Friday, July 31, 2009

Out with Engin Friends


I ought to be sleeping...just finished doing some FOC stuffs...2 more days... jiayou, we can do it! Anyway, went out with Engin friends, Yanpei and Peishan just now...


Went to Crystal jade buffet... eat until stomach burst.


Crispy beijing duck...i think.


Peishan and Yanpei...


After that, went to the coffee club...I dyed my hair black... haha. My previous colour fades so much, that I looked so beng.


Our mudpie... recommended by Justin last time when I went out with Soph and him.

Alright friends, shall see you guys soon when school reopen, and we shall muggggg hard!!!


2 more days to FOC... jiayou. We can do it...

What is up with my blog?



If you stopped by my blog a week or three ago, read a book review that you enjoyed, and decided to follow, you may be surprised and disappointed by my most recent posts. They have been very academic in nature, and probably not all that meaningful unless you work in the area of librarianship or education.

Please don't lose heart! I will still be regularly posting book reviews, stories about my life, and other bits and pieces. It's just that I'm trying to get on top of all my academic reading for this semester, and I'm using this blog to record my thoughts on what I read, and to list links that I might need to access for my assignments.

As an introduction to ETL504 'Teacher Librarian as Leader', I have read Chapter 14 'Leadership' in Donham, J. 2005 Enhancing teaching and learning, 2nd edn, Neal-Schuman, New York, pp. 295-305.

There was a lot of great stuff in this chapter; I'm only going to mention things that particularly stand out for me at the moment.

  • "leaders act from an internal locus of control." p. 296 Leaders know that they have the power to control their own actions and the responsibility to have a positive effect on their environment. They have a 'can-do' attitude and are proactive, looking for opportunities to make a difference.
  • Leaders should work to be the very best in their areas of special strength, pursue what they are deeply passionate about, and use this passion to generate enthusiasm and energy. They should then strive to be as good as is reasonable in other areas. This is a new idea for me, and I find it very freeing. I've always wanted to do everything very well, I've had high expectations for myself and have probably put myself under more pressure than was necessary. I love the idea that if you pursue excellence in an area that is meaningful to you, it's OK to be only 'good' in other areas. Whew! What a relief!
  • "strategic leadership as the simultaneous act of executing, evaluating, and reformulating strategies, and focusing organisational energy and resources on the most effective strategies." p. 301 In other words, as you pursue a strategy, you are constantly refining that strategy by making evaluations and adjustments.
  • A clear, easily stated vision can lead to a mission statement, which provides a focus for goals.

Perhaps the thing that stands out the most to me in this chapter is the idea of reflecting on progress towards goals, and making changes to your behaviour as necessary to improve. The idea appeals to me because it implies that you don't do everything perfectly at first, and that's OK! You can calmly and deliberately evaluate your progress and decide to do things differently. I guess I've always felt stressed by the idea that as a leader, you should be very 'together' and 'on top of things'. I really like the idea of improving as you go!

I'm eagerly waiting for two books I won to arrive in the mail. When they do, you'll be the first to know!

Thursday, July 30, 2009

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Developing an Instructional Website

Chapter 8 of Herring's the internet and information skills is all about instructional websites; in other words websites that have been designed by teachers or teacher librarians, are related to the curriculum, and contain links and/or multimedia features and/or interactive features. These websites have a very specific purpose and audience.


Dreamweaver and FrontPage can be used to design quite sophisticated sites.


An example of part of an instructional website for students of the Hewett School, UK.


An example of a science task for Year 7 students at Cornwallis School, Kent, UK.


Advice to students studying Hamlet from the SCORE Project in California, USA.


An instructional website on New Lanark.


Adobe Photoshop can be used to manipulate graphics.


Free graphics available from web include Design Gallery Live and Classroom Clipart.

Filamentality is a feature of the Blue Web'n subject gateway and allows teachers and TL's to create simple instructional websites. An example for Year 9 students at Dixons City Technology College, West Yorkshire, UK.

A guide to designing WebQuests.

Community High School District 99 Designing Teacher Websites.

Gardner, D.'s Tips for developing the geography department website.

March, T.'s Why WebQuests?

