Group picture and reflections

(Top: Gerald Goh, Lionel. Bottom: Yi Xuan, Ting Fang, Kathy)

Lionel's Reflections:

During my holiday, I went to Yogyakarta, Indonesia. I went there for 3 months. I enjoyed my stay in Yogyakarta as it was a very fascinating and amazing place.I went to many tourist attractions like the Borobudur temple. It is one of the worlds’ famous temple .The monument consists of six square platforms topped by three circular platforms, and is decorated with 2,672 relief panels and 504 Buddha statues

I also went to Mt Merapi. Its an active volcano, last eruption in 2010. On the foot of the volcano, I saw burnt cars and graves of those who lost their lives in the eruption. It was a little tragic but the scenery there is still beautiful.

Lastly, I find my trip to Yogyakarta very fruitful. I saw the poverty and plight ofthe numerous beggars living on the street. This trip has taught me to always appreciate the things I have .

Gerald's Reflections:

I did not go overseas during this holiday, but I did celebrate my nephews one year old birthday. He is extremely cute and loves to stare at you as though he had some long grudge against you. It may be kinda scary but it's also cute in its own way!

Ting Fang's Reflections:

Okinawa was absolutely stunning. It had the freshest air I had ever taken in and the healthiest yet most mouth-watering food I have ever tried. The people there were very friendly and the environment was so clean despite the fact that there weren't many dustbins around, which led me to the conclusion that the Japanese were so disciplined to keep the litter with them instead of taking the easy way out and littering. The ocean was unlike any other i have seen in the many countries I've visited. It had different shades of blue yet it was crystal clear. If only I could spend another seven days in Okinawa, an island of paradise!

Yi Xuan's Reflections:

During the December holidays, I went back to school almost everyday. Every week, I had to go back around three days to practice the Free Style Drill as I am now part of the team. Whenever there is no practice for FSD, I would either have to go to school for the Tan Kah Kee competition or to practice our platoon dance.

On the 27th of December, our year 4 seniors in NCC had their ROD. As it was a big event, our platoon prepared a dance to perform. We were very nervous to go up the stage that day as our dance was not prefect. However, we did fine during our performance and also got cheers from the audience.

After our performance was bonding time with our seniors. We gave them many presents while they gave us some too. They gave us each a scrapbook that they took a whole week to make. We were very touched by it and we cried when we went through the book at home.

The December holidays did not feel like a holiday at all. I was really busy and hardly had time to do my homework. However, I was glad that we got to bond with many of our seniors.

Kathy's Reflections:

Last year was the best vacation of my life, because together with my parents, I visited the Great Wall of China, one of the seven wonders of the world! There are several reasons why it was my best vacation. First of all, I like visiting historic place and the Great Wall is a historic site. The construction of the Wall first began during the about 2,500 years ago. Some kingdoms built huge walls hoping to protect their territories. The Great Wall is of great significance as it reflects much of China’s extensive history and that was what made our trip there meaningful and educational.

Chingay Parade

Kathy:

I think that this year's Chingay really brings out the spirit of Singapore, the outstanding costumes, the wonderful performances and the fireworks display were only the few highlights of the Chingay event. The theme for this time's Chingay is 'Colours of Fabric, One People'. It is a true extravaganza involving thousands of volunteers of all works of life and diverse ethnic backgrounds to come together for one common purpose. Chingay is not just a celebration of Lunar New Year for the Chinese in Singapore, different races are invited to take part and perform in this parade. Many participants of diverse ethnicities and nationalities joined in and worked as one. Seeing all the different races in Singapore unite showed the racial harmony in Singapore and that was the most heartwarming part.

Yi Xuan:

Personally, I did not go for the Chingay parade because I was sick on that day. However, when we had to present about the parade, I saw many pictures and also heard many wonderful experiences during the parade from my classmates. Chingay is a celebration for everyone of all races, not just the Chinese. Looking at the pictures of the Chingay parade, there are many people from all races and they all looked really happy. The theme of this year's parade, 'Colours of fabric, One people' also shows how bonded the different people of different races in Singapore is. Although there was many volunteers and audiences of different races, there was no chaos. Everyone worked really well together to perform a wonderful performance and the audiences enjoyed too, cheering loudly. Just by hearing from my friends and looking at the pictures of the Chingay parade, I could tell that it was a very fun event. I hope that next time, I would be able to attend the Chingay parade myself too.

