the teaching chronicles - it gets better when it's ending
Next Friday will be the last day of my teaching journey! And next Friday is the last day of T2. I'm already starting to miss my students and my colleagues and the school in general!
The new teacher will be coming in on Monday for a demo lesson, and I found it amusing and ironic that I was giving her instructions about the class dynamics and what to prepare for the lesson. She is an experienced EL teacher and I'm just a University-gonnabe noob who's just trying her hand at teaching. I felt so OLD, but I realized that I really knew my class well and what was going on. I will miss that favourite class of mine! ):
It's a pity that just as I'm going to finish my job here that I'm starting to get closer to my colleagues, esply the SUPER fun EL Dept. The politics in this school is fairly non-existent cos everyone's either pretty private or just safe people in general. Which makes this quite a good working environment, but just not as spicy as an environment where everyone is trying to gain an edge and angle for promotions and stuff like that. It took awhile for the barrier between us to break down and for us to bitch/gossip with each other without fear that we might get told on. Trust and security issues lah. I'm glad they are so bimbotic as me!! One colleague told me just the other day that when she first saw me, she was thinking, "Who is this fierce and serious looking girl???!", and later their impression of me almost-totally changed. LOL. Serious? That's not quite me! Fierce, maybe lah.
Yesterday, I had to lecture/present in front of 3 classes, which translates to about > 120 students. I was quite daunted by the number of students at first, but when I had to do what I had to do, it was good! Basically, I had to go through with them the Compre and since I marked the bulk of it, I was responsible for going through the answers that I accepted and explain why I didn't accept others. Popular but incorrect answers were aplenty. It's really quite scary at first!! Wonder how lecturers lectured us in LT 1 man.
And my attempt at trying to sound all-business-like and firm with my stand on acceptable and non-acceptable answers was a grand failure. Not because I started to break out into giggles and laughters throughout, but cos the moment I ended, my own students starting coming up to ask me, "Eh Miss Tan today you bad mood ah?" I was so amused at the number of kids who asked me that I told them I was really not! :)
And then after the 3 teachers went through the sections we marked, GOSH. The number of students who FLOCK to us for corrections and add more marks were crazy. I felt like my body was coated with gold and everyone was trying to get a piece of me. So after awhile I got a little annoyed and said, "If anyone touches or pushes me, I'll NOT entertain anymore nonsense." Wah suddenly everyone diam. I was damn insistent about answers that I would not accept and they just shrugged their shoulders in resignation, cos they could finally understand why they couldn't get the mark. Sucks to be at the other end of marks I guess!
So, one more week to go. I have another mass 'lecture' to present to, this time 4 classes. Sian! Need to start preparing my little gifts! And I can't wait for Dept Chill-out Dinner this Wed and final TTT on Friday! (:
+++
Finally submitted my rejection of sship letter this morning. I hesistated for ONE second before pushing the envelope into the box. And so, I bade farewell to my sship, "Byebye 30K. Byebye teaching." Felt ABIT sad lah, but I know and figure I'll be happier not being a teacher.
Deed's done! Now it's either Accountant or Lawyer.
Life. Is full of choices to make.
The new teacher will be coming in on Monday for a demo lesson, and I found it amusing and ironic that I was giving her instructions about the class dynamics and what to prepare for the lesson. She is an experienced EL teacher and I'm just a University-gonnabe noob who's just trying her hand at teaching. I felt so OLD, but I realized that I really knew my class well and what was going on. I will miss that favourite class of mine! ):
It's a pity that just as I'm going to finish my job here that I'm starting to get closer to my colleagues, esply the SUPER fun EL Dept. The politics in this school is fairly non-existent cos everyone's either pretty private or just safe people in general. Which makes this quite a good working environment, but just not as spicy as an environment where everyone is trying to gain an edge and angle for promotions and stuff like that. It took awhile for the barrier between us to break down and for us to bitch/gossip with each other without fear that we might get told on. Trust and security issues lah. I'm glad they are so bimbotic as me!! One colleague told me just the other day that when she first saw me, she was thinking, "Who is this fierce and serious looking girl???!", and later their impression of me almost-totally changed. LOL. Serious? That's not quite me! Fierce, maybe lah.
Yesterday, I had to lecture/present in front of 3 classes, which translates to about > 120 students. I was quite daunted by the number of students at first, but when I had to do what I had to do, it was good! Basically, I had to go through with them the Compre and since I marked the bulk of it, I was responsible for going through the answers that I accepted and explain why I didn't accept others. Popular but incorrect answers were aplenty. It's really quite scary at first!! Wonder how lecturers lectured us in LT 1 man.
And my attempt at trying to sound all-business-like and firm with my stand on acceptable and non-acceptable answers was a grand failure. Not because I started to break out into giggles and laughters throughout, but cos the moment I ended, my own students starting coming up to ask me, "Eh Miss Tan today you bad mood ah?" I was so amused at the number of kids who asked me that I told them I was really not! :)
And then after the 3 teachers went through the sections we marked, GOSH. The number of students who FLOCK to us for corrections and add more marks were crazy. I felt like my body was coated with gold and everyone was trying to get a piece of me. So after awhile I got a little annoyed and said, "If anyone touches or pushes me, I'll NOT entertain anymore nonsense." Wah suddenly everyone diam. I was damn insistent about answers that I would not accept and they just shrugged their shoulders in resignation, cos they could finally understand why they couldn't get the mark. Sucks to be at the other end of marks I guess!
So, one more week to go. I have another mass 'lecture' to present to, this time 4 classes. Sian! Need to start preparing my little gifts! And I can't wait for Dept Chill-out Dinner this Wed and final TTT on Friday! (:
+++
Finally submitted my rejection of sship letter this morning. I hesistated for ONE second before pushing the envelope into the box. And so, I bade farewell to my sship, "Byebye 30K. Byebye teaching." Felt ABIT sad lah, but I know and figure I'll be happier not being a teacher.
Deed's done! Now it's either Accountant or Lawyer.
Life. Is full of choices to make.