今天雜記

難以轉化

科主任擬了兩班高中一 M2 的聯測卷，其中有一道題目只有三名學生懂得處理：

Given that and are purely imaginary numbers. If , find (the values of) and .

暑假是

非數學類，不喜勿入。

捐血頒獎禮

今天是香港紅十字會輸血服務中心 2009 年度捐血頒獎典禮暨慶祝世界捐血者日（6 – 14），因為學校得了獎，我出席於香港紅磡海逸皇宮大酒樓舉行的典禮。

李錦強先生捐血次數累計：425 次（注：指的是成份捐血，每年可以捐 20 多次），相當厲害。

大會邀請了幾位長期捐血者分享感受，其中 Mr. Halliday 的分享也很有趣。

擠滿出席者的典禮上，雖然除了經常到校的收集血液的職員護士，和主禮嘉賓保安局局長李少光，全是陌生面孔，感覺不太「孤單」，因為我「假假地」也和紅十字會有一點連繫，也算是團體的一員。

因太太約我，我待頒發全部獎項後，沒有享用大會安排的午膳，便逃了。

拍了捐血寶寶，給兒子看，也和大家分享：

為打發時間，帶了數學書看了看，希望有機會又分享一下。

老師考學生，家長考老師

2009-03-21 (SAT) 是濟記的中一入學面試日。家長對我說，頗滿意面試安排，因為：

Kai の事記：微觀工作記錄

2009-03-12（THU）教育局學位分配組把「學生成績次第表」（rank order list）發送給中學。

兩個翦影

【其一】

今年，學校參加了「優質學校改進計劃」（Quality School Improvement Project, QSIP），由 2009-02-23 (MON) 至 2009-02-25 (WED) 全面觀課，2009-02-25 (WED) 放學，計劃的執行總監趙志誠博士向我們一眾教師匯報觀課後的結果。其中，他公開表揚化學科的程旭堂老師

葉影微言

激氣，放假先o黎病。

感冒、聲帶發炎，今早已完全失聲。

太太的新工作

昨晚和太太返家已近凌晨，因為在家長教師會（PTA）的 AGM 後，我們和新舊 PTA 委員，以及正副校主任老師等晚宴。

太太積極參與兒子學校 PTA 的工作。今年共有 12 名家長，爭取 10 個議席。

太太之前分配了工作：做 backdrop。這對太太完全沒有難度。

新數學教師研習課程

剛出席了一個香港數理教育學會（網誌）主辦的分享會，題為『新數學教師研習課程《重聚日》：課堂經驗分享』。原來蕭文強教授也在當中列席，可以聽聽他的講話也頗有得著。

蝗蟲 の Joy

我校大小組織繁多，有形無形，百節千枝。其中有一個，寄居於濟記教員室內的半公開零神秘組織，成員本屬清一色男性人類，卻自貶兩級，以昆蟲自居。組織立於何時？無從稽考，概有十載數年之事。組織正名曰「蝗蟲之友」，時而鬆散（即輕鬆，猶如散步也）時而嚴密，尤其當 Locust-in-charge（即當值老師）購入糧餉，滿溢糧倉時，蝗蟲本色便會發揮致極淋漓，不出四天，糧餉絕響塵環，是以蝗蟲乃名不虛傳也。今年，尤甚者，見糧倉告急（即食物所餘無幾），蟲友以圖文並貌旁敲側擊口誅筆伐地敦促仍未入貨的 Locust-in-charge 盡快交貨。

一個多星期。推介網頁。IES

一個多星期

上課不過是個多星期，同事已稱工作生活好像渡日如年。

閒談相關係數 Correlation Coefficient

在校內模擬會考放榜活動中，同事以 EXCEL 計算出所謂 Coefficient of Correlation（相關係數），從而告訴學生，學校估計的會考成績比同學自己估計的準確，因為校方的相關係數較同學的接近 1。

慚愧地，身為數學授課員，也不能深入認識何謂相關係數（或許是很久以前曾經認識過，現在已歸還教授們），現在只能以我這個統計學行外人，泛泛而談一些廢話。

首先，相關係數（或應說樣本相關係數）愈接近 1，是否代表所謂「愈準確」？

完全數學手冊

濟記同學，認得他是誰嗎？

大不了咪教書囉

「搵唔到工？唔怕 wor，大不了咪教書囉！」相信今天仍有不少港人是如此認為，可能他們認為「教書」不是專業工作。

71@sfxc2008

第三次教師發展日

九濟和荃濟的教師大軍，「大舉殺入」教院，出席主題為「課堂分析技巧」的教師發展日。盧敏玲教授，一位前數學教師，很「有趣」地，在台下眾教師群中，找校長答她的問題：「何謂好的課？」。原先，她不知道兩位校長都姓袁，知道後她問：「圓形個圓？」Oops，隨即道：「啊，袁世凱個袁。」Orz。（你唔好講：袁木個袁。）