If you've ever designed an instructional/educational website, leave me a comment with a link to it, or just let me know anything you learnt from the process that would be useful for me.

Later in the semester I have an assignment in which I must design an electronic pathfinder either as a website or a wiki. It must clearly state its audience and purpose, provide 15 annotated resources including search engines, print and web resources, and advice to students on information literacy skills.

School Websites

Sorry folks, more uni stuff!
I'll start by letting you know a bit about what else is going on in my life.
The kids had their school athletics carnival yesterday and I went and watched. They both had a great time, competed in lots of events, and had pretty good results. They made their respective finals for the 100m sprint, but neither placed high enough to move on to the zone athletics carnival. Josh also ran in his house's junior boys 100m relay team, which won. So he might attend the zone after all to compete in the relay, I'm not sure. Both also ran the 200m and 800m (I'm not sure why, but primary school carnivals never run the 400m???) but neither placed. They both did Long Jump, coming 2nd (Joshua) and 4th (Alana) so Josh will probably go to zone but not Alana (they only take 1st and 2nd). Alana also came 4th in Discus. Overall a successful and fun day with beautiful sunny winter weather.
Alana's ballet teacher has decided that she is ready for pointe shoes. She and the other lucky (?) girls deemed to be strong enough are going on a shopping expedition on Saturday week. Lucky me, I get to pay for them!
OK, down to business now. Chapter 7 of James Herring's the internet and information skills deals with developing a school website. Though most Australian schools do have websites, some are very basic, and probably only a minority are well designed, have a clear purpose, and meet their potential.
Herring provides links to some examples of school websites:
Wood Green School, Oxfordshire, UK.
Westminster School, London, UK.
Also school library web pages and examples of how information skills are presented on school library websites:
Springfield Township High School (I'm not sure if this is a real school or just an example site).
Student Guides at St Joseph's Nudgee College, Australia.
Research Process Checklist from Melbourne High School, Australia.
Herring also discusses elements of design to be considered, and provides the following links:
Example of Storyboarding.
Xenu's Link Sleuth can be used to check links.
Royal National Institute for the Blind's Accessible Web Design.
Dreamweaver or FrontPage can be used to create more complex school websites.
HTML Tutorial can help school librarians to learn html code.
Bellingham Public Schools Designing School Homepages.
McKenzie, J.'s Home Sweet Home: creating WWW pages that deliver.
If you know of a school with a fantastic web page, please leave a link to it in your comment.

FOC meeting + Mindy's and Shuting's 23rd Birthday


Time now is already 4.20am... had a sense of relieve...was doing some FOC finance budgeting, and everything is right. =) Anyway, went back to hall today to sort out some stuff and FOC meeting. Next week is FOC lo!
Above photos: Top 7 trying out the main comm identity>>>> cap!


You know...it never fails to include a girl into your committee, because she always brighten up our day with her kuku actions. LoL


The programmers were also trying out their pool games that day... poor Geraldine had a cut on her toe... I think the tile in the swimming pool was the culprit...


Hmm... well, our Chief CGL clement, in his sexiest pose. LOL!


We had our meeting at Jurong Point... look at everyone...serious sia.

After meeting, I rushed down to meet my 八仙 clique for dinner. Was a birthday celebration for Shuting and Mindy. Oh...its a REAAAALLY belated celebration for both of them, whose birthday fall on 8 June and 20 July respectively.


We had our dinner at a peranakan restaurant @ thomson road area....


Taking individual shots with the birthday girls...


Trying to find back their childhood days...haha.


八仙 dinner a success!

It's always so hard to plan a dinner or an outing for 8 of us... especially now, when some of them have graduated and started work. Time really flies, but I'm glad that despite our busy schedule, each of us tries our very best to put in our little effort to make the dinner works. Any friendship or relationship doesn't depend on just one person... 8 of us...so need 8 hands to clap, which is even harder compare to a two person relationship. I guess, the most important factor...is to accept and compromise.

After all... we had known each other for 10 years, since secondary school days. Friends come and go, but what matters most, is the difference they have created in our lifes that make us remember them most. =)

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Final destination 4...



