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.

IN-CLASS ONLINE LESSON #12

Step 2:

The common theme among the scrolls inside each of the caskets is that appearance is not all that matters and not to judge things by its appearance. "Don't judge a book by it's cover" and "All that glitters is not gold". You should not judge the something by its appearance as sometimes appearance can be deceiving. Hence, one requires good judgement skills and intelligence to be able to pick the right choice.


The Prince of Morocco picked the golden casket and was tricked by the appearance. He opened the golden casket and found a skull. It turns out that the golden casket is a symbol of the hollowness and treachery of wealth or the beautiful face which once covered the skull or all the 'outward shows' of life. It shows that appearance can be deceiving and hence we should not judge by the appearance. The Prince of Arragon chose the silver casket but it turned out to be a wrong choice. He opened the silver casket and found a portrait of a blinking idiot. The scroll stated that " I will ever be your head". It means that he would always be a fool. This shows a bad judgement made by the Prince of Arragon. Bassanio had made the right choice by choosing the lead casket. He opened the lead casket and found a portrait of Portia. The scroll stated that " You that choose not by the view, Chance as fair, and choose as true". Bassanio did not choose the caskets by the appearance and hence had made the right choice.


Step 3:


“ It’s now or never!” I exclaimed as I jumped down a 3-storey building.
It all started when I started investigating on a kidnapping case. I was a private investigator and was hired by Tom, father of a son that was kidnapped. He was frustrated that the police was unable to find the kidnapper and hence he looked up for me. I managed to get hold of some clues and they led me to a 3-story building. I was suspecting that the kidnapper is in this building.
The building was at least abandoned for five years. The paint was already flaked off. Some sound came out from the room up a flight of stairs. I approached cautiously towards the room, not wanting to get noticed. I managed to peep what is in the room as the door was not closed properly. There were quite a number of people tied up to the chairs and blindfolded. It is a kidnapping syndicate! I immediately dialed for the police.
“Who are you?” A few men appeared at the entrance of the building. I was scared out of my wits. More men came out from the room after hearing the commotion. I have no way to run! I looked around and managed to find a staircase leading upwards. I dashed for the staircase immediately. They were hot on my heels. I reached the rooftop and had no other way to run. Immediately, I ran to the edge of the building.
I looked back and found out that they had surrounded me. I looked down the building and saw that there is a canopy below. To jump or not to jump? I thought that if I do not jump, I would definitely have no other way to escape and would be caught by them. Who knows what they would do to me! If I would to jump down, there is a slight chance that I would be able to escape as the canopy below would break my fall. I am willing to take the risk!
I jumped down the building and landed on the canopy. I injured my legs and was unable to move. Oh no! Just then, I heard a siren approaching. I am safe.

Reflections:

I agree that we should not judge something by its appearance but its appearance would give us its first impression as it is the first thing we would notice. Hence, I feel that it is quite difficult not judging something by its appearance. However, appearance can be deceiving hence we should consider carefully first before judging something. For example, besides looking at the cover of the book, we could read the plot of the story to see if we are interested in it and maybe read a few pages first. Then, we can judge the book better. Also, we can use logic to make a difficult decision. We can consider both side arguments and compare to see which one is better. We can weigh the advantage and disadvantage of doing it this way and decide which would be a better choice.

Comments for Term 3 ACE

Library Blog - Library Week & World Book Day Photos

I feel that the Library Week and World Book Day is a great idea as it encourages students to read more books. It would be more convenient for students to borrow book as they might not have the time to borrow books in the library. Reading more books would definitely improve our English as we are able to learn new words and phrases.
The Microfiction Writing Competition and Scrabble Challenge can also help students to develop an interest in English. Through this events, we can enjoy ourselves and improve on our English at the same time. Thus, I feel that such events are very meaningful as it brings us many benefits. I hope that there would be more of such activities for us in the future.

Library Blog - WRPL 2011 Spelling Bee Contest

I feel that the Spelling Bee Contest can bring many benefits to the students. It can help to improve our English vocabulary. Spelling Bee is challenging as most of the time, we are tested on words we never heard or seen before. Hence, it can improve our English vocabulary as through this, we are able to learn more new words. The Spelling Bee Contest can also build up our confidence as we had to speak up in front of so many people and from this event, we can also gain some experience as most of us did not take part in such events before.

I was glad to see that Hwa Chong students managed to achieve 2nd and 3rd place. They definitely put in a lot of effort as winning this competition is not easy as they had to compete with 7 other schools.

Zhenyan Blog - Blog Prompt #5

I feel that your storyline is quite interesting and I really like your ending. I also like that you had given examples for expensive cars. However, there are some adjectives and adverbs in this narrative. Examples of adjectives used were " huge" in paragraph 1, line 2, " expensive" in paragraph 3, line 2 and " main" in paragraph 4, line 5. Examples of adverbs used were " peacefully" and " calmly" in paragraph 3, line 7. You could have used other words to replace the adjective like for "main objective" you could have used " aim".

Weihan Blog - Blog Prompt #17

I like the way you described all the furnitures. You made use of insects to describe the appearance of the furnitures. It enables me to visualise the image of the room in my mind better. I like the description of the bed the most. You described the bed as an overturned cockroach. I find it interesting and quite creepy. The descriptions of the furnitures can show how creepy the room is.

Wengkhin Blog - Blog Prompt #17

I like the way you described the place. It is very detailed and you had given the reader a clear view of the place by giving the sense of sight, hearing and smell. It enables the reader to imagine the place as the description is very detailed. You kept me in suspense and made me want to continue to read on to find out more. In the first paragraph, you had an introduction before going on to describing the place. I like the way you wrote the introduction as it is very interesting. In the second and third paragraph, you gave a detailed description of the place, especially the machines. They are very well described and enables me to imagine the place better.

