ps: this is NOT an ordinary background. it is a Bugs Bunny background.
post A's: the transition
out from school, goodbye to school uniform and with 6 months of 'freedom' in one's hands. of course, with my mum bugging me to make myself useful and not just bum around at home, there wasn't much freedom. :)
 

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....