So it's finally coming... had catched 1,2 and 3... looking forward to 4... oooo whoo!

Monday, July 27, 2009

What is a Leader?

One of the biggest challenges of uni last semester was studying two different subjects simultaneously. I found that with all the other responsibilities in my life, (such as parenting and work), it was sometimes difficult to get my head around the readings and assignments for two different subjects.
This semester I am again tackling two different subjects. I have already blogged a little about ETL501 'The Information Environment'. It is now time for me to turn my attention to ETL504 'Teacher Librarian as Leader'.
This subject concerns itself with the general concept of leadership, dividing it into three main areas: organisational theory, strategic planning and communication. It is up to me, as a MEd student, to apply these topics to the role of the teacher librarian (TL). My first job is to consider what I already know about leadership.
Obviously, I don't come to this subject from a vacuum. I have experienced both being a leader and being led in many different contexts. I have also already read some of my textbook, Leading in a Culture of Change: Personal Action Guide and Workbook by Michael Fullan, and reading 1 from my study guide, 'Leadership' in Enhancing teaching and learning by J. Donham.
So, what do I know about leadership?
What is a leader?
A leader, to me, is someone who has expertise and experience in the area in which they lead, thus commanding a certain level of respect. They have vision, passion and enthusiasm for the project or organisation that they lead. They can communicate their vision, passion and enthusiasm to others. They can inspire and motivate others to participate. They work hard and lead by example. They listen to advice, feedback and criticism. They are able to incorporate new ideas into their vision, are flexible, responsive and able to change as necessary. They combine a clear statement of purpose with an ability to adapt as circumstances require.
Great leaders allow members of their organisation to develop their skills, meet their potential, and move into leadership roles. Their members share, and contribute to, the vision, values and goals of the organisation. Leaders continue to learn, grow and develop, and so do their organisations and members. They are organised, allowing them to be both focussed, and able to see the big picture. Leaders don't get stuck on details, they are able to move foward. Great leaders don't plow over the top of everyone else in the process. Leaders sometimes lead from the front, sometimes 'muck in' in the middle, and sometimes bring up the rear, making sure that noone gets left behind.
Leaders need to be able to make hard decisions and know that sometimes 'the buck stops here'.
Most importantly, leaders need to know which of these myriad skills are needed when, and respond approriately to constantly changing circumstances.
Leadership is a hard gig!
In regards to 'organisational theory' I must admit I am fairly clueless. I've always thought of myself as a well-organised person (capable of being well-organised at the very least!). I think of organisation in terms of 'everything in its place', setting goals, having lists, and being aware of relationships between different parts of the whole.
In terms of 'strategic planning' I guess this refers to the fact that leaders must plan strategies and sub-goals to achieve their vision.
It is easy to see the importance of 'communication' to leadership. Communication between the leader and the group as a whole and as individuals is vital, as is communication between members of the group, and communication between the group and the outside world.
What about me?
Simply virtue of the fact that I am both a parent and a teacher, I am a leader. I also seem to have naturally fallen into a lot of other leadership roles in my life. I've been a student leader, a youth group leader, a Bible study group leader, a Playgroup leader, a Sunday School teachers leader and a volunteer community group leader. I've also been in other groups where people have looked my way when the subject of leadership came up, but I managed to wriggle my way out of it! (Why? I can only have responsibility for so many things before I risk burnout.)
What is it about me that makes me a natural leader? What qualities do I have?
I think the most obvious are:
  • Optimism, vision, passion and enthusiasm. If I'm involved in something, it's because I truly believe in its importance.
  • Ideas. I'm good at coming up with new ideas and different ways of looking at things. I'm good at playing devil's advocate, asking the hard questions, and looking more deeply at issues than others perhaps would otherwise.
  • Work ethic. I'm responsible and get things done.
  • Communication. I'm a good talker (!) but I'm also a good listener. I really want to know what others think and what their ideas are. I really want to incorporate as much good stuff as possible.

I'm going to shut up now. I'm looking forward to any comments that come. What do you think makes a good leader?

