Lost in Translation

I was perturbed, perhaps more disturbed than the students in the classroom at which the unmentionable phrase was used on them, not once but several times and in a very harsh voice.  Undeniably, the students were making so much noise to the extent any attempt at trying to control the volume in the classroom by shouting was simply futile.

"SHAME ON YOU!"

And needless to say, the situation in the classroom didn't get any better.  In fact, it got worse.  It started with a handful of boys parroting after the other teacher and in a matter of seconds, it became a chant.  Someone even asked, "Teacher, how to spell shame?" and nodded his head as I spelled the word slowly.  But there was something else.  Through the defiant eyes, I thought I saw grief, but it was artfully concealed by the increase in noise level the moment the other teacher left the classroom.

I couldn't help but wonder what this all meant.  In the reprimand, not only were the students chided for being inconsiderate to the express classes who were sitting for a test and that they should put their extremely loud voices to good use such as being the Commander (who gets students to stand at attention) at Morning Assembly, it was alleged they did not mean what they say when they wrote apology letters and made promises to their Form Teachers about their conduct.  The bemused look on some faces probably said it all: How does she know about this?

And I felt indignant half an hour later.  I may be ignorant of what had happened but I am certain the trust of confidentiality has been broken.  Understandably, it is just human that teachers share their woes with their colleagues or friends but the content of such small talk should never be used against the students by a third party, at least to me.  As much as I dread taking the class when one of their teachers has taken ill, I don't reckon it is ever justified to use the unmentionable phrase.

S-H-A-M-E.  It is a painful feeling caused by the consciousness or exposure of unworthy or indecent conduct or circumstances.  Perhaps the intention to remind the students to behave well was good.  What a shame it didn't translate well.

The F Word II

Flight.

I have finally decided.

Yes, flight.

But I wasn't ready just yet to take flight without a fight.

And so I wrote, "...I would like to express my gratitude for the insightful experience at XYZSS and wish you much success in the future."

The F Word

The last week witnessed yours truly in complete, well, to a large extent, misery.  So mind-blowing was my first two weeks (out of eight) of school experience that I found myself lost for words for a very long time.  And I found out that things have changed in the last five years, and a typical neighbourhood school is, well, not so typical.  Although the socio-economic status of the average student studying in a neighbourhood school has not changed much, less can be assumed of the disposition of the student himself.  The average neighbourhood secondary school student has metamorphosed into a less-than informative, expletive sprouting (and mind you, not short of a few specific parts of the human anatomy) and uninterested student.  And I wonder if I am experiencing reverse culture shock.

It's almost impossible not to hear a student inform you, "Teacher, I have lost my worksheet." barely 24 hours after you'd distributed it.  No, it's not a big deal because technically, worksheets can be printed over and over as long as the photocopier does not break down.  The drawback?  Climate change, but it's not a big deal because we'll just continue to complain about the sweltering heat and more recently, the flash floods.  And no prize for guessing how easy it is to collect homework.  Now, I secretly suspect the word "homework" is more remote than the possibility of any life form in space.

Oh yes, the toilet adventure!  I'm not sure if it were the school canteen, but I believe this is a serious cause for concern for the health of the bladders of a certain group of students who take turns going to the toilet.

Albeit many do recognise the part the school plays in the emancipation of possibly one's social and economic plight, the reluctance to such a breakthrough is baffling, and does not stop short at hurling an insult to the meritocracy model this country has pride itself to have sculpted successfully over the last four decades.

But I reckon the straw that broke the camel's back was when somebody borrowed my chair in the staff room and forgot to return it.  Role models?  Hmmm...

And so, nine days on, which F word would it be - fight or flight?

The learning curve

The law of attraction. As life's events unfold, I find myself increasingly convinced of this secular theory. Getting two Ps in a row has done nothing but shaken my confidence more than a little; in fact, I'm not sure anymore. But it's strange that I almost knew it would happen, or perhaps this is what the lay person assumes as the so overused self-fulling prophecy.

The funny thing is, if everything has its place, I'm then beginning to wonder if it were all but a mirage, that is until now. Of course, I can simply dismiss it as the by now non-existent confidence speaking, but I can't seem to convince myself, not yet anyway. It sure is not the end of the world to get a bad grade, or two, but the pressing question is, why can't the good days be more permanent?

