Happy Children's Day!!
Yep...here's to all the little kids in each of us...regardless of our age.
Had a great time today...lots of fun...but there were nervous moments as well. Haha....esp when the AV system was not co-operating with us today...everything went smoothly only at the last performance. And from here, we found out who could dance and who could use some help. Haha...j/k lah... But the stars were definitely the male teachers....hands down. Looking forward to more of these.
The Rainbow Connection
I don't know why but I suddenly wanted that as my title...I really like the song though.
Kermit: Why are there so many songs about rainbows
And what's on the other side?
Rainbows are visions, but only illusions,And rainbows have nothing to hide.
So we've been told and some choose to believe it
I know they're wrong, wait and see.
Someday we'll find it, the rainbow connection,
The lovers, the dreamers and me.
Who said that every wish would be heard and answered
When wished on the morning star?
Somebody thought of that, and someone believed it,
And look what it's done so far.
What's so amazing that keeps us stargazing
And what do we think we might see?
Someday we'll find it, the rainbow connection,The lovers, the dreamers, and me.
All of us under its spell,We know that it's probably magic...
... Have you been half asleep? And have you heard voices?
I've heard them calling my name.... Is this the sweet sound that calls the young sailors?
The voice might be one and the sameI've heard it too many times to ignore it
It's something that I'm s'posed to be...Someday we'll find it, the rainbow connection,
The lovers, the dreamers, and me.
Hmnz...nice song...juz kinda made a nice end to my day after a crazy day at school. Can't put my finger on what made my day so crappy anyway....but there were a total of 3 people who cried today. And I was one of them. Sigh....don't worry about me, just one of those days where the stress gets to me and I get emotional....a thing which I can't quite control very well. And things aren't getting much better tomorrow anyway.....hse practice at 9am, CT at 10.45am, lessons, then dance rehearsal. Suddenly dun feel like going to school tomorrow. Damn.
Today....didn't really start on the right note i guess.....but thankfully, things got better as the day wore on.. Much as I tried to keep a smile on my face, I couldn't because the monday blues were hitting everybody else in the staff rm and it was hard not to let it get to me....*ahem*. Luckily..things fell into place quite nicely...and kids were generally quiet throughout the lessons. Something seems to have swept over them today.
Anyway, yesterday I wanted to blog about taking for granted the complete families which most of us have. Because a recent conversation with a friend revealed that her parents were divorced and is living on her own now.(hope
you don't take offence) And yesterday, while I was wrapping C-day prezzies with my mum, it struck me that enjoying the company of a complete, warm and loving family is not a given, it really is a privilege. It suddenly struck me and made me rethink of how I have treated my mum in the past....I vowed to think hard before I said any nasty things to her in future....and really just treasure the time I spend with her. Many of us do not know how fortunate we are to have dual-parent families.
PS: To
you, my hope for you is to see you reconciled with your mother one day because I believe that family love, especially from parents are very important. I know that you have expressed your feelings about being happy despite the current situation and I know that I have absolutley no right to impose my thinking onto you. But this is just my two cents' worth of comments. With the utmost sincerity as a concerned friend.
Food! Glorious food!
Hehe...yupz...had lotsa food over the weekend....sumptous meals, to be exact. I really need a workout man... Alright, lets start with an account of Saturday... Went back to school for C-day rehearsal....made some progress but still not finalised yet. Am sure we'll all malu ourselves with unprofessional dance steps. But anywayz, after that, Ah Tay and me made our way down to bugis village first to feed our hungry and rumbling stomachs before starting our hunt for C-day prezzies and tidbits. It was really fruitful...hadn't had so much fun in a long time. Thereafter, lugging our big plastic bags(looking like ah-sohs in the process), we made our way down to suntec for more shopping; now for ourselves. Hehe....after we got what we wanted, went to mac's to have a drink....then we parted ways. Ah Tay, to dinner with bf, and me, dinner at Tony Roma's with my family cos it was my parents' 21st wedding anniversary! Woohoo! Btw, happy anniversary to mum and dad! So that was our first feast. After that, walked around for a while, then went home to have some new york cheese cake. Yummy! By then, I was absolutley full....
