Oxymoron In The Tropics

When I first became a teacher, it surprised many of my friends.  I suppose there were different reasons... I wasn't obvious teacher material when I was in school.  I was too much of  a class clown at times, too bookish to front a classroom at other times... but the one person who was most surprised was myself.  The only reason that mattered to me was how I viewed the teaching profession as a boring one.  And I was more easily bored than I should be.  I wanted to be a journalist with different assignments every time and never the same view to look at (so I supposed).  Unfortunately for me, the year I applied for a course in university was also the year major riots took place in my hometown and my mother was traumatised to see the reporters (and specifically one who was brother to my aunt) getting the best views in between the Federal Reserve Units and the rioters.  1986.. what a year.  Just a year earlier and I could have been a rep...

I am moving workplaces again :) Last Friday I received a letter calling me to a briefing for Form Six Academic Teacher placements.  My whole day perked up.  Would I finally be able to go back to school?  The word 'promotion' was also in the title so that made things a bit more shiny and bright and sparkling.  At this point, I am tempted to use the synonyms 'dazzling', 'gleaming', 'radiant', 'resplendent' and  'CORUSCATING' but that may be overkill. Anyway I went for the briefing last Monday and HOORAY I'M POSTED BACK TO SCHOOL! The strange thing was that after nearly three years at the PPD, I finally accepted my fate.  In December, I began planning for 2012.  I had BIG plans.  BIG programs.  All of a sudden, I have to abandon all those plans.  It's so ironic that the moment I stop hoping for something, it happens.  But perhaps there is a lesson for me to learn here :)   

One big hassle for teachers is homework.  They have to plan it, hand it out, chase after it and in some cases, get really worked up over it.  Well, they don't HAVE to get worked up over it but then that would mean that they just don't care about it.  Tough choices. However, the fact remains that homework is one of the most important tools for a student to master a topic.  For an English teacher, homework is about the only way for her to get students to finish an essay or a project involving more than 300 words.  For a Math teacher, homework is the only way she can get students to acquire skills in solving math problems. As a student, I used to have to do around ten to twenty sums for every sub-topic before I could reach that oh-so-sweet level of ' looking at a problem and instantly knowing the solution '.  I was definitely a product of constant slogging.  I have a few colleagues who religiously keep a log of their students' homework.  It is no...

Today a friend asked me for some advice.  Should he go to the PPD (education district office) or stay in school? Well, it all really depends. I know why he asks me for advice.  I am currently working in the Kota Kinabalu PPD and I have past experience working in the State Education Department.  I've also racked up a reasonable number of years in school, if you'd call 11 years reasonable.  Here's what I want to say to him and I'll make it clear that this is my OPINION. How many years has one been in school?  Two years?  Six years?  I'd want to have at least three years of school service time under my belt before I try the challenging walk of a PPD officer.  Some people would scoff at that and say more years are required.  However, if a teacher has been in school almost seven years, I'd advise him to stay put.  He has better promotional chances in school.  HOWEVER, there are many reasons for one to serve as a PPD officer (note...

Frightening to be a teacher?  Sounds laughable, right?  But I do feel fear when I am in school as a teacher or an administrator.  Some people would call me paranoid but I think it is better to be paranoid than to be in a dock in some courtroom or at a hospital bedside some place. Let me twist a Robbie Burns poem How do I fear thee (O' burden of a teacher)? Let me count the ways... 1. In Loco Parentis In English, that means 'in the place of a parent'.  In legal terms, that means a teacher is expected to be as responsible as a parent for the safety of his or her students while they are within the school grounds or under his or her care.  And they may be liable in the same way a parent would be, where the law is concerned. I attended a course by an IAB lecturer way back in 2000 and listened in horror as she detailed the many different ways I could've been in trouble with regard to the way I dealt with students.  If a rock falls on a student within ...

Hooray the School Term Timetable is out! PERINCIAN PERSEKOLAHAN MENGIKUT PENGGAL   KUMPULAN B : Sekolah-sekolah di Negeri Perlis, Pulau Pinang, Perak, Selangor, Negeri Sembilan, Melaka, Johor, Pahang, Sabah, Sarawak, Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur, Labuan & Putrajaya TAHUN 2010 PENGGAL MULA PERSEKOLAHAN   AKHIR PERSEKOLAHAN   JUMLAH HARI           04.01.2010 29.01.2010 20   01.02.2010 26.02.2010 20   01.03.2010 12.03.2010 10         CUTI PERTENGAHAN PENGGAL 1 1 13.03.2010 21.03.2010 9         22.03.2010 31.03.2010 8   01.04.2010 30.04.2010 22   03.05.2010 31.05.2010 21   01.06.2010 04.06.2010 4         CUTI PERTENGAHAN TAHUN 2 05.06.2010 20.06.2010 16       21.06.2010 30.06.2010 8 01.07.2010 30.07.2010 22 02.08.2010 31.08.2010 22 01.09.2010 03.09.2010 3       CUTI PERTENGAHAN PENGGAL 2 04.09.2010 12.09.2010 9   ...

