During the short sharing with the teachers, I shared a few tips about teaching very weak students who are probably also very demoralised.  I advised the teachers to dress up to show the students that they are worth the effort.  Make the students feel wanted and loved through our personality and the way we carry ourselves.  No sloppiness and no sandals, please.

 Some of the teachers also shared their success stories.  I also shared that teachers should also keep up with the latest songs and singers.  Sometimes, teachers get comfortable and they become obsolete very quickly in this era.  I also talk about my struggle in getting organised and asked for suggestions.  I have files for everything and I try to get my papers organised.

If you are blessed with a musical talent, use it.  As I can play the guitar, I bring the guitar and play some songs.  I have the boys eating out of my hand in no time.  They cannot comprehend that this old aunty can belt out a rock and roll tune too.

Teachers should earn the students' respect.  Students have stopped listening to teachers as they find that they have become redundant and obsolete.  And there are so many other 'teachers' like the internet, freinds and television vying for their attention and they are more effective and attractive.  Unless teachers update themselves and appear to be more knowledgeable, we will lose them.

gave a short talk today to teachers concerning teaching remedial students.  was pleasantly surprised to see that one of the participant is one of my ex-students.  That's the real acid test.  Was I a good teacher to her?  Am I going to be a good role model.  Would what I say hold water?  To me, having an ex-student follow your footstep is the ultimate test as well as a compliment.  Well, I think I can hold my head up high cos I knew I had tried my best for her class.

today while waiting for teachers to arrive for an afternoon meeting, i decided to log in to check my results and to my utter surprise, I got excellence for both papers in my penilaian tahap kecekapan.  What a wonderful birthday gift.  This really makes up for all the disappointments, the mis-appointments....i am now the highest paid senior teacher without a post. strange, huh? those who are holding posts are actually my juniors or my peers...somehow, they have forgotten about me when it comes to promotions. Well, God is gracious and fair and He has given me this excellent result twice.

Today, decided to check students' book individually before releasing them.  Horror of horrors, some of them have not handed in their books since February.  They started a few lines of the essays and it stopped there.  The work that I had given had not been done.  I have not been meticulous enough in checking who had handed in their books.  Sometimes, it is too time consuming to check daily and I have 200 students weekly to look into.  Since I don't see them daily, it is even more difficult to keep track.  I assign a monitor to look into all this but I still have to remember to chase those who do not hand in the first time.  It really reflects on how inefficient I have been thus far in this area. 

I must take more time in checking on them.  Teenagers at 15 are still too young to discipline themselves and if I continue to let them go, their grades would deteriorate further.......I have given them this weekend to update their work and I will follow up on Monday.

Eager to go back to school as there are tons to do after marking students' papers.  Just waiting to bombard them for not performing.  However, feeling pretty low as i have just went for a mammogram and they found some cysts.  doctor says not too worry, it is common in pre-menopausal women but still, the worry is there.  tried to push the thought aside and concentrate on the students.  Also, have asked for only four english class instead of five because of the stress when marking. have been given two classes of physical education, so would take the opportunity to exercise with the girls..

in the meantime, shall pray and hope for the best in the next two months.

Most teachers would be busy marking mid-year exam papers right now.  If you teach five classes of English, then you would have 200 essays, summary, etc to mark.  The deadline is the first week when school reopens.  Apart from extra classes the last few days, we are down to a week of cuti-cuti malaysia, or, if we are lucky, some hanoi or bali thrown in.  How are we going to finish marking those papers????  You have to mark at least 20 scripts per day.  If we do not finish, the SU peperiksaan will be after our necks and form teachers too will be screaming as they need to do their report cards and mark sheets as well.  So, have to burn midnight oil this few days so that I can go off for a few days of well-earned rest.  HELP!!!!!

got up at 5am to catch my friend's car to the ceremony.  Was half asleep through most of the speeches.  thank god they had the sense to keep it short.  it was certainly nice to be in the limelight for five seconds.  at the end of the ceremony, they gave the tokoh guru award.  as they read the achievements of this guy, i was amazed at his accomplishments, truly, he deserved the award as well as the national award.  also realised that to do all that, one has to go out of school and serve the state and nation as well. 

Received a letter to go take my award for the most innovative teacher in the state.  How nice...this is not the first time that i am taking the award.  But it is still great to know that my work is recognised on Teacher's Day at the state celebration.

I hope this inspires others to soldier on.  that good things do happen to us too....

Is it possible that I am so absorbed in learning how to be organised that I have neglected to get organised. All I do is read and download stuff about getting things done but with little time left to do any cleaning up.....sigh...I downloaded diy planners, really good ideas but i don't know whether i am ever going to follow all that.  Teachers are hoarders and whenever we find something useful, we tend to keep it in case we need it.  Tons of newspapers cuttings, magazines, papers, books, etc...Before we know it, our storeroom is bursting at its seam, yelling 'help'.  

 

Yesterday, I spent hours looking at various websites on getting organised until my computer went kaput....so sad...just sent the laptop to the shop. now, i feel as if i am without my right arm or something...i miss my stuff in the laptop. i hope i will be able to get it back soon.

Recently we read that CUEPACS is requesting that civil servants retire at 60 before they retire. As for many teachers like me, most of us will not be signing for 60. It is not that we hate teaching, we love going into class, moulding them, preparing them for exams, and most of all, we get to inspire, change and move them to do something with their lives. But, it is the daily grind of paperwork that we hate. And the endless meetings and projects to do. All these projects are unnecessary and time-consuming. Worse, they even call us back on Saturdays and holidays. Civil servants are supposed to have Saturdays off, but teachers are required to work on Saturdays and schools is given the discretion to use Saturdays to complete co-curricular activities. Teachers are tired and there is no time for self-renewal. We don't even have time for preparation of materials. Chunks of exercises and essays await us daily. I am not surprised many will opt to retire at 56.