一點分享:同事離開-童年玩意-謝師宴

（一）祝福同事

同事兼朋友將離開濟記，他昨天親口把這消息告訴我。

SFX Swimming Gala and the Enrollment Ceremony

Some schools in Hong Kong, including primary schools, organize swimming galas every year. However, it was quite a historical moment for Xaverians to take part in the 7th Swimming Gala on 16 May 2008 (FRI) in Kowloon Tsai swimming pool. No swimming gala organized in our school for 25 YEARS! Our principal Mr. Yuen (one of the teachers witnessed the 6th or before Swimming Gala) thought that it should be quite natural to set up Swimming Gala in a boy school. As he claimed that the 2-year dream came true and being actualized as a result of the hard working of P.E. teachers and many helpers. That was quite an enjoyable monent in general.

F.5 last day

Today is the last normal school day of F.5 students. This is the song chosen

前程錦繡

F.7 last day

31st Jan 2008 was the last normal school day of F.7 students. I know some F.7 students sobbed in the moment of singing the song “today” and “school song”. It may be a kind of success that the love of school from students is so real. It is admirable that students keep their passion towards life (not even in school). We are trained not to be too emotional, trained to be rational, yes, we know. But sometimes, it is already too cold (just like the recent weather) to make a living in this jungle-like society, why don’t we enjoy (even a very short moment of) the feeling of love among classmates, friends and the things we love? Therefore, I do hate to listen to certain comments like “年年都有 last day 啦，見得多就慣啦。”

SFX forum

The school authority suggested the students’ union to set up a forum as a channel of communication between the school and students. Here are some points jotted from the SFX Forum held on 2008-01-25. Precaution, it is only for your reference, I’m not a good secretary to give 100% full picture of the ideas and speeches. Remember, here is, of course, not an official blog.(1) Floating class : why F.6 need to “float”?

Response:
- Reality, not enough normal classrooms
- Fairness, F.6 students will be promoted to F.7 and there are fixed classrooms for F.7 boys (better preparation for public exam).
- Good news: after the F.7 mock exam, F.6 boys will stay in fixed classrooms.

anniversary ceremony of Y.U.81

Last night was the 30th anniversary ceremony of the establishment of Y.U.81, we had games and hot-potting, leaving school at 10 p.m. something. Although the activities were just similar to previous years, I think the change should be the quality of members. Senior members took care of the junior like brothers. (Esp. stayed with a crying member) I just recalled the days when chun tak was the HSL (or earlier), the dinner hours were a bit embarrassing for quite a lot of ‘men’s talk’ and ‘foul languages’ there. However, in recent years, members were becoming much more polite and respectful to teachers. As Mr. Ching always claims that the boys of SFXC are of very high quality in conduct. You know, my mother school was a band 5 school and I knew how trouble will be when students acting madly. One old boy, Mak, was there, he was good at solving 3*3*3 Rubik’s Cube and he is playing 5*5*5 Rubik’s Cube now. He said the principles were quite similar. How interesting to tell that two handsome young teachers, Mr. Rock and Mr. Zinc were enthusiastic about playing the 3*3*3 Rubik’s Cube these days in staff room. I think that it may be a good show if there are competitions or performances about playing Rubik’s Cube. A Talentine show? Apart from singing and musical performance, we may have other alternatives. Magic? Yoyo? One F.2 student in my class had a mini-show in the class party, just click the following and have a look!

http://www.youtube.com/v/Pot8GSTYJa4&rel=1

Occasionally, I found the following movie clip: a Japanese TV program.

http://www.youtube.com/v/cJolYpnLbCI&rel=1

Quite surprising that mathematics can be ‘used’ in a popular TV show! I’m afraid that we cannot watch similar programs in Hong Kong in the near future, even after the introduction of digital television broadcasting system with high resolution.

