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Wednesday, May 22, 2013

一包椰浆饭


话是从这里开始的:

由于今天是开放日,全体教师都得在早上就到学校, 所以有老师就帮忙买早餐——椰浆饭,只是需要向她说一声就可以了。我没有向她说我要,可是今早她却放了一包椰浆饭在我桌上,就忙着去派给其他老师了。到她派好回来了,我就问她:

我:老师,这包椰浆饭是给我的吗?
老师1:是的。
我:噢?谢谢老师!
然后我就准备拿钱给老师,
老师1:你不用给,老师请你,下次再回来教哦!
我(吓到):哈哈, 谢谢!

(老师1坐在我的右边,她的孩子在我的班里。)

继续,

那我就和老师2一边谈天一边吃早餐,吃到一半时,老师2就拿钱给老师1,给了钱回来,她就向我说,

老师2:我已经帮你给了钱(指的是椰浆饭的钱), 所以等下你不用给。
我:老师, 她(老师1)刚才也是这么说,然后她还叫我下次再回来教呢 !
老师2: 噢? 是吗? 我没有条件的,老师只是觉得你很可爱!

我,只好傻笑了。

(老师2坐在我的左边。)

过后呢,才发现我吃了其他老师的,她有订,可是却没拿到,老师1算了一算,才跟我说:

老师1: 唉,你没订啊?
我:我没订呀。

我俩就向那老师说抱歉了,一阵尴尬。

吃了人家份儿的食物,还有人争着帮我付钱,这还是我人生第一次。

这一包椰浆饭,主要让我感受到老师们 给予我莫大的肯定。

就要离开这工作岗位了,到现在才感到依依不舍,之前都迫不及待想离要开这里。也许我有潜质做老师,但我想我不会喜欢上这个工作,原因是: 牺牲很大,被人压迫,很少人会同情自己的处境。

开放日·, 也遇到了形形色色的家长;有的家长很明白学生不容易教,班上46位学生,真的很难教; 有的家长觉得老师的素质很有问题,这么简单的英语都不会,怎么做老师?然后一直投诉·老师多么差,教育制度多么烂,我想说,你要么就去投诉教育部,要么就带你孩子去一间全校老师都很好的学校去!嘴巴那么喜欢批评,又不见你有任何行动。

总结, 其实少了些paperwork,少了些没有意义的报告,回去旧的制度, 老师这一行,其实还是能做的。:)




Thursday, May 9, 2013

Being A Teacher

*Taken from Facebook, all rights belongs to its original author, permission has been granted by the original author to re-post this in my blog.

Status Update
By Alina Amir
So here’s a public confession: After 4 months into teaching, I came back from a class this morning, put my books on my desk, coolly walked to the ladies, and broke down; with tears, sobs, frantically fanned myself with my hands thinking that could help calm me down, the whole enchilada. Something I have not done for a very long time.

In the last four months, I could have cried when I had kids calling me a prostitute in mandarin, or that time when a kid told me I should not mess with him because his dad is part of the notorious along gangster crew (which I have never heard of and the phrase “ignorance is bliss” could not have rung truer), or that time when I was wolf whistled at for weeks wherever I went, or when a disruptive boy decided get up in the middle of my lesson, ran around the room and banged every table before he ran out of the class despite me calling after him and then having him come back and literally went on the floor, hugging my feet and begged for my forgiveness the same day, or when I was locked in the school building and then had to come out through the roof (long story) or when a big fat rat, literally, decided to chill right in front of my front door. Those were legit reasons to cry if I wanted to cry. But I didn’t. Not a single tear rolled down my cheeks. I stood up to my boys, I had sleepless nights thinking of strategies to get my kids to just sit down for a single lesson, told every kid who threatened me to bring it on, went to every boy who wolf whistled and threw inappropriate remarks at me, looked them straight in the eyes and said, “how dare you”. I have got nothing to lose and I am sure, as hell is not scared of anybody, no matter who your daddy is.

This morning however, was different. In fact, I wasn’t teaching at all this morning. I was in a form 4 class, of which I only teach PJK to the six of the girls every week. So what was I doing with the entire class? I was invigilating their mid year exam, Sejarah Kertas 3 to be exact; An open book test where students are required to write an essay on a topic given. Just as I finished handing out the exam papers to all 35 students, one boy put his hand up and asked, “ujian apa hari ni, cikgu?” and I went, “HOW CAN YOU NOT KNOW WHAT PAPER YOU ARE SITTING FOR ON THE DAY OF THE EXAM AND EVEN AFTER I HAVE HANDED OUT THE EXAM PAPER” silently in my head. Out loud, I said, “ujian Sejarah, kertas 3. Ujian ni boleh tengok buku, so keluarkan lah buku”. Half of the classroom started to rummage through their bags and looked under their tables for books while the other half put their heads down and went to sleep. Ten minutes into the exam, they were all just staring at their books, opened to the first page. I went to a boy and asked if he knew what he was supposed to do. He shook his head and continued staring at his book. Another boy looked at me pleadingly, and asked, “cikgu, macam mana nak buat ni?” No one was writing anything. No one.

