Pros (general)
Even if teachers are away they can still assign homework and put up lessons online for us to study despite their absence, hence, lesson periods will not be wasted. It is an innovative method of learning whereby lesson structures are fixed and instructions are to the point. There is a higher level of interaction which arouses interest of students to keep them focused on the tasks at hand. Comments can be posted and we can learn from them. Also we are able to refer to everybody's answers and be inspired by their good points. With home learning, students can wake up later than usual as there is no need to travel to school; lessons are just several clicks away.
Cons (from my perspective)
It would have been holidays if I were in primary school. However, teachers can now “teach” us and “give” homework online in HCI. If teachers gave homework that can actually be completed within the lesson span of 1hr I would not bear such a grudge towards home learning. However, in my opinion, some teachers take advantage of home learning to give us ALOT MORE homework and expect us to finish them or have them as homework. It really angers me that there home-learning is actually meant for us to do more work…true enough we do not need to wake up early but the amount of work given forces us to “stay back” to finish them even with the breaks in between. I have tabulated 13 assignments, 2 essays, 2 discussions and 1 proposal (excluding minor assignments) for 1st and 2nd march home learning. These sums up to almost 20 tasks over the span of 4 hrs lesson for 2 days each, that’s like 4 times the normal workload we would receive on normal school days. Besides these, distractions are generally common as there is no one to watch over us and we may lose concentration or even forget to complete the work assigned.
Once again, this is just my opinions of home learning. Everyone has different perspectives, thus, I would like to know how everyone else feels about this issue.
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Friday, February 5, 2010
Animal Abuse
I recently witnessed an incident whereby two young kids were treating their pet dog (it was leashed) in an abusive manner. They were tugging at the leash of their dog really hard and pulling it wherever they want, sometimes even in circles. One of them even attempted to sit on the dog. I could see that the dog was struggling profusely as a sign of disliking such treatment. Their mother appeared to be advising them to stop but her words fell on deaf ears, no action was taken. The dog was being tormented by its owners and looked really pitiful. Although they are young or probably ignorant of how the dog actually feels, why are they “allowed” to ill-treat their pet this way? Do they even have the rights to torture it? How would they feel if they were being treated as such?
It was also only recently that I heard from a friend that he had watched a video of a woman abusing her cat eventually killing it. The cat was supposedly being stepped by her (she was wearing high heels) repeatedly over the body whereby the cat was eventually killed with a blow in the head. The scene was full of blood with internal organs of the cat lying around. It was plain cruelty. Did the killer have no sense of guilt at all, how could she kill the cat in such a terrifying manner and even upload it on the net for all to see? From my perspective she finds amusement in torturing animals. She probably treats them as lower beings and that she can take their lives at any time.
Sometimes I don’t understand why people can have the conscience to do such a thing and worse still to capture the scene for everyone to see on a website. The cruelty and stone-cold conscience that some people have developed is horrifying. Are more and more people actually doing such things or is it just the minority few? Animal have lives too, they are just like us, they too can feel pain and we never treat them in such a manner. They are there to accompany us; the world belongs to not just us but every other living thing on it, such actions should never be condoned.
It was also only recently that I heard from a friend that he had watched a video of a woman abusing her cat eventually killing it. The cat was supposedly being stepped by her (she was wearing high heels) repeatedly over the body whereby the cat was eventually killed with a blow in the head. The scene was full of blood with internal organs of the cat lying around. It was plain cruelty. Did the killer have no sense of guilt at all, how could she kill the cat in such a terrifying manner and even upload it on the net for all to see? From my perspective she finds amusement in torturing animals. She probably treats them as lower beings and that she can take their lives at any time.
Sometimes I don’t understand why people can have the conscience to do such a thing and worse still to capture the scene for everyone to see on a website. The cruelty and stone-cold conscience that some people have developed is horrifying. Are more and more people actually doing such things or is it just the minority few? Animal have lives too, they are just like us, they too can feel pain and we never treat them in such a manner. They are there to accompany us; the world belongs to not just us but every other living thing on it, such actions should never be condoned.
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Balancing of CCA and homework
My CCA: Track and Field – Long Jump
Track and Field is a rather demanding CCA (theres training even during home-learning and on "half days") as it’s extremely competitive and require a lot of commitment from the members. Besides the major Nationals there are several mini competitions as well such that the coach can select the 3 to join Nationals.
My recent long jump competitions
After joining track and field (long jump) since April last year, I have not joined any competitions till this year. In fact, I have yet to join any competition whereby I represent the school along with my teammates throughout my life. The recent all-comers at Bukit Gombak Stadium was my first experience at any external competition be it sports or academics. Initially I was really nervous afraid that I wouldn’t do well and end up disgracing myself but after several trial jumps I was quite confident I would not do too badly. On my first jump, I surprisingly jumped a distance between 5 and 5.2m, never had I jumped so far during my trainings. The feeling was great and this continued for the next two jumps.
Several weeks later I joined the 2nd all-comers. This time my aim was zone 2 (5.2-5.4m), however, I ended up over boarding all three jumps… either the distance for the run up was wrong or I was slower than normal.
I knew that I had to train harder, however, for me to “want to” train harder especially when the Nationals are approaching; I would need less homework. Training while a stack of homework awaits me when I get home is unpleasant; it seems like a burden and I wouldn’t have the mood to train properly. Yet there’s nothing I can do. Homework will always be a part of schooling life.
Homework
Due to the fact that HCI is a top-notch school, the amount of homework given is generally more than that of most schools as students are probably required do more practice. In my opinion, homework is a chore for someone like me who has CCA commitment daily. However, I can only attempt to balance CCA and homework. Staying up till 11 or 12 is now common for me to finish off homework. If only there would be less homework, sometimes I even have to skip CCA just to do homework. I hate homework…
Track and Field is a rather demanding CCA (theres training even during home-learning and on "half days") as it’s extremely competitive and require a lot of commitment from the members. Besides the major Nationals there are several mini competitions as well such that the coach can select the 3 to join Nationals.
My recent long jump competitions
After joining track and field (long jump) since April last year, I have not joined any competitions till this year. In fact, I have yet to join any competition whereby I represent the school along with my teammates throughout my life. The recent all-comers at Bukit Gombak Stadium was my first experience at any external competition be it sports or academics. Initially I was really nervous afraid that I wouldn’t do well and end up disgracing myself but after several trial jumps I was quite confident I would not do too badly. On my first jump, I surprisingly jumped a distance between 5 and 5.2m, never had I jumped so far during my trainings. The feeling was great and this continued for the next two jumps.
Several weeks later I joined the 2nd all-comers. This time my aim was zone 2 (5.2-5.4m), however, I ended up over boarding all three jumps… either the distance for the run up was wrong or I was slower than normal.
I knew that I had to train harder, however, for me to “want to” train harder especially when the Nationals are approaching; I would need less homework. Training while a stack of homework awaits me when I get home is unpleasant; it seems like a burden and I wouldn’t have the mood to train properly. Yet there’s nothing I can do. Homework will always be a part of schooling life.
Homework
Due to the fact that HCI is a top-notch school, the amount of homework given is generally more than that of most schools as students are probably required do more practice. In my opinion, homework is a chore for someone like me who has CCA commitment daily. However, I can only attempt to balance CCA and homework. Staying up till 11 or 12 is now common for me to finish off homework. If only there would be less homework, sometimes I even have to skip CCA just to do homework. I hate homework…
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
