Volunteer work

Wow, SGD100 for an hour of tuition? And I thought the Malaysian rate of an average of RM60 an hour was ridiculously high! So, parents who earn a modest income cannot afford to have too many children who are slow learners!

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I've decided to take the plunge. I've always wanted to do it but I have a phobia to commitments, I didn't know where to start and was busy with my currently-postponed Masters programme.

I started with guiding my nephew who was in Year 3 last year. I went to his house every weekend to guide him in his BM and occasionally, English. His parents were very appreciative until I was too busy towards the end of the year that I could not guide him every week and he got a very bad result in BM. Then, the kind gesture that I thought I was extending backfired because my brother blamed my inconsistency for the bad result. Ouch!

I still feel that I am only partly to be blamed because I kept emphasizing that I was only guiding and not giving him tuition. Nevertheless, when my sister-in-law subtly hinted that I should continue with the guidance in Tatabahasa this year, while enrolling her son in a Penulisan tuition, I pretended that I did not know what she meant. You know, you can never teach your own child or relative's child. The familiarity will make it difficult for the child to listen to you and for you to scold the child.

So anyway, I have been feeling the pressure lately because the Express class that I am teaching this year is most probably going to get very bad results for English. Actually, I think it must be my problem. I don't know how to make them write well. I've been slogging like a cow, marking piles and piles of the written work every week without results (while the other teachers just looked on and sniggered that I brought it upon myself that my table is always full of books). By this time last year, the Express class was already showing improvement in their writing. This class, on the other hand, is still struggling to give me 6 correct sentences out of 10. I'm at my wit's end, trying to figure out how to at least push the Bs to Cs and a few of the Bs to As.

I can't do much to help the kids because many stay very far away and can't stay back. So, I managed to catch hold of two kids and give them GUIDANCE after school hours. I have to do it discreetly because I don't want other teachers to know that I am not accepting money for the time I put in. I teach them in school and during school tuition, so how am I suppose to accept more money for guiding them? It's my fault that they can't understand my teaching, don't you agree?

Cross my fingers that these two will score an A in their UPSR and enjoy English after some extra guidance. Haha...can never bring myself to call what I do with the kids "tuition". :)

Tuition or to shun?

How much would you pay for your children's tuition? Do you send your children for all the subjects? Do you send them for the tuition because they need help in the subject or because everybody else is sending their children for tuition?

These are the questions that have been going through my mind since last Friday. Some parents took the opportunity at the meeting to ask if I give private tuition. Truth is, I don't believe in the way tuitions are conducted in most of the tuition centres/ by teachers. The aim-for-A concept that is followed is easy money for many teachers, especially when it comes to English.

My parents told me once that I should be giving tuition rather than spending my time doing nothing and that I should pick only the better pupils. Once the children get really good results, more children will come to me for tuition. Well, let's just say that the reason I wanted to be a teacher was not because of the easy money. Nope, nor is it because I want to shape the future generation. Haha...I am not that noble. It is mainly because of the holidays and the free time that a teacher has compared to other occupations. And, ok, partly because I want to help (not shape) some kids like how my teachers inspired me to enjoy English and school.

I digress. So like I was saying, some parents asked if I gave private tuition and told me sad stories like how they cannot help their own children in their schoolwork and haven't been able to find teachers to help the children. One particular boy's mother told me almost in tears that she doesn't know BM and English and can't help much in other subjects. She has been sending her child to tuition centres diligently since Primary One and the end result is that her son's class teacher bluntly told her that unless she sends him to a one-to-one tuition, all the money is wasted. Yup, this boy cannot understand BM nor English and can hardly write in Mandarin. Well, I do want to help but I cannot be volunteering because it would, as they say in Hokkien, "pak pai hang jeng" which means that I am spoiling the market.

So for this reason I have been asking around the fees charged by some teachers for a one-to-one tuition for English and BM. And the price that some of my colleagues discreetly revealed was astronomical. Haha...Gosh...really? Parents fork out so much money for their children yet most of these children do not know how hard it is to earn that amount of money and rather spend the time at the tuition playing and not learning much. And many parents just send their children to tuition blindly without considering that their children really just can't absorb much after one whole day of non-stop tuition. And truly, if a child is able to just pay attention to the teachers in school, most wouldn't need to go for  tuition anyway.

Hmm...what is your take?

A B C D E...U P S R

It's raining cats and dogs outside and I'm still waiting for my gigantic bookshelf to arrive. Sigh...Jimmy finally spoke up and said that my room is really just a little messy, so he decided to buy me a bookshelf so that I can get organized. Sigh...

