Ong Teng Cheong Student Activities and Leadership Training Centre

Name of place: Ong Teng Cheong Student Activities and Leadership Training Centre

The Ong Teng Cheong Student Activities and Leadership Training Centre was officially opened on 21 March 2007 by Mr Gan Kim Yong, Minister of State for Education and Manpower. The Centre is named in honour of distinguished Hwa Chong alumnus and Singapore's first elected President, Mr Ong Teng Cheong, who was both an outstanding leader and a passionate supporter of the Arts.

Under the Hwa Chong Integrated Programme, the Centre serves as a platform to develop students holistically, particularly in areas of the Arts and leadership excellence. Key features of the Centre which support this vision include the Leadership Training Centre, the Performing Arts Centre, the Clubs and Societies Centre and the Student Resource Centre.

This place means a lot to me as my sweat and heart is embedded onto the floors of it. During my NPCC training, i would have to come here for every training. I have been through tough times and happy times here with my squad mates. Most of the time, punishment such as push-ups will occur here and it makes up NPCC cadets more bonded together as we encourage each other to persist and not give up.

Here, it strongly brings out my identity as an NPCC cadet as all our trainings occur here. The mere mention of Salt Centre directs me to thoughts of NPCC trainings, how we endured tough situations and enjoyed each other's company in happy occasions. Having spent most of my time in Hwa Chong (other than class time) here, it certainly means a lot to me to a certain extent that it is my second home. And, whenever I am reminded of Salt Centre, my identity as an NPCC cadet never fails to surface.

Home-Based Learning - Comic Strip

By zanechee1 | View this Toon at ToonDoo | Create your own Toon

Title : Black and White
Theme : Racism
Main Characters : 1 Negro and 1 White man

Plot : A Negro hears of an event giving freebies to everyone from a white man. He went to the place of event and finds that the queue is long. Hence, without hesitation, he went on to queue as he fears that the queue might grow longer and he would have to wait longer. However, what he did not realise is that he was queuing on the queue meant only for white people. There, a rude white man calls him a nigger and that he should be queuing at the queue meant for Negros like him

Props, Backgrounds, Characters and their Uses

First Scene
Background : Street
Explanation : This is where the 2 man meets together and the Negro gets informed of the event
Character : White man and Black man
Explanation : This is used as a introduction of the conflict (wrong queue) for later scene.

Second Scene
Background : A blank screen.
Explanation : The black screen which is white, is used to contrast with the black man's skin colour. This is used to show that the black man is in the wrong place, as it is mainly for the white people.
Character : Queue made up of white people
Explanation: Again, it is used to bring out the fact that the black man is in the wrong queue and that he is the odd-one out.

Final Scene
Background : Open Space
Explanation : Use to portray that the number of people queuing up for the freebies is a lot.
Character : Black queue and White Queue
Explanation : Used to bring out the racism within by separating the two different colour groups away.
Items : "Black and White" banners
Explanation : Again, it is used to bring out the racism by showing that the "Blacks" belong here or the "whites" belong there.
Items : Boxes and long queue
Explanation : Notice that the "White" section have a lot of boxes (freebies) piled up although not many people are queuing up for it. However, at the "Blacks" section, there is only 1 box of freebies when there are so many people Negros queuing up. This is used to show that the freebies are mainly for the white people and not the blacks. Hence, this is used to show that the Blacks are mainly discriminated and that they are not seen with proper dignity as the number of freebies for them is significantly lesser than those for the Whites.

Black Eyed Peas - Where is the love

This song is mainly about the fight against racism that took place in countries. It talks about how kids are getting involved in gangs and caught up in a whole lot of bad things that should be avoided. This song is basically calling out all of the hatred and all of the un-needed discrimination that takes place in today's society.

It is also about the disintegration of society's values. For example :

"But if you only have love for your own race
Then you only leave space to discriminate
And to discriminate only generates hate
And when you hate then you're bound to get irate"

Here, racism is being expressed in violent/humiliating methods nowadays according to this song.

"As I'm gettin' older, y'all, people gets colder
Most of us only care about money makin'
Selfishness got us followin' our wrong direction"

Materialism is getting more common. Making money seems to be the most important thing in people's minds now and they only got more and more selfish

The part which impacted me most is this part :

"Wrong information always shown by the media
Negative images is the main criteria
Infecting the young minds faster than bacteria
Kids wanna act like what they see in the cinema"

It seems that the youth are easily influenced by the media. This leads to the rise in juvenile crime and violent acts. For example, a kid sees a bad guy robbing a bank and if it seems fun to him, he might try doing so too, except at a smaller scale like stealing from his friends. This is true as most of time, young children are seen imitating the cartoon hero Superman ---> Jumping from chairs with a towel tied to their backs as capes. I think that the media should be broadcasting education knowledge at children channels such as Nickelodeon and focus less on the wrong doings of bad cartoon characters.

Reflection on Charlotte's Web

Introduction

Charlotte's Web is novel by acclaimed American author E.B White, about a pig named Wilbur who is saved from being slaughtered by an intelligent spider named Charlotte. The novel tells the story of a pig named Wilbur and his friendship with a barn spider named Charlotte. When Wilbur is in danger of being slaughtered by the farmer, Charlotte writes messages praising Wilbur (such as "Some Pig") in her web in order to persuade the farmer to let him live.

Impact

This story mainly evoked some thoughts in my mind - friendship, resilience, and new life.When the old sheep in the barn cellar tells Wilbur that he is going to be killed and eaten at Christmas, he turns to Charlotte for help. Charlotte has the idea of writing words in her web showcasing Wilbur's excellence ("some pig", "terrific", "radiant", and eventually "humble"), reasoning that if she can make Wilbur sufficiently famous, he will not be killed. Thanks to Charlotte's efforts, and with the assistance of the gluttonous rat Templeton, Wilbur gets to live on. However, as the time goes by, Charlotte grew old and could almost not spin. However, to allow Wilbur to win a competition, she eventually drew her last web to form more words which eventually took her life away. This not only shows the power of friendship but also persistence as Charlotte persevered with the last of her web to enable her friend from being slaughtered.

Wilbur repays Charlotte by bringing home with him the sac of eggs she had laid at the fair before dying. This also shows that friends help each other when in need too. When Charlotte's eggs hatch at Zuckerman's farm, most of them leave to make their own lives elsewhere, except for three: Joy, Aranea, and Nellie, who remain there as friends to Wilbur. These 3 new spiders, had characteristics similar to that of Charlotte. Hence, the cycle of friendship continues. This touching story about 2 friends made me realise that life is short and that to live a meaningful one, one cannot do without friends. For true friends will do anything to save each other from danger.

- Thats all folks -