My son's only six but he already grapples with homework every night. His teacher gives him two sentences every day to copy out five times; one in English and another in Chinese...or Malay and Chinese. Tonight he has to do 'The weather is fine." and also ' ~&\%$*@~' Sorry ah, I don't know how to read Chinese characters. Besides homework, he has also learned the skill of procrastination. Mummy, I'm thirsty. Homework cannot be done until he gets a drink. Mummy, it's hot. Mummy switches on the fan. Mummy, got cheese? Mummy looks at son and walks to the kitchen to find a slice of cheese. Mummy, I want the cheese cut in triangles. Mummy finds a knife and cuts cheese in triangles. Mummy, I want eraser. Mummy asks where his eraser went. He says already gone. This happens every night. With varying differences in his requests. Mummy is now an expert in perfect cheese triangles, optimum fan angles and keeping a supply of erasers and sharpeners.

I SAID I wouldn't say anything about which place I prefer yet.  I SAID I had to give the new place a chance. But sometimes when the writing bug hits you, it hits you.  And so I want to say what I feel about my transfer to the new place. First, the positive bits.  Always mention the good stuff first... classic approach. I am where things are decided at the district level and I can say things like I wanna be emcee for the Asian Schools Football Cup pretty please!   Or organize things the way I want them done...such as the way data is compiled and analyzed.  I can sit in an air conditioned room the whole day and make calls and surf the official websites (other sites are blocked...LOL...).  The working hours is not really a factor as I spent the same number of hours (and MORE!) in SMKKL. But the negative aspects... There are no students to teach and no classes to conduct.  And it's not the same as SMKKL.  Yeah, I like that school and its lovable mish-mash of eccentric people (b...

In today's News Straits Times... KUALA LUMPUR: The Education Ministry wants to hear from disgruntled teachers. They have been asked to submit their complaints to the ministry through their respective unions. Education Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said during his meeting with various teaching unions last Friday, among the issues raised were the improvement of the teaching profession and the welfare of teachers. "It was a very cordial meeting. I have suggested that they submit their views formally and from time to time we will look into them as we want to see those in the profession not only honourable but happy." Muhyiddin, who is also the deputy prime minister, said this after a visit to the Education Ministry's educational technology division at Bukit Kiara yesterday. The visit was to find out the progress in the use of Information Communications Technology (ICT) in the education system. Teachers have long complained about their heavy workload,...

I promised myself I'd create a list of realizations/ideas/strategies for penolong kanan (senior assistants) once I had enough experience as one. Well, since I've been transferred, I won't have any more time to gather experience. Therefore below is the List compiled by one with only 28 months' experience. a) Remember always that you are dealing with people. They are not unfeeling documents that can be filed away. Take time to win their trust. Take the effort to keep their trust. Take pains to find out what makes them tick. Without the staff backing you up, you are like a ship standing dead in the water. b) Begin the day with a smile. And try to remember that no staff ever begins their day by thinking,"What rule shall I break today?" So whenever I face a problem with staff, I will always ask myself why this person is doing this and what could be influencing his or her actions. I dare to say that in my 28 months, I have yet to meet a person who deli...

I was discussing career paths with old friends and we realized that with all the new changes in the Ministry of Education, the old ways of thinking of our work and the old preconceptions about places of work (insiders know what I'm talking about) don't apply anymore. Teachers can decide to work towards becoming administrators or academic Form 6 teachers or Teaching Institute lecturers or time-based teachers or even joining the department and ministry divisions. There's no place that is 'better' than the others because there are so many new posts now. More opportunities...although, frankly speaking, the schools have MORE posts...if only because there are so many more schools than institutes or offices. Now that I've been dragged (literally!) into the PPD, I have to be more on my toes about this... PPDs don't have many posts up for grabs :( Last year, I filled in the application for the DG48 Form 6 academic teacher post. That would mean leaving admin and go...

Today is my last official day in school.  As in the last day that I'll be teaching and the last day that I'll be in school full-time. It is very different from my last day in the Academic Management Sector.  There are benefits to working in the education offices but the major pull in school is the people, students and teachers.  In the office, everyone is busy handling his or her own work.  Most of the time, the work doesn't overlap.  So you get used to being on your own from 8 to 5.  But in school, EVERYTHING overlaps; from the teaching to the canteen doings to the field activities.  I can walk from my office to the canteen and take half an hour because every room or every person I pass has something to say or discuss.  Sometimes I never even get to the canteen.  But in the office, I can walk around the office, ACTIVELY looking for people and they are all in their cubicles, on the phone or deep in files.  Sigh... Perhaps I'll be online most of the time then... Robbie ...

