Oxymoron In The Tropics

It's 5.02 p.m. on Friday and I'm still at the office.  I have two letters to fax to schools (poor schools..!), calling them for meetings at the PPD.  I think by now, some of the teachers in schools absolutely dread seeing an email from me in their inbox. Well, while I sympathize with them, I feel so absolutely sorry for myself too.  I've got so much on my plate that it's tipping over ... but 'nuff said.  I don't want to dwell on negative things. Right now, I dream of white sandy beaches, shining turquoise waters and the heroine of the story would be soaking inside those waters, thinking of nothing but how warm the waters feel.  Actually, I am describing what my Friday would be like if my boss hadn't frozen all leave, forcing me to cancel my weekend in a beautiful resort just 45 minutes out of Kota Kinabalu.  Let me rephrase that... not cancel... POSTPONED.  I cannot wait.

Yes, I should be grateful I'm overworked.  Because that means... ... I have work to do.  ... someone wants to give me work to do. ... I have a job. ... I have a salary. ... I am solvent. ... I have financial independence. Today was pay day :) Thank you, God, for overworking me!

The clock is ticking and soon it will be 16th May 2010... Teacher's Day!  Happy Teacher's Day to me! I was being sarcastic.  That is because I'm sick (LITERALLY) and tired from too many hours sitting in front of the laptop and too little time spent doing things that are good for my health, such as exercising, watching movies, playing with my son and keeping away from laptop screen radiation. The good doctor has noticed that I fall sick on predictable months and I've connected all the months with either preparation frenzies or report deadlines.  He has also reminded me that 'people can only do so much' and 'you're not as young as you used to be'.  Meaning he doesn't want to prescribe me too many antibiotics and such. Sigh... You know, I truly truly understand now why so many teachers choose to reject admin posts and remain 'KUPs'.

Every year, around May or June, I am sure to be asked by a school leaver the plaintive question,"What am I going to do now??" I will normally retort,"What do you want to do?" After years of dealing with that, I finally decided to list down options so I need only tag them. You see, nobody can answer this question except for the school leaver himself. But of course he needs to know the options first, right? Option One : Continue your studies; matriculation, A-levels or Form 6. And whatever else is at the same level. If part of your problem is money, then you'd have to do some part time work, such as giving tuition, typing assignments for other people (NOT doing them!) or working in fast food restaurants. Option Two : Continue your studies with the help of a scholarship or loan. Be diligent about filling in forms, knocking on doors and making phone calls. Option Three : Work first, save the money and continue your studies later. The da...

When I was single and teaching in an all-boys school, I had my eyes opened really wide to the challenges of growing up nowadays.  I saw boys who stayed back in school because school (even if it was empty) was much better than home.  I found out about boys who came to school in a Toyota Prado and waited till the 4WD was down the street before they hopped onto another vehicle (bus or car) headed God-Knows-Where.  But after a while, everyone found out where.  I had one boy (clean-cut and such a well-behaved angel!) in my class who disappeared after a few months.  I found out later that he was helping coordinate the activities of a car theft syndicate.  The thing was.. I knew most of these boys' families or backgrounds and the majority were from normal middle-class families.   What happened to lead them down such thorny paths? The boy with the Prado had permissive parents... nothing was too good for their angel.  So he grew up with a self-cen...

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 ...

As a teacher, I have had many memorable experiences but one of the most fascinating has got to be observing my colleagues from other states as they deal with their first days in Sabah. Born and bred in Sabah, I never really had much reason or opportunity to question what sort of image Sabah presented to the outside world (which includes other states in Malaysia) until I went to university in Kuala Lumpur.  And, of course, when I began working as a teacher. My first inkling of how 'scary' Sabah can be to outsiders came during my third year in university.  I had coursemates who quickly got married ... it was the first time I had ever heard of 'nikah gantung'.  Apparently, they could get married but it was a sort of 'marriage on hold' (if such a thing exists..).  What mattered was that they could get a marriage certificate that would help 'save' them from the jungles of Sabah and Sarawak.  Then, during the briefing I attended to receive my first posti...