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Friday, February 18, 2011
the cousin has arrived in singapore; i am grateful to the other cousins for housing her so i get to keep my room for few more days :] i am grateful too for the krispy kremes she brought; not so much for the diarrhea it gave me in school some hours after having them for breakfast =(
His idea of a valentines day was the clapton concert - mine was not. terrible prices (one bottle of Snapple was $5; one can of beer was $10) and terrible music; my ears split during some of the electric guitar compositions. the two singers kept doing the same dance over and over again, deviating only now and then before returning to the ridiculously simple repetition of movements that probably even i could do, but won't because it looks utterly silly. the living fossil they call Clapton had only one thing to say to us in the audience when he wasn't singing - he'd yell, 'THANK YOU!' after every piece. that was it, and he'd move on to the next one without another word. soon enough my mum commented that he was a man of few words - i myself thought he was a man of, more accurately, two words. i was thankful, and a total grouch, when it ended. that was bad but i needed rest badly, and the next day i fell asleep at 6pm and woke up at 4 in the morning. such is a working life :/
teaching is over.
'sir, he took my seat!'
'sir, he took my one dollar!' 'no, it's mine!'
'sir, he molested me!' 'OKAY I'LL MOLEST YOUR FRIEND BACK FOR YOU'
okay fine i didn't say that but really, silly things like these took up so much time. i had five classes; they had quite disparate overall temperaments. they are, in descending order of awesomeness... :
Class 1: the dream class; so quiet. they were such sweet angelssss :D and okay they were quite cute too but that's besides the point. no, they were archangels. they were so darn obedient that it was unsettling; taking in everything without question for the most part, being wondrously polite, staying back to ask questions after lesson/practical if they had any, and at the end of one lesson one fellow asked me, 'Sir when are you leaving!' i replied 'end of this week' and they were like 'aw noooooooooo' haha my heart actually melted, i quickly spun around to write nonsense on the board so they wouldn't see that grin stretched across my face - as madam said when i told her about it, that made my day ♥
Class 2: the fairly good class whom i kidded around now and then - talking cock, stuff about starcraft, haha actually it was more lively than the first class, yet within control; i managed to complete what was required in the SOW by the end of the week, and still managed to have a good time during lessons; this was a fun class to teach :D
Class 3: the so-so in-between class; a good portion of them wanted to learn, a minor fraction weren't similarly inclined and the remaining one indian fellow who doesn't fit into either category was out to make me look bad.
'sir, what is the densest material on earth?'
'uh...'
'sir, is it Bose-Einstein condensate?'
'oh, that. ah yes, i think you need to hit sub-zero temperatures to get there. yes...' *begins to panic*
not long after, i explained the difference between mass and weight to the class. the indian fellow then triumphantly declared how he'd argued with his primary school teacher for an hour trying to prove his point. i think i was both glad and scared i had a student like him. his hand always shot up at every question i fired at the class - and when i didn't choose him he'd cluck his tongue in displeasure. no, really. but it was a manageable class, all in all.
Class 4: things start to get nasty here. not only was the class rarely ever totally silent, there was a nice fellow who had a mental disorder and kept fiddling with two 1.5 ltr empty coke bottles at the back of the class while everyone had their textbooks out. they'd say things like '____, stop drinking from empty coke bottles!' but he was so cute, i couldn't bear to scold him (seriously :/) but he did ask at one insightful question regarding what was being taught; i think he's way smarter than they think he is. with enough shouting and sending-out-of-class, this class was subdued...eventually.
Class 5: a nightmare come true. i don't want to recall much of it; it really was quite bad. i don't think i ever caught hold of them until the last lesson - before that it was talktalktalktalktalk like a bunch of girls, shouting was pretty ineffective most of the time so i ended up just silently staring at them till everyone kept quiet before teaching again, upon which the cycle repeated after about a minute or so. one was especially cunning - during practical i sent him out. he came in to ask a question regarding the prac, then nonchalantly walked back to his seat and sat down. it was unpleasant dealing with him, and i'm glad i'm free of this class. the worst part was a twist of that heartrending moment i had with class 1; 'sir, when are you leaving?' 'oh, end of this week' whole class: 'nooooooooooooo!' *thinks* 'have i done finally something right with this class!? they've barely listened to me at all' then one guy blurts out, 'no more free lesson for talking!'
and the most embarrassing moment:
'sir, why is your face so red?'
'sir, why are you sweating so much?'
'uh...i was doing practical in the lab just now!'
'but sir the lab is air conditioned!'
*fiercely scolds self for coming up with pathetic answer*
'oh, i ran down after that so i could teach you guys!'
ah, well. gave a can of Fox sweets to each of the more angelic classes. yes, i show bias, so there! after i left the first class after giving them the can of sweets, one fellow came out with a question so i started explaining the concept to him. not long after, two fellows dart out with blood trickling down a finger each. 'sir, your can is evil!' apparently three of them cut their fingers while grabbing for the can of sweets by cutting them on the sharp circular piece of metal that you have to pull out to get to the sweets -.- ended up removing those metal pieces for the other cans before giving them to the classes.
one sweet guy gave me a proper whiteboard marker after saying, 'your markers are so hard to see!' (he was referring to their dull ink). went to madam's office! it's quite cool, right in the corner of the deputy deans' area, it's so nice and quiet there. talked with her some days when i had enough time to drop by. haha it was quite cool seeing a teacher having a freaking aquarium on his/her table, all lighted up and filled with fishies and plants. thank you mr wong ting ee for consoling me at first when i was whining about the worse classes; didn't know that the classes i hadn't met yet were positively sweet ♥
met daniel in the sac on my last day. haha we actually went to sit in the teacher's corner - but after that i think i saw why most teachers prefer to sit outside, your voice really reverberates off the glass walls and echoes all over the place so it actually becomes quite noisy when three tables are all holding a conversation at once. we caught sight of cavan walking into the sac...haha he actually walked into the teacher's corner to say hi, he looked like a teacher anyway, the way he was dressed. got the attendance sheet signed at last, and fled after that. teaching is over!
but all in all, i'm happy i'm done with teaching for now :D the pay isn't bad at all, too. managed to find time to chat with slim, mdm reena, ol fazli and a few other teachers too.
now, sleep.
5:38 AM
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Designer: Oudouri SW
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