Right then, today, the "celebrations" continued...for lunch we had peranakan/eurasian food. Wow, it was really good too! Especially the ox-tail's stew. And thereafter, we had coffee and icecream at parkway. I know, i'm beginning to sound like a pig! And for dinner just now, didn't have much food cos it had already taken its toll on me(the gorging of food). Phew...hope it stops here!
exhaustion and being a personal nurse/assistant/maid
I'm terribly drained....of my brain juice. So tired that can't even lift my butt to go find some dinner. Anywayz...its been a long week...finally over though. :) Hmnz...but next significant thing to take note of is lesson observation....sigh. :( Yeah....btw, my bro's on the way back from the hospital after a minor surgery on his finger. He's feeling alright but his finger's heavily bandaged.
Right, he's back and his finger is really heavily bandaged with a wire sticking out of his finger. It is being put in there to support/stabilize his bone. And to top it all off, his arm is in a sling to elevate his finger. Apparently, he is now very concerned with him not being able to feel his finger as the anaesthesia has not worn off as it's supposed to by this hour. So he's worried that he might not be able to feel his finger tomorrow....that he fears his nerve has been damaged. Paranoia is sweeping over him.... Anyway, i feel as if i'm his maid now; have to feed him fruits, etc etc. And the wire sticking out of his finger is definitely not a sight that I can stomache. I cringe whenever i see it. *shudders at the thought*
alright, will update as time goes by....
Tired but happy....
Heh...was in school for almost 12 hrs today...but it was aiight....didn't have much teaching today cos of the preparation for the auditions and the auditions itself. Combined with the ACES Day rehearsal at the end of the day....not much work was done today. So not too pleased abt that....
Anyhow...today, 2 of my kids were involved in a fight. With one innocent kid trying to stop the fight but got pushed too. Sigh....why do funny things happen to me one after another? And I met Mrs Tan, the new VP, for a total of 2 consecutive days in the office already! Goodness, she must be wondering why is this teacher always in the GO(general office)?? Cos yesterday I was there due to Lerren, and today due to the fighters in my class. Sigh.....Each time I was there, she came out of her office to ask what had happened. ......
On to happier things, was quite pleased with my efforts on the lesson plans; though of course there is still room for improvement. Happy that it fulfilled everything there was to fulfill. And it was a productive morning.....finished marking a whole pile of science workbooks! So it was not a waste of my time at all....yay! Two more days till the end of the week! :)
A boy named Lerren and other short stories.
Something hilarious happened today to a boy called Lerren. Alright....Its not nice to laugh at other's mishaps but I simply can't help it! During recess, while he was playing badminton, he sprained his neck muscle. So much so that his head was titlted to the left and he couldn't straighten it back. At first I thought it was just a minor strain and probably a muscle spasm of some sort but it didn't go away. So I tried to straighten his neck amidst me trying hard not to laugh. I was really amused because it was so painful that when I tried to straighten it, he cried! Goodness! So I sent him home....and guess what? His father is a doctor. So I guess he should be in good hands. Anyway, to my astonishment, I had to write a report which I felt was a total waste of my time! Duh! I was not even at the scene of the incident and I had to write down whatever his friend said had happened.
Alright, now for the second crying incident. Happened when I asked the two malay boys to own up to their mistake of beating on the tables while waiting for their PE teacher to arrive. They were already scolded by another teacher who happened to walk past the class but I wanted to make doubly sure that the message went into their heads so I repeated myself one more time. I admonished them and reminded the rest of the class to behave in future. The one of the boys became red-eyed. And add to that, he had the rebellious look. I was worried. Well, we'll see how it goes lah. That caps my eventful day at school.
Sigh....tomorrow....I think I'm gonna be embarrased. Firstly, I didn't know that the auditions for language and arts day storytelling was gonna be held in the hall with ALL the P3 students as audiences!!! Gasp! Perhaps even the P5s as well...not sure. Secondly, my class is so unprepared....I'm gonna be SO DEAD!!!! If the HODs are gonna be watching it....then good luck to me. That's all folks. Do check back tomorrow to find out whether I lived to tell the tale. What's more, tomorrow is gonna be a looooooooong day. Gonna haf to be in sch by 9 for some course. Think I'll go early though...like at 7-ish.
Quick fix!
Hehe...At last!! I have finished my T4 Wk2 lesson plan andT4 Wk1 is half done... And finally was able to login to my hotmail account....after 2 and a half days!!! Looks like I'm always mentioned on ah tay's blog as though I'm a celebrity.....each time with a different name...no less. :) haha... Very funny, glad I can be your punching bag. Cheers to our friendship! Heh...okies, gotta take a shower now, then off to school!
