The notice on the microwave has come down mysteriously and there has been no more talk about it. So peace reigns again.
More on the talk of religious sensitivties. The kids in charge of the yearbook came up with this poll by class about most talkative, most handsome etc of the students as well as some titles to vote teachers. One interesting one was the most hairless teacher. Naturally you would think its about the person with the least hair. One sec 3 class is very close to their Bio and Maths teacher who wears a tudung. They are always curious about what kind of hair she has underneath and even quiz other teachers as to whether she had rebonded hair or curly hair. So when this poll came out they naughtily told her they would vote her the most hairless. Where did I hear this from? The teacher herself who was laughingly talking about how naughty this kids were. I was quite horrified that the students had actually asked her to her face about being hairless. But the teacher herself was not offended. She had taken it as the kids natural curiosity and a joke made in jest. It made me think that back home the remark would not have made and if made would have created some tension.
Saturday, February 21, 2004
The rains have started and the sky is really dark these days. Flooding in some places created massive jams all over. Thankfully I wasnt caught in one. I hate traffic jams - especially since I can't read ( I get a headache) and its such a waste of time. My husband had to go pick up someone at the airport yesterday. He left home at 5pm and reached the airport at 730pm. On a normal day the journey is about 45 min only.
Students generally were not in the mood to study and frankly teachers werent in the mood to teach. But of coz you can't tell the kids that. My Geog classes had to do a project on flooding near their homes. The day before I got a call from one of students who claimed the whole class hadn't finished their project and he wanted an extension - I didn't know what to say so I just told him any person who doesn't hand in will just face the consequences. (What he didn't know was that I hadnt thought of what were those consequences. Later I decided to give zero if they didn't finish. But I guess the threat worked. Only 1 group hadn't finished. Their excuse ? they can't work together. They didnt even try. The boy just said " I asked you to change group but you refused saying nobody would want to work with me". What I meant was he wouldn't be able to work with anyone so might as remain in this group. I didnt waste time in giving him a zero. You see the kids here have a very loose sense of deadlines. They just try their luck anyway to see if they can extend.
My form class was moved to another floor to prepare for coming open house. What I forgot to tell them was the room was freezing cold. The poor things were squirming in their seats. I had to give them a test first. So after that to warm up I came up with a modified version of musical chairs - meaning there is no music. Just the changing. They had loads of fun and warmed up a bit. Later after doing some more work they wanted to play somemore of this game. Strange I thought coz to me it really was a really childish game. I don't know what they found interesting about it.
Students generally were not in the mood to study and frankly teachers werent in the mood to teach. But of coz you can't tell the kids that. My Geog classes had to do a project on flooding near their homes. The day before I got a call from one of students who claimed the whole class hadn't finished their project and he wanted an extension - I didn't know what to say so I just told him any person who doesn't hand in will just face the consequences. (What he didn't know was that I hadnt thought of what were those consequences. Later I decided to give zero if they didn't finish. But I guess the threat worked. Only 1 group hadn't finished. Their excuse ? they can't work together. They didnt even try. The boy just said " I asked you to change group but you refused saying nobody would want to work with me". What I meant was he wouldn't be able to work with anyone so might as remain in this group. I didnt waste time in giving him a zero. You see the kids here have a very loose sense of deadlines. They just try their luck anyway to see if they can extend.
My form class was moved to another floor to prepare for coming open house. What I forgot to tell them was the room was freezing cold. The poor things were squirming in their seats. I had to give them a test first. So after that to warm up I came up with a modified version of musical chairs - meaning there is no music. Just the changing. They had loads of fun and warmed up a bit. Later after doing some more work they wanted to play somemore of this game. Strange I thought coz to me it really was a really childish game. I don't know what they found interesting about it.
Friday, February 13, 2004
Friday has now become my dreaded day of the week as I have lessons non - stop the whole day and then during breaks have to deal with admin problems. Its especially tiring when you have two geog classes with double periods. Today I was doing a lesson on river velocity and volume and was real tired as numerous interruptions as I was trying to explain - from 3A had some tough questions but was ok with it as that shows they are thinking while in 3B they just wanted to waste time. One boy, David who has a problem with filing his notes claimed he couldnt find my notes. He chucks all his worksheets under his table and its a big mess. So I asked his to check his bag - his bag had more chucked worksheets. Still he claimed he couldn't find his notes. So I took his bag and emptied it on the floor and asked him to find. Then he found it. Haiya I wanted to throttle him. Wasted precious teaching time.
