My first semester being a secondary one

It is almost half a year since I have entered secondary school and I have experienced a lot of things which I have not expected at all. The first semester was quite smooth besudes some downs. I will be sharing some of the plus points, minus points, interesting points and my plans for the future.(next semester)

Plus points (+)

I experienced half a year of secondary school life, teachers were friendly and always ready to make the lesson interesting, meaningful lessons were made fun and easy to learn, they made me eager to go to school. I managed to do different projects with different classmates, and I got used to working with people I'm not familiar with. My classmates were behaved relatively well and they made intelligent jokes during the class, unlike my old classmates when they make jokes that make no sense. I learned stuff that I did not expect to learn (infocomm studies). Computers can be used during free time and they are widely available, something I could not experience till I was a secondary school pupil. My cca, Chinese Drama, also allowed me to learn a lot about acting and stage play. The school had several platforms to communicate with their pupils and we received our test results via the internet, very hi-tech. With its ACE and OP, the school makes sure that students voice out during lessons, as well as focusing on self initiated projects. I grew to like my third language, Malay, and I found that it can be applied a lot in our daily lives. Hence, I represented Malay for the open house. The open house provided valuable experience for me and I learned what the parents wanted to know about the school. Project’s Day, the main project of the year, allowed me to experience doing a real project, our mentor was friendly and always gave his/her opinion on problems that we faced.

Minus Points (-)

The homework given by the teacher was difficult as the topics taught were totally new to me and I had to spend a lot of time completing them. There were plenty of days for me to stay back, especially in the first term, hence leaving me with very little free time as compared to primary school. The teachers 'spammed' me with projects and gave me very little time to finish up the projects. No extension given. Furthermore, teachers expect us to hand in our worksheets to the *subject* representative without any warning. Some teachers had problems pronouncing certain words and their sentence are full of grammatical errors. The school could not find good organizers or organized their programs well. The secondary one camp was horrible and the secondary one orientation/ consortium day was not really fun.

Interesting point (/)

Our recess is increased to 40 minutes. The teachers timed their homework the give with the other teachers so one day we have lots of work and the next day we have no work at all. I found out that humanities are actually quite interesting as we can apply it to our daily lives. I learned to sleep on the bus on my way home despite people shouting across the bus. I grew to like the noodles, economic rice, chicken rice the canteen sells.

Plans for the future (?)

Improve my grades because I will work harder. I will try to read more widely to improve my general knowledge besides reading compulsory books like Journey to the West etcetera. I will try my best to finish up ACE projects and speaking more in class. I will strike a balance between cca, homework and relaxation/ time with my family and friends. I also wish to be a more critical thinker and look at the both side of a problem.