Escapades of 1A
Last week I went into my class to pass some marked work. They were having Maths and when I looked in I found something was not right . As always, I scold first and then find out the reason later ( or the students come to explain later), some of them had changed place and I was cross they didnt ask the teacher first. So I told them off and ended off that they should have asked for the Maths teacher's permission and I left. Apparently as soon as I left my"angels" turned to the Maths teacher and said" Why didn't you tell Mrs VJ that you gave permission to change places? Then we wouldn't have got scolded - of coz the the teacher didn't give them permission to change - she didnt know so they were asking her to lie to me! Monkeys!
Then two days ago some of the students come outside the staffroom and call me. Once I go out they tell me that the class door is broken. They were trying to shut out a boy from the next class and he pushed the door open. Before coming to see me they took every piece of scotch tape they could find and and fixed the broken pieces back and then came to tell me. I t was very amusing to me but had to take teacher stand and had to ask them to write a report and in the process found out who was at fault. Their actions though I found very cute.
Today I told them I was not staying in the school and that I was going back to Singapore . First reaction? You're coming back right? and when I told them not - then the comments started flying - why must go back? why can't husband go and you stay here? (Can u imagine?)- "oh you stay here - we'll buy you a house". And then the more inventive - " I'll tie you with a chain to the class and lock the door" or " I'll be a pilot of the plane and keep flying in jkt for one hour and then land bk in jkt" or " "l'll hijack the plane until you come bk to jkt" - they are kids at heart and it was touching but at least they didnt react too badly as I has chosen a day when they all were in the right mood to tell them.
Actually I m leaving coz i need a break as I will be coming bk to Singapore early next year but I need a break coz once I start teaching in Singapore no such a long break for me. But difficult to explain to these kids - so easiest thing to say is that I m going back to Singapore.
Friday, April 30, 2004
Thursday, April 22, 2004
Holiday
Yes!!! my wish came true. They declared today a holiday last night at about 930pm. Why? coz some students were still in school!!! Their cars were still stuck in the jam. There is a mall cum housing complex abt 15 min from my school. It took some cars 7 hours to get there. One of the teachers walked and reached home at 630. Her driver reached her home at 12am!. Another friend got to one point thereafter which she had no transport - no cabs no bus no becak (trishaw). So she walked for 2 hours to get to her home. Her shoes gave way and she had to stop to buy a new pair of sandals to continue. The other Singaporean teachers were on their way home past the worst hit area. They had left the school at 3 pm. Their usual route was heavily flooded so the driver took another route and kept changing the route as all of them had major jams. Instead of going in a westerly direction the driver ended up in another location in a eastern direction. In that place the floodwaters were waist level. So they turned back, came to school to ride out the jamand ended up home at 12 am. There were cases of cars that got overheated and caught fire as the engines were running too long. Can you imagine cars deadlocked in a jam and the car next to you catches fire? Quite a few teachers and students had to spend the night at their friend's place
Well today i went back to school for a while and the roads next to it - they were clearing up and repairing the shop fronts. Some of the sidestreets still had mud and standing water.
Well it was certainly a day I will not forget for some time.
Yes!!! my wish came true. They declared today a holiday last night at about 930pm. Why? coz some students were still in school!!! Their cars were still stuck in the jam. There is a mall cum housing complex abt 15 min from my school. It took some cars 7 hours to get there. One of the teachers walked and reached home at 630. Her driver reached her home at 12am!. Another friend got to one point thereafter which she had no transport - no cabs no bus no becak (trishaw). So she walked for 2 hours to get to her home. Her shoes gave way and she had to stop to buy a new pair of sandals to continue. The other Singaporean teachers were on their way home past the worst hit area. They had left the school at 3 pm. Their usual route was heavily flooded so the driver took another route and kept changing the route as all of them had major jams. Instead of going in a westerly direction the driver ended up in another location in a eastern direction. In that place the floodwaters were waist level. So they turned back, came to school to ride out the jamand ended up home at 12 am. There were cases of cars that got overheated and caught fire as the engines were running too long. Can you imagine cars deadlocked in a jam and the car next to you catches fire? Quite a few teachers and students had to spend the night at their friend's place
Well today i went back to school for a while and the roads next to it - they were clearing up and repairing the shop fronts. Some of the sidestreets still had mud and standing water.
Well it was certainly a day I will not forget for some time.
Wednesday, April 21, 2004
A Dark Day
This afternoon at about 1230pm the sky got really dark like it was nightime and started raining. By 130pm flooding started outside my school and I guess in most of Jakarta. My class was all excited but I was doing compre with them and insisted they finish it first. Then i sent them to the window to describe the sight outside. I went upstairs to the staff room to get something and was horrified. The windows were leaking and the floor was filling up with water. Managed to move out my cupboards out of the way and the cleaners mopped out of the water later. I went back to class and had to keep them in class so they don't get too excited. So i switched off the lights and started telling them stories about school in Singapore. They loved it and kept asking for more - really made me feel good until I realised they prob liked that better than being asked to do work. Well later on found out that on the seventh floor the windows were cracked due to the heavy wind.
Getting home was another challenge. My driver got to school at 530 ( supposed to be at 330) coz of the massive jams caused by the flooding and finally got home at 730. Some colleagues who left at 4 still havent reached home. My kids are calling up asking if there will be a holiday tomoro. Tsk Tsk - on the flip side i want a holiday as well. Hehehe.
This afternoon at about 1230pm the sky got really dark like it was nightime and started raining. By 130pm flooding started outside my school and I guess in most of Jakarta. My class was all excited but I was doing compre with them and insisted they finish it first. Then i sent them to the window to describe the sight outside. I went upstairs to the staff room to get something and was horrified. The windows were leaking and the floor was filling up with water. Managed to move out my cupboards out of the way and the cleaners mopped out of the water later. I went back to class and had to keep them in class so they don't get too excited. So i switched off the lights and started telling them stories about school in Singapore. They loved it and kept asking for more - really made me feel good until I realised they prob liked that better than being asked to do work. Well later on found out that on the seventh floor the windows were cracked due to the heavy wind.
Getting home was another challenge. My driver got to school at 530 ( supposed to be at 330) coz of the massive jams caused by the flooding and finally got home at 730. Some colleagues who left at 4 still havent reached home. My kids are calling up asking if there will be a holiday tomoro. Tsk Tsk - on the flip side i want a holiday as well. Hehehe.
Thursday, April 01, 2004
I hate britney spears. Before u all throw stones at me let me explain. Since britney came it created a fashion trend of sorts of hipster pants and bootleg whatever not. So i waited for it to be over so i can get a proper pair of pants. Believe it or not - i have been looking for the perfect pair of pants for ages ( almost a year now) and i cant get any - i tk it from the rack and once i chk its got that stupid bend at the knee - what i dont understand - who came up with the bright idea to do away with the previous designs!!!!