A more objective reasoning my friend gave - "Well, it's a learning curve..." - made absolute sense because afterall, I can't deny that I'm still learning the mastery.

At the end of the day, I have to admit that although the first P did bring on shock and a tear or two, it did cushion me from the impact of the second one. And while I fight against falling into believing a resigned fate of bad grades, I can't help but wonder why my tangible reminder of strength has chosen this crucial time to break.

One mountain

...of readings

You've gotta be kidding me!

As such, my current units have been approved and updated on the uni system (finally!) but it's still as unsettling as the past 48 hours...

Hmmm...

...the book that caught my eye during my library tour this morning: Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Someday I will find out what's written in it...

Diary of a Lab Assistant

A was desperate, so I agreed to double up as her laboratory assistant yesterday at a secondary school in the North. It was a 2-hour science workshop for a secondary one NA class.

Good grief...Science? Fortunately, the brouhaha of yours truly as a lab assistant didn't result in my accidentally gulping the concentrated hydrochloric acid (thinking it's plain water) or getting scorched by the bunsen burner, considering the last time I stepped into a science lab was at 16! But I sure felt lost in the world of Einstein and Newton.

Anyway, for starters, do you know that kids these days do not have to plot their own graphs? They have this equipment called the MultiLog which picks up readings from its sensor and transfers the data onto the computer. Of course, perhaps they've changed the structured questions to more analytical ones, I'm not sure, but hey, why didn't I have these gadgets when I was at school? I think I would probably have scored better than I did if I had those...

Of course, my one-day stint also reminded me what makes a si-gin-na, kampong-style. *LOL*

WTF?

Visualise this scenario: 2 15-year-old boys fighting over a chair. Boy A who was sitting on it got pissed off, turned to Boy B and shouted "F*** YOU!" The teacher heard it and asked Boy A, "Are you sure you really want to do that?" The class roared into laughter. Boy A turned red and asked the teacher to get lost, not once but many times.

*****
Shouldn't Boy A be grateful to the teacher for not punishing him for the use of profanity in class? Doesn't it occur to Boy A that he should speak more responsibly? Doesn't Boy A realise that getting all worked up over a yellow plastic chair is not exactly a very intelligent thing to do at his age? So, why do I even bother? You see, I am the teacher who was asked to get lost and so I did.

Diary of a Relief Teacher

Having done 3 days of relief teaching, I find myself unable to accept having to be in a constant battle with some students in the classroom and still, having to make sure the lesson objective is achieved at the end of one hour. And I guess the last straw is when a secondary one kid tells you this, "cher, I can sue you, you know?" For what? For making another kid wait 10 minutes before he's allowed to go to the toilet.
*****
Maybe what they say is true, that the environment can change a person, and perhaps, time will also alter a person's acceptance towards certain things in life. We often hear people say "but things have changed..." and for the longest time, I thought that was just an excuse, until I realise that I have changed too.

Pissed!

I'm a NET in a local HK school. It is evident that the local teachers feel quite strongly about the NET scheme that EMB introduced. I'm offered a contract with different T&C, my workload is deemed lighter in comparison to my local counterpart in the English Panel (i.e. in case you're wonder WTH is a English Panel, it means EL department), and I'm not expected to do any adminstrative work because I don't speak Cantonese or write Chinese. I also get to colour my hair in whatever shade I like, much to the dismay of the local female teachers who were expected to only spot one hair colour - black. I also get a special allowance on top of my basic salary (PS: that's basically to help me pay the exorbitant rent here!) And my being Asian-Chinese does not help to pacify the inequality because unfortunately, they see me as a comrade. So, their point, I presume, is, why should I get special treatment and they slog in the same job and get paid less (and we're all Chinese in race)?

