the gp classroom
slides for gp refresher
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Listening to: KT Tunstall’s Suddenly I See
Here are the GP Refresher slides that I will be using have used for today’s refresher course.
Now, please go sleep if the time is any later than 11pm.
dress code
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Last reminder!
when: 30th oct (tues). the day before the GP paper.
how long: 4.30pm onwards.
where: ava room
what’s to be covered: quick refresher of p1 and p2 skills & the last opportunity to ask your burning question(s)
dress code: make sure you are in a NY-related top.
they marched…for different reasons
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Listening to: Keane’s Bend and Break
Citizens of two countries took to the streets over the weekend, but for rather different causes:
Read about the US citizens’ call for the end of the Iraq war here:
http://www.straitstimes.com/Latest%2BNews/World/STIStory_171317.html
and about the Indian farmers’ fear and worries here:
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_asiapacific/view/308261/1/.html
will you be there?/Updated 28th Oct
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Listening: they’re still cursing, guess the match isn’t going well
GP Refresher is confirmed. In case you’ve forgotten, it’s Oct 30th, 1630 at AVA rm.
Now, two little details to iron out:
1. those who are not coming, i’ll try my very best to upload my slides onto this blog by Tuesday evening. so you could check it out yourself.
2. i understand some of you have mentioned this refresher to your friends and a few of you have asked me for permission to let these friends join us. I can’t say no because it’s not very kind. But i’m also very very very concerned about letting them join for two reasons, one: that the venue will be too crowded for my liking and two: that they may not understand what i’m saying; their tutor may teach them different techniques.
But if your friends insist on coming, do realise that i would not turn them away at the door but I would like them to realise a few things:
a. that coming for my refresher course may not necessarily help them. My greatest fear is that they get confused. Some may even “throw away” everything their tutor has taught them for the past two years! And that will be especially scary esp on the eve of the paper.
b. My original intention is to provide this refresher for my class so I will not be able to give these extra members any special attention.
Your friends must be warned, alright?
again, a quick update on the people who’ve indicated:what: mschiew’s gp refresher course:
when: 30th oct (tues). the day before the GP paper.
how long: 4.30pm onwards.
where: ava room
what’s to be covered: quick refresher of p1 and p2 skills & the last opportunity to ask your burning question(s)
I hope to end by 6.30pm (this will be the latest). We’ll probably end by 6 or even earlier.
But remember, if you don’t feel like staying through the entire session, you are free to leave anytime you want. After all, it isn’t an official lesson during curriculum time.
the names:
1. amalina
2. yanyi
3. justina
4. dongqi
5. deborah
6. aneesa
7. christine
8. michelle cheang
9. chen hui
10. audrey
11. june
12. yan da
13. vicky
14. xingyue
15. weiling
16. ain
17. michelle lim
18. michelle mah
19. katrina
20. kelvin
21. john
22. kok wey
23. angie
24. xuewei
25. hek ming
26. aaron
27. siva
28. bingrong
29. cally
30. chin ping
31. michelle sim
32. carine
33. huiling
34. wei ji
35. yihui
36. dwayne
37. jin hao
38. yi teng
39. lewis
more sites for research
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Listening to: ……..
I understand some of you are still wondering how exactly to research on stuff, so here’s a really great great website for you to look out, especially if you really don’t know where to start:
http://www.globalissues.org/
I love this site for its comprehensive list of issues and examples.
and thanks to aneesa, you can check out: www.newscientist.com for S&T stuff
common mistakes
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Listening to: Corrinne May’s Fly Away
Here are some common words that you use but not always in the right manner.
1. Equipment, proof, evidence
- No ’s’ behind these words please.
You would say “Evidence HAS shown…” or “There HAS been proof that…”
2. Research
- If you want to say: “Research has shown”, then there should not an “s” behind the word.
- But if you want to say, “mschiew researches the Internet for information”, then it can be used with an “s”
- But most of the times, you use the word as in the first scenario
3. Aid, not Aids
- Common statement: “Rich nations should give aids to developing nations”. Erm, that’s a cruel statement, because Aids refers to the disease, not help/assistance. So please use “aid” without the “s” instead.
4. undeniably, existence (spell them properly)
that’s all i can think of for now. will add more if anything strikes me…
UN’s goals
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Listening to: Corrinne May’s Journey
What could you include in your intro? Well, you’ve heard us talk about providing background and all. So you would probably find the information below useful enough to include in your intro (just make sure it’s relevant and makes sense).
Heard of the UN’s Millennium Development Goals?
