Well its been sometime really - first it was the hari raya break - had some friends over from sing so was busy entertaining them then the last four days was spent catching up with all the marking I had to do . When school started it was a mad rush to get things ready for the exams - like seating arrangement, invigilation schedule - that took me many many days even before the break but had to make adjustments, rules for the students - exam briefing for the rest of the teachers etc etc. This time I didnt want to address assembly as half the kids are not listening anyway so I delegating the going through of regulations to the form teachers - some teachers did the job while others gave the kids the copy of the rules on the day of the exams!
I started a new system this year of getting the kids to write their register numbers so it was easier to organise the scripts. ( might seem strange to u but the practice does not exist here) This time in the exam committee i also delegated a lot more of the jobs so I gave the job of seating arrangement to this local teacher and she did the labels of the tables and all -with problem the labels had the kids registration number - those 4 digit with letters - something like a student ID number. My fault - i assumed she knew what was register number so on the first day of the exams had to physically go and change the numbers of all the tables. I wasnt really angry with her as I am slowing getting the local teachers to take over these duties and the learning process will involve mistakes. So the first day was a bit messy but it got better on the next few days as everyone got used to all procedures in place.
Had group marking for English papers and that threw off a few people who had not been English teachers before coz I insisted that each English paper be marked by two markers who would then sit and discuss if there are any that had a high range or else to average it out. They couldnt understand why we had to do it that way but it keeps the marking standard and free from bias. I have also learnt to be firm when I need something done and not to distracted by arguments that these untrained pple come up with - its pointless otherwise.
For the sec 1 and 2 - I divided the marking into 4 - 2 pple for compo and compre 1 person and grammar another person. Before taking the scripts home I reminded them to chk they had all their scripts - the 2 teachers in sec 1 doing compre and grammar did not chk so last mon came bk saying they had mixed their piles and all. Anyway we sorted it out and continued with their marking - On Fri abt a week after the exams, I decided to help to record all the marks and as I was looking through the piles and found a script missing - the teacher marking it didnt even know the script was missing so we hunted high and low for it - I went to ask the invigilators and all. Then the other marker walks in coolly at the end of the day - I casually mention that a script is missing and we might have to get the student to resit and he decides to chk his drawer and lo behold! its there - he had an extra script - had it all the time and didn't say anything. To him it was no big deal. I really wanted to smack him on the head but of coz kept my cool and refrained! Just exclaimed he had it and walked away.
This marker is a Canadian who is fresh out of Uni and behaves like a schoolkid at times which exasperates the rest of the staff. When he first came, the girls all went crazy and used to scream like groupies behind a rockstar everytime he walked down the corridor. Once he started teaching though, the noise all but disappeared and now the kids just exclaim " That BULE" ( Orang Bule - its pronounced as boo-le is the local equivalent of ang-moh) They complain abt his teaching that he's not very committed and doesnt explain and all. When u give him instructions he scrunches his eyebrows and looks confused as if u are giving some mammoth task to do when really its just a matter of collecting answer sheets and question papers seperately. It makes u wonder why these pple decide to teach when they can't be responsible for themselves in the first place. It brings me to the debate if anyone can walk in and just teach but enough of that - that will be another blog entry for another dayl.

The classes are getting very fidgety as the holidays are coming - they get a week off for hari raya. A few days after they come back the exams will start. Some are going on holidays and coming back the day before exams. One girl will miss her English exam and her parents wanted us to reschedule the exam. Of course not - coz it means resetting the paper and noone would be willing to do it.
The IGSCE exams were over today and one big load of my mind as I was organizing the exams. The headaches and struggles I had to go through for that I'll keep for another day. At the end of their exams the students were screaming along the corridors. This would have been fine except there were other classes. But all the kids do it at some time or the other - really irritating but i have tuned out. They are having a farewell party and they were inviting quite a few of the teachers but not me. Was a bit hurt. I wouldnt have gone but it would have been nice to have been asked. Thinking about it I guess they wanted to have fun and I am seen as a party pooper as I can't have fun. During the exams I had a very serious face as I was running around doing a lot of the exam work.
On a lighter note - the sec 1 murder story project turned out very well. They submitted with their photos and some looked quite realistic and with the fake blood.
Joke of the day - found these 2 boys in a classroom - one sitting down and one at the doorway and they were smsing each other! Talk about keeping conversation to the minimum.