[報告] 批判思考工作坊 (critical thinking workshop)

中二學生被安排回校出席四次在星期六早上進行的『批判思考工作坊』，班主任（例如我）被安排做旁聽。

講者：Henry
時間：10:40 ~ 12:00

首先，講者指出，以前沒有這類課程，因為上一代的人怕教了學生批判思考，學生會『作反』。現在教這些課程是因為準備新高中。嗯…

跟著，講者要中二同學分辨，什麼是批評，什麼是批判。（Edmund 問：為何不是用英文教？）

好了，進入活動。

活動一：『心靈感應』其實是一個關於 9 的倍數的簡單數學遊戲，起碼在八九年前網上已玩過。講者說，批判思考去到最高層次就是涉及數字（？）

活動二：討論『有雞先還是有雞蛋先？』
看著中二同學討論得興高采烈，其中鄺同學認為先有蛋，因為上帝做蛋容易過做隻雞！也有麥同學和陳同學出來以『進化論』解釋他們的論點。接著是講者的解釋，他說，他是個科學家（！）。

以宗教角度：雞先（聖經記載上帝以生物形式做動物）
以哲學角度：看你如何定義
以科學角度：蛋先（始祖雞蛋突變生當代雞）

這個討論希望帶出『多角度』。

幾年前和蔡同學討論過類似問題，有興趣可看看吧：

http://www.hkedcity.net/ihouse_tools/forum/read.phtml?forum_id=27877¤t_page=&i=820806&t=817997

活動三：IQ 題
『今有兩人，阿甲只會在早上說謊，阿乙只會在晚上說謊，如何問兩個問題，可分辨誰是誰？』

（趙同學即問：如何定義早上和晚上？Oops）

講者提供的答案：
問：『你是誰？』
第一個人答：『我是甲。』
第二個人答：『我是甲。』

問：『現在是什麼時間？』
第一個人答：『早上八時。』
第二個人答：『晚上八時。』

好了，上述資料已經可以決定第一個及第二個人是誰。大家試試。這活動帶出何謂『思考』。

這個課程，學生每人給 $100（全級約有 200 學生，再加上一大部分由校方資助的費用）值得嗎？這又是一個可以『多角度思考』的問題：有趣的 metacognition。

Cheering team

[2007-11-15 morning]When taking about “green house”, people may think about “greenhouse effect”, however, the first concept turning up in Xavierians’ minds should be one of the four houses. In particular, the sense of belonging is overwhelming during the period of athletic meets. Cheering dancing on the track is one of the programs. Bystanders may have no idea on the enormous cost (I’m not professional and had no idea of what kind of movements should be good-looking and safe, I just randomly created something seemed to be so-called ‘dance’. Trial and errors, time consuming! Then followed by series of training and adjustments for 2 to 3 weeks) for the 3-miniute-only show. As the teacher-in-charge of the green house cheering team, I think our committee members and F.1 students were trying their best to practice and perform. Yellow house was the champion in the dancing part. Yes, as one of the judges, I voted for them. Although I believed that the dance steps in our team was OK, judges preferred varieties in overall pattern to details in dance steps.
Click to watch the practice
[2007-11-15 night] My mother-in-law’s birthday, my wife spent time on preparing the feast and made many surprises. But, the happiness was struck by one of the family members. Sigh.
[2007-11-16 morning] The pre-walk in Shing Mun Reservoir lasted about 2 hours something. I just remembered that I was attacked by a monkey because of my staring.

Singing contest

My wife was not at home and I’m happy to take care of my son one whole day. He’s sleeping sweet now. Just do some recalling.

The annual important event of the SFXC music club “ singing contest” was held yesterday. I’m not professional, but students asked me to be one of the judges (together with FC & SHY) of that event. Just like last year, singing while dancing is always impressive. The champion of the senior group event went to “4 sons” because we teachers enjoyed the happy atmosphere and their effort in preparing the dance.

When it comes to the score of ‘cooperation’, in my school days, my teachers would focus on the harmony of voices, like Simon and Garfunkel (Hello darkness my old friends…), but today, I seldom find that kind of harmonic performance, instead, the dancing or making jokes may be more dominant, part of the reasons should be the culture “fed” by similar Hong Kong TV programs.

It is very happy to see students on the stage and become ‘another one’, like some F.7 boys I know. Richard, Yip, Tsui, H, Wong, they had tried hard. A F.4 student, Chow, he was a naughty boy but I’m quite shocked to listen to his performance, his voice is clear with a bit sorrowful feeling. Actually, many senior students performing good, the major difference may be something about the “lasting power” (i.e. made no mistake even in the last note of the singing)

Actually, I prefer singing to listening, but I know my voice (together with my whole self) is “deteriorated”, but I think it’s enough to sing songs to my son (and wife sometimes :p).