Shuming Blog - IN - CLASS ONLINE LESSON #9

I like your poem. In the first stanza, you did a good job describing the surroundings of the Nazi concentration camp. In the second stanza, you showed the sufferings of the people in the camp. They were locked in cages and are not able to find any source of food or water. In the third stanza, you showed how long they had to suffer and the pain they had to go through. They had to feed on the dead just to survive. In the last stanza, you made used of repetition which is "One by one" to emphasize that the Nazi were very cruel and the people in the camp had suffered a lot and they eventually died one by one. I also like your last two line as it makes people wonder what would happen to him.

Tianle Blog - IN - CLASS ONLINE LESSON #9

I like your poem. You made use of many repetition to emphasize on your points. Examples are "The plains turned red, The rivers turned red, The skies turned red, Even our face turned red." and " We fought and fought, We fell and fell." I like how you describe the first paragraph. It makes me visualise how much destruction war had created like the lost of many lives. War is very cruel as many blood were shed. I also like your last paragraph. I can sense fear and lost of hope in the soldiers heart. They might had felt worried as they do not know what would happen to them in the future.

Teik Jun Blog - IN - CLASS ONLINE LESSON #9

I like your poem very much! You had written your poem in a special way. You made use of many poetic devices in your poem. You made use of a lot of repetition like “Stop it please”, it repeated for 8 times. It is to emphasize that you want it to stop very much. You also made use of assonance like “fight” and “fright”, “shaking” and “breaking”, “live” and “give”. It is used to make the poem flow better. Maybe you could add some words relating to war so that people would know that this is a war poem.

Weihan Blog - IN-CLASS ONLINE LESSON #12

I agree with the points you had stated. The Prince of Morocco and the Prince of Arragon had picked the caskets based on the appearance while Bassanio did not judge the caskets by their appearance. You had also quoted examples from the text to support your stand.

For you narrative, I find it quite interesting. You had kept me in suspense, wanting to find out who the murderer was. You had done a good job elaborating how to got to your decision and it is quite logical. Perhaps you could describe more to get the mystery atmosphere.

T3 Blog Prompt #15

Ameneh Bahrami, an Iranian woman who was blinded and disfigured when acid was thrown in her face seven years ago, decided to pardon her attacker just before his sentence which was court-ordered blinding to be carried out. If I was Ameneh Bahrami, I would not shown mercy to my attacker but insist on eye-for-an-eye justice. It is because he did not show me any mercy, causing me to be blind and disfigured and also by letting him get the punishment he deserve, it would show to the rest of the people that they are responsible for what they do and hence should not do anything without considering of the consequences. However, mercy should be shown as the punishment is quite cruel and it does not benefit me in any way.

Firstly, he did not show me any mercy but threw acid in my face, causing me to be blind and disfigured. He poured a bucket of sulfuric acid over my head. Although he was angry that I repeatedly spurned his offer of marriage, I feel that he should not do such things. He definitely knew the consequences of pouring acid over my head yet he does that without showing me any mercy. Hence, I feel that he does not deserve to be shown any mercy as he does not show mercy to me.

Secondly, by letting him get the punishment he deserves, it would show to the rest of the people that they are responsible for what they do and hence should not do anything without considering of the consequences. The Iran acid attacker would get the eye for an eye style justice for blinding and disfiguring me, which is having his both eye blind. This would serve as a warning for others as they would know that they would have to pay for what they do and hence they would not do anything silly but consider of the consequences first. Hence, by not showing him mercy and letting him get the punishment he deserves, it would discourage other people from doing rash acts.

However, I should show him mercy as the punishment is quite cruel and it does not benefit me in any way. What is done cannot be undone and I am already blinded and disfigured. By making him blind would not benefit me in anyway and I cannot be not blind or not disfigured. Since I am already blinded and disfigured, I feel that it is a virtue to forgive and forget and show him mercy by forgoing my rights of making him be sentenced with eye for an eye style justice. Also, the punishment is quite cruel and by making him blind, I would be no difference from him. Amnesty International had previously called for a stay of the sentence, which it described as "a cruel and inhuman punishment amounting to torture." This shows that many felt that such punishment is very cruel and is like the same as torture. Hence, I should show him mercy as the punishment is quite cruel and it does not benefit me in any way.

In conclusion, I would not show the attacker any mercy but insist on eye-for-an-eye justice. It is because he does not deserve to be shown mercy as he did not show me any mercy and also by letting him get the punishment he deserves, it can serve as a warning for others so that they would not do anything rashly.


Reflections:

I feel that what he had done was unforgivable. He had went too far by pouring a bucket of acid over her head. Even if he was very agitated at that point of time, he should at least consider the consequences of his actions. He had caused her to be blinded and disfigured and had ruined her whole future! Definitely mercy is of more importance than justice but I feel that sometimes, justice should be done instead of showing mercy. What would happen to the world if everyone shows mercy instead of justice? Many people would not care for others and do things without considering for others feelings since they would not be punished for what they had done wrong. I feel that people should face the punishment for their wrongdoings so that next time, they would not dare to do such things again. However, it is true that mercy should be shown too. I feel that if someone commits a crime and was sentenced to death, he should instead be shown mercy and given a chance to compensate for his wrongdoings as it would definitely bring more benefits than ending his life. Hence, I feel that mercy and justice are both very important and should be shown on case by case basis.