Sweet!

Hello from Mabel

2009-06-18T13:04:00.000+12:00

Turning 41 is sobering. Now I'm 41 and one month old. Still feels the same but must add, the body feels a little slower. Maybe it's winter. Will blog some more but just dropped a note to say hi.

Final update

2009-03-28T01:11:00.002+13:00

Kids having fun in the water after studying rock pools. The boys were shielding themselves from others who were splashing water at them. It was FREEZING but they didn't care.

A kid found an empty paua shell and a sea anemone so she put it into the shell. Good photo? Yeah, I took it.
Me with part of my class at the top of this vertical bush walk. It took FOREVER to get to the top!!! Great bonding time.....yeah, right.

Okay, one with me in it, hopefully.

My school again

2009-03-28T01:06:00.002+13:00

Some pix here just for u lah.

Nathan cooking zucchini stirfry.......all part of learning to be healthy.

Children made zucchini and carrot muffins with our own homegrown organic vegies.

Davina, my principal. A Canadian.....lovely and superb principal.

Another update.....

2009-03-28T01:03:00.004+13:00

More photos.....

An update

2009-03-28T00:57:00.004+13:00

My school is awesome....

Teaching at a new school......

2009-01-23T22:49:00.003+13:00

Wow, my new school is absolutely AWESOME!!!!!! The best ever.......

Will write more....been setting up my classroom and loving the staff.....the principal rocks!

Christmas Eve Service

2008-12-26T12:07:00.003+13:00

More CPAC photos.....

2008-12-23T01:17:00.006+13:00

Here are more Churton Park Anglican Church photos......

Our Wonderful Church Family

2008-12-23T01:08:00.002+13:00

Here are some cool photos of our church family, Churton Park Anglican Church.

Hello.......

2008-12-07T08:28:00.000+13:00

Aiyah, dunno if anyone reads my blog. I'm officially a woman of leisure, recovering from teaching. Will be back teaching next Feb so will blog regularly now.....

I Like High School Musicals....HA...HA...HA... DORCAS!

2008-10-28T17:36:00.000+13:00

I'm writing this blog to protest against the blog by Dorcas. I think HSM is really funny and cool. Who cares when couples get together and who cares if the storyline is not cool. I just watch it and laugh..... better than Bollywood dancing and singing nonstop shows.......

Musings

2008-10-23T21:37:00.002+13:00

Ah, it is very cold once again. The rain has stopped ......... the sound of silence is deafening, broken only by the clikety clakety of the train on the tracks beside our house. Peace, at last. The freezing temperatures punctuates the silence................ alas, the stupid clock tic tocs and wakes me up from my dreaming..............

Time to go to sleep. Long weekend coming up - Labour Day on Monday so there is no school. No school on Monday means no crossing duty, yeah!!!!! I'm happy becoz I'm going to catch up on sleep ......... Graham's gotta work on a statutory holiday, poor hubby.

I've got some work to complete for my Fellowship, like finishing my poster for publication and finishing some powerpoint presentations. Only a bit more to go but we all know that the last bit is always the hardest. So pray for me.....

Cheerios,
Mabes

Another rainy day in Wellington

2008-10-22T21:05:00.003+13:00

The rain in Wellington does not pitter patter on your roof. The rain pours down and causes a stampede on your roof. Like a non-stop stampede.............you wonder if your roof would hold up..... and then more stampeding.........

Wah liow, no let up one......rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain and you can't even see the lights in the distance outside your window because the sheets of rain makes everything in the rain opague....

Rain, rain, go away, little Mabel wants to play,
Rain, rain, go away, come again some other day.

Happ Birthday to Rachel Chiang and Dorcas Lee

2008-10-19T20:41:00.002+13:00

Wow, I still remember all those years ago (14, I think) when the two of you girls were born. I was home in 1994 and used to carry both of you downstairs, one on each arm. Everyone thought u2 were twins. People thought I was da mummy lah......

Now both of you are all grown up and absolutely gorgeous...........

Happy birthday Rach (16 Oct) and Dorcas (21 Oct).........

So many people I know and love have their birthdays about now...........

Wow, wow, wow........

2008-10-19T20:13:00.001+13:00

September oredi.....

2008-09-18T17:47:00.003+12:00

Ah, haven't been updating my blog.....how time flies. Been wanting to upload fotos but haven't had time to take any new fotos lately.

Started back at school mid-August and now, 5 weeks later, I'm ready, yes, READY for the two-week break coming up at the end of September.

My class is absolutely gorgeous.........loud, gregarious, funny, amazing, naughty and yes, ROWDY!!!!!! I adore the kids and we get on really well. We spend a lot of time hanging out, i.e. lunch times and intervals (recesses) are usually spent just chilling with them in class. You hear so much of the children's heart when u just hang out with them. They are amazing and so beautiful.