Orlong
Today in class was going through prepositions and some of them got all their answers incorrect. Then this girl kept saying "orlong orlong" So wrote down her name as I always do when someone speaks indonesian in class. And some students in the class protested and said that was an English word. What was the English word? " All + wrong = orlong" came the answer. They had learnt it from their previous teacher , who was Singaporean and had told them that it was Singlish. Horror of horrors - I was cringing that these kids were learning wrong things under the guise of learning English. As a teacher I feel that we have certain boundaries we cannot cross especially when it comes to educating. And though I joke with them and all - when it comes to teaching, certain things cannot be compromised. I told them firmly it was not English and certainly not Singlish. They were quite miffed about it but they are still young so its ok.

Its been some time since I last wrote. Had to prepare for deepavali and then had family over so was busy with all that.
Am trying something new with my sec 1 english class. Divided them into groups of eight and they have to come up with a murder mystery. Whats different is that they have to act out 12 scenes from the story and photograph it. then they have write captions below the photographs and do it like a booklet or display board. They have to show me the story first so that it makes sense. They get their grammar right now but their stories are still quite childish.
Doing murder mysteries now. So as part of whole theme - we played a game identifying the murderer and murder weapon and today showed them an episode of CSI - they were quite transfixed - even after lunch break there were a streamof questions about why this happened and how did they find out and so on.

One Act = Many Consequences
The timetable change came into place and I had two classes at the same time. Solution - supposed to leave sec4 class to do their work by themseves Why? Geography easy what - they can do themselves. How to do that? their exams are in 2 weeks. so i gave my sec 1 class work and was shuttling btwn the third floor and the fifth floor.
We are having an open house for the school in feb and during the open house meeting -- the art teacher comes up with the brilliant idea that we have a english compo competition nationwide to ask students to apply and then when they come can have more pple for the open house - wonderful idea! but me and another colleague looked at each other and went " Well we have to think abt the marking!'' His comment? Oh typical teachers, you think only of the marking load'' Can you imagine? Could be more than a 1000 scripts! and i only have 9 teachers. Arghhhh - I just told them to take down the idea - we still have to get approval from the P. If they go ahead with it - i m going to ask them to hire a person to sit and look through all the scripts!
I tell u the way they do thing really drives me up the wall! No planning ahead or looking at whether we have the facilities, logistics and so on. First they decide then later sit down and think how to solve the problems. I give u an example. They decided to reshuffle classes in sec 2 according to ability so three of the classes became 4. They already decided to do it then they sat down and thought " which students in which class", Then do we have enough teachers, then after that do we have enough classrooms and then realise some of the extra classes have no whiteboard. So they move down the sec1s to make space to classes that have no aircons ( we have locked windows due to air and noise pollution outside so zero air circulation) They add in the whiteboards and guess what - its too high. Nobody says anything until a day had almost ended when i went into class and had a neck cramp trying to reach the top of the board!!! So today the sec1s moved again temporarily to another class until the aircon is fixed. One rash action = many consequences.

I hate school. Strange that a teacher has to say this. Strange and a little weird that if I was in Singapore I would probably say the same thing. So is it the job or me? Or have I just lost steam and interest in the job? But as always it is not the kids that turn me off the job but the adults - the adults doing the admin. There is a timetable change which comes into effect on wednesday in the middle of the week - a single action that puts in place a stream of consequences that leads to one big mess. I can see the mess that is going to happen and I can lessen the mess to a lesser degree but at this point I am a little sick of being the one to predict these things - almost as if I am the eternal pessimist. So I have done what I can - the rest will unfold by itself.
On a positive note I had two fruitful lessons today. For English we did animal stories - the students had brought animal stories from home and I asked them to identify the main feature and asked them to contrast to traditional stories. They all knew what to do and were quick in picking up the main points. Then i pasted 4 stories on the four walls of the class and each group had to send reps to the walls to absorb as much information as possible in one min - then another rep would go and so on. After coming back to the group they had to reconstruct the story in their groups. In the follow up period they had to present the story as differently as possible to the rest of the class. Most of them acted it out and that was fun - Now they have to write a original group story for the class.
Successful Lesson No 2.
For Geography we had a five sided debate on which group deserved control of the forest. I had one round in which they all presented their points and in the second round anybody could have a go at what they felt - Oh they got really passionate and were still arguing (with some strong points) when the bell went. They didnt want the next teacher to enter the class. They only relented when I told them they could continue in the next lesson. Felt really pleased with how this lesson turned out as I observed some true learning taking place.

