An exciting first month

I'm not sure if time had passed by quickly but it is only the midway point of term 3. What that had started out as breathless and overwhelming have become a part of my daily routines - rushing from class to class, doing silly administrative tasks, chasing and hounding students for consent forms and homework, rushing from meetings to courses, working "double-session" shifts (due to staying back in school to mark books) and the most dreadful part, having fast and furious quick lunches during peak canteen hours. How not to die of high blood pressure and gastritis?

I guess the main highlight of these 4 weeks is the National Education Show where I accompanied my P5 form class to the National Stadium to catch the National Day Parade Rehearsal. An ecstatic atmosphere, coupled with the fire fireworks and "silly" yet fun-loving kids made that Saturday the most exciting "work day".

The lowest point to me would be to catch a P6 boy red-handed in the act of stealing. Of course the right thing to do would be to turn him to the relevant authorities for further follow-up actions (e.g. informing parents and possibly public caning), which I did. To me, it's really a "nasty" thing to do. After all, who wants to be walloped by his parents and be publicly shamed? But he has to face up to the consequences of his wrongful actions. Hopefully he had learned his lesson.

Other side-shows would be from answering to "over-reactive" parents who questioned why the absence of worksheets for students, to breaking up fights between boys in class. Sigh... boys would be boys.

Well, sad to say I am still trying to catch my breath. I hardly got a chance to sit down and plan a lesson properly. It is still the situation of going in with "half a pail of water" and hopefully that "half" gets transferred to the students. Why must schools have so much admin things to do? Why must it always have to be the form teachers and not the admin staff?!

But one thing is for sure, I better set a target for myself - to leave school by 5 p.m. daily. Working "double-shifts" and listening to the National Anthem twice a day isn't something I would call fun.