I have spent almost two months of my summer vacation enjoying my ✨rot girl summer✨ at home. I was worried that I wouldn't be able to function properly once the new academic year starts. And now that the summer break has ended, it's time for the first day of school - the start of a new school year that's both exciting and nerve-wracking.
During the orientation day, I couldn't help but wonder what this new journey would bring me. How would my new classmates and teachers be? Can I adjust to my old and new classmates and teachers after such a long break? Will I meet my expectations, or will I disappoint myself? Some of the questions have yet to be answered. All I know for now is that I can't escape the tedious workload and the anxiety of upcoming IGCSCs and other exams. However, I'm hopeful that the enjoyment I'll get from classes with my classmates and doing fun activities will outweigh all the stress and make this year bearable.
It is the start of a school year and that means also the start of OUR AEP classes! Before the AEP classes had started, we were already given the learning contract of the year. And oh gosh *gasp* it was dreadful. Essays. The main focus of our class, Essays. Seeing the word itself, bought me shivers. Writing an essay has never been really enjoyable for me and now it frightens me that it will have the power to affect my grades. As if that wasn't enough, there are other dreadful changes in the class requirements; the addition of finals and vocabulary quizzes. Yup, I can already feel myself getting smarter (Can you hear the sarcasm?).
We completed three quizzes before class, including a syllabus quizlet, an English-level check, and an introduction to IELTS essay. During my research for the IELTS essay, I discovered that it should atleast 150 words and completed in 20 minutes. While this made me less fearful of writing long essays, it heightened my fear of being concise within such a short time frame.
Then there was the first day of AEP classes. We were already behind schedule for the cancellation of school classes caused by violent storms in the previous week. I noticed a change in the sitting arrangement as soon as I entered the classroom. It was a relief to see Teddy and Alice were still there, and I am sure they were also happy to see us back. Also, there were two new faces in the classroom; Haziq and James! They were much welcomed and would hopefully bring a lot of cheerfulness to the classroom.
During our first meeting with Miss Disa, she outlined the schedule we'll be following for this school year. One exciting addition is the introduction of freedom tickets! When we complete a task before its deadline, we receive one minute of free time to use at any point during the class. This incentive has motivated all of us to submit our work on time. Additionally, Miss Disa asked us to draw a picture of ourselves on a sheet of paper, which is now displayed on the bulletin board outside our classroom. We will be moving our picture through the various stages of our assignments, starting from "Yipee, I've started" to "Done and dusted!" This visual representation is another way of keeping us motivated to complete our assignments on time. Miss Disa also showed us a new word game for warmup which is called Diffle. The game is similar to other wordle-like games we have played before but with the added challenge of not showing the number of letters in each word. We now have a strict time limit of 5 minutes to complete our warm-up, which may seem daunting but we surely we can rise to the challenge.
On our second class, we were tasked with writing an essay about British male and female students who work part-time or full-time jobs along with a presentation of a bar chart. As soon as I saw the question, my mind went blank. There was so much information to consider, and I couldn't decide which details to include within the word limit. Additionally, I wasn't sure how to begin the essay effectively. Unfortunately, by the end of the class, I had only managed to jot down some messy sentences, which I am not proud of.
Later on, Miss Disa asked us to write down three questions that came to our mind while writing it. She told us to read our questions aloud and then proceeded onto explaining how to properly write an essay in IELTS format. All of our questions were clearly answered. After the lesson, I am pretty sure that I will be able to improve my essay writing skills through practice and will gradually become better at it.
There are yet a lot of things to learn from the AEP class. I am glad this year, I can experience AEP from the very beginning, unlike the last time. By the end of the three semesters, I hope to learn an extensive vocabulary and enhance my writing skills to an advanced level. It is the start of a journey and there is so much I am looking forward to! I hope AEP remains as fun as ever. I will be back soon to keep you guys updated. For now, I am signing off as your fellow vlogger. Adios!👋✨
Wow what a lengthy blog, and so informative...Well done!
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