Labour of Love

Teaching is like falling in love. One minute you are walking on clouds nine after the students walked past you and thanked you personally for the lesson ( I have always preferred that to the sing-song-chorus of 'Thank you Teacher' played on at the end of every lesson) while the next you will feel down to the pits from just the look of boredom in your students' eyes. At least, that was how I felt for these second and third week of teaching practice. The ups and downs are like the emotional roller-coaster ride, with me secretly wishing that there would be a Solero Shot-like theme park game to thrust me up again after the downs if you know what I mean.

The second week saw me settling down and adapting to my 7.20 - 1.10 pm routine. In between, I became the inspector for wardrobe malfunction and I even got a movie date from one of Chee Hwei's students. Hehe, those are really marvellous kids who believed that teacher is only 19 years old. Looks like I am joining the cougar circle of Demi Moore and Madonna if not of the teaching ethics because those boys assured me that " 3 years' difference only teacher!". However, the mother of all guffaw is when I truly, honestly believed that the two equally tall, crew-cut boys are twins when they kinda told me so. This is the ultimatum prank that a student could pull to make all trainee teachers look stupid. I mean how stupid can I be for believing them because now that I look at them again, they are NOT identical, with one having his face partly obscured by his thick-framed glasses and the other is a Cristiano Ronaldo lookalike.

Back to my teaching, it was alright for the second week when they had their first ever listening lesson and the kids in 4A produced top-notch mind-maps after much cajoling and coaxing. This is because the thing with those smart kids from smart class is that they are so academic. They detest some games and activities in lessons which they feel they will learn nothing from. Smart as they are, only half of the class passed up their summary. I decided to tick them off or else nobody would pass up anything at all eventually but I think I did not do a very good job. I did not want to sound mean, sarcastic or boastful. I just wanted to put them in their place when I told them " hey, teacher knows that you all are very smart students and many are straight-As scorers but to tell you the truth, teacher was a straight-As student all my life and I did all of my homework no matter how unimportant I thought it was then because I think there is a learning curve in everything you do,". Of course that was not the cold hard truth because I did not get the perfect score in STPM but my ego wants to tell them that teacher is smart too even though she checked her spellings with you all and please hand in your work because that is your responsibility as a student. Nevertheless, there were a lot of dilemmas attached to it because I really do not know how to say nasty things in a nice manner, I do not want to boast, I am not saying that my homework is unimportant, I am afraid that I will hurt the feelings of those students who are not straight-As scorers and I still want to be in their good books but I do not want them to disrespect me by ignoring my work because normally those kids from the good class would always hand in their work in time. Overall, they can be very easy to teach because they have the input and are very knowledgeable and I just have to try to not to get them so bored while imparting something that they will appreciate from me such as things that they still do not know yet and technique in scoring exams.

Meanwhile, 4C is a different kettle of fish altogether. They are still good and knowledgeable but the one or two boys there can be so cheeky. The banter can be fun and playful but I am not sure whether I should ignore them sometimes else I will be more like their friend than their teacher. Basically, I think all students are the same like you and I, they expect to learn something from their teacher whether they are forced to come to school or not. Therefore, I think what really matters in teaching is for the students to learn and not just for the teachers to finish their lesson plans per se, which is the question that I am always asking myself now : What have my students learned from me? I begin to feel that 90% of the lesson plans that we have been doing throughout our undergraduate studies are not real as it is impossible for teachers to start on a brand new fresh lesson everyday because surely they have to do some follow up discussions and checking with their students when they enter the class or else how would the students learn anything?

And then there is also this question of classroom control because I have the habit of standing in the same corner in the centre of the class and sometimes I feel like I am only speaking to this same group of students. I think I did this out of instinct because I tend to be closest to those who give me the most eye contact. I do not feel that this is right because I will ignore the weaker students and those who are not paying attention because those are the students that I should have been paying a lot of attention to in the first place. Between, I do not know if it is just me for I am inexperienced but I have to plan every single line that I am going to say in the class the night before or I will mess up my lesson.

Today, I marked my student's essay with LOL, something that I do not think any teacher in my school does. Laughing out loud, taking everything with a pinch of salt could just be the two things that every trainee teacher must remember in their book.

Good Morning Ms Kang...