A fractured finger and a tinge of worriedness
Haha...nope, I'm not the one with the fractured finger. My brother is the one. Actually, the incident happened almost 2 weeks ago...He was playing basketball when it hit him on his right ring finger. There was quite a big swelling but we didn't take much note of it cos he always gets into all kinds of scrapes and bruises. We thought it would go away in a week's time. Especially with a mother who's a nurse. She likes to adopt a wait-and-see attitude. But 2 weeks down the road and the swelling didn't subside so last evening, while sending my mum to work, we decided that we should get an x-ray done for his finger. Haha...got to cut queue(oops)....that's the perks you get when you have a family member who works in the A&E department. And, our suspicions were confirmed. So the doctor put a splint on his finger to hyper-extend the finger, in the hope of fusing the fractured bone together with the original piece of bone. But the doctor warned us that it may or may not work, cos it has already been 2 weeks since it happened. Anyhow, there's a lesson to be learned here. That is not too wait too long before you get an x-ray done to rule out any suspicion of a fracture. Anyway, if you want to take a look at my brother's fractured finger, you can go to his blog.
Ok, I'm not worried about his finger. My worries are something associated with school and the students and the admin work....argh! So many things to do and so litle time to do! Let's see.... I have a whole pile of half-marked english worksheets( ok, ah tay, u win lah), unmarked english compositions. That's just the marking part. I still have not started on my 2 weeks' worth of lesson plans to do which is due on tues. And under a lot of pressure to get 2 or 3 of my students to familiarize/memoroize
the three little pigs by wed, for language and arts day.Argh....I'm scared I can't finish all these by their respective deadlines....boo hoo.... :( Help!!!
An irate parent and other short stories...
Yesterday marked my first day doing gate duty at school dismissal. Actually the main thing I have to do/ensure is that the students do not run while crossing the little zebra crossing from the school to the side gate. And, as if in an attempt to welcome me to my first day doing it, there came a highly irritated parent who stepped into the school compound(parents are supposed to wait OUTSIDE the school gate) to make himslef heard. He started complaining about his presumption that we hold the kids back and release them in batches. This probably stemmed from his observation that some of the kids were still streaming out even 10 minutes after the first few students had been released. However the folowing quote from him is what made me amused and wanted to laugh. "Wah, if my blood flowed like that(referring to the kids streaming out in different batches), I would have died long ago!" Haha....he even wanted us to convey his complaint to the P. That was so dumb because this practice does not even exist in school. Heh, it could have just been the case of teachers holding back the students to collect back their art pieces or whatever. Anyway, this parent seems to think that the school owes him the time spent to wait for his child. So darn impatient. Can't even wait for a few more minutes.
self observation
I noticed lately that I am irritated easily when I'm tired or when things don't seem to go my way. I get grumpy for no rhyme or reason, and snap at anybody who talks to me. As if I'm PMS-ing. I know its not good lah....but I can't help it. Sigh. Its just....
me. And these instances are getting more frequent.
Other things I have noticed.(half plagiarised from Ah Tay's blog)
- Am not artistic at all.....despite teaching 3 classes of art. :)
- Loves animals too...esp doggies and hamsters. :):)
- Am super punctual. (until i can be super early cos my friends will all be at least 10 mins late)
- humble(er...yep, u heard that right)
- loves to sleep.
Eh....if I have anything else to add, I will post when the time comes. Okies... back to lala land now. Gotta be in school at 9am tmr. Yawnz....
Argh....!!! Someone give me earplugs please!!! I hate this time of the year....especially with the
getai performances downstairs. And they are singing in the arvo!!! Gosh! Can't even watch my tv programme in peace. Hmph!
retail therapy
Heh....yesterday's retail therapy session was a....big accomplishment! Woohoo~ Finally got myself a new pair of shoes, with back straps, no less. :) The heels are not too high either, so its perfect! At least my feet will not be so tired from all that standing and walking around school. As usual, I went alone on this retail therapy session... I'm used to it already. In addition, got a pair of sandals for casual wear to replace my broken one.... Glad my mum liked it too. Yippee....we can share... Anyway, another reason why it was a big accomplishment was because it got the approval from my dad too. Both pairs mind you! Its very
hard to get his approval for shoes. Cos there are many requirements it must fulfil. Heh...Soles...durability...you get the picture. Anywayz, both pairs were purchased for a total sum of less than 50 bucks. I'm crossin' my fingers to see how long they'll last.