Update on student A
He went home and got an earful from his mum about how why he cried in school. He was angry with me as he thought I had betrayed him. His anger lasted about 4 hours before he stopped trying to scowl in class as he wanted to participate and because he was in a bad mood nobody wanted to talk to him. By friday things were back to normal until I gave them homework for the holidays. Some of the students complained that their parents would make them finish all their homework in one day which I found very bad as they would do it fast and then they would make careless mistakes. So i wrote notes to their parents and student A was so thrilled. He wanted me to call and scold his mum as well. Of course i told him I couldnt do that.

The holidays have already started for me for a week. Yesterday was sports day and it was ok quite fun. It was so hot - the kind that makes you squint as u can hardly see. We were at the grandstand which faces the morning so hence the problem. Another colleague of mine and me were the announcers for the event. And it was quite frustrating during the event as the prizewinners would not sit still. After they had been told their places, they would disappear and when we announced their names they were nowhere to be found. Had to announce about 3 times before we got any response. At the end we were announcing the relay winners. They were all seated in the field and they would take about 10 seconds to get and walk to collect their medals.
Will prob be back for a few days next week but as usual have a lot of errands to run. So don't blame me i dont get a chance to meet up.
I hv been trying to get in touch with Gow but seems like I have the wrong phone number coz i don't get any replies. I only put it down in the hope that she gets in touch.

One of the class boy's parents came to see me today. I was surprised as I was actually thinking of calling them. This boy A was crying before his Maths test during Assembly and I thought he had been in a fight and didnt ask anything. At the end of the day I asked him about what was the matter and he said it was a fight. Later on after further probing he said it was because his mum had told him - If you don't get 100 for your test don't call me mum" He was crying so hard that he made a few careless mistakes in his test. He got 90 marks. Till today he has not told his parents he got back the paper. Well anyway today I told them about his crying but not what he told me. The father turned around and scolded the mum for putting too much pressure on the boy. The boy's mother was defensive as well. She told me how she read her son's diary and he was quite playful all the time. Then she told me that A had told her to buy a diary with a lock and told her "Only Mrs VJ can read this , you cannot". I could see she was quite angry about that. After she calmed down I told her that at least he told her he wanted the money for the diary. He could have lied about it but he didn't. He probably was telling her that he didnt like her reading his diary. I told her that at this age, most kids want to be trusted to do things their own way. So I asked her to let him be for a week or two and see how his grades go. In that not to keep on bugging him.....If they improve good, if they dont then she can tell him they did try it his way first. And about what he writes in the diary - let him do it - it would help release his bottled up feeling. The parents agreed to try so lets see how that goes.

Today I walked into class thinking it was thursday. I happily went down to my class and found out they were having Maths instead. And there I discovered that my class had been changing places when I was not around for some time. I was quite angry but didnt show it then. I felt like this because I had asked them to submit seating plans they wanted and they had voted for the arrangement they wanted for next term. So I was hurt that they had been doing this for some time without my knowledge. I went to class and was so choked with emotion that I did not want to speak to them. So I told them to do what they liked and then I did my work for a while. They were really quiet and took out their books and were flipping their pages not knowing what to do.
Then I wrote the word defiance on the board and asked them what it meant. And I told my class how disappointed I was with them and that I felt that they had betrayed my trust in them. How by doing that they had shown disrespect. At the end of the day I had English again and we had a normal class. The class gave me apology letters and I think they really meant. But really now they have to show that they can be trusted.
On a lighter note, I finished Paper 2 of the Geog paper yesterday. Still have 2 more exam papers multiplied by 52 students to mark by Monday.