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UPSR results were annouced last Thursday and how did my pupils do? Better than I expected for two classes and not so good for the other. But I am happy, overall. I didn't sleep well the previous night and my pupil told me that I looked more tensed up then they were. Well said, SY! LOL

The express class that I was teaching had 7 people who scored a B in their English. The other, supposedly slightly weaker express class had only 3 Bs. The first piece of news I got about the UPSR was that. The other English teacher loudly exclaimed that her 2nd class only had 3 Bs while the 1st class had 7 Bs. Well, granted, the school expected all to get A in their English paper. Sigh...

Anyway, my last English class in which I was doing remedial lessons with 10 of them (remedial as in doing kindy things because they are at that level) had 10 failures while I expected more. It is the worst in the whole of Year 6 but I am so happy. I was actually expecting more to fail. But the same teacher who boasted that she had only 3Bs was going on and on about how her worse class had 9 failures after she found out that my class did worse. If I hadn't told her about that class, she was just talking about the 3Bs compared to my 7Bs. Dang...should have just kept quiet when she asked me about the other class.

A pleasant surprise was my BM class, which I was struggling with, has the highest passing rate among the normal classes! 80 over per cent! Woo hoot!! 7 failures for Penulisan and 6 failures for Pemahaman. =)

Well done, kids. And to the teacher who kept harping about your better results. It is not YOUR results. The kids did well because of their hard work and their ability to take in your teaching. If you don't take the blame when students do badly in their exams, don't take the credit when they do well. Phew...that is cathartic. LOL what to do? I don't have the guts to tell it to her face. Hehe...

Have a good day y'all!

Happy Teacher's Day and a heart-felt thank you

Ok, I take my words back. Kids still enjoy Teacher's Day because there were no lessons for the day and they could be as rowdy as they liked. I, admittedly, also enjoyed my Teacher's Day celebration. No lessons for the day, everyone in good mood, and we could see how we are appreciated/not appreciated by the others.

Best appreciation from pupils, however, was shown a day and two days after the celebration. The first was when 3 of my 7 special pupils in Year 6 English class whom I am doing remedial lessons passed their English paper. Of course, I didn't tell them that the paper is rather easy compared to the other times. One of my pupils whooped with joy and thanked me, saying that this is the first time he had passed English since Year 4. Yay! :) Another looked at me unbelievingly and said that it was the highest he had ever got for English. He got a 52. I feel rather sorry for the other pupils, especially the average ones because my attention is more often than not spent on the very weak and the better ones during class time, but I can't do it all. Maybe after this, I'll try to push the average ones to at least a B.

Today, my pupils from my BM class came and asked me why they got so high marks for their BM paper. Only 7 failures this time compared to 22 failures in the last exam. Reason being, the Section A and Section C of the paper is extremely easy this time. They were happy but still in the disbelief mode. :) Kids. Give them low marks, they complain. Give them high marks, they don't believe you. What do they want?

The life of a teacher. Love it or hate it? Or maybe both? :) Have a good day!

Challenging the pupils

Hmm...Voon, thanks for the comment but you didn't try typing it out. :P

See, what happened was I was teaching a chapter in Bahasa Melayu about lagu kebangsaan. And I think although I could write the lyrics out since my primary years, it was not until my secondary school years that I truly knew what the songs really meant. It is disheartening that Malaysians forget the lyrics to the national anthem after leaving school. Yup, don't deny it...how many of us can actually remember the entire song and our state song if we have not been singing it for years? (I'm glad that both my parents who are in their 60s could still remember the lyrics. I tested on them so many times!)

I digress. Anyway, I was teaching that chapter and the song lyrics were there for all to see. So, I tried my best to explain the lyrics to the Year 6 children and tried to instil in them the love for our country through an understanding of the song lyrics. After explaining the lyrics, I challenged them to write the lyrics of the Selangor song. The pupils were excited. Some started singing the song the moment I challenged them.They have been singing it for 6 years every week, no problem! My old school in a small town had problem after the first two lines and would start to murmur. The headmistress had to hold a competition to make them memorize the lyrics. This school, they didn't have problem with the lyrics, as far as I could see, they just had problem with the pronunciation of one or two unfamiliar words (or so I thought, how naive!).

So, the class of 33 pupils, 19 boys and 14 girls competed to write out the lyrics on the board. All 33 pupils did not get it right. The girls had a good start and wrote the first few lines well but the final 2 sentences were disastrous. The boys were rather hopeless from start to finish. I was laughing my head off. After correcting the lyrics and explaining the meanings, I erased the board and asked them to rewrite in their exercise books. I think many of them cheated, but still, there were still the few over-confident, don't want to listen in class, and do cincai work boys who produced the below for me. Take a look:

Pening oh...

Challenge

Ok..here's a challenge to all Malaysians and Selangor people who are no longer in school:

Can you type out the entire lyrics of these two songs without Googling/cheating? Negaraku and Lagu Negeri Selangor. :)

More tomorrow. Cheers!

