Monday, August 27, 2007
School starts at 8.30am later and I'm still up but that's me. Forever a night owl. Readings, reflections and projects have come in thick and fast. I do feel stress right now with so many things to do. Have you ever had this feeling that you wanna attempt to do everything you have on your hands but ended up feeling lost and helpless?
I completed my 2nd values education reflection and that practically wrapped up that module. Speaking of which, the presentation went well and my tutor was rather impressed with my group. I even got jacked by him when he said "You all should learn to come for presentations dressed appropriately. Even though this is university whereby you can come in whatever attire you want. " So that was me in my pe attire and sandals. Hardly any respect for the tutor and my fellow classmates. However, it brought laughter from my group mates instead. My perception of a presentation before I entered university is pretty clear - follow those business students and come dressed in formal wear with a tie. However this is NIE and like I said, he understood the reason why I came in that attire. Just using me as an example for other groups who will be presenting in the coming weeks. Feels good to get this module of the way really. Now I wanna concentrate my efforts on the educational psychology module and finish up with that essay that has a weightage of 60% of my total marks!
So many readings to do for pe, geo and even psychology. I seriously think this education psychology is not only a waste of time but also preventing me from doing so-called more productive studying. We had a teacher who is from Philippines who is currently in NIE pursuing her PHD in Psychology. She was actually sitting at the back of the class and because she was a girl who looked in her early 20s, she does look like a NIE student. Little did I know she's a teacher who's already armed with a Masters in psychology. She's younger than her age suggested. Her purpose was to conduct a small little survey through "manipulating our minds" with some questions complied in a file. The thing is, I hate people trying to do such things on me. So I got increasingly frustrated and scribbled answers without thinking. Kinda like messing up their survey results. You learn something new from that lesson also. She is just another classic example of how a person who graduates with a degree in psychology needs to further her studies to get at least a Masters. If not, he or she will just be another psychology graduate in the job market. That's how common and competitve it has become for psychology graduates.
Saturday's papers did an article on teachers who were nominated for some President's award. It's a pity only a few teachers were mentioned. I mean that few pages meant alot to me because I'm a trainee teacher and reading those articles reaffirmed my belief that I do wanna teach. To me, it's not a job. It's a hobby or an interest, no matte how cliche it may sound. Warning bells should ring if teachers see their career as purely a job. Every teacher out there is a good teacher, it doesn't mean you have to appear in the newspapers to be an outstanding one. Even if you can make a difference to just 1 pupil, the satisfaction is something money can't buy and that words cannot describe.
For my presentation part, I learnt to take it easy, forget about being nervous and just being myself. To be honest, I do enjoy presenting it to my classmates. For Jonathan, he prefers to be the joker way and he did an excellent job of it. For me, I prefer to share my life experiences and occasionally chip in with a joke or two. For the topic of "Humanity In Education", I shared experiences from my army, trenching digging, CIP trip to Kunming to plant fruit trees and a chance meeting with Dr Tan Lai Yong etc. What's the point of worrying about how your group will fare and whether your classmates will find your presentation boring? Just let it go and be yourself! That's just a tip for those who have upcoming presentations to do.
Friday was a good day even though it was raining. When the rain stopped, I went to play tennis with Zhao Ming, Jun Wen and Chris while waiting for the GESL to start at 5.30pm. I'm just trying to learn how to serve. Rallying and strokes-wise I'm doing fine now. Before that, met Reina at the NIE library for a catch up session. I haven't seen that girl for like 2 to 3 years? Turned out that she's taking music modules in NIE so she will be spending much of her fridays in NIE then. I really like my current life because I get to enjoy what I'm doing. As the PESS sports room is filled with all kinds of sports equipment, basically the best in Singapore, you just have to borrow it to play any sports you want. Be it tennis, ping pong, squash, soccer, touch rugby, basketball etc. They provide you with rackets and balls!
There are times where I feel very fortunate to be in this university course of mine. I've got friends grumbling to me saying even though they're in Year 2 or 3 and they still don't know what they are studying for or are fast losing interest in their course. Basically they're just studying for the sake of obtaining that degree and hopefully find a job that pays them enough to make ends meet. Whether they will live a fufilling life is another question altogether.
Gotta get some sleep now as the first lesson tomorrow promises to be tiring. Like my Prof for Principle Of Games said "By the end of 12 weeks, you all will be very fit pe teachers".