" Good morning teacher..."

"Good morning Ms Kang..."
( after a few days)

"Good morning Pn Kang..."
(which is when I instinctly snapped back, "teacher is not married yet la...", or on some occasions when i enthusiastically mouthed "Miss, Miss" when the whole class when into the unison of "Good morning Pn Kang" when I went into some relief classes"

Sigh, do I really look that old? Or is it maybe my make-up is too gaudy? Vanity aside, I really appreciate all these greetings though. Chee Hwei and I are actually in awe of how courteous the students are in SMK USJ 8. Overall, they are well-mannered and I'm not sure whether it's the school's training or they are very well brought up children who respect teachers. We even witnessed a 90 degree bow from a girl once! It's actually quite uplifting sometimes to be acknowledged by your students at the school corridors and it does serve as a booster to remind myself time and again that I am a teacher now!

I have been assigned to 4 Arif and 4 Cerdik and true to their name, they are all very arif -arif and cerdik-cerdik belaka. Technically speaking, I think I am teaching in a very ideal English classroom where the level of proficiency of the students is generally above average. Gosh, I have so much to pour out now but nothing can make a bigger entrance than my first day at school.

Day 1
It was our official first day at the school and Chee Hwei's Ah Kam ( her white Honda Civic, you must know that she has a habit of calling all of her cars by boys' name, just like one of the blokes who is married to their cars) was cruising on the Federal Highway on the ungodly hours of 6.35am. We decided to play safe to depart earlier since the traffic on the at-times-notoriously congested Federal Highway can be quite unpredictable at times. Anyway, nothing can possibly be worse than arriving late on your first day at work right?

After we had reached the school and parked Ah Kam in a rather inconspicuous spot ( don't want to step on any of the teachers' tails by taking up their parking spot), we were swiftly briefed by the PK 1 and hurried to join the rest of the school for their assembly. I breathed a sigh of relief when we were seated in the last row ( again, wanna keep the low profile) but somewhere in my daydream while gazing at the students in front, I was brought back to reality when the principal made a roll-call on the presence of the new trainee teachers and the rest of teaching staff had a frenzy of encouraging us to introduce ourselves. I stood up sheepishly and Chee Hwei later told me that she was only awaken from her own daydream after seeing me springing to my feet suddenly. The principal further urged us to say something to introduce ourselves and I think that was the first litmus test for us in speaking in front of the crowd. Psst, I think I had a rather silly smile plastered all over my face, be kind, rewind please!

Next, we met the teachers whom we are taking over from and I just hoped that I had asked them all the relevant questions. I went to 4A later after refusing the teacher's offer to chaperone me there as I did not want to think about the students' responses of getting a new teacher in front of their old teacher. Then, I had a taste of how good their English is by the adjectives they have used to describe themselves in assonance with their own names. Come to think about it, "Tenacious Theresa, Advocative Adrian.." just sound like a very promising lot. Overall, the whole ice-breaking session was not too bad but I think they were still missing their old teachers##
p/s : Did I also mention that some boy in my relief class asked me what does "tits" mean. Talking about a red-faced first day!

After that, I started teaching a real lesson when I entered 4C the next day after going through the same ice-breaking activity ( this is the class-control-proof one which most trainees favour). Lesson plans could be a bit of a headache sometimes as we trainees would always strive to do something out of the box. My "Simon Says" activity to teach prepositions did not really work out that well with 4 C, perhaps it was a bit too childish for the big 16-year-old-kids.

On the third day, 4A improved my impression of them because I thought they were a little bit cold on the first day. Overall, I had a rather satisfying lesson with them on the poem If. The kids are responsive and very good in their proficiency, which made my job a lot easier. Besides, I find that they are very attuned to the latest development around the world, eg. 75% of the class had watched The Inconvenient Truth. Thus, I can talk about any issues with them without meeting a sea of blank stares. In fact, they are so smart that one boy even questioned my rationale of asking them to state the challenges that they think they may face when they are 25 as a set induction to the lesson. 4C is also not that bad, but they are also quite advanced in their sexual lingo though. I have to learn to be more careful with my choice of words with them. Come on, who could have thought that threesome is that threesome to 16-year-olds?

