{PandaMomo Lifestory} "shining as a star ...life is a never-ending journey of discovery learning"

11 February 2006

Fun times @ Wild Wild Wet, Downtown East

Wow! I had a wild of a time at Wild Wild Wet today. It was my first time there. I went with my Mum for the TKP family day organised by my school's SFE. It was really a cool place to chill out and relax. Tried all the fun stuff: floated @ Shiok River, cycled @ Sky Rider, splashed @ Ular-Ular, Waterworks, Slide-Up & Tsunami. Hee hee... haven't had such fun for ages. Hahaha, I had a chance to swim and splash around with my ex-P2 pupils, Suann & Samuel @ Tsunami & Ular-Ular. We had great fun together for the first time. So cool...

When dinner time came, I did reception together with my Mum. Of course, as usual, I went about taking photos everywhere I went. Close-up photos of my dear pupils who will soon join Media Club TK VINE as well.

Took photos together with my marvellous and gorgeous colleagues. All of us enjoyed the relaxing atmosphere and sumptous food @ Cassia Room of Downtown East. Sedap! Mamamia!

Ended the day with a photo together with 3 of my ex-P2 pupils: Suann, Jonathan & Samuel. Hee hee... all my darlings. Don't they look pretty and suave? Hahaha...

10:04 pm;

07 February 2006

Tiring day

What a long and tiring day it has been! I am aching all over. Been up since 3am this morning to do work till now. Phew. 101 things to do...

Started the day happily with my class, but ended up lecturing them because of

a few disobedient boys. I was so furious, annoyed and frustrated by the last lesson of the day. Ended the day with a red face. Time flies so fast, yet the kids are not conscious of this fact and take their own sweet time. Sighz. Arghhhh.... Even though I told them the story of "The Tortoise and the Rabbit" to encourage them to be slow and steady in reaching the finishing line, they should not be so slow like a snail. Well, I will have to move on faster in teaching them the essentials to equip them adequately for the coming CT starting from 16th March. As their teacher, I am so much more worried than them. Praying hard that they wake up from their dreamlands and start putting effort into their work.

As the saying goes: "Hardworking is the basic ingredient for success, there is no substitute for it".
Hopefully, they will work as hard as me. It would be terrific if they worked much harder to realise their dreams. Careful & steady effort is all it takes.
I love this class, but how I wish that all of them can listen carefully and follow instructions the first time they are given. That will make me a happier person. STOP, LOOK & LISTEN when they need to. The rest of the activity time, they get to talk to discuss things. Listening skills are extremely important. It is an area I am training myself to adhere to carefully too. Everyone learns, you and me. Learning is a never-ending journey. A journey of discovery every moment, everywhere we go...
Thank God, today I attended the second session of the Story-telling course @ Dramaplus Arts. Listened to many interesting, animated stories that use different tools. Managed to lighten up and enjoy the whole session despite feeling frustrated before it. Felt energised by the stories. Hee hee... I am ever-learning. I will make it a point to share the interesting stories with my kids. It will be a fun way for them to learn different types of vocabulary and grammar. I am sure they will be able to remember the basics more easily.
Feeling very tired now. Time to sleep... zzzzzzZZZZZZ

10:46 pm;

05 February 2006

Happy days

Friday was a relatively happy day for me. The kids were rather well-behaved except for occasional reprimanding. I kind of enjoy teaching. Everything went quite smoothly. Nevertheless, things could be done faster with greater cooperation from my kids.

After school, I enjoyed going for makan with my church sisters, SM & J. Well, we had a sumptous dinner at Cocoa Restaurant at first.

Wow! I was so excited about taking snap shots of the Chingay Parade of Dreams as we walked down Orchard Road. Phew! It was really crowded. The participants were dressed in colourful costumes and were very fun-loving. Drips of sweat rolled down my forehead as I squeezed my way through the crowds to take the photos.

After taking a few snapshots, we decided it was time to adjourn to Baker's Inn for more food. Hee hee.... dessert. The dessert there was delicious and mouth-watering.

On Saturday, my ex-CCA pupils came to visit me @ my house for Chinese New Year (CNY). I was really happy to spend time chatting with them. They still missed TKP afterall. TKP is still the best to them. Well, I also showed them my class videos and photos that I took this year. One of the videos was a real comedy with me telling a story about "How to Break a Bad Habit?" that I learnt from a story-telling workshop. Hohoho.

Thank God for the rest over the weekends. Hmm... but I still feel tired. Probably it's because I keep dreaming of my class in my dreams.... Thinking too much about my darlings. Hahaha... Well, work is never-ending. Just have to take things ONE STEP AT A TIME and PLAN to SUCCEED! Yeah, JUST DO IT!
Pray that everything goes well for this week. Lots more new things to be discovered and learnt for all. May God bless the days ahead of me. Hoping I will be a good role model and inspiration for my darlings.

8:47 pm;

02 February 2006

Moments of my life

Enjoyed watching the movie I NOT STUPID TOO together with my kawan, HC on 30th Jan 2006. It was indeed a noteworthy show.... everyone has a DREAM. We certainly hope to inspire the children we meet and touch their lives with a positive impact. Change them for the better. It's my dream.

On the 27th Jan 2006, it was one of my happiest day as a teacher. Well, for the first time, I have ex-pupils who come back to visit me in school. Oh... so sweet of my girls (ex-TK VINE members). Look at the 2 pretty girls by my side. The TK VINE t-shirt was designed by them. TC(on my right) and FB (on my left). How I missed my capable photographers... Aww. Really happy to see them again. Smilez...

The real me, I am one who embraces nature and is very much environmental-friendly. I learnt about Environmental Management as part of my Geog studies in NIE (National Institute of Education).