*note: millennium is spelt with double “L” and double “N”
Well, these are 8 goals which the 192 member countries of the UN hope to achieve by 2015. (Highlighted words are obviouslyindicating which topics these goals could be relevant to)
1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
- Reduce by half the proportion of people living on less than one US dollar a day
- Reduce by half the proportion of people who suffer from hunger
2. Achieve universal primary education
- Ensure that all boys and girls complete a full course of primary schooling.
- Increased enrolment must be accompanied by efforts to ensure that all children remain in school and receive a high-quality education
3. Promote gender equality and empower women
- Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education preferably by 2005, and at all levels by 2015
4. Reduce child mortality (health issues/poverty)
- Reduce the mortality rate among children under five by two thirds.
5. Improve maternal health (health issues/poverty)
- Reduce by three quarters the maternal mortality ratio
6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases (health issues/poverty)
- Halt and begin to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS
- Halt and begin to reverse the incidence of malaria and other major diseases.
7. Ensure environmental sustainability
- Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programmes; reverse loss of environmental resources.
- Reduce by half the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water.
- Achieve significant improvement in lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers, by 2020.
8. Develop a global partnership for development (poverty
- Develop further an open trading and financial system that is rule-based, predictable and non-discriminatory. Includes a commitment to good governance, development and poverty reduction—nationally and internationally
- Address the least developed countries’ special needs. This includes tariff- and quota-free access for their exports; enhanced debt relief for heavily indebted poor countries; cancellation of official bilateral debt; and more generous official development assistance for countries committed to poverty reduction.
- Address the special needs of landlocked and small island developing States.
- Deal comprehensively with developing countries’ debt problems through national and international measures to make debt sustainable in the long term.
- In cooperation with the developing countries, develop decent and productive work for youth.
- In cooperation with pharmaceutical companies, provide access to affordable essential drugs in developing countries
singapore, singapore
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Listening to: Aerosmith’s Jaded
have you been reading the papers? okay, let’s get this clear – if you haven’t done so in the last year or so, this IS the time, alright? just spend 15 mins each day, flipping through the papers. If not, go to channelnewsasia.com and go to the Today website, where you’ll get to read the paper for free.
singapore’s community has been buzzing about these 3 numbers and a letter: 337A. Do you know what this is about? If you don’t, find out. Find out what the govt and the public has to say about this.
In the meantime, gleaned some info from the papers in the last week or so, cos we had this major lawyers conference called the International Bar Association Conference - sharing it here: Singapore stuff. Stuff/Stats you can use for Singapore-related stuff.
ps: did you know 2008 is going to be the International Year of the Potato? What does that mean?
human-robot match made in heaven?
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Listening to: people cursing at the football match on tv
Read about a couple of things recently..will take some time tomorrow to sort these out. hopefully, i’ll be able to share them with you asap.
But the one thing that stuck in my head today was this:
Earlier this week, artificial intelligence researcher David Levy of the University of Maastricht in the Netherlands told Livescience.com he predicted that Massachusetts in the United States — home to Ivy-League Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and a state liberal enough to push for same-sex marriages — could be the first place on earth to legalise marriages with robots by the year 2050.
So is this a sign of the possibility of robots replacing the human touch? what next? robot-robot marriages?
You can read the rest of the article here: http://www.todayonline.com/pdf_main.asp?pubdate=20071019 (go to the article on pg 52 with the headline ”A robot mate the cure for all lonely hearts?)
more stuff to take note of
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Listening to: Vanessa Carlton’s A Thousand Miles
You may have noticed that ms peh’s put up all the gp prelim 2007 papers in the workbin of litespeed. I’ll post up notices on this site to tell you which paper i’ve selected as Term 4 Assignment 3 etc, then you could go there to download the stuff. For now, try not to peek at the answers yah?! (i trust you all have self-restraint).
As for the GP refresher i’m intending to hold (thanks carine for reminding me abt physics), i’ve spoken to some of the physics students and i think they don’t want to be left out of this. So here’s the tentative plan:
what: mschiew’s gp refresher course (for my students)
when: 30th Oct (tuesday), 4.30pm-6.30pm (end time is flexible)
where: ava room
pls note that there will be no consultations on this day and this refresher course is not compulsory. i will not be teaching anything NEW, so for those who fear my nagging, then stay away. haha 
can you guys please drop me a comment or sms me to let me know your attendance? so that i could do the necessary preparations. Help spread the word among the A2, B1 and C4 classmates please? Cos i know some of them don’t read this blog regularly….