I'm pissed today because of this single sentence that was used on me today: "I think you should do this too, because Sarah and Mr Lee are also doing it." FYI, Sarah is the TA (aka teacher assistant) and Mr Lee is a newbie who does not have much experience teaching and the reason why he's employed at this time of the year is because he's here to finish marking all the assignments for his colleagues, dig? Anyway, back to the pissing (no puns intended) scenario, this was how it all started. I was asked, even begged, if I'm permitted to use the word, to give the Form 4 and 6 students more chances to speak in English, so I was asked to design a form for students to sign up. Now, that's not my job to design a freaking form. Fine. I did it anyway. Then, the students do not turn up, so I was pissed because I hate to wait. So, I told the PC about it and viola, guess what? I was told that in order to cover my arse (I beg your pardon), I should be filling in forms (one for each student, mind you) to remind the students to turn up for the extra class that I'm giving them after school, which, by the way, is out of my job scope. Then, I should give the forms to the GO on the same morning and if the students still do not turn up, firstly, I have to let their English teachers know about it and then, fill in another form so that they'll have performance scores deducted from them. Oh, did I mention that the forms are all printed in Chinese? Never mind, and do you know why I should even be doing this in the first place? Well, (quote and unquote PC this morning) "I think you should do this too, because Sarah and Mr Lee are also doing it."

So, I'm pissed off with 2 things, first, doing idiotic admin work when the TA should be doing it for me, and second, being juxtaposed with 2 persons who aren't even professionally on par with me.

No, I'm not a bureacratic person, neither am I so full of myself that I'm throwing my weight around in HK, but in a society where the citizens greatly value hierarchy, why do I not get treated the way I should be? Is it simply because I'm yellow and not white?

You know what? Sometimes I wonder if such situations were created unintentionally because of the lack of proficiency in the language that is necessary to foster effective communication? Do they really mean what I thought they meant, or is it because they do not know how to use the words correctly?

Let me end with this: Some Form 6 students (equivalent to JC1 in SIngapore) do not know the difference between 'cancel' and 'postpone'; they thought it's all and the same.

The Staff Toilet Part II

It has been raining these days. No, it's not like what you think...it's not leaking in the toilet, not yet anyway. Hah!

Well, have you ever pee under an umbrella? These days, I've been doing this so very often. Apparently, there isn't much space for teachers to air their umbrellas, so the female teachers came up with the novel idea of airing their umbrellas in the staff toilet and the "early birds" will get the much sought-after cubicle space.

So, today, it was Felix the Cat and the day before yesterday, it was the african safari. Cool eh? Hahaha...

The Staff Toilet

There are five cubicles in the ladies toilet for female staff. Let me start from the fifith cubicle. This last cubicle is furthest away from the entrance. Whoever uses it always forgets to flush it. The fourth cubicle is the most popular one because it is always out of toilet paper, which is weird as four is considered unlucky to the Cantonese people. And someone who uses it loves to leave the toilet seat up. Hmmm...pee standing? The floor of the third cubicle is always wet. I don't know where the leak is (no pun intended). There is a pillar where the second cubicle is and there is hardly any space for one to stand when you're closing the door; not my personal favourite. The first cubicle is next to the corridor and one pees in fear for being heard by anyone who walks past. Paranoia? May be...

So, which is my favourite cubicle? Go figure...

Morning Assembly

I can vividly remember how everyone would rush for the morning assembly and would be all jittery if we were to miss one because there would be reprisals. These days, however, I find myself in the toilet when the school song is being played over the PA system. No, I didn't do it on purpose; it's just, well, what can I say, coincidental. Of course, I do attend the morning assembly still, I just miss the school song, that's all.

Important Tasks...not.

Today, I was perturbed by the fact that although it's the Form 7 internal oral examination and despite the fact that I was listed down as one of the oral examiners, I was told that I could share out the workload with the time-keeper, a certain Ms Law, a lab technician. And I was told that it is my responsibility to make sure I fulfill my duty.

Now, I must clarify that I'm not putting Ms Law down, what I don't get is something more personal. You mean I'm not qualified enough as a NET to assess the students in an internal oral examination? You mean I'm only capable of doing inane things like time-keeping?

On hindsight, that's slightly better than being dumped piles of students' work on my table a couple of weeks ago, asking me to cut and paste them and pin them up on the noticeboard for English Week.

*Speechless*

The Art of Detachment

I've figured that until the day I successfully master the art of detachment, I'll be expecting lousy days every Day 5. I can't help myself but I absolutely detest going into Class 2B and Class 2AB. Yes, you heard me right - DETEST. I have no idea how anyone can behave so terribly in the classroom. The thing that irks me is that it seems they have been like this for the longest time and no amount of discipline and punishment seems to work.

