Plato
i'm doing my bid for earth hour now and because the lights are off... i can't really mark stuff (WORK on a saturday night... i'm a no lifer) so i guess i'm here to put down the thoughts swimming in my head... [
Nick
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9:08 PM ]
had TENSES today... this NUS thing where JC kids come play floorball with the undergrads and the alumni... we played 5 games in all... 20mins each... so i was really worn out after the event... considering that there were only 8 of us (actually started with 6... then 7) "old men"... playing against JC kids who could run was a living nightmare... no significant bruises although i fell and landed on my arm... had a good day though... 6 goals but sadly no assists... guess the increased fitness really helps... it's really the time of my life that i feel that i still do have a few years left in me... but it was still super tiring... i nearly fell asleep driving back from NUS to home... and it's only like 5km away!
i was so tired that i decided not to take the risk by driving somemore to joshua's bday thing... oh well... i really do feel bad about it... and i could tell aunty julie wasn't too happy about it... but oh well... i made the decision and i guess it's for the better... why would i forgo the chance to get good food? i'd even packed clothes to bathe in school just in case TENSES ended late but i was really too worn out... guess only people who play the sport would understand... oh well.
speaking of being worn out... it's exactly how i felt for the entire week in school... i have never ever felt so tired since the start of practicum at all... in short... this was how my week went:
Mon - 4 PE lessons, floorball coaching, did work in school till 730pm... and still not finished! brought work home to do
Tues - 1 English lesson, Recre floorball at NTU, Blizzards training...
Wed - Early day because of H&F, 2 PE lessons, 2 English lessons, staff meeting that dragged on till 7pm, Nemesis training
Thurs - Early day again (H&F), 2 English lessons, extra English tuition with a student from my class (i really admire her dedication to want to improve her English), House practice till 6pm
Fri - 6 PE lessons, 1 discipline case, 2 English lessons, staying back to jaga kids doing their English, took the netball team out to Coral Sec (nice seeing Jiawei and Eddie there!), came back at 430pm
Fri was the worst... i got to school at 7, powered my computer on and started work... number of times i saw my computer screen? 2. number of times i sat down at my desk to rest for the entire day? twice. i was SO tired i KO-ed that night at 10 plus after talking to lou...
i was telling someone (i can't remember who) that although floorball is taking up my time and it's making me physically tired and depriving me time to do work and sleep... it's the balance i need... yes i may sleep less but if i do not get to at least expand my frustration and stress on court... i think i might be dead by now... these days i'm playing with a smile on my face cos it always has been a joy to be running free on court... it used to be the basketball court and now it's the floorball court... just that temporal space of time not worrying about any work is heaven...
One major gripe i have... i was quite irritated with my HOD... there's this programme in school called Health and Fitness (for the obese kids) and students are to report at 645am to do their physical activity. there's another session during the reading period for those who do not come in the morning... in my opinion... i think the activities are making the students HATE physical activity. as teachers, we want to help students find the joy in physical activity, and screaming at them in the morning to do something they obviously don't want to do is not helping. i see some self-motivated students who run without being told to do so, but some of them are just there for the sake of being there... what's the point in punishing them and forcing them? in addition, i was there to HELP... it wasn't my duty day and i got chided for not being firm with the students? hello?
2 days more before my baby comes back to me... i miss those hugs that make a bad day seem better...
monday come soon!
i don't care what other people think.
nothing intended... just a passage i wrote to test my english class for their vocab... [
Nick
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10:44 PM ]
"I think my level of tolerance is really great. Given the man in the street, her actions would have infuriated anyone easily. Yet, I will always have a soft-spot for her in my heart. No matter how much she may annoy me, I will not be fed up with her but instead, I feel like doting on her even more. Perhaps the little irritating things that she does are ways that she expresses her tenderness and others may take it that she is just plain irritating, but I know that deep down inside her heart, she is really trying to tell me that she treasures me this much to give me this much attention. Although sometimes it may be hard and I feel that I might burst with anger anytime, I always try to keep my cool and treasure her more. For Shakespeare said, “my heart is ever at your service.” I love her so much!"
having said that, Baby left for Korea this morning... well... hopefully this week will fly by and things will be nice and rosy again when she's back.