Has been some time - been a bit busy with what else but work. Had the eye of the storm sensation in work last week when everything was calm but this week started and ended so fast that wonder how it passed so fast. Was sick on wednesday and went home early - was very proud of my class - they didnt need a teacher to look after them - they were too busy doing the worksheets i gave them. before i left we had a short exercise on practising their memory skills. I pasted 8 sentences in groups around the room. There were 5 groups and they had to come up individually and memorise one sentence and go back and recite to their group the sentence, Then another member would come and recite another sentence . Collectively the sentences made a puzzle that they had to solve. The exercise was from a colleague's book and the book warned that it would be very quiet as one group didnt want another group to find out. IT WAS TRUE! one of the rare times when a class had fun while keeping quiet! Oh they had a ball of a time and the class had finally started bonding leaving aside petty quarrels that they had. The kid who solved it was one of the laziest in class. I found out he was actually quite intelligent. An inspiring moment indeed.
Today decided to build on that energy and read them out a short story which goes something like this - "A man and a lady were travelling in a train. The lady took off her gloves and the man was arrested. After 24 hours the police were forced to let him go." The kids had to ask me questions and I had to answer yes or no. The hands shot up and they kept asking questions after questions. As the story developed they started imagining things and some of them actually got scared and this girl curled up her legs under her on the chair. All because this coz one kid said fingerprint and i said shorten it and they were like Fingers? oh it was really very very fun as I could see them thinking and the questions kept coming as they were really trying very hard to solve the mystery. One guy who the class really doesnt like as he is the laziest kid and always gets the class into trouble also put up his hand to ask a question - he got caught up and the class laughed at his question but they had started working as a class - comments ranged from "This is really interesting" and " oh i m stressed" and they figured it out - all by themselves! Oh i was so pleased with them. Of coz after that they had to write out the story at which they all groaned.

A Day of Ups and Downs
Right - had one one of my marathon tuesdays and have lots to write. For starters I finally finished the Sec4 syllabus with 2 weeks to go for prelims ( For all those who are gasping in shock, these kids came in to do a one and a half year crash course of sec3 and sec 4 syllabus + weak in English) Anyway am doing mapwork and so now its just a matter of doing many exercises.
Then heard this conversation which put in true light how myopic Singaporeans can be
G: I can't go home yet as there is a huge traffic jam.
Me: Why?
G: Oh they are burning houses near my place and there is a big traffic jam.
Me : (In shock) Why are they burning houses?
G: There are a lot of illegal migrants occupying land so to evacuate they do this from time to time.
Me: Who is they?
G: The government coz the migrants are given many many reminders to move but refuse to budge.
Me still in shock when
another Singaporean teacher joins in and asks: Why is this is being done? Wasn't it the government's responsibility to provide housing for these people?
Local teachers: And where does the government get the money from? There is insufficient housing.
It is just so Singaporean to go to other countries and say that hey we have the answer to every problem. When sometimes the situation is such that solutions are very difficult as there are myriad of problems.
Today i made my class stay back to decorate the noticeboard - we had a white background and i gave each student some crepe paper in different shades of blue and green and they had to cut some design or something and we put it up and created a collage. It looks nice by itself but now we have to put sections on top of it. Oh they had so much fun. One boy was lazing around - then when he saw that the others all things to put up and each piece contributing to the whole effect he got motivated and wanted to contribute.
One of the boys in my Sec 3 class had his phone confiscated by me. Why? Well I was right in the middle of a sentence when he interrupts me and says " Miss, I think someone is calling me. " And I am like what? I was thinking like there were voices in the room or something. If its one thing I hate is being interrupted right in the middle of a sentence. I lose my train of thought. Well what he meant that was he was receiving a call and could he answer it. And my answer" Why is your phone on?" Oh the class roared and were waiting to see what I would do - i hate taking the phone but what could I do - i had to confiscate. He was quite upset and tried arguing that the rest of the class had their phones on. But my philosophy to them from the first day has been " I hear or see it switched on - I confiscate"

Its been ten days after the Marriott bombing and this time it really was close to home. I went by the hotel today to have a look - looked really bad - the impact was felt as high as the top floor and the building next to it. It was quite upsetting as I had been to place a few times and my husband has his meetings there at times. Students asked if i felt the vibrations. Well of course not since I was teaching at that time - at the precise moment the bomb went off, I was in class teaching the Sec4s - its quite amazing really how we go about our business and at the precise moment somebody else decides to take a life.
Well school has really been long this year - i just realised that today is the first time i came back home before four. I have only four classes this year but the toll of managing teaching staff is difficult. Especially when they argue for every rule in school - waste of time if you ask me - like why cannot use liquid paper in class - one teacher says this - oh maybe we should tell them which brand to use - the ones that are neater until i had to interject with the real reason and that satisfied her - but imagine justifying every rule in the school to everyone. Such a waste of time and energy and taking us away from the real purpose of teaching .
Have beeen going through a self evaluation of late -if teaching is the job for me - so many people feel that it is a dumb job and all that or if I teach in a neighbourhood school it is not prestigious and stuff - so what keeps me here - well when i have a particularly good lesson and the students learn something i am on a high but how long that high lasts is a different matter.

