Overdrive

There are too many things happening right now. My mind is going into severe overdrive. In school, I’m just so busy with the books. Thankfully I’ve got my wonderful kids to help me! Nevertheless, it’s been challenging. My adrenaline is pumping like crazy and there are a million and one things to do before the term ends.

I was just told that I have more teachers who are supposed to help out with the books. I have to learn to get everyone on the same page. That’s my next challenge. My responsibility is to develop ownership in them. Otherwise the massive amount of work will hamper my other aspects of the job. I really hope I can buy everyone over.

Tomorrow’s ice-cream party day! Woohoo! We’ve got 4 flavours to be shared by all 80 kids! And we’ve got cones too! I really hope we manage to scoop the ice-cream. Ben’s experience was a solid rock hard frozen ice-cream by this supplier! In the end, people gave up and did not have any. I hope it goes well tomorrow!

I’m so glad I’ve got my teammates to help out with the action research project. Presentation is due next Monday. I need to buy them dinner. Really.

I’m just so glad the term’s coming to an end although next week will still be hectic with the books. I really hope we’ll be able to clear EVERYTHING by the end of next week! That would be a huge load off my chest!

Realisation

Just realised that I don’t really know who my dad is. Priority for 2010: get to know dad better.

This is the Day the Lord has Made

It’s been an amazing day for me. Through these years, my birthdays have been spent focusing on exams. This year is no exception. However, I really thank God for my family, colleagues and friends. They have really made this day truly special.

Ben took two days off. Yesterday was his birthday, and I ran a few errands, got him a cake and got his gift delivered, then we spent the evening at home eating his mother’s red plum vermicelli.

For today, I went to school as usual. Even before I started my day, I had already received birthday greetings from friends and students. Such is the beauty of technology. Long lost friends dropped birthday notes on facebook and loved ones greeted me via the phone. The kids in school bought a cake for me and my dearest beloved colleagues ran out to get me a cake. Actually the principal gave my fellow teacher a lift for collection! I’m amazed and truly touched. My P also came on witht the birthday cake and song entrance and tricked me with an empty paper bag of ‘gift’. His brand new iPhone was actually in there! Lol! My admin colleague followed with an empty cake box, then the cake finally appeared. Very touching indeed!

Later, ben got for me a white phone cum money pouch. We had a simple lunch of a bowl of century egg porridge and one youtiao shared between the both of us. My best pal came over later and i tried to stick her phone screen – not very successful though. I’m glad I saw her today.

We ended the day at a buffet restaurant with the two helpers and the kids. I was really happy inside.

I really thank God for his wonderful blessings. It’s been an amazing ride so far, and I’m glad He’s in control of the entire ride!

14 October 2009

3 things that made me smile today.

1) I spoke to a couple of kids on fb! Two were current students while another two were ex-pupils. It was interesting talking to them.

2) I finished marking the last compo I gave to my English class. There’s still other marking stacks to clear, but I’m glad I managed to deliver what I promised this week. There were a couple who did not hand in though. Quite tiring to chase after them. I’m just hoping that I’ll create a better system to process all these better next year.

3) One of my graduating pupils told me she loves English Club! How can I make it better?

13 October 2009

3 things that made me smile today:

1) my 5H! It’s just one more day of lesson before their exams start. It been a mad rush, but today it was particularly packed. Finally, I told them, I wouldn’t force them to do their compos if they didn’t want to. I would only mark those who handed their work in by the end of today. I asked them how many were keen to do this, and the majority of the class raised their hands. About ten of them handed it in by 3 today! They really didn’t have much time to do it actually, ao it’s really impressive!

2) I worked with a couple of pupils on their compo after school, and one girl who’s been really hardworking showed tremendous improvement! When she saw her marks, she was beaming! That really made my day!

3) my own form class also has shown a marked improvement. It’s really a great joy to see them apply what they have been taught. It’s really great.

12 October 2009

3 things that made me smile today:

1) I GOT MY iPHONE!!! It was delivered to Ben’s office rather early in the day, then we met for dinner in the evening before going to singtel to activate it. We got the case from plaza Stereo after flying to funan after singtel and realizing it was closed. They nicely opened the shop for me after they had closed. Without the case, I wouldn’t have been able to use it!
2) we had the best beef hor fun! It’s near balestier, and it came really quick! It was really good!

