing on the television these days. My only trips out of this prison are when I need to buy groceries or when I need to bring Jason to the doctor. Otherwise I spend all my time inside these four walls, trying to catch up with the housework that never ends. It is a cycle I cannot wait to break.
Some days, I wonder if I made the right choice in deciding to leave my accounting job to stay at home with my newborn. It seemed the right choice a year ago. I could spend time with my son, bring him up the way I wanted to and not have to be at work worrying constantly about who was looking after Jason. Thankfully, my husband was earning enough for me to stop working and so I did. My friends told me I was going to be a bored housewife and I just laughed it off.
“Ma … look!”
I turned from the stove and saw my paint-covered son with a crumpled piece of paper clutched in his grubby hands. With the amount of paint on Jason, I shuddered to think what would be on the floor in his bedroom. More work, I sighed to myself. Looks I won’t be sleeping much tonight.
Through the multi-coloured face paint he wore, I could see his eyes shining with happiness as he thrust the paper towards me. I took it gingerly and opened it up.
It was a picture of my son and I, surrounded by oddly coloured hearts. My heart melted. Maybe it was not so bad being a stay-at-home mother.
I glanced into Jason’s bedroom. Then again …
