It's my first celebration for me as a teacher and it's been wonderful. The kids were adorable hyper and they were dressed up according to the theme "My Dream". CAPS participated in TNP Be Yourself Day. Some come dress as F1 Drivers, the President, Chef, Firefighters, Policemen, Princesses and even Knights! It's wonderful to see how creative they could be.
And for quite a first time ever I was cam-whoring with the contract teachers (after the concert) and AEDs and Iqah still has not uploaded the pics. I shall wait for that.
It's definitely easier in terms of convenience to use my iPod to surf the Internet nevertheless the laptop is definitely easier to use in terms of function. So what do I want to talk about today? Well there is a certain someone who I feel needs to check herself in the mirror first before saying things about me. She said that I'm ungrateful when she herself is being ungrateful to her parents who has brought her up for 25 years and now look what she is doing to them? It doesn't make sense when she brought up things that happened 2 years ago when I had expressed my gratitude on the spot and I believe that hardly a huge thanks should be in place. I guess she had nothing to bitch about therefore she brought out things that could hardly be labelled as 'huge'. Then she said that I should hear the other side of the story when she did not give her friends the chance to hear another side of the story that wasn't hers. So now tell me what is the base of all this anger that she have when all I hoped for was them to realize that things are not as big as it seems. They think that they are in the right however I think that both sides should be apologizing to each other because that is the only way that harmony can be achieved. These people just slash it out without thinking and bitch about how ungrateful I am. I've decided that I'm not going to make a huge deal about it because everyone are entitled to their own opinion and if she thinks I'm ungrateful then so be it. I didn't even say anything nasty...right? Well maybe I'm wrong. I'm standing by what I feel.
Thankfully there was a systematic way in getting all those exam scripts marked on time so that the kids could take it back home and revise (especially P6). It was easy, I didn't even feel any starin or difficulties at all. We all marked parts or certain questions. So yesterday was English paper and I marked prolly the easiest section...not open-ended where you would have to think of all the possible answers. Mine was almost like MCQ.
Well of course they gave me the easiest coz I'm only a contract teacher. But Hidayah and I started to mark synthesis too. That was a little tough so we marked slower. We started at 2PM and ended at 5PM...it didn't feel like 3 hours.
So tomorrow will be Maths and then Friday will be Science. I think that would be more a headache then English.
Thanks to the PSLE oral examinations I do not have to plan lessons and conduct lessons for 2 days! Yipee! It's really tiring my mind and using a lot of my brain cells when it comes to planning a lesson. Especially if the class needs you to make it interesting for them. You may have all the neccessary tools and the wondeful ideas but they may not listen to you. It's a pity when you know that there are some kids who would like to learn but because of other classmates, classes are disrupted because the teachers were trying to control them.
I may end work officially at 115PM when the kids go home but now I'm bringing work home and continue till at least 10PM. Marking is a chore but I kinda love it. I'm not sure if this make sense.
Today we had a staff recreational activities session and had rounds of Captain Ball which was fun. I got to interact with other teachers which I don't normally do due to less interaction when normal working days were going on. You only said the common "Hi" to everyone else because you are rushing for lessons and meetings and plannings.
I have a pile of books and worksheets to mark tomorrow and I guess I will look forward to that!
I don't think I've really written a solid entry about my new life and my 180 degrees career change. I've been delaying due to the fact that my days now are something like this:
530AM Wake Up!!! 625AM Get out of the house to catch the 635AM bus to school 655AM Reach school, got to staff room and get ready for classes 720AM Morning Assembly 730AM Teach and teach and teach and teach (you get the idea) 115PM PHEW! Can finally rest...if there's nothing else go home!
Depending on what time I leave school, I will go home take a shower because I'm all sweaty (not working in an air-conditioned room anymore!!!) and then I will take a nap. I will then wake up at 4PM or 5PM depending on what time I reach home. Between that time to 830PM I will pray watch TV, eat, spend time with my iPod, exercise or read. Then 830PM onwards till maybe 10PM or 11PM I will be on the computer to plan for the next day's lesson. That's my weekdays now in a nutshell.
I'm not complaining because teaching has been a satisfying experience so far. Yes it's difficult especially now that I'm teaching a lower end Primary 3 class English, Maths, and Science. They are less motivated and therefore I always got to push and persevere hoping that they too will not give up on themselves. This only started yesterday. For the past two weeks what I did was observing and relieving. I went through P2 and P5 classes, a vast difference in behaviour and mentality.
I've really learnt so much within these two weeks and the most fun I had was participating in the National Day celebration and hey I get to leave at 1030AM...how cool is that? Watch thise video of a Primary 1 class I had to take care of for that day as they run with all their might in hopes to win the race.
And another video as they sing their hearts out to this year's theme song 'What Do You See?'.
On that week I also had to relieve a P2 class for the whole day and they were a bunch which was so hard to control. They had a dry run for their sports day the day before National Day celebration and getting them to sit down was a chore I don't wish to repeat. However in class, they were a tolerable bunch and a few bear me with colourings and drawing and cards that made me smile.
I'm looking forward to hard times and good times but what matters is that I'm chasing the dream that I had when I was in primary school. I wanted to be a teacher so here I am.
Effa and I were walking down from Qiji at Century Square and as we walked pass Kimi Raikonnen's Tagheur ad, she said "Eh amik gambar ngan Raikonnen." and I gamely said "Eh boleh ar."
So this is what happens when I decided to gamely be insane abd take a picture with Kimi's ad. I think deep inside I have been wanting to do this.
I actually wanted to do a post on my birthday but I've been delaying for dunno how long. So since I have some time now, part of today's entry is dedicated to 29 July 2009.
One year ago, I was surprised with a wonderful present in the form of a First Class Honours for my degree. It was unexpected so it was definitely a huge surprise.
This year, I celebrated early by witnessing LFC victorious against the Lions at the National Stadium. I chased Torres, Kuyt, Carragher, Alonso, Benitez and the whole of LFC down the Singapore River catching a glimpse of them was a sight to behold. They are in front of me just feet away.
I also embarked on a new career chasing for fulfillment and satisfaction and am hoping to do so for many years to come.
So here's to turning 24 hopefully wiser and stronger in so many ways.
Honesty is the best policy! Leave the credits alone!
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