The Road Not Taken

I think that the writer is talking about choosing different paths in life. Stanza 1 states that there were 2 roads and he had to pick only one road as he could not travel both and hence had difficulties choosing them. Stanza 2 states that he had chose the other road which is less worn although there is not much difference. Stanza 3 explained more on the 2 roads and said that he would come back to walk the first road but he thinks that he would not be able to do so. The last stanza was not very clear as the word "sigh" could have 2 different meanings which were sigh of relief and sigh of regret. Therefore, I am not sure if he had chosen the right road as the word "difference" in the last line would depend on the word "sigh" to see if it was positive or negative. The poem is trying to tell us that we should choose our paths carefully and sometimes the path taken by people might not be the right path.

T4 Blog Writing Prompt #3

It was Monday afternoon. Everyone is revising hard for the last paper of the Primary 5 End-of-Year examination, which was Science. Science was the toughest of all subjects and required us to spend much more time revising than other papers. I had already revised through 9 chapters and was left with 6 more chapters to go. I was arranging my notes when the phone rang. I rushed to the phone to answer the call.

"Hey Cousin! Today’s my birthday! How about we go out and catch a movie? " my cousin, Steve said enthusiastically. I hesitated for a moment. As I was busy preparing for the examinations recently, I have completely forgotten that today was his birthday. What am I suppose to do, I thought to myself. I definitely do not have the time to go out and watch a movie as I have not finished revising. Furthermore, I am not a fan of watching movies. However, I would not want to reject his offer as I do not wish to disappoint him. I thought over it and eventually decided to accompany him to the movies. “Alright then, see you there at 5pm, " I replied.

Steve was delighted upon hearing the good news. However, I was not able to concentrate throughout the whole movie. I was afraid that I would not be able to finish revising in time. After the movie, Steve thanked me and he said that he was very happy that we were able to watch a movie together. Then, we parted and I rushed home to revise immediately.

I did not manage to revise through all that we had learned but only revised through 12 out of 15 chapters. The results came back a week later and I scored 63 marks for science. Normally, I would be able to score about 70 marks. Although watching a movie with John had caused me to not finish revising and ended up scoring lower than usual, I am sure that I had made the right choice as I was able to make him happy and not disappoint him on his birthday.

T4 Blog Writing Prompt #2

" Schools should place more emphasis on character development than academic excellence."

Do you agree or disagree?

I agree that schools should place more emphasis on character development than academic excellence. Although both character development and academic excellence are both important for our future, I feel that character development is more important. Firstly, character development enables us to communicate and socialise better with other people. Secondly, character development helps us to improve on our character. However, academic excellence is also important as it increases our knowledge.

Firstly, character development enables us to communicate and socialise better with other people. With character development, you will learn to treat others with respect and would be able to communicate well with them and not create any misunderstanding or conflicts. This would enable us to have good relationship with others as we would be able to socialise with others more effectively. Thus, character development would benefit us greatly and hence schools should place more emphasis on character development.

Secondly, character development helps us to improve on our character. We would learn many moral values like responsibility and integrity. It would benefit us as we would learn to be more responsible and hence would become more trustworthy and also have integrity and would be honest. Thus, I feel that character development is important as it improves on our character and would make us a better person.

However, academic excellence is also important as it increases our knowledge. The knowledge we learnt would greatly benefit us in the future as it would come in use when we go out to the working world. Also, it would benefit us when we are finding for jobs as most employers would look at our qualifications. Thus, I feel that academic excellence is also important.

In conclusion, I feel that schools should place more emphasis on character development than academic excellence as character development enables us to communicate and socialise better with other people and helps to improve on our character while academic excellence increases our knowledge.

T4 Blog Writing Prompt #1

Many people would have different opinions about their ideal school. To me, an ideal school must have helpful friends and experienced teachers, conducive studying environment and many types of activities planned for the students.

Firstly, an ideal school must have helpful friends and experienced teachers. With helpful friends, you would be able to look for them when you are in need of help. For example, when you have difficulties doing your homework, you can ask them to teach you. Also, it is important to get along well with your friends. I would definitely not want to go to schools with lots of bullying or fighting. With experienced teachers, they would be able to engage with students effectively and would be able to catch their attention so that they would not lose their focus and end up not paying attention to what is being taught. Experienced teachers would also know the suitable teaching methods to be used. Then, students would be able to understand the subject better and would score better. Thus, I feel that an ideal school must have helpful friends and experienced teachers.

Secondly, an ideal school must have a conducive studying environment. There should be little sound so that students would be able to listen and concentrate on what is being taught. For example, the classroom should be located far away from construction sites and roads so that the noise would not affect the student’s learning. I feel that a conducive studying environment is very important as I think that no one would be able to concentrate in an area with so much noise. Thus, I feel that an ideal school must have a conducive studying environment.

Lastly, an ideal school must have many types of activities planned for the students. Examples of activities are field trips and overseas exchange programme. Field trips can benefit students as they would be able to learn many new things and can also experience it for themselves and not just learning it from their textbook. As for overseas exchange programme, students would be able to know people from other countries learning environment and also learn their culture. Such activities are considered killing two birds with one stone as students would be able to relax and have fun while gaining more knowledge at the same time. Thus, I feel that an ideal school must have many types of activities planned for the students.

In conclusion, I think that an ideal school must have helpful friends and experienced teachers, conducive studying environment and many types of activities planned for the students.