Overall, I had my ups and downs on the first week although the downs could be a letdown at times. To sum it all up, these are the things that I have discovered on my first week at work :

1. It may sound repetitive, but I want to say again that it is not easy being a teacher.
2. To teach is to learn twice.
3. I finally understood what ethics mean, I am learning to maintain a professional relationship
with my kids because I think that I am too friendly with some of them at times.
4. Notes on a Scandal is so disgusting to me right now.
5. Preparing questions, i.e. the stem of the questions can be very challenging.
6. My biggest problem is getting all of the students to understand my instructions clearly.
7. And lastly, teaching can be quite fun and I think I am starting to fall in love with my kids.

A Room With A View

July is the month which marks many new beginnings for me. I'll be moving in to a new room with a new roommate ( but then again, I tend to do that almost every year, not that I am very difficult to get along with though, mind you).


The few visitors to my new room claimed that the view from my 8th floor is spectacular. The Am Corp Mall is figured prominently here.


I swear that the night view is breath-taking, guess have to fiddle more with my camera's functions.



However, the most pivotal first step that I am going to take would have to be on the morning of 7th July, 2008 when I am about to embark on the journey of my teaching practice as a full-fledged trainee teacher. I am partnering with Chee Hwei this time, never knew our lives could intertwine this much when she sat behind me in class when we were in Form 2.

We had paid a visit to our school, SMK USJ 8 on last monday and we have talked to the very amiable Principal, PK 1 and the Ketua Panitia English. The Principal, Pn. Rubiah gave us a rather long briefing ( opps, can't help that is an oxymoron here) about the background of the students in that school. According to her, the students there are lonely kids as they come from double income families. They are not really delinquent kids and thus we teachers have to show our caring side to them while being firm at the same time. Hmm, this is not too bad, I think I would have failed in acting as a garang teacher anyway. Nevertheless, I think Pn. Rubiah is a very benevolent lady. She told us that she allows her staff to bring their children to work if no one is around to keep an eye on them at home as she could not face her own conscience should anything bad happened to them. Don't you think that she is a very nice employer to have, well I certainly hope she is because lady principals do have the reputation of being quite fussy.

To my surprise, SMK USJ 8 was just established 8 years ago and it was quite a beautiful school actually. We toured the school on our own while waiting to meet the teachers and I was enchanted by the pots of petunia hanging around the school compound. No pictures here because I thought better of being taken as a too-eager first-timer furiously snapping away. Much to the worry of my partner, we will only be given our timetable on the big day itself but we were informed that we will be taking Form 4 classes. This aside, we are also in the understanding that the proficiency of the students there are generally above average as Subang Jaya is a middle class area.

All in all, these are all the rather physical domain of the preparations prior to the it's-finally-here-teaching practice. I think I have been preparing myself mentally for the big day by relaxing as much as possible, hehe. I am convincing myself that I am going to have a lot of fun during my 10-week stint. Positivity never kills right? Nevertheless, I think all of us have been thinking on what to do on the first day in class. There have been conflicting opinions on whether to have any ice-breaking activity on the first lesson because some supervisors advised us to teach straight away. I am not too sure about that because I find it very weird if we did not make an effort to get acquainted with the students in the first place. Isn't the golden rule of teaching is remembering the names of your students? Anyway, that's about it now. I will carry out some simple ice-breaking activity anyhow. Keep your fingers crossed for each other, alright. Cheerio.

How do you like your teacher?

Here's the thing people, when it comes to teachers, the images that most people conjure up would be those of the no-nonsense, frumpy ones. However, there is an emerging breed of new English teachers from the graduation year of 2009 who are set to bring a breath of fresh air into the teaching profession. So for those of who have made it into the hall of fame, so sorry for exposing the candid teachers in you ya. Please don't be offended ok, it is all done in good humour.

The Joker, Angela Teo


The Musician Wannabe, Jennifer Tan


The Tough One, Chee Hwei in a gender-bending role ( she's so going to kill me this time)



The Crazy Teachers

Crazy Teacher 1 : Poay Ling

Crazy Teacher 2 : Joan Kan

The Scary Teacher, Jefeft Aw



The Food Connoisseur, Shih Min


The Opportunistic Photographer, Kenny


The Beautiful Teacher, Ainul Saadiah

Mabel in the background is also beautiful lah


The So- I -Think- I -Can -Dance -Teachers, Oliver, Kenny,Ben & Kean ( 1st yr)
It's a bit obscene here lah, dude

The Benevolent Teacher, April Ong


The Funny-Faced Teacher, Oliver Kee




The Oh, so Lovely Teacher, Tracy Looi


The So-Good-To- Kiss-Teacher, Ying Ying

Or is it Angelina Jolie in one of her pre-Brad Pitt moments?