I had a dream this morning. I took a cab from Jogja city. It was old rickety cab and as we were driving away, the driver said that Mt Merapi was erupting and we could see the red outline of the mountain in a distance. So I asked him to stop, got out to take a photograph of it. As i got out, the alarm went off. Wonder what the dream meant?
It has been a real topsy turvy in school with so many things going on and so many things to sort out. This Saturday there is a meet the parents session. Ahhhh my mind is so full, I dont even have time to think of what to say. Hai more updating later.

Well all in all a long and exhausting day but fun at times. The sec 4 classes I teach are just next to the staff room so I m there quite fast when the bell rings. Today my lesson was after the break and waited for abt 10 min for all the kids to get back. Abt four kids were already in class. I started the lesson 5 min after the bell. When the rest tried to come I told them to wait outside with an angry look. I continued with the lesson, gave the kids in class some work to do and then went to scold the kids outside. They were late coz they had been waiting for the lift. After that we continued with our lesson. They all complain I am trying to squeeze too much information into their brains in a short time. And after I finish the chapter they ask me “ What is weathering?” Some claimed they don’t understand anything to which I was quite unsympathetic as I felt that if they read the book or listened to me while I was explaining they would understand something and would be more specific about what they don’t understand. Its coz they each want indvl explaining which I simply can’t afford to do.
Then we were doing oxidation and I was talking about the mineral “iron”. They didn’t understand until one of the kids said “iron” emphasizing the “r” sound. So there was this little argument btw me and them on whether the r was silent. Then they said “ Oh only those people that are lazy don’t pronounce their “r”s. And one of them asked “ What do you call those pple that can’t pronounce “r”? And before I knew it , the word was out of my mouth “Chinese”. It took a few seconds for the reaction to come. They looked at each other open-mouthed and went “ But Miss, we are Chinese!” but they were good natured abt it and we continued laughing for quite a bit. ( It was funny as they had to actually look at each other to realize they were Chinese) Was talking abt it to another teacher and she dubbed it “ The Irony of Iron”. Still now that I think back, it wasn’t a nice thing to say. So will probably go back and apologize to the class tomorrow.
Had a marking workshop with the English teachers today – went quite except for the part where the ex-lawyer marked down a kid coz the story the kids wrote was unrealistic. The kid had written abt becoming invisible after taking invisible potion. He said “ Oh I have read a lot of sci fi and this is not realistic”. Its sad how sometimes we impose our perceptions on that of the students. Students go through many steps to get to a particular stage of competency and we as teachers have to recognise and nurture that.

I forgot to mention yesterday. We had the same problem we had the last year when we began last year. When kids are dropped off in the morning and picked up, a massive traffic jam is created which affects roads all round the school. The same thing happened yesterday and today - it was worse today as parents wouldnt just drop and go. They would linger and see how their kids were doing - all this plus very small roads near the school meant really bad jams. So today there was a proposal that the sec school start at 825 am and end at 4pm - all very good from the viewpt of waking up later in the mornings but a nightmare when going home as that is when all the office pple get off and by the time we all get home - the day is all but gone. We of course protested so now they have decided to stagger the dismissal times so different classes go at different times. Someone asked me why there was no planning before but thats the point - a very indonesian concept "Forget the past , like for the present and future? huh what future?" . This waters down to every idiosyncracy that we can observe around . They wait until the paper is finished to order more supplies. The concept of forward planning is indeed alien.

