Hari Anugerah Kokurikulum dan Ambang Kemerdekaan 2011

Our twin celebrations was graciously officiated by Datuk A.Chandrakumanan. He launched the event by his opening speech and executing an exciting gimmick which involved adding several spoons full of a certain chemical to plain drinking water and hey presto! - The smoke and heat from the vigorous reaction drew spontaneous applause and wide-eyed wonder from  teachers and students alike.


Datuk A. Chandrakumanan launching the twin
Hari Anugerah Kokurikulum and Ambang Kemerdekaan
Celebrations in SMK Convent Sentul ,K.L.



Dr. Dominic Lau Hoe Chai also graced the occasion with his presence. It was quite obvious to all that Dr.Dominic was very intrigued by the experiment that he, Datuk and YDP PIBG Pn Rose Saidah performed to launch the ceremony. You could almost see the wonder and thinking that was going through his mind as he tried to identify the chemical reactions.

I was touched by Datuk A. Chandrakumanan's genuine and spontaneous concern when one of our students tripped and almost fell during the awards ceremony. He comforted the student and gently reminded her to slow down and that her safety was more important than the award ceremony.

Pn Rose Saidah, our beautiful YDP of PIBG is one very precious jewel. She always makes it her top priority to be with us in all major school celebrations. (She also sits through our discipline meetings.!!) I am impressed by her willingness to serve the entire community of the school regardless of race and religion.  I was further touched by her graciousness when she who was fasting during this holy month insisted on sitting down together with us to accompany  our VIP to a meal. She displayed great strength and maturity in facing temptation but not giving in at all. Thank you Pn. Rose !!

All three VIPs were very gracious and I  enjoyed their presence very much. Their graciousness reminded me of  a  line in a favourite poem IF by Rudyard Kipling.

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;

Girls, one day some of you will grow to be VVIPs. Remember to .... never lose your virtue and learn to be able to walk with kings and with common men with the same graciousness. Be humble as these important gentlemen and lady were humble, and learn to walk and talk with both kings and common folks with the same graciousness.



The colours of Malaysia - 3 different experiments executed by
girls of 3 different races showing 3 different colours 
and the last experiment and colour by
our VIPs of 3 different races too.
Malaysia - truly Asia!

 

Iffah doing the experiment which changed from

colourless solution to a bright yellow precipitate.

What do you think these 4 colours were trying to telling us??
You are right! The colours of the Jalur Gemilang.
Red, yellow, blue and white.

See how happy and how creative our girls are.
Notice the Jalur Gemilang creatively stitched
into a smart blazer.

Our beauties dressed in 1 Malaysia multi-cultural costumes.

Our talented afternoon girls performing
a very fun and spirited song and dance item

The happy audience waving their flags and
singing patriotic songs.
Najiha, Nuraina, Atikah and Shikin in foreground
with the Jalur Gemilang.


Happy Birthday Malaysia! Merdeka! Merdeka! Merdeka!!
and Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri  to all our Muslim friends, teachers,
staff, students, parents and community.
Maaf Zahir dan Batin
Happy Holidays everybody!





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Fun Learning in 5 Mawar 2011

Adding calcium to water.

We  did a kinda magic science lesson in 5 Mawar today. It was fun both for the girls and me and yet I can see they revised and recap their learning about the reactivity series through teh fun experiments we had.




Clear water has turned chalky white and become an alkali

 


Our version of air bandung experiment where the phenoltalein
turns pink in an alkali


                              Then we did a second experiment where it looked like we made water turn to Ribena syrup and back again to water. and then back again to Ribena syrup.

It may look like magic but its actually science using acids, alkali and indicator. Go ask 5 Mawar girls for the answer. Learning must be fun!

Minor miracle, major operation.

Today we saw a minor miracle and a major operation in school. No - not to worry, it was not on a student but it was truly a major operation on our ancient piano. Some blog posts ago, I mentioned I heard a afternoon student coax Titanic's theme song melodically out of it, despite it's many missing keys. That gave me some hope that maybe, just maybe the piano could be restored. However I didn't know what the cost would be and how major a project it could be. Just thinking about shifting the piano out of the hall already looked very very difficult, given our non-friendly to the disabled  stairs at every turn.



Shortly after hearing our piano's music, I had the blessed opportunity to visit two very lovely schools in Singapore -North Light School and Methodist Girls School in Blackmore Drive. Thank you North Light School and MGS for the rich hospitality and the opportunity to learn, ask and see so many things first hand. We ( 3 school principals and 2 VP's from Malaysian schools) were fed and feted like VIPs and given many materials so we could upgrade our schools.



In MGS, I saw a piano in the canteen. When I queried the VP, Mr Tan informed me the piano was for the students to play during recess so they could de-stress. Then, in their hall I saw a grand piano and up on the gallery I saw another keyboard. For your information, MGS has their own orchestra and also a lovely handbells choir and a guitar ensemble, all played skillfully by the girls in MGS. I saw several other pianos and keyboards in other rooms. I stopped counting pianos and keyboards when I entered the music room which was filled with probably like 30 ++ keyboards.


