Wednesday, February 02, 2005
1 more week of Fairfield Methodist Primary relief teaching to go. I shall miss the kids. Seriously, I mean it. Even if classroom management strains my patience and vocal cords, the children somehow manage to make up for it by being, well, children. The teachers are friendly enough, though I'm afraid I might have offended one of them by correcting grammatical errors on his answer scheme. A great pity, because he went out of his way to help me on my first day at work, and now I scarcely dare to make eye contact. I have to relief teach all subjects and levels, depending on the situation; every morning is a frantic hunt for textbooks, worksheets etc. This morning I had a P2 Chinese class, which was, needless to say, beyond pathetic. English/Math/Science classes are all right, Health Education is mainly improvisational crapology, Social Studies is great fun for me but an utter bore to the class.
Social Studies brings back glowing primary school memories. I
loved SS in Nanyang. I suppose I was one of the few who did, though I crossed over to the majority in secondary school. I keep wishing that I can unload all the SS esoterica - Munshi Abdullah, Anglo-Dutch treaties, the Majapahit empire, the Orang Laut - that my own teachers so lovingly crammed us with all those years ago. Unfortunately, most students (understandably) hate SS with a passion, and there isn't much I can do about
that. Mainstream SS isn't the same as the GEP SS that I was exposed to in Nanyang. For one thing, I don't believe that their teachers tell them to hunt down out-of-print Singapore ancient history books at MPH, like mine did.
Will be relief teaching GP at Hwa Chong for 2 weeks starting 14 Feb. I will have to play adjudicator for an inter-CT debate or two. One of my classes will be up against a humanities class, and on top of that, they have been saddled with a highly unfavourable (and IMO, impossible) motion. I think it's inhumane, really. Under such circumstances, I may find it hard to remain impartial.
Late to bed, early to rise, lots of coffee in between. My life is settling back into the familiar academic routine.
words were spilled on Wednesday, February 02, 2005