So, is being underprivileged (or so it has been claimed) the passport for bad behaviour? I'm just curious why is it that with so much help offered to them, nothing much's changed? Why would anyone choose to be stuck in the same vicious cycle, knowing very clearly that history is very likely going to repeat itself, generation after generation?

So you say, "But at least they're not targeting their wrath at you...isn't that a consolation?" Yeah, but I still feel terrible whenever I step into the class. You know, personally, the worst thing that can happen to a teacher is to lose her students although they are physically present in the classroom.

And I know that some students are capable of having a much better life than what is given by their parents, if they try hard enough. How do I know, you ask? Well, they told me so...from the look in their eyes...

It's not me; it's her

This incident happened the other day. Some students threw chalk out of their classroom window. Unfortunately, some passers-by got hit and they lodged a complaint against the school. Naturally, the discipline team was furious because the incident happened during class time - neither during the change of a period nor recess or lunch.

Being the nosy-parker that I am, I 'stuck' (literally too) my head into the conversation some teachers were having in the staffroom and one of them translated the gist in English. And that was revelation, man, if I may borrow the word for the secular context!

Now, I finally can understand why is it that most classes try to behave very well when I have lessons with them, with the exception of a few classes. It had left me feeling perturbed for the last couple of months but I see the "bigger picture".

So, it was because the students in these classes do not like the subject teacher and thus, will misbehave in her lessons. So, when it comes to English Oral lesson, although the subject teacher is not teaching that lesson, the students associate the subject (i.e. English) with her. Hence, by association, they will behave badly in English Oral class (although it is the NET who is conducting the lesson) as well, as a form of protest against the subject teacher.

Well, the cliche quote is quite apt here - It's not me; it's her... However, having said this, my heart goes out for the subject teacher. I wonder how she copes with all these...do you know?

"Adventure" of a lifetime in 2AB

Today is Day 5, again. Today is also the day I was thrown a crushed piece of paper at, which coincidentally, was the worksheet that I gave out to the boy in class some 10 minutes ago and I was also told to keep my mouth shut. Wow! Such audacity.

So, what's the excuse? "...you see, I wasn't aimming at the NET teacher, I was just thowing things around in the classroom. And I wasn't directing at her when I said 'keep quiet and stop talking'..."

Yeah right!

The Clown Academy

Sometimes, I can't help but wonder who is the clown here. Me or the junior form students? Perhaps the fact of getting students to study a foreign language is already tough enough, and with other forces at play, like not having the right foundation since young, not possessing the right learning attitude and the lack of TLC from their family, just make things a lot worse. Ironically, it's hard to imagine how bad things are in some classes.

Of course, despite the lack of attentiveness and discipline from the students, you are still expected to carry on teaching even when there is zero audience. Meanwhile, the subject teacher who is supposed to be co-teaching will be trying to keep the class down, sometimes, to no avail. Have you ever witnessed shouting matches between the subject teacher and a student or sometimes, a group of students? Guess who won? But of course, on most occasions, I don't understand what is being spoken.

So, you can imagine a classroom scenario: 2 senior clowns in the classroom trying to teach 30-odd little clowns something and, presumably, at the end of the day, there is no takeaway.

But, I thank God that it doesn't happen everyday, just on Day 5 and Day 6.

Empowerment is an entitlement

Today marks the last day of my third week at MCSSS. How are things in HK schools? Well, I can't speak for all HK schools, but at least from my understanding of the school I'm teaching in, I dare say it's rigid.

In retrospect, I am very appreciative of what our government has done for us and especially in education. Yes, even during this short period of time while I'm here, I thought about the differences between Singapore and Hong Kong and I understand what home really means, now.

Teachers are definitely more empowered in Singapore, in comparison, and although we do need to follow the syllabus and guidelines set by MOE, teachers can decide on the methodologies to foster learning and understanding. The believe that education is the platform to exploit every child's innate potential and talent is poignant and clear.

Here, if you do not make use of the stipulated textbook or tried to do something out of HK context and/ or culture (talk about being myopic metaphorically), you'll be threading on dangerous grounds and perhaps, even be labelled as incompetent.

Now, you may wonder, is education just about learning from the textbook in today's globalised world? Is education just about being able to complete the teaching of the textbook regardless of whether learning takes place or not? Is that what education is all about?

I beg to differ...