My Colleagues: the coolest bunch of ppl!

If you have been following my twitter, you would have known by now that my practicum had not been a pleasant and smooth one. There had been time when I felt wronged and so stressed out that I wondered if I will ever go crazy! Ok, maybe not that serious, but it will definitely helped if I have someone who is going through the same thing as me to talk to and share my woes. Guess what! God is good to me as instead of one friend, I have six fun and very nice colleagues!

So, let me introduce you to the future principals or leaders of the teaching industry! Lol!

From left: Luan Yin (the CL teacher who always walk home with me), Me (pardon the tired look as I woke up at 4am in the morning to complete my marking), Yi Jie (full-time CL teacher), LeeLing (the contract CL teacher), Hui Ren  (gorgeous EL teacher who is also my neighbour in the staffroom) and Jimmy (the funny "always hungry" EL teacher)

As I have said, I'm really fortunate to have befriended them! And I look forward to returning to school after the June holidays!

 

Since we are on this topic, I received a mug from this pupil on the second last day of school. Can I say how touched I am. I mean I really do not expect something from this pupil because I remember how lazy and sloppy she used to be on the first few weeks of school and I was constantly scolding her for that.

Then, one day, I realised she has a side of her that I have not noticed yet and that she can be very creative.

 

I gave the class a science project on creating a fruit that can be dispersed by any dispersal method that they learnt and they must describe the features of their fruit. So as I was marking my pupils' works, I came upon the girl's drawing. Unlike other pupils who drew generic fruits like papaya and mango which are not creative at all, she decided to draw me a tree that is called 'the stary tree'. She described vividly the unique features of the fruit and how they helped the fruit to be dispersed! It was so interesting and from then on, I began to take notice of her.

 

I do not intend to show the pic of the mug. It is just like any other teacher's day mug where there is a thank you speech printed on one side of the mug. But, I was really happy that she loved my lessons and appreciated me.

20th April 2011: The day I officially became a driver!

Sorry for my disappearance! I have been really busy with my practicum and now that it comes to an end, I shall blog more frequent!

First up, I just received my driving license yesterday! Check out my license!

Right now, I still don't really dare to drive as I'm afraid of parking and expressway! Hopefully, one day I'll pluck up my courage to drive!

No more feigning illness...

I think ever since practicum started, I have matured a lot.

Or maybe I should say that I take this practicum very seriously and I do not want to risk every opportunity to learn or be irresponsible to my students' learning.

You see, I used to be very sickly.

I have weak constitution and I get "heaty" or sick very easily.

Insufficient sleep, insufficient intake of water and I will start growing ulcers in my mouth, bad breath and dark eye rings.

In fact, my nose will start running and soon my immune system will be slowly shutting down.

It's sad and something that I am born with. No doubt that there are preventive measures but as we always know, when one gets busy, he/she can do nothing.

So the past week has been pretty crucial and hectic to me. I was laddened with huge workload and my stress level shot up due to the important observation with my supervisor. Before I knew it, my nose started itching and I could not sleep well. I HAVE pimples and my skin IS dry (I emphasize the present tense as I am still having those things :( )

Sadly, I was down with flu and feeling absolutely uncomfortable.

Given my personality, I would have straightaway see a doctor, get a MC and stay home to rest. 

BUT!!!!!!

The key point is... I did not take any MC at all.

I went to work as usual, dragging my tired body and trying hard to stay awake. I taught  periods per day. I holded back my tears (my eyes got teary due to nose irritation). I carried box of tissue paper with me whenever I went and took my medicine as usual. I drank lots of water and peed as much.

Before I knew it, the bug is gone! Yes, gone like the wind!

I am pretty sure this is very much unlike the usual me. But I guessed the reason why I pulled through that uncomfortable period and insisted on not taking MC was because I grew more responsible.

I appreciated my own hard work. I appreciated the fact that I got to see my students applying what I taught them in their activity. Since they are responsible in their work by handing up their homework on time and be active in group discussions, I take pride in my work and be a responsible teacher as well.

This is why I love my job.

PS: There are two events in the past week that I received all 42 copies of assignments from my pupils! I was so happy! And the other day, it put a smile on my face when I saw my pupils applying the skill of finding contextual clues in their comprehension cloze activity. They were discussing like adults! How I wish you are there to see it!

My Holiday is Over :(

Argh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! One week passed so quickly! I have been doing nothing much except lesson plans! Hate this feeling to the core man! Hate it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Going to have two formal observations this coming week and I'm slightly nervous. But I guess it will be better after next week. My only consolation? I do not need to teach next thursday as it is their home-based learning day. Ironically, I still have to be in school to oversee the whole process. Stupid right?