I didn't realise until when I Googled for these flags' images that the star on the Selangor flag is slanted. Is it supposed to be so? 

A scientist works in a ...

Yay! I love Dr KK! He really tested us on what he had taught. Haha...finally, my motivation to continue next semester returned as I wrote pages and pages of answers in the freezing room. :)

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Poor kids. I didn't sleep well last night due to the exam this afternoon.

Not enough sleep + stress = Monster

I normally am very relaxed with the kids. This morning, they got my blood pressure high when I saw a bunch of the Year 6 boys running around the basketball court eventhough the bell has rung. My shouts at them went unheard as they squealed in delight of being chased by one of their classmates.

I rushed into the class and asked the monitor to borrow a cane. After the pupils in the class had handed in their homework, the 7 boys walked in all sweaty. Uh-oh...something did not seem right. Teacher looked angry and was wielding an unfamiliar-looking cane in her hand. They walked in meekly through the front door.

*Thwack* *Thwack* *Thwack* went the cane for 7 times. The boys looked at their palms after the cane came in contact with them. For once, they looked at me guiltily, rather than insolently and went back to their seats. And one boy, came near to me and said "Sorry, teacher. Thank you, teacher."

Sigh...Now, I feel guilty for caning them. But they were too much la...running around the middle of the school as though the bell meant that they could have the entire school compound to themselves!

Then, I gave them spelling....Laboratory. Look what my best student in that class of below average students wrote:

The boreh tree...apa tu??? :)

Another day of a teacher's life

"Jiawen"...uh-oh...must be some work that she wants me to do again. Sigh...just as I sat down to mark the piles of books that are quickly taking up my entire surface of the table, my subject supervisor asked me to "help" her with the sorting of books to be put into the new cupboard in the staffroom. Help meaning that I had to do it on my own while she rushes off to her class. I mean, why couldn't she have chosen her free period to sort the books if she had really wanted me to help? I mean, it's not as though I am lazy and don't want to do anything extra at all, but she should be reasonable also la, right? Write a report for her because she doesn't know how to (BS!). Prepare the material for the in-house training (okla, I was supposed to be the trainer. So, fine.) Print out the labels for the cupboard. Sort out the books. And when she asks you to "help", she expects the things the next day. Hey, I got other things to do one you know??
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Sometimes, to motivate the pupils to learn BM, I give them quizzes. My lessons are just before their recess or the last period, so I'll tell them that they have to answer my questions before they can leave the class. So, I was asking my questions as usual and a few of my pupils, who were not participative at all before our one day trip to Putrajaya last Saturday, ventured to answer my questions.

And I was speechless when I got this particular child's answer. I asked the pupils the difference of three Kata Hampir Sama Makna: lembik, lemau, lembut. Her friends are able to tell me what lembik and lemau are used for. And when I came to lembut, she raised her hand excitedly and shouted "NIU!!"

-_____-"

After 6 years of studying BM (and doing her homework diligently), lembuT (Soft) is "NIU" (Cow in Mandarin) ?? She mistook lembuT for lembu! Oh my...how to help them to pass their UPSR BM??

Hmm...I'm soft what...mooOOOOha ha ha ha ha

Cleaner table

Yay! Do you see the table now? After 2 days of staying back to mark the piles of books, I can finally see my table again! :)

Been wanting to post this for some time. Classic examples of my students' work:

The piece of work from the boy who couldn't write a word at all. Can you identify the words that I taught him?

Saya, dia, kami, Jumaat, ibu :)

A pupil who really tries hard to write but I have no idea what she wanted to say.

Very good memorized beginning...

Sigh~ another exam is coming. I hope they do better than the last time!

I Love Malaysia

I had the opportunity to be a part of the pilot programme of Sahabat 1Malaysia. I don't know if I am allowed to blog about it, so I'll just go briefly over.

It was an amazing experience. I was surprised actually that so many of our Malay friends are so unlike the ignorant, attention-grabbing politicians that we have and actually dislike the politicians as much as the non-Malays. All this while, the questions burning in my heart were buried because we can never know who we can discuss racial issues with with an open mind. Some may look as though they are open-minded but in actual they are not. This course, however, gathered selected people who are educated and objective during discussions.

I have yet to have the guts to ask questions that are truly sensitive. I don't think some people can accept my questions. Just as my fellow non-Malays who cannot accept the historical fact that our grandparents' grandparents came to this land to earn money to be sent home to their families back in China/India. I must stress that although it is a historical fact, over the years, our forefathers had settled down here and MADE THIS THEIR HOME. And like my facilitator said, MALAYSIA IS NOT MALAYSIA WITHOUT THE CHINESE, THE INDIANS AND THE OTHER RACES. So, even though history showed that our forefathers may not be loyal to this land and the king, it changed along the way and many of us if not all of the previous generation and this generation and our generations to come are Setia kepada Raja dan Negara (loyal to the King and contry).