Using Information Skills Scaffolds

Term 3 has begun, the kids are back at school, and semester 2 has begun at uni. Armed with a skinny vanilla latte from my local coffee shop, I'm settling in to do a couple of hours of solid uni-related work.
Chapter 6 of Herring's the internet and information skills concerns itself with the practicalities of using information skills models, such as his PLUS model in the classroom. He recommends the use of checklists, concepts maps and other scaffolds to focus students' attention on working systematically to meet learning goals.
Gladstone Secondary School, Canada, provides students with a checklist for research projects.
Kinnick High School, Japan, gives students search strategy advice.
Redwood High School, California, USA, has student research guidelines.
Scaffolds can be produced for all aspects of the information process; planning, developing a serach focus or strategy, reviewing resources, skimming/scanning and notetaking, writing an assignment, and self-evaluation.
As always, any and all comments are appreciated.

On papers!



Must thank reporter Weiding for publishing our editorial on 联合早报...

Weiding later sent us an email and mentioned that we were featured on mypaper as well...


He sent us the pdf version...screenshot it...

Were told that there will be a presentation ceremony @ National Museum , on 10 August 2009...its gonna be a reunion for all the Y-bloggers! Haven't receieved any details yet... but looking forward!

YooooohOOo!

Trying something... funny.

Eh... I think I'm trying to be funny.

Hehe... taking out my guitar, ooo...a layer of dust up there.

Paisay lah... hahha.

Sunday, July 26, 2009

Am I Lucky or What?





I have won another book blog giveaway prize!!!

This time it's a copy of Club Dead by Charlaine Harris, number three in the Sookie Stackhouse or Southern Vampires Series.

My win is thanks to Velvet at vvb32 reads. Check out her blog - it's fabulous! In order to be in the running to win this prize, I had to name my favourite Elvis song. I nominated Blue Suede Shoes. What's Elvis got to do with Sookie Stackhouse? (I hear you ask...) Well you're just going to have to read the books and find out!

I haven't thought of any fun adventures for my copy of Club Dead yet. (See my post on my win of The Castaways to see what I'm talking about.) So any suggestions will be gratefully received!

Thanks again Velvet, I'm thrilled and grateful for my win!

I'm hooked...

Hooked to 2 songs recently...



Nobody-Wondergals(jazz version)


1234 - Plain white Ts

Thank you.


He's my good buddy since secondary one days. Yup, Daniel Ang. He was back from Melbourne, and came over my house for a short visit. Thank you for offering a listening ear and lending a strong support this time round. Really appreciate it.

By now, you should be back in Melbourne, work hard, Daniel! See you back in 6 months time!

"We know our friends by their defects rather than by their merits" - W. Somerset Maugham

Saturday, July 25, 2009

I'm a Giveaway Winner!



Imagine my joy and surprise when I headed over to Beth Fish Reads and discovered that I was one of the two lucky winners of a copy of The Castaways by Elin Hilderbrand!

My first ever book blog giveaway win!

The Castaways...four couples, one island, one fateful sailing accident...and the fallout. To be in the draw to win a copy of this book, entrants had to say which island they would like to visit if money were no object. I picked Tahiti, which always looks sooooo good in pictures.

Now that I've won a copy, I've had an idea for a bit of fun. Since I live on the world's biggest island - Australia - when I get my copy I'm going to have some fun with it. I plan to take some photos of my copy of The Castaways having some adventures in some scenic Australian locations. I'll post the pics every now and then, with a short description of the location shown. Hopefully my overseas readers will enjoy seeing a little bit of my part of the world.

Of course when I've read the book I'll also post a review. Many, many thanks to Beth for the opportunity to win this book.

Soph's 21st @ Furama Riverfront Hotel


Yup...time now is 6.14am, and I still can't sleep. Anyway, blogger giving me lots of problems, and I have downloaded hell lots of freeware to counter it. Finally, I can upload some photos. Last week...celebrated Sophia's birthday at Furama Riverfront Hotel.


The five of us again... Songwei, Pris, Justin, Myself...with birthday girl, Sophia.


They are the people who bring me laughters and joys...

After dinner at Furama, she thought that everything comes to an end... nah...not going to be that easy. Thanks to Priscilla, the thoughtful one, came up with 101 ways to surprise Sophia. So we went to her house to hide first...before dropping by at Sophia's house in the midnight.


