Am I Going Too Fast

Finished chapter 6 (Gradient And Area Under A Graph) with my 5SA girls. A student asked me whether we're going too fast- doing 6 chapters in a period of only 2 months. Well from my observation, the girls are doing fine. What I feel is most of the students are doing well except maybe a couple of them. These students just need to do more exercises on their own as I think I usually don't give much homework compared to the other teachers. In fact, I did not even give any homework for the long Chinese New Year Break coz I believe a holiday should be a break for the students. I do pity students nowadays, having tons and tons of homework almost everyday. I don't remember having this problem when I was in school (that's was eons ago). So on Thursday, I took a break from teaching but instead let the students discuss the online assignment on matrices that was given out before the CNY break. The assignment is as follows :

ADVERTISING CAMPAIGN.(sourced from the internet)

During an advertising campaign, Pepsi, Coke, and Eldora Cola tried to increase their share of the area's soda pop market. Prior to the campaign, Pepsi had 30% of all sales, Coke had 50%, and Eldora Cola had 20% of all sales.

At the end of the 6 month ad campaign, a telephone survey was conducted, and the following results were determined:

a) Of the original Pepsi drinkers, 10% switched to Coke, and 15% switched to Eldora Cola.

b) Of the original Coke drinkers, 12% switched to Pepsi, and 20% now prefer Eldora Cola.

c) Of the original Eldora Cola drinkers, 8% switched to Pepsi, and 5% switched to Coke.

Determine the effect of the ad campaign on the market share of Pepsi, Coke, and Eldora Cola. In other words, after the 6 months, what percent of sales does each company have?

Method: Set up a 1x3 matrix representing the original percentages.

Then, set up a 3x3 matrix representing the share of the market lost, or maintained.

Multiply the two matrices. The resulting 1x3 will indicate the new market shares


Students were divided into 6 groups comprising 5-6 students each. They were supposed to apply the knowledge and skills that they have learned in the topic of matrices to solve the given problem. The answers have to be uploaded by the group leader to the Sri Aman On-Line School portal.

2 groups (Aini's and Natashiya's) were able to come up with the solution without my help. I'm quite impressed with them. Giving these type of activities really make the students think about what they've learned. I wish I could carry out more on this type of activities.

I'm going a bit slower with my 5KB girls. I will only be starting chapter 5 (Variations) next week. Just found out recently that one of the students in this class is already an established recording artise but my advice to her is, finish her form 5 studies first, then decide the next course of action. I wish her all the best in her singing career. As this is my first year teaching this class, I'm not really familiar with the girls and their mathematical capabilities. There are a few very good students here who I feel won't have any problems at all but there are some who really need closer supervision. My biggest problem is how to make sure that every student is able to understand and apply what I have taught them on that day. Well I'll know better when I get the results of the March test which is coming soon. I'm very hopeful that most of them will do well.

I'm Alive And Well

I'm back after 3 weeks of absence from blogging. It's not that I've been away, its just that the urge to blog is not there. Today is the last day of holiday that the school took for Chinese New Year. The plan was to go back to my hometown for the holidays. The idea had to be scrapped coz three of my children will be having their major exams right after the holidays. They prefer to rest at home.

School has been busy for the last one month. I finally managed to finished all the trainings on 'Online School' and SPS with the teachers and administrators. Teachers have started to give out online assignments to students via the school portal. The teachers also seems to be happy with the SPS especially on doing the teaching plan online. Everything went well during the training. Hopefully everything will be smooth when we start to use the SPS fully in March. I've also introduced the ThinkQuest portal to my ICT and ICTL teachers. I'm hoping that they will be able to use this portal for their ICTL lessons.

As for my Math classes, everything is going on as scheduled. The March test will be on from 9th to 12 March 2010. I'm sure most of the students in 5SA will ace this one. As for the 5KB girls, I need to work harder with some of them. The problem with Math is you need to do lots of exercises to be good at it. There's a limit of what can be done in the 1 hour slot given in class. They have to continue on their own at home. This year the Math department has been kind enough to provide free workbooks for the students to practice on.

FEDERAL TERRITORY DAY

Today, 1st of February is the Federal Territory Day, so its a day off for those working in Kuala Lumpur. The journey to school today was a breeze compared to the other days. Reached school quite early, thus managed to do some work before school starts at 7.30. Did the PATS program with my 5SA girls on Transformation (The PATS Question can be downloaded from the Extra Worksheet Link). Most of the girls are able to solve problems on this topic, a very important topic since every year it will come up in the SPM Exam. Some girls are still struggling with this topic, so I suggested that they do extra questions on it.

Today we also had a celebration in the school hall for being awarded the High Performance School. There was a video clip shown by the Interact Club on the sad conditions that students have to undergo in other countries. Students here especially in Sri Aman must count their blessings. We're given so much but yet we still complain.

"Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country."
John F. Kennedy

This attitude applies not only to the country but also to your family, your school, your job or business, your customers, friends etc. Sri Aman Spirit lives on.....