Home Learning

I took a screenshot of the analysis because I have trouble putting the analysis as a normal post. If you want to read it, please click on the picture and click Ctrl + to zoom in till you can read it. Thanks.

Task 1 Home Learning 26th May

" We slept with Our Boots on "

The poem " We slept with Our Boots on " is a piece of war poetry written by Steve Carlsen. He was born and lives in Dowagiac Michigan. Steve Carlsen joined the U.S Army in October 2000 before going to Infantry Basic Training, and Airborne School in Ft. Benning Georgia. He was deployed to Kosovo in November 2001 to play a part in the peacekeeping operations there. After that, he was deployed to Afghanistan in December 2002, where he participated in combat operations before being honorably discharged from the army in 2003. Steve Carlsen currently attends Southwestern Michigan College where his professor challenged him to write about his experiences in poems such as " We slept with Our Boots on " and " Take your pills ", etc.

The poem describes the series of events that happened from take-off in the aircraft to the combat situation that the poet has experienced. The words used in the poem were descriptive and you can easily understand the situation that the poet was in during the combat. The poet mentioned in the poem that the soldiers had to continue fighting the enemy, whether they liked it or not, in the part, "We’re leaving this bird whether we like it or not". This is the part where they most probably are parachuting from the aircraft onto the front lines where they were to continue fighting the enemy. I believe that this situation is something that the poet had experienced before as he was a paratrooper during his time in the army.

The intense combat is also vividly described in the poet, from the pumping of adrenaline to the poet running "as fast as I can through the lead rain", which refers to the bullets that rained down on them like rain. The poet is trying to stay alive as he tries his best to save himself from almost certain death in a situation like this. We can also tell that the fighting is continuous and extremely exhausting from "We fought from the valleys to the mountain peaks
From house to cave, to car to creek".

The poet is aware of his impending doom, as he wrote, "Who knew hell was so close to God", the hell refers to the situation he was now in, the terrible conditions of the combat area, and God refers to the time when he dies and is about to be with God.

Debate that I watched

I know that this is long due, but I haven't been able to find the time to post this. Since there's two days of E-Learning, I have finally found some time to do this :)

Lets Begin.



I went for a debate that was held in the Drama Centre. The topic was on Euthanasia. The audience was also told that the purpose of the debate is to spread the love of debating.

This was some of the points the side which supported Euthanasia gave. They mentioned that Euthanasia gives you the right to choose how you want to live your life. It was also stated by them that if you were forced to stay alive suffering from pain is something which a liberal society cannot accept. Letting these patients make a choice is giving them dignity.

The other side of the house too stated their points. They believed that cures can be found for the illnesses and those that are terminally ill must have hope. To strengthen their point, they gave an example of a man who woke up 20 minutes before his family members pulled the plug on him. They did not believe in Mercy Killing, they believe Euthanasia on unconscious patients were plain murder.

To rebut this point, the other side of the house stated that this was an isolated case, which could be 1 case in a million cases. They thought that it was inethical to let 999, 999 people suffer because of the 1 person who will wake up eventually. They also said that society is bult on the principle of mercy. A rebuttal was given when one of the debaters said: " So you think that one life isn't important? ".

We must also remember that there are a small group of people in the society who cannot afford to pay for long-term hospital bills and therefore choose to pull the plug out on their loved ones.


All in all, I feel that I have learned many things in the first debate that I have attended. Sarcasm was used during the debate as each side of the house tried to persuade the audience to their viewpoint. The words that were used were also chosen carefully, to maximize the impact on the audience. I feel that attending a debate had me learn new things. I will attend future debates if I have the chance to do so!

Learning Profile Activities

A Mockingbird lives in open country with thickets, farmland and desert brush. It breeds in northern California, eastern Nebraska , southern Ontario and Maritime Canada. It spends winters in the southern part of the range. It can only be found in residential areas, city parks, farmlands, open country.

I feel that Mockingbirds survive in Maycomb, because Maycome is considered the southern part of America. Maycomb also has the preferred habitat for the Mockingbird. This makes it even likely that Mockingbirds choose Maycomb over other areas to live in and breed. Most likely, there are orchards, where fruit trees can be found. There could also be brushes dense thickets in Maycomb.