Our country should be run by people like my facilitator, not ignorant fools who see the world through narrow eyes and speak without processing.

I love this country. I love the people. I love the food. I love the culture. I love the differences that we have and the similarities that we share. I am trying to do what I can to neutralize the deep dislike in some people about our country. I am trying to spread the word and the love for our country. I am trying to clarify the many misunderstandings created by our ignorant politicians at the grassroots. I am trying my best to make this beloved country of mine peaceful for me, my family, my children and my children's children too.

Enjoy this beautiful and meaningful song from the late Sudirman. Brings tears to my eyes (although Jimmy shakes his head not comprehending). ^_^

Warisan

Di sini lahirnya sebuah cinta
Yang murni abadi sejati
Di sini tersemai cita-cita
Bercambah menjadi warisan

* Andaiku terbuang tak diterima
Andai aku disingkirkan
Ke mana harusku bawakan
Ke mana harusku semaikan cinta ini

Betapa
Di bumi ini ku melangkah
Ke utara selatan timur dan barat
Ku jejaki

Aku
Bukanlah seorang perwira
Gagah menjunjung senjata
Namun hati rela berjuang
Walau dengan cara sendiri
Demi cinta ini

(ulang *)Ku ingin kotakan seribu janji
Sepanjang kedewasaan ini
Ku ingin sampaikan pesanan
Akulah penyambung warisan

Complaints of a teacher

What would you do if students whom you used to like do not do your work? What would you do if the child of a gangster did not do your work and you have punished all the others who did the same thing? What would you do if a child has no manners and is in your class? What would you do if a child does not want to learn and wastes your time and his time and all his other friends' time?

These are some of the things that make a teacher's life miserable. Of course, there are also some things that make teachers enthusiastic about teaching. But, more often than not, these cases of stubborn learners make a teacher's blood boil and make the teacher want to squeeze those scrawny necks of theirs (in the teachers' minds only-lah)!

It's sad that these people would grow up being rude and remain uneducated even after 11 years in the school system. In fact, I actually feel that the uneducated people of the past actually behave better than these people we forced into schools.

The government blames the teachers for not producing quality manpower. The secondary school teachers blame the primary school teachers and the primary school teachers blame the parents who in turn blame the teachers. So, who is at fault? I believe all of us are at fault. Don't think that primary school teachers don't make an effort to teach individual pupils. But when they are younger, most of the time is spent on controlling their discipline rather than teaching. And even with teaching, demands from the parents and society require the teachers to teach at bullet train speed so that they can move on to bigger and better things in the next year. How are the pupils supposed to cope when they can't even understand the basic?

I have 3 Year 6 pupils who can't even pronounce the BM "ba", "be", "bi", "bo" and "bu". 2 of whom I have subjected them to writing 3 to 5 lines of words daily. The other child told me that s/he doesn't want to do that as s/he thinks that his/her tuition teacher can do that for him/her. Of the 2, only one has progressed to a vocabulary of almost 50 words. The other child is still stuck at Ahad, Isnin, Selasa, Rabu, Khamis, Jumaat, Sabtu, Januari, Februari, Mac, April.

Today, I had asked the pupils to copy a piece of karangan from a book and then use the points to write a Laporan. I explained, written the draft, showed them, reminded them that although the points are similar, the format is different. Yet, only the usual 6 handed in both pieces of karangan to me. I gave them 45 minutes and 3 pupils were still unable to finish COPYing.

Stupid? I don't think they are. Lazy? Perhaps. My fault because I did not make sure that they copy? Maybe but mind you, I have 33 pupils and only 6 to 10 rather dependent learners. What can I do? I am very afraid. Afraid that I would have ruined it for these Year 6 kids because I did not do enough. Because I was not strict enough. But how much can I do if the parents and more importantly the learners are not willing to pull their weight?

This is only my second year of teaching and I get so frustrated. So angry. The school administration is not helping by giving me all sort of donkey work. Sports team leader, secretary for this and that, Advisor for a club, RIMUP leader...SIGH...and you people thought that teaching is easy. It is easy if you don't care for the children. At this point, I still care for some of the children. I just hope that I will continue caring for them and that they will respond to the effort that I have put in.

Just another day of a teacher's life...

The matter with fish...

Haha...thanks Melwin!

This week had been hectic. I was supposed to set the question for Year 4 BM this time around. And as I am a procrastinator, I did the work only last weekend. I completed setting the questions last Sunday. I finished the work quite quickly because I had already chosen the questions beforehand.