A peace-loving person who is ever-helpful and generous. If you ask me for help, I will be there to help where I can. That's just me. I never want to leave anyone in the lurch. Not that I want to show off or be an apple-polisher. I am just me.
Sometimes, I can be a real animated being who is simply hilarious and ridiculous at times. At other times, I am just cool and calm. Conversely, I can be like a "gan-jiong" spider. It all depends on the time, place and situations.

My best times were spent in NIE. The most memorable moments of time spent with great buddies who shared a common vision and goal with me... to inspire, motivate and mould the characters of pupils we meet. For me, it was to be the tiny spark of light like a twinkling star that shines forth in the dark night. A dream that I am sure it will eventually come true! I believe. DREAMS WILL COME TRUE...

10:17 pm;

01 February 2006

A day in the life of a teacher @ TKP Feb 2006

This is the first time that I try blogging. Since young, I have been writing diaries with paper and pen. I always thought blogging was a weird idea whereby my deep, dark secrets are viewed by others online. Hmmm..., well, afterall it's the "in" thing to do these days.

Today is the 1st February 2006. This marks my first attempt at writing an online journal entry. I will try to write often, but as a teacher, life is very hectic with so many things to do. It's definitely not easy to be a teacher, much less a responsible and hardworking teacher who is ever so bothered about pupils' behaviour, work attitude and everything else. Sometimes, my virtue becomes my weak point too. I care too much.

Thank God for this year! So far, I am thankful for the class 4 Diligence that I get this year as my form class. The children are all very different individuals. Hee.... I have pupils from almost 8 different countries (Korea, Myanmar, Taiwan, China, India, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand and Singaporeans (Chinese, Malay, Indian, Eurasian & others). An interesting combination of pupils .... global citizens. Hahaha. I am dreaming of visiting all my pupils in their homeland one fine day. Hee... if they do not mind housing me for a few days of my holidays when I visit their motherland.

Thank God for this day. Everything went quite well for lessons. I ended my lessons with a "blue face" (one of my colour signals like traffic light system to represent my feelings to my class)
The best part of the day was during the game of wacko that I played with my class Primary 4D today. I modified the game to integrate English with PE. I asked the pupils to do self-introduction by using an adjective to describe each of them. Instead of just calling out the name, they have to remember the adjective (describing word) and call out both the adjective and name of friend for the game of WACKO! It was fun. Nevertheless, there are always a few who are the odd one out who do not follow instructions and keep talking & playing away with their neighbours (on the left or right). On the whole, it was a fun game of adjectives and getting-to-know session.
Nowadays, I start to enjoy teaching. Hee hee... I play some music in my class during DEAR (Drop Everything And Read Time) and activities time. It's just like playing musical chairs. When the music stops, it will be my signal to the class to either stop what they are doing or move forward to sit on the floor for CIRCLE TIME or to change activities. Learning to make things fun for both my pupils and myself. Thank God for the wisdom and knowledge to do all things. Thank God for the love that He gives me to shower on my class of 40.
An amusing thing happened during the intervals of my series of lessons. So Yong was so hilarious with her innocent speech and actions. Hmmm... in a way, like modelling me... ahhaha. It was especially amusing when she remarked, "Oh? Aiyoh." When I asked her to send Yu Yang to the sick bay because the poor boy was having a bad headache, she just called out to Yu Yang, "Come, follow me. (with action of hand signalling to him)" Hahaha... Almost broke out in fits of laughter. After she sent him there, she reported to me that Yu Yang was shedding tears. I simply told her the reason was that he had a bad headache. Guess how our gorgeous So Yong responded? She exclaimed, "Aiyoh! (and shakes her head, followed by tsk tsk action) I was so amused by her child-like mannerism. So cute and adorable. Hahaha. Some of the pupils who noticed her mannerism were also amused by it.
The angriest and meanest thing I did today was to send 2 pupils, Yusri and Sathya to Primary 1 class. Why? Well, they did not follow my CLASS RULE number 1. FOLLOW DIRECTIONS THE FIRST TIME YOU ARE GIVEN. & RULE number 4. Keep hands, feet and objects to yourselves. I gave instructions for them to copy important "TO DO" things in KIDZ ORGANIZER for today. Guess what they did? Yusri and Sathya were behaving like Pri 1 kids pulling and tugging at a liquid paper bottle (I think it belongs to Sathya). I was so angry that I asked Zainuddin and Affiq to send them to Mdm Rita's Primary 1 class for them to learn the basics of FOLLOWING RULES.
Well, after 10 minutes or so, I cooled down and decided to ask the boys to bring the 2 disobedient boys back to class to join us for MENTAL SUMS time. See, I am still very kind to them afterall. Well, but they really tested my patience and level of tolerance.
Even though I did not manage to complete all the plans I had in mind to carry out, I think it was still a rather fruitful day. Just need to work on it to improve things. Praying hard that the pupils will grow to like me and grow to realise their fullest potential. I hope to see them fly and soar high into the skies like EAGLES. Like the Westlife song goes "FLYING WITHOUT WINGS".

I left school around 7.20pm. How amazing! I stayed in class to arrange things and read their journals after the P4 teachers' planning/discussion for tomorrow's Science Discovery Day. Stayed in school for nearly 12 hours. Aiyoyo (my favourite pet phrase)!

I don't know about tomorrow, but today is a gift. That's why it is called the PRESENT! Looking forward to a better tomorrow each day. May God bless my journey as a teacher who seeks to exhibit the FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT (love, joy, peace patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control) in words and actions. c.f. Bible verse: Galatians 5:22 & 23.
Pray that I will be a good witness for the Lord and a good role model for the pupils to follow. Hope I can inspire and motivate them to learn, explore and discover new things each day!

9:37 pm;