The days
1st day
There was a hiccup on my 1st day of work. It was real bad because I was late for 10minutes! Luckily, I was not late for my lesson. = p Ah. How hate people being late yet I was still late. Nono. It will not happen again. It was just due to my miscalculation of my traveling time.
Yea. I was supposed to reach that school at 10 a.m. to meet my boss but at 9.54 a.m., I was still at Punggol MRT station! GOSH! I quickly called him – of course, he did not sound pleased – and informed him that I would be late for 10 minutes. THIS IS NOT THE END! I was lucky enough to get a cab within 2 minutes – despite the fact that a bus driver said that it was difficult to get a cab there but I could try my luck and I did! Anyway, the taxi driver had no idea where the school was, let alone the exact road name. o.o So, I called my boss again. When I thought everything was solved, he said that he could not see where the school was. So, I suggested opening the door and asked the passer-bys. The taxi fare was… $4.60. What the hell. If I had one more minute, I swear that I would have bargained with him and reduced it to $4.00. Laugh out loud. Okay. Perhaps not that low.
IT IS STILL NOT THE END! I was supposed to teach a typing program but when we tried looking for it and clarifying it with the technician, then we realized that it was not installed. NOT blaming anyone! I was okay with it. What I was not okay with was that I did not make any preparation to teach the hardware (e.g. the monitor) and Microsoft word. o.o
My boss helped me a little here and there so everything was fine and they learned something from my lesson. Phew~
It is really not easy being a teacher. I finally understood why some teachers kept complaining they were feeling so warm or perspiring a lot.
WAY TO GO! It is just the beginning.
Hey. Perhaps, I should try teaching kids more because I really enjoy it. They are just so adorable.
2nd day
I reached the school earlier than the meeting time so in the end I had to wait for 35minutes. o.o After more than 15minutes, the girl next to me finally talked to me. Okay. It sounds silly but I just refused to make my first move that day. It turned out that she was from my Polytechnic and she was a pretty nice lady. For my morning, I just had to help here and there and walked around to help the students. Sadly, I was not an expert at robotics yet so what I could do was pretty limited. =/ I AM STILL LEARNING!
After that, I took a bus to Bukit Batok MRT station and took a train down to Clementi MRT station. Clementi has changed a lot that I could not recognize it and nearly got lost. Yes, I forever lose my ways. Anyway, I walked around there as I volunteered to help a colleague to look around for food as he would reach later than me from other school. You see, I was worried that he would not have enough time to eat. After buying, I saw a Secondary school senior but refused to walk over and say Hi. =/ (Okay. For some reason, I was not outgoing or being weird.) After which, I walked back to the MRT station. While waiting for the colleague to finish using the toilet, I saw Benjy. We were quite surprised as we did not expect it at all. He said that the impression I gave him is like we were strangers. Sorry. =/ I think I was really too tired and surprised. Sorry. =/
I think the hero for today was my colleague. Without him, I would have lost my way! Why? I actually told him that we should walk the opposite way to the school. Then, he asked if I read the map from the MRT station and I said yes. Ha ha. Anyway, I told him that I am bad at reading maps and recognizing my way. Ah. Yes, he was trying to test me before telling me the correct way. I seriously need to attend a lesson on my North-South-East-West direction. = /
Anyway, we reached there very early and had to wait for more than half an hour. Luckily, I am still able to communicate with him even though sometimes I pretended that I was listening for I was really too exhausted.
What were the exciting things during my lesson? Oh ya. I taught Macromedia Flash. I remembered that a student actually tried to challenge me or something so I said in a stern voice, “You seriously want to challenge me?” It really scared him off and he did not dare to challenge me anymore. For another, he was being very mischievous so I threatened him by saying something like I will make sure that he would not be allowed to step into my class again. Hope that nothing will happen to me. o.o It does not sound like me at all. How good if I always do that when I am being taken advantage of or being bullied? My boss said I am the soft type of person when dealing with students so I am trying to work on this. I am serious when I say that I am going to be a hard-hearted person. Apparently, I am improving – not referring to how I treat my students. One more thing, I am still speaking very softly when I think that I speak very loudly already. That was what my boss commented. He asked me to work on my voice. How? I work on this for 3 years already but it is still the same. =/
3rd day
The class was a little hyperactive but not that attentive. 1 girl cried in class because she claimed that she could not do what was given to her. The fact is, she did most of them already. So, I put my right hand over her shoulders saying, “You are doing very well and should keep up the good work. Give yourself credit for this, ok?” By then, it did calm her down then I helped her a little more. I remember that the monitor and monitress were over-helpful that I often had to ask them to do their work instead of helping me to supervise the students. Ha ha.
4th day
I was so angry at myself. I thought the lesson start at 10.30 until 10minutes before the starting time. So, there I rushed to the taxi stand. I asked 3 groups of people if they could let me board the taxi first – by then, it was already 7minutes to the starting time.
1st: “I am sorry. We are rushing for time too.” (Okay. Acceptable but I reckon that it would be as rush as mine. Ha)
2nd: (The worst of all. Before I finished my sentence, she rolled her eyes from the sight of me even when I was near to tears already. This is what I call, hard-hearted people.)
3rd: “Where are you heading to?” (I replied saying, “XX School.”) “Oh okay. We can share taxi there as I am heading there as well.” (She said without smiling.)
Sigh. Where are the nice people? In the end, I was about 1-2 minutes late and the students had not arrived yet. I was quite lucky, actually. I should really stop being so muddle-headed! =/
Anyway, I met up with Jethro after that because he is going to be enlisted on the 13th. Well, we would not meet up so soon if I knew that 13th is going to be 2weeks later. =/ Yes, being muddle-headed AGAIN but for the good thing. =D We went for a ice-cream treat, no, I gave him a treat - he chose 1 waffle with 2 scopes of ice-cream on 2 conditions - no durian favour and must be different from what I chose so that I could try. = p The shop was introduced by Andrew (Goh) - a poly classmate. We were satisfied with the treat because the ice-cream is so special. =D Before that, I saw a mentoring friend or rather junior (JP). He was very nice because he accompanied me to that shop. Without him, I would have lost my way again. Yes, he waited till Jethro came. =D He even bought me a bottle of Green tea. =D
Oh. Alex and I promised to go for an ice-cream feast! Hee. IF anyone has any good recommendation, do tell me! =D