As the exam is only a week away, I thought I could send my papers for photocopying by the past Monday after being checked by the person-in-charge. Unfortunately, I did not trust the person-in-charge. The person has a reputation of not being responsible. So, what I did was probably not right but I did not think that it was wrong at that time. I showed my questions to my subject supervisor. This subject supervisor(SS) of mine had my utmost respect and admiration.

So anyway, the person-in-charge looked very worried when she came to see me. She told me that her pupils told her that they had done the essay before in their tuititon class conducted by my SS. My SS had actually mentioned it and I thought it was all right as the questions are all almost the same. But what made me wonder was why all of a sudden the pupils told the person-in-charge that they have done the question before.

I mean, I was sorely disappointed! What has become of the professionalism of teachers these days? I mean, it is very normal to want to help your own students, but to tell them the questions? Or even to remind them which essay that they have done to memorize! Isn't that against the whole teaching principal? As the teacher-in-charge to set the question, I did not tell the pupils which ones to look into. You know the whole concept of teach someone to fish rather than giving them a fish?

SIGH~~~

I am very naive. And slow. My housemates who joined the school with me seemed to know who is trustworthy in school and who we should be wary of WAYYYYY before I did. The life of a common man...is there no one you can trust at your work place?

On a happier note, once the exams are over, I can't wait for the arrival of the holidays in peace!! Can't wait. Hehe...gotta go to bed early today for LADAP tomorrow. Night night people!

Ms Sour Face

Phew...I finally finished setting the question papers for the Year 6 pupils! It is actually quite easy to set the questions, I just hope the level is low enough for most of them to pass.

I was a bit disappointed with myself and the Year 6 bunch for the last few days. I used to believe that strict teachers do not equate to good teachers. In that sense I mean that an effective teacher does not necessarily have to be feared. I used to think that Year 6 pupils are old enough to understand the concept of "I treat you nice, you treat me nice". I thought that they would know how to be responsible for their own learning. How wrong I was!!

I am essentially not a strict teacher. I am quite easy-going and I think my best virtue as a teacher is that I am very patient. I learnt to be patient when I was asked to teach Year One kids during practical and in my first 4 months in Sepang. My approach to teaching, which is to be nice to the pupils, was accepted and well-liked in my practical school and towards the end, in Sepang. Applying this approach in town chinese-medium school is a huge mistake.

For three weeks, I struggled with class discipline, getting the pupils to pay attention, to do work. I used psychology on them, advising them, nagging them. It would work for a while and then everything would be as though I was not in the classroom the next day. Worse part is that the classes would be more in control when there wasn't a teacher in class!

The girls who are willing to study, who are more matured and more susceptible to my approach felt that my classes were boring because they don't learn anything. I was stunned. What do they mean by they do not learn anything during my classes? What have I been doing for the past 3 weeks screaming my voice hoarse in front of the class? Quickly, the girls changed what they said, said that the boys were too noisy that they could hardly hear my explanations. Hmm...it is something for me to think about, I told them. "Teacher, use the cane on us." I went berserk. These kids actually prefer a teacher wielding a cane before they could do their work, before they could learn?!

I am disappointed with myself, the kids and the chinese school system. I came from a national school. I am lucky I was a good student. I didn't have very strict teachers, I remember all my teachers were quite nice. I didn't have to be caned. A word of advice and most of my friends would feel regret and be more proactive in learning. I didn't have to be drowning in homework to learn to be responsible. But my friends and I turned out well.

When I went home, I cursed the school system. No child of mine is ever going to this kind of school. No child of mine is going to want to be caned before they learn some thing. No child of mine is going to be turned into an animal which needs to be trained and whipped!

Then, I talked to my sister. Remember Mr. Tan Bong Leong? she asked me. Yup, a teacher so nice that noone bothered listening to him when he was in class. A teacher whom everyone knows is so good at BM that those who are kiasu went to his tuition but do not listen to him in school. A teacher so lenient that copying is rampant when he is invigilating during tests. That is the kind of attitude Form 4 and Form 5 kids from the best class gave him because he is too nice and lenient. What do you expect from Year 6 kids?

So, the next day, I went to school with a resolution. To hell with being nice to unthinking kids. I was Ms Sour-puss the whole day and the kids were actually easier to teach. They listened. They did their work. They spoke in English because I did not bother about them when they asked me questions in another language.

And it is hard for a happy-go-lucky person to be sour-faced the whole day. I don't know how some people can be unhappy all their lives. Hahahaha...gotta make myself angry for the whole year! Wish me luck!!

Top prize

Well, I have been transferred to a new school this year. My old school's district made a blunder and sent me in there when there was no vacancy. So, before I get kicked out and then posted to a place even more "ulu" than my old school, I took the initiative to apply for transfer while pulling cables and begging for a school which has vacancy to take me in. And so, I got my transfer. In town. Big school. Need English teachers. Perfect? Well, I prefer my kampung pupils. Hahaha...

