Friday, August 13, 2010
Every practicum is still a 'school experience' to me because I'm still learning new things every day. The learning process does not stop just because you're closer to graduation or even when you've graduated. As usual, pictures detailing my wonderful stint in BP had been uploaded onto facebook, all 367 of them. There were more actually but I deleted quite a number of them either because of poor quality or because of repeated ones.
While my official period for practicum is over, I still head back to school to help out (there's not much to do anyway due to the common test period). Friends call me crazy for not wanting to enjoy the remaining the holidays before Year 4 begins. Don't get me wrong, I still get to enjoy my holidays and free time but the bond formed between the school, teachers and students have left a deep impression on me. Sports is an excellent way to teach values from e PE teacher's point of view and it is also an easy ice-breaker for new teachers like me. From being invited to play for the teacher's team to becoming a regular, it's really an honour. From the recreational games (yes we take it easy at times too), students to get to see a different side of the academic teachers and I get to know them too. Some of them have hidden talents that you may never know because they're all so humble. There's Mr. H (a physics teacher), who plays sepak takraw and has such silky skills to Mr. N (a mother tongue teacher), who plays handball and keeps goal for the team. I can't wait to play for them again next saturday for an internal tournament organized by the students.
An incident which happened during my 4th week left a sour taste in my mouth. It has nothing do with the the school in fact but with my friends (people whom I've known since junior college). Having grown close to my CT's form class, I teach them PE and also attend their cme classes too. My CT then suggested that I give them a motivational talk in my last week of school casually. He probably didn't expect it when I readily agreed but it's a challenge that I want to take on. Long story cut short - my CT is well-known in the school for his excellent rapport with students (all streams but especially with normal technical). His form class comprises of normal technical students but he has them so 'well-trained', you can never tell. It left me feeling a bit ashamed too for having such stereotypes initially.
The gist of the talk was to basically tell the students that it doesn't mean that they're forever stuck in the lower ends of society just because they're heading to ITE. Life begins from there and there're many successful students who've gone on to obtain their degrees (my daily newspapers routine of reading the papers and cutting out relevant ones helped for this talk). It was a no hold barred talk if I could put it that way. It doesn't mean that if you're from the express stream like me, your path in life is neatly layed out. You get the story - me and my 19 points for O levels, transition from a good secondary school to a neighbourhood college and how some of my army mates who were from good colleges couldn't even get into a local university after their A levels. Who really cares about your PSLE grades after you've graduated with a degree?
I began preparations for the talk by looking for pictures and information which I could use and started by messaging friends. Many people have promised to help and/or send some pictures over but only a few did in the end. People like Ming Cheng and Maybelline, I like to take this opportunity to thank you for sending me the relevant informaton and photos. Since I needed photos and information on nursing (to convince my students that it's not a female-dominated job), this fellow went all out to churn out a powerpoint presentation for me while Maybelline sent me some much-needed photos from my college days. Even Mr. Tong who couldn't find his pictures gave me an update of the situation and even I appreciate it. While one can definitely understand the busy work schedule that many of friends face, why promise something but fail to deliver?
A reply from a squash friend of mine even left me shocked. I asked him whether he still has pictures from our jc days, his reply was "I was not from jjc". While it's human nature to feel irritated with such responses, you can understand why he had such a response. Being in this line of work had enabled me to see things from the different perspectives of people. If I haven't woken up from my slumber and live life in denial, my reply could have been harsher than his. Even my PE CT believes that my stint in jjc had done me a whole lot of good and he has been making fun of my acs background all the time (we're all jokers).
Express students some of my friends might be but in terms of character and values-wise, they're no better than the normal technical students I've taught. They know from my lessons that while they may not match their friends from the express stream in academic work but what is more important in life - is that they must have sound moral values. People might beg to differ with my views but trust me, I've seen enough to make a judgement.
