I've finally finished the whole tin of cookies Karen and Miss Chee (my mentors) gave to me on my last day at work. The cookies were from Famous Amos, came in assorted flavours and were absolutely yummilicious. Here's a picture of the fancy-looking tin:
I'm halfway through my second week of university. The workload has been pretty manageable so far, owing to the fact that tutorials don't start until next week. Timetable matters have been settled after rounds of online bidding and balloting via the dreaded CORS and I managed to get all the modules and most of the tutorial slots I wanted, resulting in a very lovely 4-day week and extended weekend (Friday, Saturday, Sunday)! My only gripe is that I only have one tutorial on Wednesday, so technically, I will spend 1 and a half hours travelling to NUS for just one hour of class. Ah well. I guess I'll make Wednesday my Library Day and use it to print or photocopy readings.
Last night, I chatted with Poh Ling, my DHS senior cum ex-colleague. Poh Ling is a teacher-to-be at the National Institute of Education (NIE), training to mould and inspire the young minds of Singapore's future generations. I sound just like some National Education brochure! Hurhur. Anyway, Poh Ling was telling me how much more fun it is to be studying in school instead of teaching, 'cos can sleep in lectures' and 'wear shorts or jeans everyday!' What she implied was probably the relief of being out of the scutinising range of the "higher-ups" - the school we were at was especially particular about attire and didn't even allow us to wear sleeveless tops. I remember how Cheryl was totally goofing off during our Seoul Garden lunch buffet, how we were quite appalled at the change in the behaviour of our usually demure and quiet Miss Ho. Cheryl responded to our looks of astonishment with 'this is the real me!' - which brings me back to the scrutiny thing...naturally, teachers (whether relief, trainee or full-time) are expected to observe their conduct and set positive examples for students when they're in school. Of course I don't mean having to keep a stiff upper lip all the time while pretending to be someone totally different - that would be overdoing it! Let's just say that sometimes, it felt like an Orwellian 'Big Brother is watching' type of situation...I don't think it's appropriate to say anymore because students may be reading this blog. If you've read 1984 by George Orwell, you will definitely understand what I mean. For the ex Lit Loonies, think of 'under his Eye' ala The Handmaid's Tale.
Despite that, I still miss relief teaching, my students, my ex-colleagues. I had great mentors -Ms Chee was extremely patient with me, especially when I took such a long time to finish marking the test papers she assigned to me and Karen, with her hip dressing and random snippets of 'practical advice' ("when you get to uni, open your eyes bigger while you look for a boyfriend!"; once, she actually told Emen to get a girlfriend and stop having random flings. o_O) was like an elder sister to me when we weren't discussing teaching strategies for Charlotte's Web and the finer points of summary writing. I love our little Staffroom 2 with the cosy little desk I shared with Tuan and Sonia, plus the wonderful people whose larger-than-life personalities provided lots of entertainment and relief from noisy little morons and piles of accumulated marking. Last but not least, my 'comrades' aka the NIE trainees on practicuum or teaching experience, who still welcomed me with cheerful smiles every morning, even though I always brought them Post-its bearing additional class slots, courtesy of the atas people.
Ah yes, the students. I almost forgot. Enigmas, these people are.
I'm only done with two chapters of 'The Secret Agent'. Conrad's writing style is just not my cup of tea (or TEH-GAO). I space out everytime my brain gives up on it's attempt to navigate through the masses of convoluted-sounding sentences. For example: '...the whole social order favourable to their hygienic idleness had to be protected against the shallow enviousness of unhygienic labour.' Harrison and I did manage to figure that out eventually, but it was nevertheless a mental challenge. Bah. Imagine doing that for at least ten sentences on every page, and you'll understand why I'm such a sloth.
Rawrrrrrrrrrrrr. Okay! Must. Start. On. Conrad.
ARGH.Labels: Nostalgia, Relief teaching
I'm halfway through my second week of university. The workload has been pretty manageable so far, owing to the fact that tutorials don't start until next week. Timetable matters have been settled after rounds of online bidding and balloting via the dreaded CORS and I managed to get all the modules and most of the tutorial slots I wanted, resulting in a very lovely 4-day week and extended weekend (Friday, Saturday, Sunday)! My only gripe is that I only have one tutorial on Wednesday, so technically, I will spend 1 and a half hours travelling to NUS for just one hour of class. Ah well. I guess I'll make Wednesday my Library Day and use it to print or photocopy readings.