What do you think about this one?

Me lah

To Miss With Love...

Here's a confession, I was a very, very bad student when I was in school. I passed up my homework on time and all that but like some of the smart-ass students in a so-called " good" class or "good school" for that matter, I was very teacher's nightmare who did her add-maths tuition homework during BM lessons and skipped school when there were double periods of BM and English, yes, you heard me, English.

Therefore, it is only ironic that I am choosing to take up a teaching course and perhaps this could be the karma pay-back time now that I am embarking on my teaching practice in 4 days' time. Gosh, I even thought about my poor, poor history teacher, whom we all nicknamed as 'The Rock' for his big stature and who was never listened to in any of his classes on the morning when I was preparing to meet my school's principal. Looks like I am letting the past to haunt myself here.

But then again, I have always tried to reason my poor record as a student by justifying that those teachers I did not pay enough attention to were not that good in their teaching. I am not saying that they are not good teachers and I should say that they are actually very good teachers who really have their students' interest at heart. In fact, me and a bunch of equally lousy students kept in touch with them years after we had left school. Perhaps the exam-orientated education system in our country could be blamed for producing the lot of students like me.

You see, I came from a Chinese school which fits the stereotype of most Chinese schools i.e. very kiasu students, exemplary results in maths and science and very, very, result and academic orientated only. This phenomenon is even more apparent in the first few classes. On the other hand, one may beg to question about how bad students like us could be straight- As-flyers? This is because when I said that we were very bad students, we were also excellent students on other periods. However, this only happened to lessons which were taught by the subject specialists teachers who also happened to be marking public examination slips and much-sought- after-tuition teachers at the same time. Mind you, the attendance on those periods were always full and some of my friends only came to school on the periods that those teachers were teaching. Notwithstanding, those teachers were really marvelous and very clear in their teaching but they could only remember the name of the monitor out of a class of 40 plus students.

Looking back, I am certainly not proud of myself or my friends. Indeed, our behaviour at that time could only be considered as nothing but arrogant and we really owe all those teachers that we have ignored an apology now. While I have stereotyped the situation above to that which happened in Chinese schools, I think this phenomenon is also quite apparent in other schools across the nation as well. In fact, one could also say that this is almost the norm in most urban schools. Thus, this is going to be such bad news for us English teachers.

Why am I emphasizing on English teachers alone? On the one hand, English is a subject which has no formula nor theorem ( if you do not consider grammatical rules as theorem, that is). Besides, I think that sometimes teachers could not make a huge difference to improve the proficiency of the students at the upper secondary level. I honestly believe that English teachers only play the role as facilitators in language learning. Therefore, we should not expect the students to be eager and attentive at all if our lessons are not INTERESTING. Nowadays, the students are even more smart-ass than we were and they can really tell whether we are passionate and good enough to teach.

Back when I was in school, the English periods was a chance for us to relax after the cramming of the formulae and I must admit that we had fun and paid attention on those lessons which were very well prepared and thought after. I still remember a very interesting set induction that my English teacher did when I was in Form 3 even though I did not know the technical term of set induction back then. She was teaching us a chapter on smoking and she tried to lit a money bill and we naive students (yea, still not so smart-ass yet at Form 3) were pleading her not to do that. Consequently, she explained that smoking is akin to the act of setting money on fire. Don't you think that it is a very good set induction to do in the classroom?

On the whole, I think we will be facing the most challenging 10 weeks in our somewhat idyllic 4-year-course. I can only tell myself that it is going to be fine and I am going to enjoy myself. Worrying ourselves to insomania will only add dark circles and positivity could not be more relevant at this period of time. Therefore, to all of my friends out there, we shall do our best and the rest is just up to God I guess. Just as Ying Ying has said, bon voyage and don't forget to have fun!