It snowed today

Teaching wears me out. Kids wear me out. Every single day is packed with lessons to plan, papers to grade, materials to prepare. On top of that, there are students who come in late to class, who sleep in class, who won't stop talking in class, who won't speak up in class, who think they are better than you, who are defiant, who won't do their homework, who answer back and who won't pay attention to deal with. The list could go on. On days when everything seems to go wrong, I forget why I ever started teaching in the first place. On days when things don't go right, I forget what it feels like to experience the satisfaction of teaching. I forget. And truth be told, the longer I teach, the higher the frequency of forgetting. Of late, it's been awfully frequent. I find myself trying to come up with something else to do so that I can stop teaching.

But then, it snowed today. The whole school was covered in white. At the first sound of the bell signalling a break in between the classes, the students rushed out into the snow and started a snowball fight. Just watching them play, shouting with glee and chasing one another around, competing to make the biggest snowball and the best throw,somehow, it just made sense again. And the students... well, it doesn't matter that the oldest among them is already 19. They're still kids after all. Kids may wear me out, but in the end, it will be worth it.   

Big Huge Bubble

I am in a big huge bubble

I see people floating, drifting, further and further away

I grab, I clutch, I am frantic

But nothing is within reach

Soon, they are just tiny specks of black

Evaporating into airless space

I look down, and I see my hands

They're disappearing too

I become lighter and lighter

I become translucent, then transparent

Until I'm no longer

A has been, evaporating into airless space

In a big huge bubble.

 

Slam 2

Apparently door slamming is a culture in China. My neighbours on the same floor do it, my neighbours two floors down do it, the students in the school do it too. Everybody does it! They do it when they're in a good mood, they do it when they're in a foul mood, they do it when they're in any mood and every mood. They think that's the only way to shut the door.

I don't think I will ever get used to it... but then again, you never know. If I ever start doing it, somebody smack me!

Teachin' tales: Our first teaching blog!

Teachin' tales: Our first teaching blog!
I've started a teaching blog with my cousin, Rebecca Toh. It's still under construction at the moment but it should be up and running soon.

Saturday, 25 April 2009

It's officially up! We've put up our first post and also roped in a guest contributor. Check us out when you have the time :)

p/s: If you are a teacher and have got something to say, let us know! Drop us a mail or leave us a comment. We'll get back to you ;)

Happy no more!

Bits and Pieces: What?! So now you've decided to allow access?!
I was ecstatic to find, one fine day, that I could access to Wordpress blogs. I was so happy that I immediately set to work activating my previous blog which was hosted at Wordpress and proceeded to move all contents of Bits and Pieces to Wordpress. I was about to write a "Bits and Pieces is moving!" post when I found, to my dismay, that my happiness was shortlived. As I was trying to save one of my posts on Wordpress, I was returned a "The page cannot be displayed" message. My gut feel told me that very instant that I could kiss all my chances of accessing Wordpress goodbye for as long as I'm in China.

I am not happy. I'm one sleep-deprived (from not being able to tear myself away from my Wordpress blogs), disappointed, cheesed off woman!

What?! So now you've decided to allow access?!

Would you believe that after taking pains to set up this blog here, China has finally decided to allow access to Wordpress blogs (for those of you who are unaware, China has a policy of blocking out most foreign blogging sites as a form of control over information inflow)? Seriously?! It had taken me a long time to convince myself to abandon my Wordpress blog for this one because I really liked the layout and everything. And now they allow access?!

Should I revert to that blog? Should I not? Dilemma, dilemma.

Would you please help me decide? Could you please check out my old blog and tell me if you think it's worth keeping? There isn't much there but I really like the layout and what little amount of work I'd put in before it was at one point rendered inaccessible. Send me a comment to vote, thanks!

Slam!

I love my flat. I really do. But I hate my neighbours. Apparently, the only way they know to close a door is to SLAM it shut REALLY LOUDLY, every single friggin time. There must be at least 5 people staying in that unit across from mine who come home (or leave) at different times everyday thus antagonising me several times a day. Each time, the loud bang resounds through my flat and rattles the unbelievably thin walls.

Once, a lady from said unit came to knock on my door to complain that my TV was too loud. I told her that I wasn't watching TV and that I'd only been playing songs on my computer. I even invited her to step in to ascertain that the sound had not come from my flat. Satisfied that I was not the inconsiderate one, she smiled and left. Later that evening, she found out where the TV sound was really coming from. Having failed to speak to the culprit, she then proceeded to get even by annoying the hell out of the loud TV fellow. This was done by creating an even bigger racket which involved stomping up and down the stairs in her flat (hers is a duplex) and knocking something which I assumed was a broom against her walls and floor, all the while oblivious to the fact that instead of ironing out the initial problem, she had now become part of the problem, if not an even bigger one. To be honest the TV hadn't bothered me that much. Yes, it was loud, but not to the point of being a disturbance. Door-slamming-and-broom-knocking lady, on the other hand, was a different story. Obviously subtle was not a word in her dictionary.

Yes, you guessed it. The door has just been slammed again.