We have started running Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays (Period 1). Well, more accurately, the kids run and I walk. Great fun. This way, they use up all the extra energy gained from drinking fizzy for breakfast. They are also more able to concentrate during lessons.

We've been making paper planes to study the forces acting on the plane as it ascends and descends. That is for Science but during Maths, English or Art, every now and then, a paper plane appears out of nowhere, to peals of laughter. The classroom is littered with paper planes. There are paper planes behind the piano, on the top shelf, behind the curtain, on top of the light shade etc..... I wonder how much they actually learnt. Must admit that their paper planes are flying further and staying in the air longer.

My steepest learning curve has been teaching the children to paint using acrylics. It's stunning watching the children become confident in using different techniques and strokes to create beautiful sunrises/sunsets, blue skies, cloudy skies, shimmering seas etc..... At first, they all want to paint flat paintings and stay within the lines. Now they cross-hatch, they dot, they splatter, they blend, they layer, they drybrush and they do all sorts of amazing things. Yes, my beautiful carpet is now rather dirty and colourful.

It's awesome......and now for the paperwork. Gotta go and do that now........ might post pictures of their paintings soon......

Love,
Mabes

A week later..............

2008-08-22T20:10:00.002+12:00

Ah, I have had an awesome week at school. It's great to be back in the classroom - the children are lovely. It's really strange being at school, doing duties and following a routine. Good and bad - great for me to work within a structure but bad because you have to rush from one thing to another.

We've had heaps of fun in class, doing personality tests to find out what we are like. Knowing the children's personality helps me group them properly when I want them to work in groups. When they know their personality type, they can better understand why they are the way they are. They also learn to work with other personality types and to manage their own behaviour.

Had Thursday off to attend the Wellington Regional Science Fair. Pretty amazing entries for the Science Fair. Can't wait till we participate in it next year. Yeah. We had a great time learning about air and air pressure today. We are working on a unit on flight so the build up takes quite a while.............air pressure, lift, thrust etc and various types of forces.

Well, I'm away down south this weekend. Will miss the school ball but I booked my flights before I knew the dates of the ball. Nevermind.

Take care and God bless.

Just chatting.........

2008-08-05T22:36:00.002+12:00

Well, here I am............ only 8 working days to the end of my Fellowship. Lots of work completed and done........... just tying up loose ends.

Will post photos and update my blog soon......just to say, "I am actually looking forward to returning to the classroom."

Bye for now.
Mabes

Countdown to end of Fellowship

2008-07-25T23:33:00.002+12:00

Hi there, it's me again. 3 more weeks to go to the completion of the fellowship. I often struggle to complete things well - I'm not hot on details. Thought I was weird until yesterday when I learnt that I'm an I in the DISC personality profile.

D stands for Direct - people who are usually task focused and who tend to be bossy.
I stands for Influential - people who have fun, make people laugh but are not good with details.
S stands for Stabilising - people who work hard to stabilise groups, who aim to please others
C stands for Conscientious - people who dot their 'i' s and cross their 't's, organised and logical

So I was happy to find that I'm okay, not abnormal. I believe God gave me this fellowship to help me learn to finish things properly. I'm making slow but steady progress. Pray for me....... I need all the prayer support I can get.........

Persevering ........

2008-07-15T23:17:00.002+12:00

Well, here I am, trying v hard to complete my Fellowship with grace and dignity. God gave me this amazing Fellowship and I want to make sure that I don't let Him down. At this point in time, I'm trying to write up my lesson plans for Electricity. Used to simply memorise rules and then solve the problems with the formulae. Alas, there has been a shift in paradigm to deepen my understanding of coulombs, charges, currents, voltages, voltmeters, ammeters, resistance, Kirchoff's Laws etc etc etc.

John Hanna introduced me to a wonderful book by Eric Rodgers (no longer in this world) written in the 1960s. Eric makes Physics come alive and I would love to get my hands on a copy of the book, "Physics for the Inquiring Mind." I now see Coulombs skipping along, tripping over difficult terrain and bandits behind bushes pouncing on the coulombs demanding that they shell out their money. Yup, I'm crazy but absolutely in love with this new way of learning. Old way but new for me.

Well, I finish my Fellowship on the 15th of August and start back at school on the 18th of August. Whooppeee.......

Gotta go now and get some sleep before going into Victoria tomorrow. Take care and God bless.

