Mathematics Year 5 workbook - can you detect the errors?
Fund-raising to build Sakya Institute and kesa sponsorship
If you are trying to look for any English website about Guru Phurla Rinpoche, you won't be able to find one (yes, there's none). I think this is simply because he is a Tibetan/Mandarin-speaker and spreads his dhamma teaching mainly in Taiwan, China, Malaysia and Singapore. I'll try to communicate with Guru Phurla Rinpoche or the committee members at his centres to see if it's possible to have a website for people to access into.
In this visit, Guru Phurla Rinpoche told us that there will be a puja ceremony in August 2007 to raise fund to complete a Sakya Institute (*look at the brochure on the left) for Buddhist Studies located in Ching Hai. Construction couldn't be continued because of insufficient fund. RM230k is needed to complete the building alone.emphasize on reading skill and keep teaching Maths and Science in English
All parties including decision makers and parents each played their roles to realize the policy because we all believe students must have strong command in English language to acquire knowledge.
For example, in teaching Maths, a teacher or the textbook presents many problems that must be read, instead of just equations. The same use of language is present in the Science subject when students are reading from the textbook, making hypotheses or draw conclusions. Hence, reading deficit will eventually lead to lose of interest in learning and inability to express their answers verbally and in written form.
buying workbooks for your kids
Schools will reopen in two weeks. Parents will be busy buying textbooks and workbooks for their kids. And this means it's going to burn holes in their pockets. Hence, buying the right books (meaning good quality of books) are important. You don't want to spend your money buying books with lotsa typo errors, incorporating the outdated syllabus and have poor quality of questions.
As a professional (not that I'm good but this is one of my main source of income) educational writer and a private tutor for many years, I'm going to share with you parents on buying workbooks from certain publishers for cetain subjects.
1. Most importantly, get the past years questions (soalan-soalan tahun lepas) from Cerdik Publications. The publisher has the rights to publish the real past years exam papers from UPSR to SPM. Go to your nearest bookshops and they will assist you.
2. Bahasa Melayu - Sasbadi books (both KOMSAS, Tatabahasa and Pemahaman) are the most realiable. You can also use Oxford Fajar Bakti.
3. English - Pearson Longman used to be very good but in recent years Penerbit Mega Setia Emas is doing a good job. If you intend to buy English Literature books for your kids, you can look out for Setia Emas' Baby Steps series.
4. Science - Oxford Fajar Bakti is good. Their reference books is highly recommended compare to Sasbadi. Note: becarefully if you are buying Year 5 or Form 5 Science books. Some publisher did not follow the latest syllabus because it was the consequence of a rushed production. Choose your books carefuly.
5. Mathematics - Pelangi is the expert in this subject. So get their Math books. Note: becareful if you are buying Year 5 or Form 5 Math books. Some publishers did not follow the latest syllabus. For example a workbook published by Oxford Fajar Bakti made mistake in their last couple of chapters. Then there's another publisher called B* Publisher. The writer from this publisher couldn't even form proper sentences and the editor did nothing to correct the mistake. I complained to the owner of Bookway, PJ, and I don't see the book the next day. The bookshop owner told me a school (in PJ i think) actually chose B* Publisher's series to be used in 2007.
6. For arts subjects like Sejarah and Geografi, you can consider to buy reference books from Sasbadi or Oxford Fajar Bakti. As for workbooks, you can trust the books published by the above publishers.
7. As fo science subjects like Chemistry, Physics, etc, you can also rely on Oxford Fajar Bakti's reference books. You can also trust the workbooks published by the above publishers. Marshall Cavendish is okay as well.
How come I didn't mention publishers like Preston, Info Didik, etc? Well, it's not because their books are no good but the publishers mentioned above are more reliable.
Hopefully this simple guideline will help you in getting good quality workbooks for you kids and of course have your money well spent.
7 changes I would like to see on the amazing race
Be it the US or the Asian edition, there are a few changes I would like to see on the show.
- There's a lack of transparency in the non-elimination leg. The producers can eliminate or not eliminate whoever they want. For example, if I'm not wrong, BJ & Tyler from season 9 survived twice from being eliminated and eventually won. In the Asian edition, it's very clear that the producers would like to keep "favourites" Sandy & Francesca from being eliminated in the first round.