Justin and Pris with her dog, Lucky


When you are together with Justin, you will never fail to see this "prominent" object. yeah...that was the PSP that we gave to him 6 months ago.


Sophia's cupcakes...


Justin can't leave his hands off lucky...Lucky, is really a lucky dog. He is already 17 years old, but he's really old. It's really quite sad to see him sneeze and walking slowly and weakly. He can't see properly because of cataract...

We left pris's house shortly after that.... pris got to pick up Songwei first before heading to Soph's house.


Haha...surprise!


The tall man with the cake...


Spent abit of time at Soph's house...before we left...

Alrights...i think i gonna sleep soon... no more work lo! Later going out with my mum, and heading to see Auntie Fongyin, Justin's aunt... she used to work together with us at Chinatown, but she had a bad fall, and need to rest for about 6 months.

Get well soon Auntie Fong Yin!

Information Literacy

I know you're all just dying to find out what's in Chapter 5 of James Herring's the internet and information skills! :)
Chapter 5 deals, in the main, with Information Literacy. Definitions for info lit abound, but basically it is skills, attitudes and processes that allow one to find and use information to solve problems or meet needs. So information literacy includes traditional 'library skills', ICT skills, and the ability to formulate questions, plan research, evaluate the suitability of information sources and evaluate your own process.
ETL401 last semester dealt with Information Literacy in detail, but Herring's book is concerned mainly with teaching students to apply these skills and processes to finding and using information on the internet.
Again, I'm including a list of links:
Advice given to high school students in Mesquite, Texas, USA.
Online Searching Checklist from Melbourne High School, Australia.
Searching tips St Joseph's Nudgee College, Australia.
Advice on evaluating websites from Westminster School, London, UK.
Advice for students at Lovett School Libraries, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
A lesson on evaluating websites for grade 9-12 students.
Again, please let me know if anything is helpful, or not, or if you have any suggestions for me.

Friday, July 24, 2009

Subject Gateways

Yes folks, I'm really on a roll here with the preparation for back-to-uni!
Chapter 4 of Herring's the internet and information skills concerns itself with subject gateways. Below are some (hopefully) useful links.
UK JISC
Geography subject gateway GEsource
As always, please leave a comment if you use any of these links to let me know how useful they were. If you have any other subject gateway links that I don't have, please let me know.

Criteria for Evaluating Websites

Chapter 3 of Herring's the internet and information skills is concerned with methods and criteria for evaluating websites; specifically educational websites.

ED's Oasis provides a table for teachers and teacher librarians to score websites.

Shrock's The ABCs of Website Evaluation

The CARS model is useful but perhaps better for university students than the school context.

College of New Caledonia Library Evaluating Websites - questions to ask

Hains Considerations for Website Users

November Teaching Zach to Think

The above links should be very helpful for my first assignment, in which I must critically evaluate two sets of website criteria, then use a set of criteria to critically evaluate four particular websites.
Please leave me a comment if you've ever dealt with these issues and have any other links that might be helpful!
Please leave me a comment if you would like to express your opinion on any of the links above!
Another exciting instalment of the internet and information skills is coming soon...

The End of Recreational Reading as I Know It



...or...Will Club Dead by Charlaine Harris be the last book I read for fun until November???

That's right folks, the party's over. Semester 2 begins on Monday, and I have some serious reading to do. So far I have read 3 out of the 9 titles in the Sookie Stackhouse Reading Challenge. Will I progress any further between now and October 26th, when my last assignment for the semester is due? Only time will tell...

In the meantime, let's talk about Sookie's latest adventures in Club Dead.

Sookie Stackhouse, pretty barmaid, telepath, and girlfriend of vampire Bill, is on a mission. She must visit 'Club Dead', a hangout for vamps, weres and other supernatural creatures, to search for clues as to the mysterious disappearance of Bill. Then, she must rescue Bill from the clutches of an evil vampire ex-girlfriend. All the while dodging biker werewolves, a jealous shape-shifter named Debbie, and two gorgeous men (one vampire, one werewolf) that want to get into her pants. No wonder she's tired...

