____ Sir's DIARY ___

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

For Year 11 BC: 200-word descriptives assignment

Hi, Year 11 Brilliant class,
As discussed today on Cambridge (First Language) textbook, page 19 and 22,
please submit your 200-word essay on the comment box of this posting.
Choose ONE of the 3 topics here:
1. My favourite animal (Kingdom: Animalia, excluding human/your friend, please)
2. My Brilliant Class teacher
3. My dorm friend

Make sure you use the descriptive devices/techniques, including some of the 5 senses.

Grading:
1. Styles (50%)
2. Language use (50%)

Since it is put in blogs, you may use some informal expressions, including some funny jokes.
Deadline: Wednesday, April 1st, 6p.m. (It's not an April Fool's Day/ April Mop, okay?)extended from Tuesday (today), March 31st, 11.59 p.m. due to my late posting of blogs.

P. S. Check your grammar/spelling with MS Word/ other word-processing facility.

Saturday, March 28, 2009

Blackout TONITE helps to reduce CO2 emission

Hi, my high school students and blog readers,

I have known about "Earth Hour 2009"--a world efforts of switching off electricity for 1 hour at 20.30-21.30 local time tonite. It's just one Indonesian tv show, "Extravaganza",
awarded a Panasonic award just yesterday, is aired every Saturday nationwide 20.00-22.00. Miss you!

Mm ... guess it will take some efforts to tell my dad and others at home. Possibly reduce the use of electricity by 85-90% of regular use, excluding the fridge (user friendly, lah). This could be 100% as our Jakarta governor Fauzi Bowo planned to support Global Earth Hour 2009 by applying a partial blackout tonite. Read the Indonesian news:

http://www.earthhour.wwf.or.id/news_detail.php?id=25
Wow! Viva our Jakarta governor! Must be a tough task to persuade malls, apartments and factories to use their generator/ even experience some blackout, for sure.

Well, one suggestion from me:
Are we going to do it on "Good Friday" during the Christian's Easter week, or probably on some other international/ local holidays to reduce the CO2 emission?

My blog readers and students,
I think the information I quoted from today's Kompas Indonesian newspaper, Saturday, March 28 (page 13) titled "Satu Hari Utk Merawat Bumi" (meaning One Heart to Care For the Earth) is very worthwhile to read. The article can be clicked here:

http://cetak.kompas.com/read/xml/2009/03/28/04330059/satu.hati.untuk.merawat.bumi

Please COMMENT in the box of this posting, will you?

Next are at least three amazing figures and info for you, guys!

1. In Jakarta only, capital city of Indonesia, 284 tons of CO2 will be reduced
if Jakartan citizens switch off their electronics (and laptop, ho ho ho ...)
and light for one hour. Guess I'll be watching "Extravaganza" in dark
unless the Trans TV station joins the "Earth Hour 2009" movement. Wow!

2. 1,508 cities and towns in at least 80 countries have confirmed their involvement
in caring for our beloved Earth. What a figure!! Some of the cities are
London, Los Angeles, Chicago, Shang Hay, Moscow, Singapore and Sydney.
What a realistic and significant contribution from WWF to help preventing
from global warming and (-) climate change.

3. I read a special club in one college in Jakarta city called Climate Change Champion Club
of London School of Public Relations (LSPR) iniated to disseminate the news on WWF's
"Earth Hour 2009" through leaflets, posters and even banner. The website
http://www.earthhour.org/ even suggested the use of, to mention some, facebook, flicker,
and blogs. I'm posting this, too, to my friendster bulletin in a minute.

As an English teacher of two of at least 133 schools of BPK PENABUR in
4 Indonesian provinces, and as one of SMAK 1 BPK PENABUR Jakarta's three school
coordinators of the British Council project "Climate Change Challenge", at least I could
help to spread the knowledge within the team's projects and through this blogs.
Wish my students at SMAK PENABUR Gading Serpong (Brilliant Class) to read
my blogs as the dormitory is online 24 hours for internet access via their notebook. Guys, please drop your comments in my posting, okay?

P.S. Please don't tell me as "naught and tricky". I even set my email vacation response in my Yahoo! account for 2 days from March 28-29, 2009 (GMT +07.00), pleading for supports of "Earth Hour 2009", ho ho ho ....

Also, I sent sms/text to 15 of my Bandung and Jakarta students, as well as sending emails to all the four teams (16 students) of our SMAK 1 BPK PENABUR Bandung city, joining the Climate Change projects from the British Council. Their website, blogs and comics are soon to be uploaded. I'll notify you about this.

Sunday, March 22, 2009

POST SMAK GS info/news here via COMMENT box (as of March 23, 2009)

Dear B.C.ers,
Starting March 23, 2009, please send any ACHIEVEMENTS, social activities (Easter, etc.),
news on Brilliant Class/regular class activities,and do not forget to write:
1. Date of event
2. What level: regional/ national/ international
3. Place/ campus/ high school
4. Some top schools joining.
5. If you win one award/ trophy, let me know
who are the other winners and which school.
6. Please post the original photo (1 Megabytes OK for PUBLICATION/ BANNER/
PRESS release). Email to sir at uget1st[at]yahoo.com

Example of publications sir has just created (Noel and Kelvin's being #1 Winner in ITS Surabaya this afternoon has not been created yet):
http://www.bpkpenabur.or.id/en/node/4866
on Lusia and Felik's achievements (2 prizes) in Maranatha Univ. Bandung (I.T. Competition).