I came back from Singapore with an awareness we were far behind our neigbours in the field of education and especially in music, we were far far behind. That visit left a deep longing in my heart to try to put some music in the school. So I began thinking..... and thinking aloud. So I voiced out the piano issue to Mr Lee Geok Ai, the Chairman of our Board of Governors and he told me he would look into it and gave me some contacts.

Last week, I was delighted when Jeremy Yap, our kind electrician fixing up the lab allowed me to borrow his electrician to repair our organ keyboard in the SAL room. It is now restored.  Step 1 towards music n the school! La la la..!


Back to our piano story. The piano master Mr Lim who was a friend of Rachel, who was a friend of Jesse Law, ( one of our student's parents ) who is related to Mr Lee Geok Ai, came to the school today with his suitcase of equipment. Talk about connections!!  Mr Lim at first told me the possible bad news - he probably would not be able to tune the piano to the standard required given its age. I found out our piano is 61 years old. and the make is Robertsons. Awesome! We have heritage in our school!



Mr Lim also mentioned about neccasary carpentry work. Some wheels were missing and we had propped all sort of things to prevent the piano from "goyang". The side panels were also loose and partially separated from each other. The  wooden panel above the pedals was totally stuck. Of course there were many missing keys. And so many sticky keys! Girls - please read the following excerpt so we will no longer have sticky keys!

What Mr Lim didn't  anticipate was we actually had a carpenter on call in school today of all days. The carpenter and his aide happened to be  in school as of yesterday, repairing all the chairs that had come apart or were threatening to come apart, again courtesy of Mr Lee. So I asked the carpenter and his aide to come in and to take a look and see if he could do what Mr Lim asked. As the piano master proceeded to dismantle the piano to show the problem to the carpenter, he had a brain wave! He told him, "I will open up the whole piano and you repair all the wooden stuff before we put it back together again. "Mr Lim actually thought the carpenter was our resident carpenter and not our visiting carpenter! Talk about good timing - only God can arrange it so well!



So the three strong men proceeded to turn the entire piano upside down so that the carpenter could take off the spoilt wheels and replace with a flat base so the piano would no longer shake and totter from side to side. I  phoned  our workers to come in with cloths and the vacuum cleaner.  Whole sections of keys were dismantled and placed on our stage. At this time, the afternoon students came into the hall for their assembly and many of them viewed the entire operation from a safe distance. The piano master chuckled and informed he would only charge me for the repairs but not for the show.( the live demo of how to restore a piano).

My only regret today is that I did not take any photos of the whole exciting procedure! Sorry lah! Why? Simply because I was running between chairing two important meetings in school, liasing the carpenter and aide and piano master and workers  and teachers and prefects as well as an unexpected visit from a official from PPWS and also painter and aide for the IT lab as other happenings. So you have to be satisfied with the pics from the internet.



Fast forward 4 hours later. When I next went into the hall after the two meetings, I saw the piano upright, stable and the side panels all nailed together. Miracle! Carpenter and aide and piano master were still looking and testing the piano. Yes, there are some missing black keys which Mr Lim will order from the factory for us but the piano has now been cleaned and good news, it has been tuned properly. It sounds good! It looks so good compared to how it had looked since I first lay eyes on it!



Tomorrow, the carpenter will fix the wooden section for the padlock and key. He will also nail the panel for the music book. Our next need will be to get a good piano chair. Later we will shellac it - black - Mr Lim recommends.


The cost of this beautiful major interesting operation in full view of students who saw the innards of an old piano - you will never believe it!!!  Only  RM 400/- for 4 hours solid labour and Mr. Lim parting words were " Rachel says .. cannot charge so high for school piano." Thank you, Rachel,  thank you Jesse and thank you contact of contacts Mr Lee.


Music has come to SMK Convent Sentul! Haha! And La ..la ..la ... la......!

Children are born with wings, teachers help them fly.

In the previous blog, I mentioned I was ecstatic because SMK Convent Sentul was the Champion of the  Inter-school Choral Speaking Competition  in the Klang Valley for 2011 and that they also recieved RM 700/- together with a beautiful plaque. I am very happy to announce the maturity of our students who decided to donate RM 500/- of their winnings to the school. We will use their money to purchase new chairs for the school. Thank you students for your generousity!

We seemed to be on a winning spree! Haha! Last week, our choir ( made up of 14 afternoon students and 6 morning students ) became the first Runner-up to the Patriotic Songs Choir  Competition  and recieved     RM 1000/- as cash prize and another beautiful trophy.

Thank you Pn Naimah for handling the choir competition. Thank you Datin Cheam for seeing to the transportation logistics and being there on my behalf to provide moral support for the students. I heard that the judges were enthralled with our girls multicultural outfits of sarees, cheong sams and baju kurungs and kebayas.

I get very excited and happy when I see our students shine. Keep it up girls and teachers! Let SMK Convent Sentul flag fly high! We are very proud of you!