First month in the school and I created history in the school. The longest-serving teacher told me that she had never heard of that kind of a thing happen in all the 30years that she was there. What happened?

Well, I was teaching Year 6 Phys. Ed and a child was hit on the head with the putt. Yup, I was supposed to be choosing a pupil for the short putt and the freak accident happened. At least 10 kids had given their best shot before this boy threw the metal ball waaaayyyy out of range and hit a girl on the head. It all seemed to happen in slow-mo. I saw the boy throwing the putt. I saw the ball making a big curve in the air before I noticed that it was flying in the direction of the girls who had strayed to the left-front of the boy. I screamed for the girls to run. I saw the girls running helter-skelter while screaming. I saw the tallest of the girls scream loudly. I saw the same girl looking at the putt coming at her. I saw the same girl cover her head with both her arms and ducked. I saw the putt hitting her head. I saw her fall to the ground with a thud. I ran to her. I saw the first rush of blood from her head. I saw my hand putting pressure on her head. I saw blood flowing freely from under my hands to cover her face when she sat down. Within 2 minutes, her face was covered with blood. I panicked.

Valuable lesson number one: never show that you are afraid, shocked, or not in control in front of the children.

It was not a good experience. Trust me. It was horrible. Seeing so much blood made me really, really scared. I then realise that the films actually did not exaggerate to portray fear. When the girl's head stopped bleeding, my hands shook so much that I could not put the mouth of my water bottle to my lips properly. I felt so nauseated. I hyperventilated. I burst into tears when my colleagues asked me to recount the incident. Yeah, embarassing. But the accident was just too shocking.

Luckily the girl is all right. She had to get a few stitches but her skull was not fractured and she did not have a concussion. The boy blamed himself at first but kids can easily forget about these things. For me? Well, it's not something that I'll ever forget. So, new teachers...think of every possibility. Get out of this profession when you have the chance! Hahaha...

Lost without school...

Well, humans are never contented, are they? I mean, a week ago, I was so looking forward to the school holidays (truth is, I don't have any respect for teachers like me! ). Now that the school holidays are here, I am bored half to death eventhough I have only been at home for erm..3 days.

Yeah...as much as I hate to admit it, I miss those little monkeys who would run around in class screaming "Lao shi! Lao shi!" even though I've already told them a million times to call me either "Cikgu" or "Teacher". Thinking about those kids make me feel sad. They have only just begun to warm up to me, and I may not see them again after this year. Why? There is this little problem of the school population shrinking and that they do not need as many teachers as this year. The possibility of me being the extra teacher is high as I am the last to be sent in. Hmmm...crossing my fingers that everything will be all right.

Many people seem to have the misconception that teaching is an easy job. I suppose compared to many other jobs, teaching has the least official hours. But I doubt many other jobs require as much patience, dedication and love. I mean, do you think it's easy to face 40 kids everyday? Try babysitting 3 of your nephews/nieces on your own and then comment on how easy a teacher's job is! Well, ok...actually taking care of your own relative's kids is much harder because you are not supposed to scold or correct the brats' behaviour unless you want a cold war with your relative. But the point is, it is not easy to take care of kids.

Haha..I suppose not many people are enlightened to the fact that there is no "easy" job in the whole world. You would think that the lower paying jobs are easier, but would you be willing to put your hand in other people's trash even if you were paid thousands? Would you be willing to spend hours under the hot sun cleaning the roads and still be unappreciated? Would you be willing to be on standby 24 hours with no off days except maybe on Mother's Day?

Gosh...am ranting. AM SO BORED!! SAVE ME! Any idea of what I can do during the holidays? I was planning to go volunteer in SPCA. Any one wants to go with me? Please, all you MPIK-ians and Segarians out there, update your blo*dy blogs!! Hahahaha...I think I'm crazy. Better go jump around like a monkey now. Adios amigos!

Teacher of monkeys

Dear all,
I have finally settled down in a small chinese school in a small town an hour plus' drive away from my house. I was a little lost at first because the headmistress said that there was no vacancy in that school...hmm...it was the first time that I actually heard that a school didn't have vacancy. I mean, why would the education department send me there if there was no vacancy, right? So, anyway whatever it was, I am staying put in that school and teaching BM, English, PJK and Seni! Foowee!! I had expected to teach PJK and Seni, but never in my mind was I expecting to teach BM! Haha...surprisingly, it is now my favourite subject to teach because the kids can converse and understand the language better than English!

Haha...so anyway, instead of travelling daily for an hour and a half, I have decided to stay in that God-forsaken place. It is convenient although I wouldn't have a life there. Anyway, if I continue staying at home with my family, I wouldn't have much of a life still, so not much of a difference. The people there are super friendly and helpful. It is almost as though the only excitement that they have for the day is to find out what you need and what you did! Haha...

