Hey world, it is 3am on my watch. 5 hrs before presentation time. I don't think I'll be sleeping tonight. (:

Anyway, little pike bombs have been going off in my head and I am officially slowly, but surely, losing my sanity. I want to tell some people in my life, esp my "working" life, to screw off and leave me alone. But that seems almost impossible. But I feel like the king of the world. I feel like I deserve the best that this world has to offer and I have the best to offer to this world. Hopefully making it a better place. :/

I am doing RMSW right now. And I have no idea what to put on my slides. FML. Okay I need to put that aside. I want to distract myself from this horrid reality.

My school life seems to be only optimistic because of SP ACERs. Right now, my class is going through modules that are just...bleh. And I have been bleeding motivation this sem. Here's what I feel, and it is all subjective, hey: everyone is entitled to an opinion. DADP 01 is BORING. Just damn bloody boring. And there are certain people in there who just annoy me, and I am pretty sure I annoy the hell out of them too. And some people can't hold professionalism in their work. Some of the older students are "selective" of their teammates and give dirty looks to fellow classmates. Interesting ain't it? The older kids are the immature ones. Maybe they feel insecure? About what? Beats me.

Anyway, SP ACERs are the awesome people in my school right now and they keep me kinda going. (:

These are the awesome people

This...costed me $1. Hahaha, Sux Ann.

I'll need to blog about escapade soon. I promise I will with photos and all. (: I miss escapade. I made so many new friends and a few new connections. It was a great event. And I totally enjoyed the hosting and the party. PARTYING was a blast, and I haven't been that high for quite some time. So it was a good break. But lets not spoil that post now by saying it here. (;



"The rain's pouring on our backs,
with people living in the covers of their sheets.
Here we are, all drenched and laid-back;
watching as they wait it out, or till someone bleeds."


Well, back to reality, back to work. Dreams are tied by the constrains of time.

Alright, this post is a self reflection for my workshop today.

The workshop happened at T642, a.k.a. the BLACK box, with AP Joe Winston.

I was first to arrive, which was quite awkward but I suppose he remembered my name? And my classmates were to last to arrive, cuz they went for tutorial...which I thought we were excused from. ): My bad.

So anyway, the workshop kicked off with 2 name games, Shark pool and another introductory game where you get participants to go around saying "Hi, I am *Insert Name*. (Puts hand over heart: which means I like you) Lets have fun today!" - just to get the mood going. Then we moved into the story of The Sea Woman. Which kinda goes between one story to the other.

The story itself had 2 open loops which is a style of writing that I enjoy. Yay that. This was the story which we explored through the day. First we had it told to us by the facilitator (Joe Winston), then we went through the process of acting it out with a magical story wand - note: dramatic convention for story telling - with people going into the circle being whatever they wanted to be at their own chosen time. Of course, the ever so popular, tableau for the cover page of this story book. And after lunch we created a sequel to the story.

The progression of these different styles of portraying the story conveyed 1 key message from Joe Winston which is that PLAY is the crux of drama and FUN is the experience that the participant and facilitator should feel. It kinda goes like you are teaching people how to PLAY so that in a playful manner, they will be able to bring to surface issues which are not commonly discussed.

A rather interesting thing about this workshop is the fact that we are learning both a students and as potential drama educators. I found myself thinking about the pedagogical skills he pointed out, such as a singular, common signal to control the class - one feature that stood out, a Gavin Bolton idea, the magic chair. Where the children would naturally stop what they do and gather around the chair whenever the facilitator is on it.

I suppose after going into this workshop, I found myself thinking too much about the whole process of drama. It can be something that comes from simple flow and "feel" of the workshop, where the main focus is to have fun while fulfilling objectives. It will always be a continuum where we fall upon, but thinking about it only makes an individual more inflexible with time.

yay, self reflection done. I am not very good at this...but the experience stays.

Hey all, something has finally made me want to post on my blog again!

It is about a new module and a new lecturer this semester. CRS a.k.a Critical Reasoning Skill led by our lecturer Mr Tan Kok Chee. I feel a tad bit uncomfortable about this module because of it's learning objectives and what I have seen within the classroom context so far.

As the module name suggests, Critical Reasoning skill is a course that aims to give you the insights of a critical mind with the right analytical basis from differing viewpoints that can be generated from any informative source. But so far, in class our content has mostly covered on governmental bases and how the people have brought up concerns.

But today's lesson regarding the case of Wee Shu Min on Derek Wee's article. I felt that the whole lesson was brought to a unbalanced scenario where there is a lot of negative reactions towards Shu Min as a daughter of the MP. Where it is over-substantiated with evidence and implications of both her father and her being insensitive bigots and pricks to the general populance of Singapore. Yet, based on that, all I can say is that Shu Min's elitism is just a result of in school culture that is underground and bred with a sheltered background. So I would rightly label the post that she wrote as mere ignorance and naive words. But I felt that my classmates were instigated to see that the whole issue was all the fault of the MP and the "rich".

Kok Chee warns us about agreeing with people who are sly with their words. But what about agreeing with people who are sly with the use of evidence and preferencial viewpoints within a classroom settling? It is just a personal opinion, but young minds are definitely impressionable. Even at a polytechnic level, regarding issues of politics and economics...our students may be none the wiser. Especially if they do not view these as topics of importance to them, such loose use of the word "Propaganda" may make them seem like they are on the right side of society - when in truth they are walking in a self created realm - following the veiws of the first thinking adult to bring this point up to them.

I feel mean...but this is something that I needed to get off my mind. A thinking individual doesn't cheer on when someone is being shamed, even if that individual seems deserving of it. Definitely not something I observed in a class that "teaches you to think critically."