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.