teaching

teaching has been a major part of my life ever since i stepped out of mandatory education. and for the past 3 years i've been teaching at the same place, that has almost become a 2nd home to me. almost.

and today was the first time i ever felt the heaviness of leaving my teaching position, all thanks to a fellow TEO who insisted on throwing a pizza party. we sat down at the pantry area, with a couple of teachers and were just talking about our experiences in school, the students whom we meet, the staff who guided us through the problems and mistakes we make..
the lessons we have in class, the hearts of the students whom we have touched *hopefully* and the many fun times we share in the staff room, eating, snacking and playing the fool. getting to know fellow colleagues better through various events and happenings..

somehow, despite the many horrible incidents i've seen and met in class with some students, it hasnt seem to deter me much from the passion for teaching. its always a challenge to walk into class and attempt to teach a class of noisy mischievious kids who refuse to sit down and listen to you. and then when their attitudes evolve and change for the better, to those days when they can go "cher why liddat? cher explain more lei.. cher i like your teachings, cuz i can understand!" to those days when they whine and say "cher dont go, i dont want to change teacher!!!" you see them grow, you see them want to learn, you see them mature.
those are the things that make you want to go on, want to see them grow, want to see them mature.

it has been a long 3 years ever since i started down this relief teaching route. albeit its only relief teaching, i still get to see my kids grow. from the original naive cute sec 1/2s to the current mature notsocute anymore sec 3/4s.
had the honour of going in to see 2 of my favourite classes today to do some relief, and it felt real good to see them again, catching up with some of them, seeing they becoming more hardworking and mature. the kids in 4t1 have really grown and come a long way, from the social studies time i had with them when they were in sec 2, to the english periods we had in sec 3. really, the feeling this morning was simply amazing.
and then of course 2e2 kids are simply adorable, to me that is (: the funny thing was, as i stepped into the class the class was rowdy, saying that they have been waiting for me to come in. i was wondering how they knew i was gonna relief them, until i realised their councillors in the class are incharge of the morning relief everyday. -.- no wonder la.
and the funniest thing? i went down to dabao food for lunch and saw penny&shuqin along my way down. knowing that i was going to their class later for classroom cleaning, i told them that. penny was soo excited. -.- and when i went into the class, before they greeted me i said this. "in case you guys have forgotten my name, im ms teo." the class giggled and pointed to the board. apparently these words were scribbled on the white board "ms TEO weina is coming later! :) " fantastic.

its the small little things that students do, keep you going. :)
thanks kids! :)