And I got a bit tired too. A bit tired of Sookie being only inches from death, or dismemberment, or an unwise sexual adventure (!), every few pages. A bit tired of Sookie never spending any time at home, or work, or with humans!

Don't get me wrong, I'm still a fan. I'm still very keen to keep reading my way through the series. I'm still a fan of the supernatural. I'm just ready for an episode that has a bit more balance, and a bit less heart-thumping action. And I don't like it when Sookie's all beat-up and in pain.

I'm interested to hear what others think...

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Searching for Information using the Internet

Every once in a while, I need to get serious and actually do some work. In preparation for second semester (starting Monday 27th July), I have recently read the internet and information skills by James E. Herring. James happens to be my lecturer for ETL501 'Information Environment' this semester. You can check out his blog here.
Chapter 2 of the book concentrates on different search engines and search techniques for finding information using the internet.
I am going to list below some helpful links:
Kartoo is a search engine which displays results as a concept map (good for visual learners like me!).
Dogpile is a meta-search engine.
AskJeeves is good for finding results relevant to school students.
Search Engine Watch can help keep you up to date with the availability and development of search engines.
Search Engine Showdown can be used in schools to consider all aspects of search engine use.
Complete Planet organises deep web sites (invisible web) by categories.
Clip Art and Image Search provides sources relating to clip art but also multimedia, paintings and photographs.
Fast Facts provides short factual answers to questions which might normally be answered by using reference works or fact books.
I haven't actually checked out any of these links myself yet! Feel free to check them out yourself - I'd really appreciate any comments you leave on what you found useful (or not!).
Good luck to all my fellow uni students, and I hope you others didn't find this too boring.

Sunday, July 19, 2009

I'm an Award Winner!


An extra big thankyou to Ashley at Ashley's Library. She has awarded me the 'Let's be Friends Award' for being a friendly blogger type person. Hooray!



You can check out her 'Let's be Friends' post here.



I am now going to pass on this award to eight other friendly blogging type people, who comment, host challenges, and follow my blog. Congratulations, and display your award with pride! Please pass on the award to eight other bloggers and share the bloggy love!



My winners are:


1. Ashley at Ashley's Library. I know, I know, she already has one of these! But she really is a super friendly blogger with a fantastic blog. Right back at you Ashley!


2. J. Kaye at J. Kaye's Book Blog. She's always visiting blogs, leaving comments, and sharing the blogs she finds with others. Well done!


3. Shanyn at Chick Loves Lit. Congratulations Shanyn!


4. Velvet at vvb32reads. Thanks for all your comments Velvet!


5. Miss Remmers at Miss Remmers' Review. Love your blog!


6. Beth at Beth Fish Reads, for holding the Sookie Stackhouse reading challenge and helping us all connect through our love of Sookie!


7. Stephanie at Stephanie's Written Word, for hosting the Everything Austen challenge and helping us to bond through our love of Jane Austen!


8. All my friends studying MEd TL at CSU. You know who you are...Louise, Glenda... Put this award on your blogs and enjoy them!



Thanks again Ashley!

NTU Hall 14 Freshmen Camp goodies bag packing

Busy. Work has been busy, and Justin and I both ended work as late, or as early as 2AM in the morning. Work ending this week... mixed feelings. Let's not talk about work. Really no time in updating my blog.

Saturday went back school to pack goodie bags, glad that we had helpers coming down. Thanks for your effort, it's because of you we ended off early.


Pack...and pack...


150 goodie bags...


Priscilla,my biz mag, came down and lent a helping hand...despite she was sick for the past few days, hope you are feeling better now!


Nutrition Park sponsored the goodie bags.


Priscilla again, with another of my biz mag, Kiat Chay...working hard


Dove was so generous that she sponsored us 1500 bottles of anti dandruff conditionals. We were really overwhelmed by their generiosity... and I really mean it. OVERWHELMED.


The rest of the friendly helpers... my juniors...
From left: Saychong, JunHong, Bendy, Junyue, Emily.


Hor, spotted! Embezzling goodies! Lol...

Sometimes.. i really wished that I can travel back time.
Haiz, gotta sleep. Bye.
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