A new school year started today. The primary school was supposed to move out to a new building but as the building was not ready, they are staying put in the same building as us. That led to a hurried addition of more classrooms to the building and dividing bigger classrooms into smaller ones in a matter of days. A consequence, my form class this year get a brand new classroom. After rearranging the tables and chairs in class, there's actually more space in the class. Its a sec1 class again but a better lot this time. They all look real cute as they have just come from primary school and are still kids at heart. I asked them to come up with rules for the class and one of them said that if anyone speaks Indonesian they have to treat the whole class for lunch. A bit harsh i felt but lets see how it goes.
I also have a new lot of Sec3s and after going through all the rules and expectations of them, I saw all of them keep real real quiet. So i looked at them and said " You are all so quiet that you scare me" to which a boy quipped " You scared us, thats why we are quiet." Well from experience they wont stay quiet for long - its prob just the first day.

This week in school - we have been having preparing for the coming school term. So it means coming up with Schemes of Work and lesson plans. In the course of my work, I run into problems esp with teachers who are not trained and come from different backgrounds. Example no. 1 He is an ex br oadcast journalist and 55 years old. He has been in my dept for the past six months and is very opiniated. When I give handouts or worksheets as suggestions they are thrown away and not referred to at all. His idea of teaching kids is the communicative approach - talking and learning pronounciation. We discussed the scheme of work last week and I divided up the work of each term to each teacher to do. The first one he did was a disaster. This is after we discussed in detail and each teacher took notes on whats going to happen in the semester ( he did not take notes). Then I did a sample for him and other teachers to follow - u know splitting the unit into listening, speaking reading components and what activities they can do. He has to do Term 2. Today he gives it and its a whole rehash - and nothing subtantial - all abt talking abt this and telling this story and so on - nothing abt what they would have achieved at the end of the lesson. I have another teacher who is an ex-lawyer and he is just as bad - only comes up with a lot of experimental schemes to try with the kids but doesnt want to put in paper. These two are good friends - reinforcing each other's beliefs - they are the only non-trained ones in the dept. So I told the ex-journalist I will discuss with him tomoro abt the SOW. He said that I was making a big fuss over nothing and that he would devp the SOW as he went on. The other day the ex-lawyer said during the meeting that SOWs are totally unnecessary. So now I need to know how to deal with these two. Any suggestions?

We had staff meeting today and quite a bit of drama. There is an orientation this wknd for new students and they told us today and said it was voluntary for teachers to stay overnight. I had heard abt it last week but just told would not spend the night - there are abt 4 showers and 60 kids and i m not abt to get a sleeping bag just for this. So anyway when they announced - one new Singaporean teacher put up her hand and said that u must give advanced notice and pple already may have plans. She made a valid point but I felt for the guy who was in charge. He is local Indonesian and there is this culture here abt how to talk to people -- like when we want to tell them off esp in public have to say in nice way and all so when she questioned - the look on his face was like he had lost face - hai . Anyway our new Vp stepped in and ya it was late and he would take the blame for it . Next time we would get advance notice -
So after the meeting I spoke to the Singaporean teacher and said ya she had a valid point but the way she said could have been misconstrued. SHe was quite nice and went to joke with the local teacher to lighten the situation. Then the others and I had to do damage control with the local guy by explaining the teacher didnt mean to be rude - just was being direct.
Later was speaking to the local teachers and one person said that in the first few days after we came bk - the new Singaporean teachers seemed very direct and rude. You know the funny part? the person who made the comment is an Australian Italian - she has been here for 14 years. I dont know when I have made the transition from looking at it from a Singaporean's viewpt to a local viewpt but it certainly helps as when i want to push suggestions through - generally pple are more accepting. Singaporeans have a bit of bad rep here as we are seen as impatient and too direct and rude.

The first week is over. Phew never knew that a school that is just establishing itself would be so much work. Started off by just giving the SOW template for the teachers in my dept to do and before i knew the whole school is adopting it. And we did the school calendar today - haiya christmas break is only 2 weeks but we get 1 week for Hari Raya so thats quite good. Prelims for the sec 4s are so near and the syllabus is not finished. We are having extra classes this and next week for the sec 4s to catch and they are not at all in the mood. I was a little pissed off today. I had tonnes of work to do - namely the SOW and the organising of the dept and here i was trying to get something in and they switch off. I m going real real slow to make them understand. I gave notes on the three types of plate movement - went through, did a powerpoint presentation and explained. After that told them I would give a quiz today. Today three boys were absent and the rest didnt even look through the paper. All they told me was " I don't understand" . I lamented aloud that they could not get one page inside in one day - how are they going to put 2 books worth in 2 months? And this boy tells me " Help us, Miss" Well short of doing surgery and inserting the notes into their brain I am at a loss.