I suppose the only thing that I didn't like too much about the place is that the people live within their community only. There is no need for them to learn BM or English other than as subjects in school because they don't communicate with people outside their community, except for maybe to their Indonesian maids.

Anyway, I have already turned jaded after teaching for barely 2 weeks. Hehe..dun blame me la...it is to ensure that I don't go cuckoo by the end of the year. I teach as best as I could, if the kids still don't know their ABCs, it's either they don't want to learn or they are slow. Muahahaha...I hope the slow ones catch up soon and those who don't want to learn leave my life in peace! Haha...

Ok, I think I'm bullshitting already. My apologies, I just drank a cup of coffee kau kau...hyper. Gonna go jump around like a monkey now! Wooo-heeeeeeeeeeeee!

Posting, posting, posted...

It is final. We have been posted to the respective states. It still seems surreal to me. It was just in the previous post that I said we haven't been posted yet. Good thing I haven't started breaking my back to redecorate my room! Well, I am very lucky that I got Selangor but I could still be posted to places an hour and a half away! Many of my friends got posted to Sabah...it is a shock to many as all of us only had a week plus' notice; and moving to Sabah and Sarawak is not like moving down the street. With the date of reporting and the convocation date only a few days apart, those who have been posted to Sabah are in a dilemma. The way the things work in the government is so unclear that rumours are flying around faster than you can type "rumours"!

~Sigh~

I don't know what and how to console my dear dear friends who have been posted so far away. I suppose it would be seen as an adventure if the government had given us enough time to digest the news. Perhaps they should have told the teacher trainees where they would be posted to once they graduate? Or they should have told us three months in advance? Whatever it is, they should have had a better option than just to pop the order to the trainees so few days ahead.

Whatever it is, I'm sure the 73 of us would do our lecturers in Maktab proud for doing our best to guide our youngsters to be good citizens. I think all of us have truly felt and practised the magic of tolerance and respect in the multicultural environment that we were in for the past 6 years. Here's hoping for a better future because of us! =)

"Berkhidmat untuk negara" no matter where we get and no matter who our pupils are...

Dear all,

I dunno what was the occasion today. It took me an hour and a half to travel from Cheras to Rawang just now! The traffic was slow from Cheras Loke Yew all the way to Jalan Duta. The reasons:

1) There was a slight drizzle

2) Malaysian roads are lousy

3) Weekend drivers drive at 40km/hour in the fast lane

4) Malaysian drivers create their own lanes in the emergency lane and cause bottleneck when the emergency lane ends

5) Malaysian drivers stop for anything that remotely looks like an accident

Sheesh...even the costly highway was slow-moving! I just don't understand it! Like the social service message on the radio, Malaysians can be courteous if they wanted to, but most Malaysians turn into barbarians when they are behind the wheels. I mean, I am not saying that I am a very courteous driver, but at least, I try to. Tailgating, cutting queues, not letting other cars get into your lane eventhough the fler has been flashing the signal for ages...what's the rush la wei? It's not as though you can get very far ahead when you do that also. You are bound to be stuck in a jam just a few kilometres ahead anyway, why can't drive nicely??

So anyway, the UPSR week had just passed. The parents these days really amaze me. They are even more nervous than their kids who were sitting for the UPSR examination. I think back to my younger days, and I don't remember my mother sitting at the canteen waiting for me to finish my examination. I don't remember my mother revising my work with me either. And I managed to get good results. My parents never worried about my PMR or SPM either. I was happily watching Taiwanese series when I was sitting for my SPM. These examinations are just a whole bunch of BS if you ask me. What was the point? Get As in all the subjects, get all Bs, what difference does it make? Whether you could get into a local university? They don't look at your results much, if you haven't realised by now.

Well, Woon and I met up with our Mathematics supervisor the other day. She is a well-known psychologist (apparently). She made sure that she told us that the teachers in school may recognise her because she is often on TV (Woon and I were blur because we never watched programmes that would invite her! Hahaha). Anyway, I have a feeling that the UM lecturers were intent on not allowing any of us to get an A for the teaching practice. To them, we are a source of embarassment because some of us are still not proficient in English - as though the undergraduates that they took in for the same course are highly proficient! But, I've stopped aiming for a very good grade because in the end, the results do not matter. I do feel a bit sad if I were not able to maintain my current grade's category, but I don't think anybody cares if you are in the dean's list or barely passed your final semester. The whole education system in Malaysia does not place its priorities right, if you ask me. My point is, the lecturer told us that it is impossible that she would give us an A, she just hoped that we would not get a C. Isn't that motivating to hear? Well, I think the lecturers can keep their As up their *ahem* nostrils for all I care.