Oh and Friday, I have to stay back till 8 plus again for another stupid camp briefing which I am sure I will not be involved (well, hopefully) in the camp. But why must I have to stay with them? It's not like I'll be the one talking to the parents right? Siannesssssssss

Happy things to look forward to:

1. Hard Rock Hotel /RWS next weekend! (Mum's birthday)
2. Kuantan road trip in late April (one month from now so shut up and tarhan!)

Enough ranting, back to lesson planning... bye...

My New Laptop!

Hello!

I'm blogging using my new laptop! Yesterday, I just bought a new ASUS laptop from the IT fair and although my heart was in a throbbing pain having to fork out such a big sum of money (the first time I spent so much buying something for myself), I must say this laptop has been proven to be quite user-friendly at the moment. In terms of the size and battery life, it is suitable for school and outings. Hopefully, it can be as lasting!

However, the only con of this model is that it does not come in any other colour! So sad! Unlike most of the other ASUS netbooks or laptops, this laptop only comes in black! So boring! But I think black is a classic colour so it may not be a bad thing after all.

The other netbooks come in all sorts of colours: pink, red, white, purple, brown...

So let me introduce my newest laptop to u!

Nice? It's quite thin and light and below $900.

I Love My Week!

Haven't been blogging for awhile. It's not because I'm lazy but I have been really busy, especially this week. Planning lesson plans, marking homework/corrections (don't make me talk about this) for a class of 42 have somehow become a routine. To be honest, even if I have the free time, blogging is the last thing on my mind. There's no pictures for sharing this week but i have rather some things to talk about.
I thought I had a lousy week due to the high workload BUT you have no idea how happy and grateful I am right now! I just had my first formal observation by my CT on Friday and the result was pleasant. Maybe slightly better than pleasant. I was surprised with the response from my students for it was the first time I planned a lesson on English composition and that is my weakest subject! I even conducted groupwork which can be hard to execute for a big class.

Nonetheless my CT was happy with the lesson and so am I. It was the first time where I saw cooperation between students and how my students actually told me that the lesson was fun and they enjoyed themselves. You have no idea how much those words mean to me!

Of course, these would not be made possible without having a great class to begin with. I'm grateful that I was given a good bunch of P5 students to work with. After working with so many problematic students, my current students are angels!

So, I just want to say that I will work hard, not for me but also for that lovely bunch of children for I know that my hard wok will be paid off!

You light up my life!

Nothing much about me except I will become more and more busy each week.

Happy and unhappy stuffs do happen at work. But all I can say is, nothing is perfect and I can only try to make my life easier by remembering the happy stuff and ignore the unhappy ones...

Anyway, whenever I feel sad or stressed, these pics below never fail to make me smile.

the mature look! he loves me so much cos he likes to play with me!

So hiao! I just made silly faces using my eyebrows and he smiled like this!

Handsome boy!

Grandma's @ NEX

I thought I share with you guys on this new dining option at NEX...

Met up with Joan after so long (more than 6 months!) and we decided to hit NEX to look for yummy food. There were so many restaurants and we finally decided on Grandma's, a place that sells local dishes like laksa, curry chicken and so on.

Well, I know about this restaurant when I was working at Novena. There was one at United Square and I remembered walking past the restaurant many times and seeing the long queue during lunch break.

I'm glad I tried out the restaurant yesterday! The food was worthwhile and definitely reminded me of my mum's cooking, especially the curry chicken!

sambal ladyfingers...

Salted egg yolk prawns

the best out of all dishes: curry chicken!

JOAN!!!!

By the way, as long as you ordered any dish, you can top up 60cents for either chendol (yummy!) or grass jelly.

The total bill is around $46. I think the curry chicken was delicious and we were given the best parts of the chicken: thigh and drumstick.

That's not all! Joan passed me a belated birthday gift which I totally love it!

Guess what it is...

It's a musical jewelery box! Super cute! Now I can hang my necklaces and arranged my earrings neatly! Thanks Joan! Had a great chat with you as well!

By the way, I bought two new CDS yesterday which will tide me through my boring workdays...

SAN MAN LAI LIAO, BAN COUPON!!!!!!!!!!!

SAN MAN Lucas: EH, you better put coupon ah, I can give you SAN MAN lei!

LOL

Pedi with sis...

Just to let you know that my blog is still alive! The past week has been a mad rush for me. There were assignments to complete and I'm just glad that it's all over now. My next phase is teach for another 10 grueling week. Or maybe I should think positive that I don't have to travel to Boon Lay for the time being because the school is so near my house! Yes!!!!! Lol! 

Anyway, today I went with Sis to Vivo to try out the so-called "very relaxing" pedicure she always raved about and here are some pics taken...

My first time choosing such a metallic purple colour but I like it as my toe nails are so squarish and cute! hahahaha.. 

 Shall finish my CNY post soon! Sleeptime!