Got chocolates from students for Valentine's Day - so sweet - even those I didnt teach.
Got chocolates from students for Valentine's Day - so sweet - even those I didnt teach.
Wednesday, February 11, 2004
The Case of the Microwave
Expat teachers and local teachers get along quite well in out school. We have our squabbles and spats but usually it only lasts for a day and the next day all is forgotten and we get on with life. Today that changed. A single note pasted on a microwave oven shattered all that. A note that said " Halal food only to be heated in this oven"
We used to have only one microwave and so far no one has brought up the issue before. Now since the primary school moved out we took over their oven. We still had no complaints for a whole week before the notice went up. It created a stir in the staffroom as it didnt make sense why it suddenly became an issue when it hadnt been before. And why the note had gone up without any discussion at the teachers' regular meetings. We have a few local muslim teachers in our staff and they have never brought it up before and they are the kind to openly say if they were not happy about something. So who? All fingers pointed to a Singaporean Muslim who was quite outspoken about her beliefs. On further investigation I found out that it was she who had brought up the issue with the local muslims and had "educated" them on how in Singapore workplaces had different microwaves for halal and non-halal food. Apparently she had seen some of the Chinese teachers ( from China) heating up pork. I found the whole issue disturbing and so did some other Singaporean collegues. It was not that we do not respect their food preferences. Its that the notice went up suddenly without any request. It was implying that the entire staff had been disrespectful of their beliefs. What happened after that was even more strange. While the Singaporeans were divided on this issue and had many views to express, the Indonesian locals had nothing much to say - it was a non-issue and they went on with their lives. One Indonesian Christian however was unhappy and made comments that it was discriminatory and against human rights. - Anyway as any usual spat the issue has toned down but the scars remain as we wonder what is next.The second fridge?
Expat teachers and local teachers get along quite well in out school. We have our squabbles and spats but usually it only lasts for a day and the next day all is forgotten and we get on with life. Today that changed. A single note pasted on a microwave oven shattered all that. A note that said " Halal food only to be heated in this oven"
We used to have only one microwave and so far no one has brought up the issue before. Now since the primary school moved out we took over their oven. We still had no complaints for a whole week before the notice went up. It created a stir in the staffroom as it didnt make sense why it suddenly became an issue when it hadnt been before. And why the note had gone up without any discussion at the teachers' regular meetings. We have a few local muslim teachers in our staff and they have never brought it up before and they are the kind to openly say if they were not happy about something. So who? All fingers pointed to a Singaporean Muslim who was quite outspoken about her beliefs. On further investigation I found out that it was she who had brought up the issue with the local muslims and had "educated" them on how in Singapore workplaces had different microwaves for halal and non-halal food. Apparently she had seen some of the Chinese teachers ( from China) heating up pork. I found the whole issue disturbing and so did some other Singaporean collegues. It was not that we do not respect their food preferences. Its that the notice went up suddenly without any request. It was implying that the entire staff had been disrespectful of their beliefs. What happened after that was even more strange. While the Singaporeans were divided on this issue and had many views to express, the Indonesian locals had nothing much to say - it was a non-issue and they went on with their lives. One Indonesian Christian however was unhappy and made comments that it was discriminatory and against human rights. - Anyway as any usual spat the issue has toned down but the scars remain as we wonder what is next.The second fridge?
Sunday, February 08, 2004
Another week comes to an end. Its amazing how fast the days fly when you are busy. Had Geography tests for all the sec3 classes this week. After the many quizzes they had and the scoldings they apparently were studying very hard for the test - even in their other subject classes. One boy left after lunch ( had a stomach ache) just before the test which left me wondering if he was really sick.
My form class had to move class this week as bumps started appearing in the floor. Their maths teacher came to tell about it after her class. I was going to deal with it when I went down later. When i walked into class there were tiles breaking off and coming off. The class boys had decided to have a field day jumping on the tiles and breaking them up. They got a good scolding when none would own up. Finally one boy did but later said that there were more but they were scared of me so didnt own up. We ended up spending a whole period searching for a class they could do work in - finally they had to sit on the floor in the music room.
My form class had to move class this week as bumps started appearing in the floor. Their maths teacher came to tell about it after her class. I was going to deal with it when I went down later. When i walked into class there were tiles breaking off and coming off. The class boys had decided to have a field day jumping on the tiles and breaking them up. They got a good scolding when none would own up. Finally one boy did but later said that there were more but they were scared of me so didnt own up. We ended up spending a whole period searching for a class they could do work in - finally they had to sit on the floor in the music room.