I had a quiet birthday yesterday. Had made corn kueh the day before to give to the teachers. Students no as I did not have any class yesterday. Went to school and found out the P's father had passed away. So was a little afraid the others might think me a little bad for celebrating in a way. But i already had brought the kueh and the teachers were quite nice abt it. My friend another geog teacher had left a surprise on my table when I reached school so that was very nice of her. Then after school went shopping with my husband and tea + dinner. It was a quiet celebration and was good to sit down and talk with hubby. I had a few sms and emails from friends and family. So I was quite appreciative of that. A few pple forgot. I was a little upset but then again hai i guess life just gets busy that we lose track of time and date. So its not like pple really dont like me or something.
Today had class with the Sec 4s. Was really not in the mood - so did a very light introduction and explained till they got it about what are plates and plate boundaries.
Later in the afternoon had a meeting where the VP was going through various expected things of the teachers. He was talking of sending papers to other schools for vetting to set a higher quality paper. Didnt quite agree with that - at least not until we reach a certain standard for the students.

You excel at Transfiguration. One of the most
dificult classes, you seem to be a natural at
turning a coke bottle into a homework pass.


Which Class at Hogwarts Would You Excel at?
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Right so I have been back so what have i been upto? Basically getting ready for school and watching all the vcds i got - havent finished all of it. But ok - hai the bad thing abt having long periods of hols is that now I dont feel like going back to school. Have to give a briefing to new teachers on how to teach English and its not easy - have been reading this book "The Practice of English Language Teaching" - kind of puts what i practise in nicer words. But I have left the reading a little late and I still have 5 more chapters to go. And then come up with material for the teachers. I would like to have the meeting on Monday when all the teachers come in but I have to get everything ready before that.
On a lighter note, I finished the Harry Potter book in about 4 days. Most pple I asked finished in a day or something. I did it with the last book and regretted it. So this time I read it real slowly so I could enjoy it more. Still some parts got me more excited and I needed to read it to get to the better parts. Verdict - It was good overall there were a lot of tied up ends and new things that cropped up to keep the interest going. I like that there is a lot of room for discussion. The part I like is about the DA. Really like the students taking things into their own hands. ( As long as it isn't against me). There are those that would scoff at me reading this book but i really dont care as I just love these books - they are some of the few that can really transport me to another world.

Right I am back in jakarta after 2 weeks in Singapore - and it went by so fast I am still amazed by it all. It was so packed I didnt get all the things I wanted done. When I first got in, my husband was already there so did the rounds with all the relatives. Got the digicam I was eyeing coz of the sale it had been marked down and with a few freebies. Then met up with friends, ex-colleagues, ex-students and not to mention shoppping. It was really good to meet up with viv and anna, yat, jy and wm, - would have liked to meet up with eugene and gang but that didnt work out that much. I went back to my old school and found it good to catch up with my good friends - Mrs Ong and Mrs Rose Ang ( who came bk to visit when she found out I was bk too). The surprising thing is that Mr Bala said that there was a rumour I was teaching at Whitley - fancy that - and i m not even in the country! I was clearing up my place too - cough cough - all that dust! I even managed to try the NEL - dhoby ghaut was confusing but all in all quite a fast ride - imagine to Little India in 15 min! ah if only i was in sing - could go almost everyday. So all in all a packed two weeks

Ok ready to blog away - have set up this site to continue where I left off in livejournal. I would like to thank Hidayat for helping me set up this and teaching me something new. Of coz not to forget Viv and Anna who started me journalling in the first place. Well what am i doing right now? Well I am in Singapore trying to get my errands done like banking, cleaning my very dusty house, meeting up with people and in the process always missing out some people. So I m not going to apologize - geeze nv knew holidays could be stressful as well. Oooh and I can't wait to travel on the NEL before I leave for the third world again. Till next time.......
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I m still trying to get site done to my satisfaction - something is missing and I cant put my finger on it. The quest continues. . . . . . .

Just trying out this new blog. want to see what it looks like.