- I wonder why must there be models on The Amazing Race (TAR) and The Amazing Race Asia (TARA)? There are a lot of beautiful people out there and they are not necessary models.
- Choosing Allan Wu as the host of TARA is obviously a mistake. This guy is so stiff and fake. If you watch AXN Xtreme Macau, the host Alex Niu, in my humble opinion, did a better job than Allan. Well, there's no way to regret now. Looking at the success of TARA probably we just have to accept him and see some improvement over time.
- I'm glad that season 10 omitted the "strip all cash" from contestants who survived the non-elimination leg. TARA should stop stripping cash too in the future season because I think begging people for money isn't very nice.
- The contestants rely too much on the locals and taxi drivers to bring them to places instead of self-navigation. Perhaps the producers should implement new rule to disallow locals to ride or join the contestants in their car. I prefer to watch contestants display their navigation skill rather than paying taxi drivers to bring them to places.
- There are too many advertisement and product placement in the recent TAR. As for TARA, we can see them every week from Ford to Sony Walkman MP3 and MSN. During the last leg on TARA, contestant need to take a picture of their partner while performing the jump at Sky Tower with Sony Ericsson Cybershot camera. And the week before, teams have to record a video with Sony HD Cam.
- I hope to see alliance being formed in TARA. I'm not sure why no teams form alliance to oust the others. It will be more fun than seeing teams minding their own business. The Six Packs alliance (Cho bros, Kentucky and Alabama) of season 10 did a great job and went really far.
Rain World Tour in KL
This should be the most anticipated concert of the year.
Venue: Stadium Merdeka, K.L.
Ticket Prices:
There's no way I'm going to miss Rain's concert! If you see him often on TVBS Entertainment News or on MTV's TRL earlier this year, you know he's a charismatic performer. And oh yeah, he definitely can sing too! Unless you have been living under the shell or ignorant about the Korean pop culture, you know this is the concert that you don't want to miss this year.
So far there's no confirmation about the seating plan or where to get the tickets. Hopefully, there'll be more information soon.
project runway 3 - where's the good fashion and integrity?
I've been watching Project Runway (PR) since the first season. I love the show just like what I love about the Amazing Race. PR is a serious competition where real talent wins and you don't see drama like other reality tv shows.
However, PR begins to change its direction this season. I'm fed up with all the arguments and the fact that the producers are eliminating the 'good' people and keeping the 'bad' ones. I'm so mad when Alison was kicked off from the show in the "Waste Not, Want Not" challenge. Vincent was supposed to be eliminated. His model could barely walk in that long dress (it doesn't look like one). Perhaps the producers loved his antique with Angela. And I have no idea how come Angela is still in this competition despite her hideous talent.
PR, please cut the drama and focus more on how the designers do their sketches, pattern drafting, pinning, cutting, sewing, fitting, etc.
the amazing race crossword puzzle
I was thinking of coming up with crossword puzzles on my blog once in awhile. So for the first time, I'm putting up a crossword puzzle based on The Amazing Race theme here. For this first puzzle, I'm going to put up something simple, easy clues but definitely not for those who never watch the earlier seasons.
Across
1. New twist in TAR Season 10.
4. Two teams from this country participated in TARA.
6. First family.
7. Team Joe & Bill (life partners) from the TAR Season 1 is also known as team ___.
10. New element in TAR Season 5. Time matters.
13. How many participants from TARA are not Asians?
14. In TAR Season 3, participants received their clues from this popular actor in Singapore.
15. "Romber" team finished ___ in TAR Season 7.
Down
2. Which South East Asian country did the participants race to in TAR Season 2?
3. Spoiler. Finish line. (You know this is about TAR Season 10)
5. B.J. & Tyler (winner of TAR Season 9) are also known as The ___.
8. ___ themed challenges - track and field, swimming, water polo, archery. Athens 2004.
9. ___ & Chip (winner TAR Season 4). Long-term relationship with Lance Bass (N Sync).
11. TARA Season 1 has ___ participating teams.
12. ___ hours penalty - "Who Digs the Beach?".