a peculiar neighbour and a hot-headed father
I had my beauty sleep interrupted last night. All because of one stupid, crazy neighbour who has been disturbing my dad/family in a number of ways for the past 7 years. Can you believe it? Apparently this neighbour, who stays directly above us, always likes to make noises with God-knows-what on his floor, so we always hear noises coming from our ceiling. So anyway, I was only asleep for less than one hour when I was awoken by sounds of my father rushing out of the house to shout at the neighbour in cantonese. Apparently, my father was so angry he called the police but whether they came was another story.
Ok, the point is I can understand my dad's frustration, but i think shouting at a neighbour in the middle of the night was not a very smart thing to do. That just places him at the same level as the neighbour. Moreover, my dad tried to retaliate by using a stick(the one used to hold a bamboo stick) to knock on our ceiling, and in doing so, broke the stick! And damaged our ceiling. Can you believe that? Like how dumb is that? Damaging our own property because of an insane neighbour. I don't think the neighbour was worth him doing that. At all.
a state of....
Some things can't be hurried.
Patience is key to success in life.
I shall take things as they come.
So where do I go from here?
Waiting is such a hard thing to do.
happiness, thankfull, greatfull.... humbled.
Heh....Lots to post but so little time. But on the whole, have been very busy last week, things slowed down this week; still a little busy, but
very happy!! Hmn....one of the reasons among many is the fact that its my birthday today!! And my very first teachers' day celebration at school. I was so touched when kids whom i taught art to also gave me presents! And the thing was that I didn't even remember their faces! I'm such a failure. Looking at the little cards and presents which they made for you from the bottom of their hearts just really make your day. I realised that it really dosen't matter how long you've taught them for; regardless of whether you have taught them for one year or one month, you have already made an impact on them. And I started feeling guilty after I received somemore gifts because I began to feel that I really haven't done my utmost best as a teacher yet I mean
so much to them. And I also began to realise that the younger the students are, the more creative they are in making their cards and gifts. Hmn....you should see some of them, they'll really melt your heart and some others will really just make you laugh till you drop.
The teacher's day concert was another highlight of this week. Some of the performances were
really good! Man, even some of the P1 kids can speak and articulate better than some of my P3s!!
Yesterday was one long day man! I was out from 9am-12am. Yup, it's 15 hours!! I think its a record breaker for me, but its the most happening, fulfilling day in a long time. First off was the teacher's day outing at ECP with the teachers. Wow, I really had a great time....and one of the highlights of the outing was me being thrown into the sea not once, but twice! Haha....but I was prepared...
So I left ECP at about 145 pm and made my way down to orchard to wait for Jac to catch a movie together. Thought that we were gonna ctach Quill but they cancelled the 3.30pm show suddenly and the next show was at 5.30pm so it was impossible for us to watch it cos I had to meet my parents for dinner. So we caught Garfield instead....it was ok lah. It was more of a kiddy movie but owells, it was quite funny at times. After that, met up with mum and bro but still had some time b4 6.30pm so made our way down to far east plaza...and lo and behold, we met Sarah there!! Oh gosh! My pri and sec sch friend...studying law at NUS now. Gd for her. It was always her ambition to become a lawyer. Jac and I were pleasantly surprised at meeting her. Thereafter, Jac went off to her dinner with some IC friends and me, to Shima restaurant at Goodwood Park Hotel in celebration of my birthday. Great dinner, was very full. Then, I made my way back to Lido to meet up with J for a second round of movie, this time
The Bourne Supremacy. Was really good and totally enjoyed it! Cabbed home and the whole journey was only less than 25 minutes!
Right, now I think I should record my thanks here. First, thanks to God for such a wonderful week. Felt really blessed. Secondly, to my parents for loving me the way I am for all of my 19 years. Thanks especially to Jac, have known her for 6 years already. How time flies. She has been throguh most of my ups and downs with me and is such an indispensable friend. Thanks to all friends old and new, like the teachers at school. Though I've only known them for a short while, I feel quite close to them already. And last but not least, a big thank-you to my students for their time and effort to make all those pretty cards and gifts. For just being who they are. Thank you!