Blood donation

The blood donation talk for form five students was held on this Monday. The purpose of the talk was for promotion, hoping more students would join the blood donation activity. The speaker was ms. MK. By delivering the talk through the PowerPoint, I wondered how many of students might be interested in the history of blood transfusion centers, the functions of different parts in blood cells, etc. When it closed to the lunch hour, a ‘short’ video was getting started! Students showed ‘ORZ’ when watching that 70s or 80s cartoon show with repeated information on the functions of blood cells and the importance of blood donation. The first blood donation day was held on 2007-10-25 (THU) and the number of blood donors was 58 only. I remembered that there were 108 blood donors once in a blood donation activity. It seems that the HSL was Tsang Chi Fung (?) that year. The main reason was not something about our students, but the lack of manpower from the blood transfusion centers. There were only 8 chairs! (Instead of 12 chairs in early time) Ms. MK asked me to extend the time of using the hall to 5 p.m.! Oh, it was impossible for the full booking. Before that, a red cross member’s mother called me and asked me that why her son was required to do the service in school hours! Oh, my.

Recalling before taking a rest

I went to see the doctor in the morning. Before taking a rest, I just type something here.On 2007-09-15 (SAT), Kwong K.M. and Wong C.F. led us (Miss Ho and me) to Oil Man Estate to attend the annual U.O. meeting of the Red Cross. Actually, the meeting was informative and I did appreciate the work done by all the staff, especially those who work on the voluntary basis. During the sharing session, I’m glad to see Mr. Ho Chi Hang, steven, a sfxc alumnus was in charge of leading the discussion with us. There are 2 teams of Y.U. 126 and the U.O. was quite experienced. He suggested having more communications among U.O.s, well, it’s not bad.

I told F.2 students in my class that I spent 4 hours marking their homework (rate of tortoise \_/); therefore, if they just spend few minutes to copy others homework before the FT period, they should say sorry to me!

Green house meeting was held on 2007-09-21 (FRI), Suen Nam is the house caption this year (last year: Wong Kin Kueng). Mr. Ching’s speech emphasized the spirit of union of Green house, especially in cheering. He gave examples of old captions Lai Siu Cheong and Wu Ying. Yes, quite impressive. Yip Ming Kei, Chan Kin Lok, Ho Chun Yu…Once a caption, always…At the end, we (Mr. Ching, Suen Nam and I) were singing dancing (so-called) on the stage, happy ending? (I was ill and could not perform well at that moment) Sometimes I think, students are growing up and being “on the shore” sooner or later, but how about myself? I need to ‘teach’ (so-called) dancing (so-called) in the cheering team with my old bones years by years? May be, the most important element is not the age actually, it should the fire inside.

Many students were busy decorating boards for club promotion. Meanwhile, student Yan asked me some mathematics questions and I’m happy to share. I avoided saying something like, “um…you’ll learn it later”; instead, I tried to give basic explanations.

Form teacher of 2V

I was assigned to be a form teacher of F.3C 2 years ago. May be my performance was not satisfactory or something, I had not been form teacher in the following two years after that. This year, the two-form-teacher policy is going to carry out in junior forms, I am given a chance to be a form teacher (I prefer using ‘class teacher’ instead) this year. Together with Ms. Wong (another form teacher of F.2V), I do hope to enjoy this academic year with students in my class. I knew some pupils coming from F.1J last year, I wish some of them may change their impressions on me (i.e. I am not kind and mild).

F.1 Induction Day on 2007-09-01

This is both the end and the beginning school activity I got involved in the preparation. Though I was quite experienced in this activity, I still had no improvement and confident in making of it. But I’m so glad to have Ms. Zoe Yau, Maggie Li, Monica Chan, Connie Fan, Mr. Leo Man, Mr. Kelvin Chan and all F.1 form teachers to devote their time to take part in the event.

Both F.4 helpers and F.6 Big Brothers did their job successfully. They accomplished the preparation works in a short period of time. It was quite impressive to see some F.4 student helpers performed maturely.

During the overall debriefing, one big brother reflected that F.1 students in his group did not believe that Big Brothers received no money in helping F.1 students! How come they had no concept about voluntary work! Hopefully it was only a rare case. After the induction, I felt that my summer holiday begins, yes, even I was not spending 100% in school, the feeling of void holiday was overwhelming!

After doing similar programs for years, I feel tired. Next year, the program may be ‘sold’ to external centers. We need some discussions with Mr. Iu later. If the ‘selling’ can reduce the manpower of teachers, it’s worthy.

Big Brothers Training on 2007-08-30

It was extremely difficult to find enough Big Brothers. I found 2 F.7 Big Brothers Tam Yan Lai and Lau Wang Chi to get involved in the F.1 induction day. Tam replied me quickly, thank you God! Why the number of big brothers less than 25 this year? (Last year 34) Here may be some explanations.