I went to one of the girls and asked her to read the question and then looked for the answer in the book. The first question she asked after I told her that was, “bab berapa tu?” and I could sense the whole class was waiting for me to tell her which chapter to open to. I knew then, that they have never read a single thing from their textbook nor have they learned anything in the past four months of school. Heck, I wouldn’t be going too far if I said they barely learned anything in the last 10 years of school. At that moment, I saw their future flashed through my eyes and I wanted to cry.

I wanted to cry because it was unfair for them to be sitting for an exam that they are clearly not ready for. I wanted to cry because someone allowed this to happen. I wanted to cry because as I was explaining to some of the students on how to do the exam and they were eagerly listening, while I was quietly panicking because I am no way near being a Sejarah Form 4 teacher. I wanted to cry because I felt incompetent, wishing I remembered what I learned back in From 4 so that I can teach them something at that moment. I wanted to cry because it is not their fault. But most of all, I wanted to cry because I have 200 students and I have classes back to back from 7.30 AM up to 10.00PM every day that it would be completely impossible to take on new students. All I could think of was how if only all the educated people in the country would spend their time teaching these kids, then maybe, maybe I’d be writing a different story.

I have never actually done this before; asking people to consider teaching. I believe that entering into the profession should come out of your own will. I have never recommended Teach for Malaysia to anyone. In fact, I’d be all-skeptical to anyone who are actually considering to join TFM. What are you in for? To have connections with top corporate partners? To meet CEOs of this and that? To be featured in newspapers, radio, magazines, online blogs? What are you in for? Is it the tagline? Is it really for the kids? I’ve been asked these questions before and I personally used to think that it was a fair concern. It needs to be out there that being a teacher, through TFM or not, is not even a tad bit glamorous. You don’t get paid on time, you’d be missing best friends’ weddings, family gatherings, birthdays etc., you have crazy deadlines and you’ll feel like crap because you don’t know how you’re doing. Nobody sends you a “good job” email on that awesome class you just had, or though you had. Are you sure you want to be a teacher? If you think it is a walk in the park, be rest assured that it’ll be the ghettoest, most messed up park you have ever walked in. I used to think that only the strong should be a teacher. Only those who know that they won’t quit should be a teacher. Today, I don’t care anymore. Today, I realized how desperate the country is and beggars, can’t be choosers. If you have gone through the education system and came out alive, teach. If you have no idea what to teach, trust me you’ll learn. You’d be surprised to meet kids who have never been told that cleanliness is a virtue, that rempit is not a legit career path, that you don’t have to give up at 16.

Listen to me, drop everything you’re doing and come back to school. Teach them to be human beings because they need to know that screaming at a lady is not the way to speak, that not knowing how to read at 13 is not cool, that cursing at your teachers is rude and to talk back to your mother in front of everybody at school would get you to every hell of every single religion in the world. Teach. If you think it’s too hard and teaching isn’t your thing, then quit. But you can’t quit teaching if you have not actually tried teaching. My point is, every one should teach. Decide later if it is something you want to do in the long run. Just teach. Join TFM, do it the normal route, stop a kid in the middle of the road and ask him/her to tell you the multiplication table, tell him/her a random fact about Egypt or aeroplanes, teach them the right intonation after seeing a question mark, teach.

If you think, all this doesn’t make sense and it’s just some really long facebook status/note by a crazy lady who just cried in a high school toilet, then darling, my dear, you have not taught in a classroom where half of them can barely read and write and the other half is just lost by this immense language barrier that no logical inspiring words can get through them. So teach. I am on my facebook knees.


 

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Bangkok, Thailand : Bit by bit : Itinerary

 Thursday, 28th Feb


_Reach Don Mueang Airport around 9p.m. local time
_Checked in Link Corner around 10p.m
_Went out to look for dinner
_Back to room around 12.30a.m

Friday, 1st March

_Walked around Pratunam Area, i.e: Siam Paragon, Siam Centre, Central World, Big C
_Rest a while in the afternoon
_At night went to MBK Tokyu and Siam Art and Discovery Centre

Saturday, 2nd March

_Went Chatuchak in the morning till around 2p.m
_Rest
_Went Terminal 21

Sunday, 3rd March

_Breakfast at Black Canyon
_Shop at Big C.
_Checked out from Link Corner, take taxi to Khao San, Checked in Rambuttri Village and Inn
_evening around 5p.m, took taxi to Yaowarat (Chinatown).

Monday, 4th March

_went to Wat Pho and Wat Arun
_came back around 4p.m, rest, swim at the hotel rooftop pool
_spend the night hanging around Khao San road

Tuesday, 5th March

_wake up, swim.
_get things from 7-eleven near Khao San road
_reach boarding gate 5 minutes before boarding time. Flight departed on time at 12p.m
_Back to home around 7.30p.m

*took me less than half an hour to type this out, as I had directly copied it from my planner. Shortest time ever to blog a post. A rather surface post, but this serves just as an introduction. A detailed one requires a lot of time, really, hours. And that's one reason stopping me from blogging for so long.

Cheers, 
Lee Xiang