3) When we reached bugis, singtel was under renovation! So we sped down to comcentre. After Ben barely stepped in, they were closed for the day. Phew!

Bonus!

4) we spotted this group line-dancing at funan after the shops were closed. There was this old guy in red polo t-shirt who caught my attention. Boy could he dance! Wow.

11 October 2009

3 things that made me smile today:

1) we celebrated my granny’s 80th birthday! Even my aunt flew done from australia!

2) That aunt bought us funky chocolates! She said it’s only for married couples. Oh man!

3) We fitted a new FM Alarm clock! Heh, it’s quite odd how we ended up that way actually. We’ve always wanted a music player in the room, but due to space and financial constraint, we hadn’t got around to doing so. We went to audio house once, but we couldn’t decide nor bear to part with the money. So we left empty-handed. We seriously considered an iPhone dock, but when i woke up one morning feeling horrid coz i think it was due to sleeping beside to phones next to my head, i decided to have a PPO against handphones. So no phone means no alarm clock. As we were at the many maid agencies yesterday, we ended up looking at some FM Radio alarm clocks and picked one out. Settled!

10 October 2009

3 things that made me snile today:

1) we got our helper! Can’t reveal too much at the moment. Not sure how it’ll all turn out. On paper, it doesn’t seem overly impressive, yet we think it just might work out. Still praying!

2) today’s devotional verse (from abby’s devotion): proverbs 3:5-6 Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. in all your ways acknowledge him, and He will make your paths straight.

3) we drafted out the terms of agreement – performance review banding, list of major and minor offences, consequences and rewards for good behaviour, routines- daily, weekly, etc. I hope it’ll help draw some boundary lines clearly!

9 October 2009

3 things that made me smile today:

1) it’s friday!!! I’m just so glad. Exams are cmg, so it’s been a terribly mad rush! Weekend is for chilling out and clearing backlog of compos!

2) ben and the kids came along for netball! There wasn’t cell tonight, so he didn’t mind joining us. Plus, he wasn’t meeting his cell guys. I’m glad he came along. Abby played badminton with him, and he managed to intervene a kiddy situation.

3) i took two naps today! I’ve been really tired, so while the kids were at their music class, i snuck off to the car and took a catnap. When we came home, i crashed for about an hour again. I almost didn’t make it to netball, but i’m glad i did. At first i didn’t play, but in the end i went in for a quarter despite the fatigue. Besides napping during their class, i bought my favourite red pens! Cheap thrill yah, but it makes marking the mountains slightly more delightful compared to dak-shiok pens.

8 October 2009

3 things that made me smile today:

1) i finished quite a bit of marking! It’s a mad mad race against time. I reallt praying that the kids are actually learning sthg from these huge stacks of worksheets! I’ve been sharing my Group Study strategy with a few teachers, and they seem supportive of it. The kids enjoy it too, but i’m not sure if they’re really learning anything from one another. But then again, it doesn’t mean that if I go through the paper, they’ll learn either. So it’s a calculated risk i’m taking. I have a feedback form that tells me whether they have understood sthg, and only a few groups indicate unclear. That’s not too bad coz at least i get to go through the really difficult parts. Otherwise, i’ll be going through parts that they already know. It just spells B-O-R-I-N-G for them and me. Furthermore, i asked the kids which they prefer, and they indicated that they liked the group study arrangement. I’ll probably blog more about it when i’m not typing on my N97.

2) My iPhone IS COMING!!! Ben placed an order and it’ll be delivered on monday! Woohoo! Thanks Love!

3) i had Black Pepper Chicken for lunch. Mmm… It was great, with great company – my fantastic colleagues!

4) one more! I completed teaching the Writing Package today! I really hope the kids will know how to employ the methods. I think quite a number of them found it challenging. At first i wanted to do it for both classes, but my form class was the HA group, so that had to be done while my other class wasn’t involved in the study. This has been a one-year long AR project! I’m just afraid that my other class may end up more confused. i’ll still try, provided i can clear those horrendous haunting stacks.