Monday, January 08, 2007
2007 blabber
A blink of an eye.... and I bidded goodbye to 2006 just like that.
It was a somewhat good year, I would say... charaterised by several small trips, and stuck with a label which says "no entry to countries starting with "Bang" for you", the year I officially started teaching, the year I met Kel.... hmmm. Heh.
An another blink of an eye (or was it a nap?) and the first week of 2007 is over!
New Year's Eve was awesome. A sweet time spent watching the fireworks in the recesses of East Coast, away from the sweaty bodies intruding on your private space and all.
School is always interesting. To me, it's like a funfair or carnival... filled with interesting happenings throughout the day, and it can never be boring. And at the end of the day, I can just stretch out on my bed, thank God for the comfy feeling and just bid the world goodbye for the night after a long "workout" at school.
This year is a huge difference from last year's honeymoon period. It seems like I'm finally visible... and like a bagpack you carry on vacation, you try to stuff as much as you can into the bag after shopping, so that you need not hand-carry anything... I feel as if I'm being stuffed to the neck (and your voice changes when you eat too much! Try it if you don't buy it! Heh) and the stuffing is still continuous! But masochistic as it sounds, I kinda enjoy it you know? Hahaha!
Not am I only straddling 2 levels and made to feel like a specialist when yours truly is actually just on par with the students she teaches! (they are trying to see how smart I am... just that they dunno I crap myself through most of the time, and that my brains are actually hollow and do produce echoes!), I have 2 heavy CCAs (at my request... cos I can't bear to give up my love), and though I was promised no form class (that promise has dissipated into thin air, never to be heard of again! However, behold! I am secretly (well, not so secretly anymore) elated cos I do want a form class (although along with it comes a whole truckload of stuff of different natures) cos it's a chance to interact closely with the kids. And that is what I find almost priceless.
I have finally met all my classes for year 2, and despite the impression that they are just mere Science students without a care for Geog... I have grown to love them, in just a short 1 hour span! As Pengy says, my strategy is "Ai4 de4 Jiao4 yu4" (Education of love)... And I am all fired up to bring them through the year, be it through breaking their hearts (and mine)while disciplining them, shoving them with work like a bottomless pit, laughing silly with them, pulling their hair (and mine) out while tutoring the slowest amongst slowest, etc.
In fact, I walk in and out of class feeling boosted and energized, that I become hyper afterward! And this is in the midst of a highly stressful period of time! I think this is MY profession. All troubles, all lethargy, all frustrations.... they just miraculously vanish when I start my lesson and entertain and get entertain by the kids. And to receive students' short liners of encouragement and promises to strive hard for the year really make me rocket skyward. (Ok, I'm easily pleased... but what's wrong about that? Heh.)
And to quote from pinpy's (2007) blog, "this job really feels like an amalgation of a zillion others - administrator, nanny, tutor, counsellor, policewoman, CEO and now...smalltown movie star." I can't beg to differ! Haha! But the feeling is awesome! Especially when last year's students grin when they see you, call out to you, joke with you, talk to you and all. A feeling of being wanted and appreciated, I guess?
I need to note these down so that I will always be reminded of the good times when the roller-coaster heads down.
But whatever it is, "God's grace is sufficient... and He will never leave you nor forsake you."
It was a somewhat good year, I would say... charaterised by several small trips, and stuck with a label which says "no entry to countries starting with "Bang" for you", the year I officially started teaching, the year I met Kel.... hmmm. Heh.
An another blink of an eye (or was it a nap?) and the first week of 2007 is over!
New Year's Eve was awesome. A sweet time spent watching the fireworks in the recesses of East Coast, away from the sweaty bodies intruding on your private space and all.
School is always interesting. To me, it's like a funfair or carnival... filled with interesting happenings throughout the day, and it can never be boring. And at the end of the day, I can just stretch out on my bed, thank God for the comfy feeling and just bid the world goodbye for the night after a long "workout" at school.
This year is a huge difference from last year's honeymoon period. It seems like I'm finally visible... and like a bagpack you carry on vacation, you try to stuff as much as you can into the bag after shopping, so that you need not hand-carry anything... I feel as if I'm being stuffed to the neck (and your voice changes when you eat too much! Try it if you don't buy it! Heh) and the stuffing is still continuous! But masochistic as it sounds, I kinda enjoy it you know? Hahaha!
Not am I only straddling 2 levels and made to feel like a specialist when yours truly is actually just on par with the students she teaches! (they are trying to see how smart I am... just that they dunno I crap myself through most of the time, and that my brains are actually hollow and do produce echoes!), I have 2 heavy CCAs (at my request... cos I can't bear to give up my love), and though I was promised no form class (that promise has dissipated into thin air, never to be heard of again! However, behold! I am secretly (well, not so secretly anymore) elated cos I do want a form class (although along with it comes a whole truckload of stuff of different natures) cos it's a chance to interact closely with the kids. And that is what I find almost priceless.
I have finally met all my classes for year 2, and despite the impression that they are just mere Science students without a care for Geog... I have grown to love them, in just a short 1 hour span! As Pengy says, my strategy is "Ai4 de4 Jiao4 yu4" (Education of love)... And I am all fired up to bring them through the year, be it through breaking their hearts (and mine)while disciplining them, shoving them with work like a bottomless pit, laughing silly with them, pulling their hair (and mine) out while tutoring the slowest amongst slowest, etc.
In fact, I walk in and out of class feeling boosted and energized, that I become hyper afterward! And this is in the midst of a highly stressful period of time! I think this is MY profession. All troubles, all lethargy, all frustrations.... they just miraculously vanish when I start my lesson and entertain and get entertain by the kids. And to receive students' short liners of encouragement and promises to strive hard for the year really make me rocket skyward. (Ok, I'm easily pleased... but what's wrong about that? Heh.)
And to quote from pinpy's (2007) blog, "this job really feels like an amalgation of a zillion others - administrator, nanny, tutor, counsellor, policewoman, CEO and now...smalltown movie star." I can't beg to differ! Haha! But the feeling is awesome! Especially when last year's students grin when they see you, call out to you, joke with you, talk to you and all. A feeling of being wanted and appreciated, I guess?
I need to note these down so that I will always be reminded of the good times when the roller-coaster heads down.
But whatever it is, "God's grace is sufficient... and He will never leave you nor forsake you."
# posted by Banana Saviour @ 8:56 PM 