PLEASE POST THE NEWS through the COMMENT area. The photos can be to your blogs/ friendster/ by a separate email to sir. Have a great Sunday, and focus on Cambridge exam, starting on May 13, 2009!

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Blogs training and samples (GS, 3/18/2009)

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Holiday assignment for Year 10 B.C., 3/17/2009

Dear my beloved Year 10 students,
Well, well, well, as I promised, you've got homework to do
during your 3-day holiday (March 16-18, 2009).
It's a reflection on your 7-month study in Brilliant Class
SMAK PENABUR Gading Serpong. The composition should be:
1. around 150 words
2. using proper grammar (be consistent, please) and style (informal)
2. typed on the COMMENT box here (write name & your blogs address as well,
so other readers can visit your blogs, guys, and make you famous! ho ho ho ....)
3. submitted before Tuesday, March 17, 2009, 11.59 p.m.

Choose one of the two topics for writing here.
1. Two of the unforgettable events in my Brilliant class:
one academic, such as class/tutor/competition, plus
one non-academic, such as sports/arts/dormitory life/Christian service/field trip.
2. What two school subjects I am fond of and why:
one science/math, such as physics, bio, chem, computer, and math, plus
one non-science/math, such as sports/language/Christian education.

Reminder: post it ONLY in my blogs comment box, please.

Thanks! Have a great holiday due to teacher-training/seminar.

Saturday, March 07, 2009

3 deaths on NTU & NUS foreign students this week

Baffled! How come 3 deaths befell to 3 foreign students in Singapore in only 5-day time this 1st week of March!
1. March 2, 2009:
Indonesian top student David Hartanto Widjaja (NTU) died of falling from the 4th floor,
having been suspected to stab his professor on the 6th floor of an NTU building.
Click:
http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking%2BNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_344879.html
also doubts over David's death causes (in Indonesian language) at:
http://www.detiknews.com/prokontra/detail/pro/2009/03/05/113846/1094737/612/bunuh-diri-david-di-singapura-diragukan

2. March 4, 2009:
An USA undergraduate from Miami Univ. (a national merit scholar) was found dead in his
NUS hostel room, apparently over drinking with a bottle of pills found.
Click:
http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking%2BNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_346180.html

3. March 6, 2009:
People's Republic of China student, just graduating from NTU and started working in NTU on
March 2, 2009 (the very day David passed away) Zhou Zheng was found hanged in
Nanyang Heights.
http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking%2BNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_347185.html
and some interesting comments from the Straits Times readers at:
http://comment.straitstimes.com/showthread.php?t=17551&page=2

Also read the Indonesian detik.com news at:
http://www.detiknews.com/comment/2009/03/07/152155/1096029/10/setelah-david-giliran-staf-ntu-ditemukan-tewas-gantung-diri

Only God knows what has been happening this week in Singapore, involving NTU and NUS--the two most famous universities in Asia! BTW, guys, peek out my comment on the Straits Times comment page at:
http://comment.straitstimes.com/showthread.php?t=17387&page=53
Here I quote my comment:
"Regarding the Misnomer's comment of at:
http://comment.straitstimes.com/showthread.php?t=17387&page=13
saying "3.5 score over 5 is a score which many average students can achieve. Here, we are talking about an ASEAN scholar. ", allow me to inform that in MIT, yes, the GPA scale is 0-5.0., seehttp://web.mit.edu/registrar/gpacalc.html,but in NTU, at least the undergraduate study as written here:http://www.ntu.edu/Ac/bulletin/admission.pdfthe GPA scale is 0-4.0. Therefore, the demand of the required GPA for the ASEAN scholarship requires best of the best students, and not average ones."

BTW, also read one blogs' conspiracy theory on the #1 and #3 incidents from:
http://www.gabrielsai.com/blog/2009/03/a-conspiracy-theory-on-deaths-in-ntu.html

Thursday, March 05, 2009

NUS High Singapore & BPK PENABUR Jkt meeting

Some time ago in February 2009, there was a visit from NUS High School to BPK PENABUR Jakarta. Next is the photo (l-r) Ms. Dinah Tanuatmadja (Head of R&D BPK PENABUR Jakarta), me, Mr. Anton Wardaya (Surya Institute), Principal Hang Kim Hoo, Mr. Michael Caprist (PH BPK PENABUR), Mr Bernard Ricardo Widjaja (NUS staff of Dept. of Physics and Engineering) and Ms. Van Li Hui (NUSAssistant manager of Admission and Recruitment), and Mr. Winfrid Prayogie (Executive Director of BPK PENABUR Jakarta).

We discussed the possibility of having a joint field trip/ science camp from Jakarta to Singapore as well as offering BPK PENABUR Jakarta students to join the NUS High School admission. For the latter purpose, the NUSH High School team was encouraged to carry this out in the form of advertisements and personal approach to prospective candidates as the Brilliant Class of BPK PENABUR Jakarta also had its own admission programme.

Still wonder whether or not NUS High School is willing to have a joint field trip/ science camp in the future. What a chance then! BTW, for the website of the 2 foundation/schools:

1. NUS High School:

http://www.highsch.nus.edu.sg/

2. BPK PENABUR Jakarta

http://www.bpkpenabur.or.id/en/region/jakarta

Sir's DIARY