I miss her already =[ this time... it's 4660km away. (I can't drive there this time!)
1 day down, 6 to go.
"I'm here without you babyyyyyyyyyy..."
i got to get this out of my chest to feel better. [
Nick
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5:29 PM ]
it was a freaking waste of time this morning when i went for the meeting. over email, it seemed that the meeting was SO important that it was compulsory... so what the heck.
seriously... nus floorball is in shambles... i think moosemen is even better (now).
walking in at 12:10, i thought i was already very late... noooooooo... some idiots strolled in at 1pm... what's more... it seemed to be a serious meeting with the election of the new committee but i doubt anyone took it seriously.
what's the problem with alumni and undergrads playing in the same team and enjoying privileges as well? when we guide you guys along during training, do we ask for any form of renumeration???!! you complain $40 is too much... but just put it into perspective... when you go out on dates/parties... they don't cost a thing at all lah right. IDIOTS.
tried to put things into perspective for them... the collection this year is prob like $80 in total... that's less than $10 a month.
KIDS.
i really don't feel the old spirit of people wanting to play and are not afraid to sacrifice stuff to play anymore. and i'm seriously considering some other things... yes Saints 06 was a play play team... but at least i know the guys will put in 100% for every training, every game...
UGH!
And so the second week has come to an end... this week has been in some ways tiring in some... but it could probably be that i'm somehow getting into the rhythm of things that i think i'm getting used to it already... [
Nick
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4:17 PM ]
waking up at 1115 this morning was really a blessing... the first time in 2 weeks that i didn't need the use of an alarm clock and i was really grateful for the extended period of rest... it was also the first time in 2 weeks that i slept more than 6 hours...so it's probably accumulated fatigue that enabled me to be out cold for 10 hours last night...
i'm now sitting at kallang macs typing this... on a new Acer Aspire One! what's better is that it is FREE! school issue! it's so small that it's almost the size of my organiser... but the bad thing is the size of the keyboard... imagine if lou can accidentally type two letters at a go... what could i do with my fat fingers? =P blergh. but nonetheless... i have no more complaints... battery life is EXCELLENT! 6 hours on a full charge! for the weekend... i'm saying goodbye to the power cable because i know it has more than enough juice to last me the entire weekend... woohoo!
Week 2 heralded the start of teaching proper. I would say that there were parts that were good and parts that were bad, but nonetheless, it was a good feeling to be able to start proper. Luckily for me, the first four days of the week were relatively easier to cope. Friday was definitely the most draining day and it was not surprising that I barely scraped through that day.
The first lesson with a new teacher is always the most important because it lays the foundations of the future meetings with the class. It is the session where students will start assessing you and if the first meeting goes heywire, it can be somewhat guaranteed that things will not change for the better. As a result, this week has been a kind of stressful one because of the importance of the first meeting.
Having said that, I really hoped that I made a good first impression on the students that I will be taking for the next 8 weeks. All my lessons went satisfactorily, but somehow I could not get the amount of rapport from the students that I had hoped for. Somehow I always feel that if students know that you will not be permanently teaching in the school, they will most probably either take you for granted or they might just zone out during their lessons. I most certainly hope that with me telling them that I’ll be back for good after a while that they’ll listen to what I have to offer.
In some ways, I feel that it is quite difficult to teach PE in this school. The fitter students are the hyperactive ones who do not listen to instructions while students who are less fit don’t want to participate in physical activity. Of course, we have the regular jokers and monkeys of the class who are always disrupting the lesson. As my English CT remarked, teaching requires the teacher to really think on his/her feet as everything happens real-time. It is a skill that I would really have to pick up fast.
In conclusion, I think it has been a pretty good week for me with regards to my role as the educator, leader and facilitator. The chance to also play a part in the organization of a zonal competition also greatly benefited myself in terms of gaining experience. I am looking forward to a good break this weekend to recharge my batteries and also to prepare myself for what lies ahead. One thing I have to constantly remind myself is that in teaching, it is like a marathon and not a 100m sprint. I really have to take things slow and easy to prevent myself from burning out too quickly.