On a happier note, CBN (1) is officially the representative for KL in the High School Musical 2 dance competition, My School Rocks. I had wanted to post the link to watch it on YouTube but unfortunately the video has been removed because of the poor quality. I'll see if anyone has a better video. The school was chosen from 140 teams. They are really THAT good, trust me. I had actually wanted to cry when I saw them dance and when I saw the strong support that they received from our own supporters and other teams' supporters. I think the whole routine will be aired on Astro on the 9th September at 7:30 p.m. on Disney channel. After that, you can help them win the whole competition by voting for them on the internet. Trust me, you should really watch these Year 3 and 4 kids dancing their hearts out! They were much better than many secondary school kids. And of course, this is all to the credit of their choreographer/dance teacher, Ms Noor who was one of the final 6 in the Malaysian So You Think You Can Dance competition.

Can't wait to see the whole routine. The girl who had a solo breakdance is my Year 4 pupil!! :) Please vote!!! I'll post the link for voting when I find out how. Hehe...cheerios!

Hospital Bahagia here I come!

Dear all,

It's almost the school holidays. YAY!!! Whoever said that teaching is the easiest job one can do has definitely never been around more than 10 children at any one time! Year One kids...I do not know how our teachers stayed sane! I remember vaguely that I would sometimes do what the kids do these days...cry, seek the teacher's attention 24/7, run around in class, talk etc. But I don't think kids in those days were as active as kids these days. Future parents, don't la give your kids all those high-tech milk solution thing...drink breast milk la...they might not turn out to be so hyper...makes your life and the teachers' lives easier!

..

I can't tell you how much I dislike going into the Year One class. I lost hope in the class last week when a Year One kid ignored my repeated instructions for her to stop doing her other work in the class. It's not just because of that one girl that I lost it. It's just that that was IT. I couldn't take the class anymore after that. Weeks spent to drill into their thick heads the concept of subtraction and they can still give me nonsense like 8-9=1. GRRRRRRRRRrrrrrr.... Whatever la...my efforts to make them understand were repaid by insolence and high blood pressure. Should I still take it smiling? Of course not! No more nice Miss Tee for them these days (except for a few pupils OUTSIDE the classroom)!

..

It has been real tiring the past few weeks. We would have to return to school again this Saturday for some nonsense. 5 days week? Half-day job? Maybe. If you want sane teachers to teach the kids, then let it remain so. And half-day isn't half day when you think about it. We start work at 730 a.m. and our work has to be completed daily. So if you have many classes to teach and many books to mark, your day often only ends at 5 or 6 p.m.

..

Am I sure that I want to take this path? I'm beginning to question myself... Life is hard...

CBN - Week 3

Dear all,

Phew...it has been a very hectic week indeed. After my last post, Woon and I were asked to help dress the CBN performers in OCM. Just for your information, Mama Kok won an award. So, congratulate her the next time you see her in college. The GPK Koko of CBN, Ms Petrina Low was the main award winner last year for her contribution towards rhythmic gymnastics.

...

Well, Woon and I were not told that we were also invited for the dinner, so the both of us were casually dressed (while the other guests were dressed to the nines as the Queen was supposed to be there). Anyway, as though the both of us were not 'obvious' enough, we kept going in and out of the hall because we were supposed to help with the girls' costume. Hahaha...

...

I didn't know that teachers had so much to do. Many people think that it is just a 7a.m. to 1p.m. job, but the extra-curricular activities, and the planning and marking and and what-nots take up a lot of time. Brian has already complained a bit that we hardly spend time together anymore since I started teaching. In other words, I have no life. It's from home to school and from school to home. If I did go out, it was for school activities (except for the time I went to a concert and a musical - blog about it later). I mean, not all the teachers are involved in so many things - you have to be selected to help out in these occasions. I am very grateful of course for the GPK Koko, Ms. Low to try to involve Woon and I in the school activities. I mean, I saw more things and I know I can learn a lot from this Super Teacher (she refused to accept the award when it was offered to her). It's just that, doing just a fraction of what a super teacher does when we are not up to par yet is very tiring.

...

After their performance in OCM, they were invited to perform in Mandarin Oriental Hotel. Phew...the hotel is GRAND. I mean, it's REALLY grand. And the best part of us helping out was that we get to get free food and goody bags. Hahaha...the Fried Rice in the hotel's cafe was horrible though. The buffet looks good and the Hainanese Chicken Rice looks quite nice too. But I must mention the cakes. Oooohhh.....heavenly. MM--Hmmmmmmmmmm....*kiss fingers*

...

Oh, I'm hungry already...and I haven't done any Maths lesson plan at all since I started teaching practice. HELPPPPPP!!!! Better start doing or I'd fail the semester. Hahaha...next post - Emil Chau concert and The King and I musical. Stay tuned!