Tag Archives: teaching: does not suck

Oct 17 2010

Saying Goodbyes and Hellos

It was the last day of school for my form class last Friday. The next time I see them, they will be sitting for their O-level papers. It’s going to be so strange to go to school next year and have them not be there. They aren’t my first graduating class but I think they are the ones I am the closest to.

I miss them already.

I already know what class I will be form teacher of next year. I teach them this year and will take over form teachership of them next year. At this moment, I don’t know how it will work out. My experience with this class this year has not been great – they’ve frustrated me most of the year and I return from their class angry a lot of the times, which does not make for a good relationship with the class. And I know I will compare them to my class this year and they are likely to fall short in my mind and it’s not fair for them. To be honest, I used to write individual notes to the students in my current form class but I cannot picture myself doing this for my class next year. I’m so worried I will do them a disservice next year by not being as fond of them as I am of my class this year.

Sigh. I need to go chat with my RO and VP I think.

Sep 2 2010

And sometimes it’s worth it

I found this really interesting, because I’m about to step into teaching, and even after practicum, you get a glimpse that teaching life isn’t all that it’s purported to be. I mean, even when we were just in schools for the school experience, you already got the feeling that all the advertisements on the buses rang hollow. Practicum made me realise the amount of extra work a teacher could end up doing. So I’m just wondering — amidst all this, despite the fact that teaching takes a backseat, do you still enjoy it? Is it still the reason you went into it? 7 years is not a short time.

A comment I received many moons ago. I wonder how this person is doing in school now.

A student from my very first year of teaching came back to school yesterday and told me that I had made a huge difference in her life all those years ago. She asked me if I remembered how I paid attention to her in class and how I chose her to represent the class in a public speaking competition. It seemed that just by doing that, I made her feel like she was worth something. At that point in time, she was feeling bad about herself because she had just moved from N(T) stream to N(A) stream and by choosing her to enter the competition, I made her feel special.

Sometimes, you do so much for some students and they couldn’t care less. Then other times, your decisions and your actions affect them so deeply.

A lot of the time, I get the impulse to quit teaching. If it is not the insane hours during the school term, it’s the administrative work or the difficult students or simply the frustration that nothing you do works. And you start to think that maybe a job that isn’t teaching would be so much better. It doesn’t help when you see people around you getting burnt out and leaving the profession.

And then, once a year, teachers’ day comes around. For me at least, it reminds me why I’m still here – as a teacher and as a teacher in my school. It’s nice to think that you have played a part, no matter how small, in someone’s life – providing them with the  means to move on in life and the opportunity to succeed. Of course, not all my students go on to bigger and better things, but many do go on to have decent lives and when they come back to say hi, I’m happy to have seen them grow. And sometimes this overshadows all the pain and exhaustion the job brings.

That said, I wouldn’t mind being paid more.

Jun 10 2010

The good and the bad

I guess today encapsulated the good and bad of teaching.

In the morning, a group of students my colleagues and I were in charge of were told to report to us at a certain time. In the end, the whole group sauntered down half an hour later. Then when they saw us, they neither bothered to greet any of us nor did they even apologise for their tardiness.

Saying I was very annoyed is an understatement.

Quite calmly, my colleague expressed her disappointment at their behaviour and some of them rolled their eyes at us. Unsurprisingly, we received no apology from them. In fact, I suspect they thought we were just being a pain. After all, why should it matter that they made us wait for half an hour? We are their slaves, pandering to their every need – don’t want to listen in class but want your teacher to teach you on her own time outside school hours? Why not? Because when we refuse, suddenly we are the selfish ones who don’t care about our students.

As I told my colleague, there are two things I really cannot stand in students and students who demonstrate such “qualities” not only make me very angry but should hope I never teach them because I find it very difficult to be more than coldly cordial with them. So if you are purposefully rude to me and/or are selfish in your speech and actions, I’m sorry but I am going to find it very difficult to like you. Most other faults or weaknesses, I can deal with and I often still like these students who may be lazy, lack discipline or who have anger management problems. But be selfish or rude and I cannot take it. I used to scold but I realised it was pointless. These kids have been rude and selfish all their lives and scolding them rarely achieves anything except their anger at you. So nowadays, I tell them off briefly then refuse to interact with them (if possible).

The kids today were rude and selfish all rolled up in an ugly package. They showed no concern for our time, believed that we ought to have sat there quietly and be grateful they bothered to turn up at all and were rude. And they really spoiled the beginning of my day.

On the other hand, I met up with my ex-students for lunch. That was really lovely because to me, it was really good to see them going on to further their studies and just growing up. And even though I may not have done a lot, it’s really heartening to realise that I had in some small way helped them along the way.

The lunch more than made up for the nonsense in the morning.

Mar 19 2010

It’s the small things

I can’t remember if I’ve blogged about our new management before. Suffice to say it’s a breath of fresh air and even though you know that nothing is really going to change so quickly, you can’t help but feel a little hope in the air. Now, after requesting for it for years (from what I hear), we finally have dress-down Fridays. So it’s jeans to work for me! And this little change alone has managed to lift the spirits in the staff room, at least for a while. Still, I don’t know if it is able to keep the mass exodus of teachers at bay though.

Every year, my school gives out an award to a number of teachers who have been voted by their students as being “outstanding”. To be honest, it isn’t really a fair competition. The students are expected to give a write-up of the teacher they are voting for and many times, I know some classes and some students simply can’t be bothered to write anything. A lot of students end up voting for their form teachers as well so it often comes down to the write up. Whatever it is, it’s probably not a good idea to let this award affect your teaching.

Having said all that, when I was given that award last year, it was quite a nice feeling. What was even better was when I opened my dip tray today. After many, many months, the award committee finally passed us the write-ups by our students and it was really a lovely read. Aside from feeling really touched by what some of my students wrote, I also ended up feeling quite guilty because honestly, I am no where as wonderful as they claim. I think this came at a pretty good time since I’ve been feeling somewhat blah about my job lately.

Speaking of the small things, is it really difficult to make your Intranet compatible across browsers? I don’t like IE6 at all and for some reason, we are not allowed to upgrade our IE from that. I’ve been using FireFox and Chrome but the Intranet does not work at all on these browsers. Very annoying!

Lastly, you know what I love most about FF13 (which, yes, I have started playing)? It’s the almost negligible load times. I hate load times.