I would want to be friends with Scout in the novel. I feel that she is very talented and that she " clicks " very well with her peers. She is also willing to stand up for her friends in times of difficulties. I would want to be Atticus in the movie. Atticus in the movie seems like a learned person and he is also very civilised. I like some of the points that he brought up during Tom Robinson's trial.

c) Diary Entry of Atticus

Today is Tom Robinson's trial. I went to the court to represent him as his lawyer. I tried my best in trying to convince the judge of his innocence. I should have known that in Maycomb, the anti-negro feeling is too strong. No matter how I tried to convince the judge, even with the most realistic evidence there is. The sequence of events that made the Ewells decide to bring this up to court. Just because Mayella Ewell broke a code of the white society does not mean that she can exchange a negro's life to ' clean ' herself of the so called ' sins ' .

In the middle of the trial, I was also alerted to the fact that Jem and Scout were actually in the courthouse. By the time I was alerted to this fact, half the trial had already gone by. Since they requested to hear the rest of the hearing, I relented. They also have a right to learn more about this society that they are living in, it is peppered with prejudice against the blacks. This is something that I cannot bring myself to understand, discrimination of skin colour.

*sigh* Well, feeling tired today, so long.

Multiple Intelligence

After taking the Multiple Intelligence test, I found out that I am Naturalistic and Intrapersonal. I feel that I am more Nature Smart than some of my peers as I am a Malaysian, and had quite a few chances to get closer to nature. My parents and grandparents own plantations and sometimes, when I return to my hometown in Malaysia, I help out in them. Thus, having a better understanding of Nature is one of my strengths. Reading up on climate changes is also one of my hobbies.

Next, I am Intrapersonal as I know myself well. I know what my weaknesses and strengths are. Most of the time, I prefer working alone as I feel it is easier to manage myself. Being intrapersonal, reflecting and learning about myself is what I love to do. I feel that the more you know yourself, the better you can do things that play to your own strengths.

My week at school.

I halfway through the week at school, since its Wednesday when I'm posting this. I feel that the homework for this week is a little too much. Sleeping late and waking early, feeling a little tired. Not really looking forward to CCA on Friday and the weekend.

Let me share with you some things that I have encountered during this week. Yesterday ( Tuesday ), after school, I went down to the canteen. After seeing the long queues in front of each store, and feeling sick of the canteen's food, having to eat if every weekday of the week as lunch. I decided to go to the nearby Bukit Timah Food Centre and enjoy a Japanese meal there. After taking my lunch, I went to the nearby bus stop for the busride home. I was queuing up to get onto a bus. There was a short woman behind me. I had barely tapped my EZ-link on the card reader, before I was interrupted by a loud " EXCUSE ME". Instinctively, I turned around, only to see the woman staring at me rudely. As the bus was rather packed at that point of time, there wasn't any space for me to move in front. But the lady, just pushed through people, seemingly afraid that the seat that she had seen would be taken by someone. In the process of doing so, she stepped on my feet and knocked into an old man. The old man was annoyed and shouted at her in Hokkien, asking her what she thought she was doing. At first, the woman ignored the old man and continued her quest of getting the empty seat. Then, she seemed to find her manners, and started apologising to the old man in a mixture of English, Mandarin and Hokkien.

I was rather relieved that nothing serious happened out of this incident. It is not difficult to find inconsiderate Singaporeans like the lady on public transports this day. I myself have witnessed a few other similar incidents. I really hope that all Singaporeans can learn not to be so " kiasu ", and could also learn to be more gracious. Imagine what a foreigner from another country will think of Singapore if he happen to witness this incident.

This will be all for this post. I'll be posting my debate reflections soon.

My Eventful Weekend!

This will be my first post on my 2010 English blog. I will blog mostly about what I experienced that day and current affairs. Well, I didn't have a chance to blog last weekend because I was rather busy.

Saturday:

Morning: Scouts CCA
Afternoon: Tuition
Night: Badminton

That means the whole of Saturday is occupied with activities and I did not get a chance to do my Homework.


Sunday:

Morning: Tuition
Afternoon and Night : Homework ( Finally XD )


Speaking of Scouts, I just joined the CCA a week back. I transferred to it from Chinese Orchestra because I thought that I wasn't really making any progress in it, and did not want to waste my time there. I do hope that I learn something useful in Scouts! Went for the Friday lesson, which was the sub-EP3, chose drums in bugle band, quite fun at times. The I/Cs of Scouts allowed us to play soccer during the duration of the EP3. Not bad!