I am so disgustingly stupid!

Ok i am exaggerating.

Since the start of the year, i had been faithfully planning the whole week's lessons, spending a few hours thinking through what to cover as well as the pace for each day.

Then i have spend a few hours during the week to adjust the plans again.

I had been frustrated and had complained to a few people.
The sympathetic faces were telling me "And you thought being a teacher was easy right?".

Anyway, this unproductive routine had been carrying on for the past one month until Friday when suddenly i was enlightened. I just saw the "light".

When we just do something as part of a routine, we are so blind to its flaws.
It suddenly dawned on me that why can't i just plan for only Mon & Tues? This is so that Tues is a contingency in case i am too fast for Monday. And once Monday's lessons end, i can adjust for Tues and Wed.

So simple and yet i had never thought of it. STUPID!

No matter what i will need to adjust for the next day anyway so why plan so far ahead?!

Ok now that i am enlightened, i feel better that i am not wasting so much time every weekend.

Better late enlightenment than never right?

How many of us appreciated our form teachers?

I don't.
In fact, i can't remember liking any form teacher except for our Sec 1 & 2's. She couldn't help it but cried in the class because some other teachers scolded her, and this was because some of my classmates were deemed "problematic".

I have not much affinity with teachers, i don't even go back to visit them after graduation. I don't appreciate most of them, until now.

I didn't know Form Teacher (FT) has so much administrative & "bo liao" stuff to do.

Besides having to quickly learn 40 girls' names in as short time as possible, you gotta:

• collect $
• collect / give out forms
• set class rules
• collect thermometers and do temp-taking exercise
• decorate the class notice boards

These are trivial activities but really time-consuming, especially when i am unfamiliar with the office admin group and where they keep/hide their stuff.

In addition to FT work, you gotta know your subject classes. This year i am quite lucky to be teaching P3 Maths and P3 & P4 PE. Everyone commented that at least PE doesn't need marking :D

But then again, i have not done PE for ages. How many rounds can I get the kids to run? 5? 8? Will they die of exhaustion? Being non-PE trained, it's tough to teach PE coz you need to take care of their safety too.

And planning for Maths lessons. Initially it was quite screwed up coz you can do your best plan but time will overrun coz the kids are not up to your planned speed. Being in a class of 40 kids will give you lots of surprises and little things that need your attention.

"Teacher, i got a cut on my hand/knee."

"Teacher, i got stomach/eyes/whatever-place pain."

"Teacher, i can't find my file/books/journal/time-table..." (They didn't really search thoroughly!)

And PE is hilarious coz you have kids who wear loose shoes and you will see flying shoes or flying kids as they tripped and fall. Then they will cry?! Bo liao lor, it's your own loose shoes leh! Of course i have to console them like a mother and send them to the General Office.

For the last few days i had throbbing headache daily due to the stress, lack of water/lunch and rest. Today, i adjusted my pace of teaching and the day actually went quite smoothly :-)

Thank God it's Friday tomorrow!!!! Yeah!!!

Brother's big day

Today is my brother's big day aka ROM day.
Wonder why he chose today, i suppose it's easy to remember their wedding anniversary next time :p

Anyway, ROM venue is having renovation so we had it at Furama Riverfront.

I am sincerely happy for him since he's my precious little brother.
But i am not elated (like the 1st round).

It was a small, private affair with the 2 families and some of his/her close friends.
Strangely, i don't know much about my new SIL.
I think i am not fair to her.
After the divorce saga, somehow i don't have faith in re-marriages and maybe unconscious to me, i don't know if his relationship with this girl will last. So i never bother to truly get to know her, merely acknowledge her existence. It's the same way you would treat new colleagues coz you don't know how soon they will become ex-colleagues.

Surprisingly, they have progressed so far and now she is my SIL.

I just want my brother to be happy and if she's the one who can give him happiness then i am thankful to her.

Ok, i guess it's time to accept her into my life.