Counting down to.. HOLIDAYS!

It's quite cliche but times flies! The school year is coming to the end and I'm left with a week with the kids. Strictly speaking, only left with three more days with them as I'm on course on Wed, and on Friday we are holding the Graduation Ceremony for the P6s. Actually, this year I have a very nice bunch of kids, they had made my job a lot easier for the whole of 2006, think I'll miss them. Who knows? I might be meeting some real devils next year. *shudder*

Officially, we can only go for holidays in December, as usual, we have to go back for meetings and other stuff till end November. Three more weeks and I'm off to Australia for my adventure trip! =)

Haze

The haze is back every other day, and the PSI is shooting up to over 100 occassionally. Today is one of these days and the current PSI is at 113 (3pm). Sigh..

Effects of haze:
1. My mind and brain turns hazy.
2. The smoky smells suffocates me, making the air stuffy.. especially in the afternoon.
3. I have to give up on outdoor sports and activities, draw the curtains and switch on the air-con to combat the bad air.
4. As far as I can remember, the last time it was this hazy was during my O levels. Erm...seems like a long time ago. But anyway, the haze just reminds me of my secondary schooling days.
5. I kept wishing that either it stops, or shoots up so much more that school closes. Heheh...

Triskaidekaphobia

There's all kind of phobia in this world, since human beings are naturally paranoid creatures.

A few days ago it was Friday the 13th, legendary a very unlucky day. I managed to survive through the day without much harm, other than screaming at kids for most part of the day (maybe they're the unlucky ones). And now introducing a new term that I've learnt from my sis's MSN nickname: triskaidekaphobia

Main Entry: triskaidekaphobia
Pronunciation: "tris-"kI-"de-k&-'fO-bE-&, "tris-k&-
Function: noun
Etymology: New Latin, from Greek treiskaideka thirteen (from treis three + kai and + deka ten) + New Latin phobia
: fear of the number 13

I really wonder what these people do on the 13th day of every month.. hide under the bed??

Do you know that some famous people like Napoleon and Franklin D. Roosevelt were triskaidekaphobic? Hmm..maybe it does pay to be superstitious, somehow you'll become successful and famous.

Sianz..

Have you ever experienced this feeling? The feeling that you don't wish to go to work anymore. The feeling that you just want to laze in bed, play games, idle around.. and sadly, its not even mid-week.

Or it may be the feeling that you don't wish to do ANYTHING AT ALL. Just wishing the day will pass unnoticed.

The feeling that life is nothing fantastic, there's no motivation to keep you going.

I just experienced that kind of feeling, but I don't wish to say life sucks because I know for that fact that my life really doesn't. I hope that tomorrow I'm going to wake up and meet my students with much zest and enthusiasm again. Go go go!!

Short Notes

While waiting for the bell to ring, I have this sudden urge to blog. I'm at work actually, feeling quite happy as it's already the last and final week of lessons before we break for PSLE markings and exams.

It's revision, revision and revision this week. I really glad the haze had cleared these few days, otherwise it's just going to give me more headaches on top of the markings that I have to complete by the end of the week. All the backlogs..arghh..

In class its also quite chaotic as papers are flying around. I hate this part of the year when we give back all the worksheets, do corrections and file them step by step (some kids can never keep in steps). For primary school kids, it's a lot of spoonfeeding. We punch holes for them, we even keep all the files and worksheets in class in case they'll lose it once they bring the files home.

I wonder why during our times the children are much more responsible and independent. Pondering..

My Teachers' Day

That was the day in the whole year when teachers were being 'remembered' for their hard work. I received lots of sms wishing me Happy Teachers' Day, and I felt that it was just like Christmas!

Anyway, regarding the $250m that the gahmen going to pump into the service, it sounded so good in the papers. Many people (note: non-teachers) were very envious, but frankly speaking, most of us were disappointed. Many people asked me why it seemed so attractive yet I wasn't too excited, the answer is simple.. It doesnt' affect me at all!

I'm not among those who are going to draw a higher starting pay, simply because I'm already in service. In fact, I was employed in first quarter of 2004, right after the SARs period. That was the only year in many years of history of civil service when people had to get their starting pay lowered. And dammit, of all times, I went into education that particular year. =.=

I'm just over one year into teaching, still a beginning teacher. So CONNECT is really too far for me to get excited about, and I don't think there's any leave granted for me to further my studies in the nearer years to come.

Sigh.. why not a pay raise across the board??? Nevertheless, I'm still a happy teacher, I hope.

Look at all this presents I've gotten this year. =）



These are some gifts that are more 'extraordinary'..

My P1 Japanese-Chinese boy proudly came up to me with a tub of homemade potato salad. He claimed that he helped his mummy to make this, and the black sauce on top was actually Japanese sauce. It tasted quite good actually...





This is a set of matching lipstick and nail polish from Loreal, branded yah? Hmm, this was the most 'grown up' gift I had ever received, more surprised as it was given by a P1 girl.






A set of name labels printed for yours truly, very practical.. =)

Blog Freedom

For a long while back, I've chilled off blogging. Sometimes, I'm really not sure whether I can talk about work on my blog. Blogging is an avenue to vent my frustrations, yet I don't want to get into trouble from lamenting in my blog. I'm wary of privacy issues. I'll freak out if my students chance upon my blog and everything about my life will be exposed.

However, day in and day out, its a cycle of sleep, work, eat.. if I don't blog about my work, I lack inspirations, seriously.

It's no secret that blogs are no longer safe places where people can write anything they want. We are all responsible for what we put online for people to read and comment, therefore I'm sure the Big Brothers will come up with a set of Blogging Laws and Bloggers' Act.

Recently, there's a few blogs written by fellow teachers to complain about the local educational system, some are anoymously written and some are not. Frankly speaking, most of their views are quite valid and I'm glad that there are voices out there. Its quite negatively slanted but it got me all excited, very interesting readings!

Extracted these blog links from tomorrow.sg., written during the Teachers' Day period:

Damned it if you teach, damned it if you don't
Dark Sides of a School
Why I hate Teaching

Updated: Coincidentally or uncoincidentally, the first blog link was removed and deleted shortly I posted. Hmm..