Wellington Fault Line

2008-07-14T07:39:00.003+12:00

Ah, I had the privilege of attending a seminar last week - SciCon 2008. Yup, a bunch of Science teachers got together to listen to various international speakers. Check out Dr Jim Heath on google. This guy has the heads-up on cancer cures....... Many wonderful presenters showcased their projects and research. On the final day, I went on a Geology Trip around Wellington - run by the Geology Dept of Victoria University of Wellington. The best part of the trip was seeing the Wellington Fault in Upper Hutt. Here's a blurp from the web about the fault.

Wellington Fault runs through the Upper Hutt suburb of Totara Park. This area has been planned with a number of special features to protect residents. One section that the fault traverses, California Park, has been set aside as a recreation reserve. Through the rest of the suburb, the fault line runs down the centre of California Drive. This street has two lanes separated by a wide grassed berm that covers the fault trace. No house is closer than 20 metres to the fault. Very few service lines, such as water, gas and sewer systems, cross the fault. Those that do cross it have flexible joints to withstand ground shaking.

Mrs & Mrs Stewart, 2006, I think.

2008-06-27T19:47:00.002+12:00

Here we are, all dressed up for a friend's wedding.

Ezra, the wonderful nephew!!!!

2008-06-27T16:15:00.002+12:00

Ah, here are some photos of Ezra. Now, what can I say about him? Ezra is a wonderful young man who is well loved by his mum, dad, sister and all the aunties, uncles and grandma. He is super-sociable and makes friends very easily. Ezra has a compassionate heart and he stands by those who need a friend. He's got a fantastic sense of humour. Just check out his blogsite and you will see that.

Ezra is named after a minor prophet in the bible.
He has a prophetic call on his life - he just doesn't know it yet. There is a mighty anointing upon him and he is rising up to be a mighty man of God.
A Joshua of his generation. Go, God, go, set Ezra on fire.

Here Ezra plays goalie...........

Missing Everyone

2008-06-26T23:59:00.002+12:00

Ah, here I am, nice and warm in front of the gas heater, blogging. I've been missing all my family and friends dearly. Dot, we miss u lots. Can't seem to get you on your phone......always no connection. Daniel, Anna, Ezra and Dorcas, hope u r all well and enjoying the lovely space at Pierrepont. Lye Huat, Agnes, Rachel, Jael and Samuel, you are missed even though you don't read my blog. If Mother gets to see this blogsite, here's a shout out to you, "Mum, we miss you!"

Been working very hard and keeping many late nights. Making great progress in my work and am finishing well. I'm great at starting things but finishing things seems to be something I really need to work on. So here I am, with the wind beneath my wings, finishing this last lap of my fellowship.

As I write, Graham is snoring away. He has to be up by 3am so I would be snoring too if I have to wake up so early.

I haven't featured Ezra yet as I have to go to Daniel's flixster to download a photo of Ezra. But we will get there soon. BTW, Dorcas, it's like 1.15pm and u r logging in. Why aren't u at school? Gotta go now..............take care and lots of love to all.

Mabes

Churton Park Anglican Church Women's Day

2008-06-26T23:39:00.004+12:00

Last Saturday, a group of us gila women from Churton Park Anglican Church attended a Women's Day. We played this 'fancy dress pass the parcel game' - it was really funny.

More Family Portraits

2008-06-23T17:18:00.003+12:00

Family Portraits

2008-06-23T17:14:00.002+12:00

My Absolutely Awesome Niece, Dorcas Lee.

2008-06-21T09:08:00.002+12:00

Hi there, my dear friends,

I'm here to say how proud I am of my absolutely awesome niece, Dorcas Lee. She created this beautiful blogsite for Graham and myself.

Dorcas is beautiful, clever, full of kindness and fun. She has a fantastic sense of humour and we love her dearly. We also love and miss our other nieces and nephew......... Ezra, Rachel, Jael and Samuel. We will feature a niece or a nephew in each of our blogs..........

Next blog will feature Ezra......

Graham and I have had a week of enforced rest........G was exhausted and stressed....so much so that he ended up in hospital. So we have been resting up lots. He returns to work on Monday, for which we are most thankful to God.

I am in the midst of my fellowship and am looking forward to studying more Physics.

We miss all our family in Singapore. Here's a shout out to the Locks, esp Deb. We love you, Debs. God loves you dearly too. Debs, your are named after a judge in Israel. A lady with tremendous courage, wisdom and faith in God. Here's a shout out to the Chiangs - Rachel, Jael and Samuel.

We've also adopted a wonderful family.........Andrew, Theresa, Melissa, Olivia and Christina. Will post a photo of them soon.

Lots of love,
Mabes

2008-06-21T06:31:00.003+12:00

Haha...I'm not the owner of this blog. But i'm the manager of the blog until G&M get the hang of their new blog :)

REMINDER: Tag Me!