1. Students didn’t know who I am.
2. Students did not know exactly what Big Brother Scheme is.
3. Students just concentrate on academic performance.
4. Students may have no interest in serving small brothers.
5. Too late to contact.

At last, there were 16 Big Brothers taking part in the training that I finalized the preparation at 3:00 a.m. that morning.
I’m not professional in training through adventure, but I kept telling myself that I was a coach in that moment, I needed to be energetic and have ‘something’ to draw Big Brothers’ attentions. I selected some games; as for example, “one-word game”, “solving the rope’s problem” etc. I found that students enjoyed playing games but the debriefing was not quite insightful. In general, big brothers participated the activities in good manner, just some took it not seriously. And I was too greedy to prepare many materials for achieving many targets (self-reflection, problem solving, communication skills, team building…) and I needed to cut off some games for the lacking of time. Spending $960 for lunch, but It was totally not enough. I can’t imagine the situation when there was no Big Brother absentee.

F.6 Training on 2007-08-25

This year, the program was organized by an external youth organization: 坪石青年空間. I’d attended two preparation meetings only. The role of me and some teachers were so-called facilitators, but actually, it seems that there’s no difference with or without us. The theme and the kind of training were so familiarized: trust on each other, time management and problem solving. Unlike mathematics, this kind of knowledge cannot be acquired by just reading or listening. Any civilized man could ‘talk about’ some important principles and ethics in life, but how many of them could be ‘collinear’ with what they claimed? I came across the concept of “important-and-urgent” by reading books many years ago, but I just know it, not learn it. When seeing smiling and laughing faces of students, when seeing them taking part in activities seriously, I gave thanks to my Lord. First concepts on F.6 students this year: more than 100 A’s? passive in activities? Just wait and see.

F.1 Summer Bridging course from 2007-07-23 to 2007-08-03

Mr. Kenneth Ching had recommended some F.7 students suitable to take up the job. Like big brothers, I did not know them well and felt that it was difficult to find the one. At last, I contacted Siu Ka Ho to be the principal of the summer bridging course. He was responsible and nice. Yu Wai Ho was committing himself much in preparation of the I.H. materials. Also, I needed to thank all the 12 F.7 tutors for helping the school in organizing the bridging course. I just suggested the working schedule, provided materials and gave advices during preparations. Undoubtedly, I must stay in the school during the time period of the course, meanwhile, Ms Tsang was supervising the tutors in Englishbur every morning.

F.1 Orientation on 2007-07-16

Powerpointing, reporting, pre-S1 test, T-shirts, collection of forms and money… all those small matters, but, I needed to follow.

F.1 Admission

Preparation of name lists. The job was done quickly this year for the implementation of maximum 40 students a class. But the Saturday and Sunday were used up for that.

F.1 Registration on 2007-07-12

Unknown to me but I needed to show how to work with documents like student record forms, allocation slips etc. I knew that I need to tear off the document sometime at the moment of working. The starting time was supposed to be 9:00 a.m. but parents arrived at 8 and it was the actual starting time.

Finding Big Brothers

I think it is always a problem of finding big brothers on phone, especially I had no idea of who they are. The work should have done many days ago. The initiative is an important element to success, can I explain why the situations of the Big Brother Scheme of these years by that? Anyway, the time is a problem, last-miunte guy.

Staff Management Consultative Committee Meeting

After being one of the committee members for two years, I am now free from the committee. Today, I just gave the evaluation report on the F.1 Summer Bridging Course. I spent many hours (slept at 4 a.m. last morning) preparaing the only 3-page report. Poor man. We come up to some conclusions including

(1) Joint-mode is preferrable 

(2) Design SFXC T-shirt

(3) Refer to the dates of university registration and O-camps, arrange better time for launching the bridging course.

Y.U. 81 AGM

I’m pleased to see alumni red cross members being there for attending the AGM in 1R, they were Andrew, Law Kee, To…This year, Yi Ho, Wai Kei, Tim tried their best to participate the administration of Y.U. 81 this year. Today, there were only serval new members attending the AGM. Quite disappointing. May be the binding among members is so loose that they were not taking serious in the unit. We discussed some problems and solutions for the reference of the new committee. 3 hours. Kwong Kin Man will be the HSL in the coming academic year; together with two F.6 SLs, I think they may run the unit smoothly. The posts of ASL (T) and ASL (S) were cut and remaining 7 committee members. Also, I long for changes in regular meetings that members may find it interesting in attending meetings.