raffles institution
(010100-310100)
going back to
school was fun. going back to school not as a student, armed with files
of tutorials, books and locker keys in tow, but as a teacher. teaching
at Raffles Institution (RI) was really enjoyable. sometimes i just look
back and see how fortunate i was to have landed the temporary one month
stint at RI. i always wanted to do some relief teaching before deciding
on which scholarships to apply for. for the past few years, i've always
dreamt of becoming a teacher. and now was the opportunity to really experience
teaching in its purest form (ie: without the admin work, ECA responsibilities
that teachers get bogged down with) and of course, i got to sing the school
anthem 4 more times than others from RJC (okok....i don't know what's my
point here...)
anyway, i was
quite scared on the first day. after all, it was RI (the bestest school
in singapore) and i was a mere 3 years older than the boys i would be teaching.
and to add to all that trepidition, was the fact that i would be teaching
mining (ugh! i hate mining!) and weather studies (hullo! i never did learn
that in JC!) ok....so i managed to plow through the topics quite successfully,
but that doesn't mean i love those topics any more than i did in secondary
school, though now i feel more prepared and equipped to teach. :)
yours truly was
the form teacher (co-form teacher rather) of secondary 4I. the boys were
a great bunch: mark, daniel, ho wai, weng
lock, chong geng, hakim, yan shiun, DMC, alex, teddy, benjamin, christer,
chatchawal, derek, gordon, syarif, lihui, jianlong, michael, kun lin, raymond,
sathiyan, zameer, khirsyaban, desmond, kumar, guowei...ok...running
out of names (i'm doing this based on memory ok!) ms grace chong was an
angel too. i really loved teaching 4I. maybe it's because i had more time
with them, and therefore in the process, got to know them better. i love
the rapport that is built up. it just makes teaching even more fulfilling.
that one is not just a teacher, but also a friend. :) and of course, it
helped that there were other fellow rafflesians doing relief teaching too:
rachel, andy mickey, ruimin, william, chin hooi...and yirong (she's from
HC though) canteen food doesn't suck that much. in fact, it's rather ok.
new town secondary
(010200- )
honestly, it
was a culture shock. i was warned, and i thought i was prepared enough.
but i guess i wasn't adequately 'pysched' up yet. *sigh* but still, it
has only been one week, so i still harbour hopes of things getting better
soon.
ok, things are
better now. the students and i have settled down well, the rapport's been
built up, and i really hope that in time, they'll see how learning CAN
be fun. now, there are still those who can't be bothered.
but there are
the really nice students too: trina, aaron,
willy, sharifah, halisa, jin liang, tan kiat, chun keat, johnny, chong
meng, yuan kin, anna, noraini, edrick, gary, zhenyan, thiris, rena, zi
xiang, su ping, xin xia, johnston.....and
loads more....