You have to write because you need to write!
February 27, 2009
Yes, the reason is that simple. Many of you are not posting your journal entries up in the blog.
I have marked three of your compositions and I am not terribly impressed by the quality of writing from many of you. Perhaps you are under the misguided belief that English is like Mathematics (I am a Maths teacher too) – all you have to do is follow the English lessons and your grades will improve.
Every Math lesson attended is like a dollar earned. You listen to the Math teacher; you do the practices. Voila. You get richer.
Every English lesson attended is like having a new piece of jigsaw puzzle. You listen to the EL teacher; you do your compo tests. You get another piece. You may have attended every single EL lessons. You may have the entire 1,000 pieces of the puzzle. Still, you have nothing. It is only when you put in the effort to try to make sense of the whole thing, form up the picture, then, English becomes alive to you.
You have to write because you need to write – either of your own free will or under threat. If you have checked the blogs written by my students last year, you would have realised that most of them wrote at least 30 entries. Some were forced to write much more. During detention.
Ultimately, they wrote.
Those who stubbornly refused to do so spent many afternoons staring at Dr Chuang staring back at them. Some of these obstinate students are still at Sec 3 level this year.
You either spend some time each week posting your entries or you squeeze your brain dry trying to post 10 entries in a week. Ultimately, you have to write.
You have to write because you need to write. Except for the oral examination component, everything else about the EL exam requires you to write. Free-writing, situational writing, comprehension, vocabulary, summary.
You have to write because you need to write. So that the sun won’t go down on you. So that you won’t have to wallow in darkness, hugging your bolster and crying.
Click on the link below to listen to this beautiful song – Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me.
Instruction: online journal
December 26, 2008
Instead of writing your journal entries in a book, you are now to publish them in your blog. You may visit the blogs kept by my students last year by going to http://mrkek.wordpress.com/.
Please set up your blog by Term 1 Week 2, and follow the guidelines below.
Journal instructions
1) write a journal entry by Sunday every week (free to write about any subject)
2) title of the weekly entry must include Term number, Week number and Subject (e.g. T1W5 How to make your blog popular)
3) each entry must contain at least 5 words (from the 1100 words textbook) learnt in that week and the words must be underlined or highlighted in another colour
4) leave comments on your classmates’ journal entry to encourage them to write
5) photos, music, videos and hyperlinks may be used
6) constantly check this blog for updates
7) other than the required weekly entry, you may post as many entries as you like in the blog
Blog rules
1) blog’s heading must be your full name
2) blog owner is fully responsible for all content in the blog, including comments
3) no insults, vulgarities, obscenities or seditious and racist remarks
4) blog owner has the right to delete any comment left in the blog
5) there must a proper title for each journal entry
6) set up an archive column so that I can access your journal entries easily
7) there SHOULD be a comment function for each entry
8) use proper English at all times!
The Virtual Mr Kek 