Government Team : Mohd Shafie, Jim Kevin Kotiben, Kezia Busak Tommy Opposition Team : Kezia again, Afourth Brendan, Dephnie Dewi The SMKKL debaters are in Form Four and a sharp, lively bunch... I won't forget them in a hurry :)

Today is a very good day. It was the KK District Student Debate Finals (All Saints vs Lok Yuk) and my student debaters wanted to go because they had caught the debating bug. Both the teams in the finals were pretty good - competent debaters but I believe that All Saints won because they were more polished and the motion was biased towards their side. Well, IMHO. Motion : Science Is A Threat To Humanity When I thought about this motion a few days ago, I had problems thinking of approaches for the negative. How do you prove that science is NOT a threat without talking about the benefits of science? Sure enough, the Lok Yuk team talked about benefits and the All Saints team fired back, saying that they weren't doing their job, which was to show that science is NOT a threat. And that's the dilemma for all debate teams who draw the negative side. You must be very careful to prove why the motion should be rejected, WITHOUT offering alternative points. Very dangerous oh... And ...

Today I received a call from the PPD's PA.  I was to go down to the PPD and meet the boss that very day. My heart dropped.  I was in class at that time and having a good time with my Form Sixes.  At the same time, my student debaters were in SMKA Inanam, fighting it out with SM All Saints students.  But the writing is on the wall...and I have to toe the line. I was given only a week to comply with the transfer. :(

Was in my English class. And I don't know how the topic came up but I asked them,"Why are you alive? Why do you live? What do you think of when you wake up in the morning?" There were only about six or seven boys in class (the others were taking an ICT course in the resource centre). They stared at me half-amused and half-befuddled... yeah, the quirky English teacher..never know what she's gonna say and look at her now...she's doing it again. But I LIKE asking philosophical questions. It's at least half a kilo better than saying,"Okay, open your book to page 29." Don't you think so? I especially like asking questions that make my students think. And ask. And ponder. When I pressed them for answers, one said,"We live for God...for the glory of God." Smart boy . And he's only sixteen. Otherwise what else are we on this planet for? To go to school/work? To earn money? To bitch at people? I believe I'm on this planet to...

My schoolteachers and I went on a benchmarking visit to La Salle Secondary School in Tanjung Aru today. And it was great. Since I left in 1999, it has changed almost beyond all recognition. The basic buildings are still there but... The principal's parking spot has been replaced by a corridor of benches and noticeboards of information. Looks so good...and I could've spent hours just reading all the info about the school displayed there. The old teachers' resource centre has been transformed into a 'bilik gerakan' (activity/meeting room). The documentation room was full of faux leather-bound volumes. One of the teachers who walked into the room blurted out,"Wow, theses!" I was very quick to power up my camera and begin clicking. There is an impressive-looking Wall of Fame along the fencing where the Junior Block hostel used to be. Shiny big stars..:) The computer lab no longer looks like a science lab being used as a computer room. Sexy flat panel LC...

First, a little background info for my friends not in the service. In December 2007, we attended a briefing where we were asked to nominate teachers for DG44, DG48 and DG52 posts as Form Six teachers in school. As my school had four Form Six classes, we had one DG52 post, three DG48 and five DG44 form six academic teachers posts. These teachers were not going to do any admin. We also had one DG44 Form Six Senior Assistant post and one DG44 Form Six Cocurriculum Coordinator. This was a great thing for teachers in school...at last they had another avenue for promotions, other than going into administration (as a principal, senior assistant or dept heads) or becoming GCs (master teachers). Of course they had to teach Form Six students, which isn't exactly a walk in the park. However, the people in the briefing room weren't exactly happy. And I knew why. Blow Number One was that the senior assistants in school (myself included) were to remain in the DG44 grade. I could fores...

Well, actually, it was an offer to attend an interview :) Two days ago, I went to the office and was told by a colleague that I had an offer letter from IAB to attend an interview for a post in Genting Highlands. She was very amused because she had received one as well (along with three other teachers in my school) and not one of us applied for the posts offered. (The posts were the usual DG44, DG48, DG52 pemangkuan...) Some would think..wow, a great opportunity! But I think not. First, I've already applied for a DG48 post as a Form Six Academic Teacher (more on this in the next post). The possiblity of my getting it is pretty good (fingers crossed!). Second, should I be successful in this IAB interview, I would have to move from comfortable familiar KK (and also home!) to the wild woolly highlands to work. I'd have to look for a place to stay, a new school for my son, my husband would have to re-establish himself all over again work-wise (he is not a civil servant easily t...

Today is the first real day of the year-end holiday! Yesterday didn't count cos I was at work till 4 p.m., sitting in a data meeting at the KK District Education Office. I didn't really mind that much as the officers in charge of the meeting were funny and cheerful. As usual. Well, they have to be as they were asking the schools to fill up a database. Usually a finicky messy crazy job. I didn't have to do it as my data officer was there. My job was to carry the school chops, school letterheads and responsibility to approve. Now what shall I do today? I plan to start off with a good hearty breakfast. Keeping in mind my latest resolution to try and make my blood as alkaline as possible. Next I may go to Karamunsing Complex to see what the Laptop Fair has to offer. Not that I want to buy a laptop. My Inspiron 700m is still serving me well. Then I may check my ebook folders. I've been downloading so many ebooks that I probably have a few hundred that I haven't ...