Ting Fang:

The Chingay parade was amazing. We saw a wide range of performanves which were a clear representation of all the diverse cultures. Singapore is a multi-racial country. From Chingay, I learnt that we are of different roots yet we are all Singaporeans. This was evident in many parts of the performance. The theme is " Colours of Fabric, One People." In the performance itself, we got the chance to witness many traditional performances individually and combined traditional performances, for example, a Chinese man and a Malay man hitting the two different sides of a drum together. Each man has their own rhythm and beat, yet it sounds simply beautiful together. This is a form of unity. The fact that we are different yet we all can contribute to Singapore is something that clearly shows how we are like these fabrics, yet we are one. We are one because we are Singaporeans. This shows that we embrace who we are and also where we come from. Apart from the performances, we could also witness a form of the theme, " Colours of Fabric, One People" amongst the audience. We, the audience, come from different schools. We are of different races, different family backgrounds and there isnt  any of us who is exactly the same as another person. We cheered together as an audience, despite of our differences, celebrating Singapore's racial harmony. Despite our differences on stage, amongst the audience and outside Chingay itself, we must learn to live harmoniously with other races as one Singapore, just as the pledge goes " regardless of race, language or religion. " Chingay 2014 was truly eye opening. 

Lionel:

I went to the chingay parade , and I saw many beautiful , interesting and amazing floats there. I am sure the volunteers have gave their full effort for this chingay parade. I have really enjoyed myself and also learn a few things too. From the chingay parade , I can see the cultures of Singapore and I also saw the 'batik' which represents SINGAPORE united as one and also closely followed by its theme 'colours of fabric , one people.' The atmosphere was exuberant and lively with the audience cheering loudly . I felt that chingay parade 2014 is really a meaningful and amazing one.

Gerald Goh:

I feel that the Chingay event was a spectacular event with different races coming together as one, knitted together to present a wonderful performance. The goodie bags contained a lot of useful items like poms poms and even an energy bar to keep us going. Everybody was enthusiastic after having seen the races dancing to trendy music and ppl from different age groups and cultures coming together to really bring out the best performance for everyone. Overall it was an amazing and eye-opening day. Given a chance, I would definitely go there again.

One Lesson We Have Learned In CID Lessons

Kathy:

I learnt more about presentation skills, how to keep my audience engaged in the presentation and how to make the slides for visually appealing. For example, a presentation should not have too many words as it is boring to read. Instead, illustrations and pictures can be used to prove our points. Also, we should enunciate clearly and maintain eye contact with the audience at all times. This is one of the things that I have learnt from the CID lessons thus far.

Ting Fang:

I learnt how to always try to make my powerpoint stand out and also to enhance the way I present my ideas, such that the information is easily processed by the audience. I also learnt to only say necessary information so as to prevent confision. Not only that, i came to realize that illustrations are also a very effective way of presenting our points to our readers, rather than making then visualize everything themselves. In conclusion, I learnt how we should always make our presentation easy to understand for the reader and how we should minimize confusion too.  

Yi Xuan:

One thing I learned in CID lessons is how to make good and effective power point slides. I learned to use contrasting colours for the background and text of the power point slides and how big the font should at least be. I also learned different ways to catch the audience's attention with my slides,. For example, pictures can be added to either catch attention or to allow better visualization. I also learned to link back to a theme when presenting so that my whole presentation will be focused.

Lionel:

One thing I learned in CID is definitely good presentation. Slides have to be short good, simple. Colors must be visible to audience, words clear to them. Not too bright , not too dull. Words cannot be lengthy and always have eye contact. The presentation must be engaging and well understood by audience. These small little things learned during CID lessons are very important. Our presentation should always be on topic and must always answer the question. CID made me able to learn more 
stuff inside and outside of school too.

Gerald Goh:

CID so far has been great for me. At the start, the group didn't exactly consist of ppl whom I like but over time that we have spent as a group together in China, I feel we have really learnt to work together as a team. I think what we wanted to manage to accomplish in China was fairly well done. So the one thing I've learnt is teamwork and how to learn to accept opinions from others and come out with better ideas together as a group