ŦUZZY £OGIC

Ever wonder who is reading your entries? What are you writing? Are you prepared to take responsibilities for what you write on this online journal? If you are not, then you better rethink what you have written or will write. Sometimes what you write will cause serious repercussions in the relationships that you have.. are you prepared for it? So.. before you start cursing and bitching about a certain person.. THINK.. that person might be reading your entry.

Hartelijk gefeliciteerd!

Knuffels!

Its been a whole week of school holidays.. Have I gotten my well-deserved rest? Have I taken a complete break from my work? Have I recovered from my frustrations with work? Have I de-stressed?

Well.. I cannot shout with a resounding YES to these questions. Thats the scary part. Am I a workaholic? I think I am.. partly at least.. yeah… scary. Which is why, this break is not really a holiday, its simply a break from the students… from the classes. THATS ALL.

Well.. I cannot say that this whole week have gone to waste. I did get longer sleep. Its just amazing to be able to wake up at any hour you feel like waking up instead of a prescribed time each day. I also manage to think about new lesson plans and worksheets for my classes especially my graduating classes. I find it scary that *I* am doing a whole lot of work in trying to prepare my students for their big exams in a matter of weeks. I don’t hate preparing it.. I just find it strange that even as the exams draw closer, I, as the teacher, am working very hard and some of my students are not even trying. Scary isn’t it? The teacher is working hard while the students are not. And the sad thing is that these students are making all sorts of excuses for not trying… “I don’t like Science”, “My friends are not studying it too.. why should I?”, “Its no point studying now.. its already too late!”, “I just can’t!”, “I’ve never passed Science”, “I HATE Science”.. you name it, they’ve said it. No matter what I say to them, sometimes it affects them.. but for like two seconds.. and soon after, its gone.

This quote from George Washington Carver says it best:
“Ninety-nine percent of the failures come from people who have the habit of making excuses.”

Well.. of course, not ALL the students are bumming.. some are working hard. I applaud them for trying. Continue trying kids. Even if you don’t get the results you desire, at least you’ve tried.. you didn’t give up.. on the exam, on the subject, on yourself. That way, you can continue in life with more dignity. To have tried.

Another inspiring quote from Elbert Hubbard :
“There is no failure except in no longer trying.”

It’s been a while since I last updated.. been too busy… I’m waaaaaaaay thankful for this week’s break for sure! Time to catch up on my sleep

Firstly, to all teachers.. hope you had a good teachers’ day.. hope you received the well-deserved thanks for all the work that you’ve done.. hope you felt blessed.. especially because for at least ONE day in the year, your students were actually behaving like angels Hope that you enjoyed the concert put up by the students.. be THANKFUL.. a whole lot of work goes behind the items.. this was one day in the year when the students take charge and run the show!

Anyways, I had the “pleasure” of being in-charge of organising the teachers’ day celebration in my school.. “the bane of every prefects’ mistress”! It’s like “fun” and yet “tiring” to be planning for the whole day.. the concert.. the gifts.. the cake.. the lesson.. the whole do.. down to every cent that you have to collect from the students to pay for everything you need for the day! And all these have to be done quietly.. hush hush.. no one should find out the details.. don’t want to spoil the surprise for the other teachers!

However, being the ONLY teacher involved in the planning of the day.. you unfortunately will know everything that has to happen on the day.. so there will not be any surprises for you! But.. I actually had TWO surprises this year tho

We had a special item this year.. its called the “Teachers’ Hunt”. Its kinda like a mini award show.. ermm.. we even had both male and female categories for each award… yeah very MTV-ish! A month before Teachers’ Day, the students were asked to nominate teachers for the various categories during a “secret” meeting between the prefects and the student body. Anyways, the categories included “Most-In Teacher” (for the teacher who is always enthusiastic!), “Most Fierce Teacher” (excluding the DM and DTs of course.. they HAVE to be fierce so they are excluded from this category), “Most Sporty Teacher” (excluding the PE teachers here!), “Most Fashionable Teacher” and “Most Popular Teacher”. Interesting right? I think this segment made a couple of teachers smile.. watching themselves get nominated at least.. and for those who won.. it was sweet “victory”!

Even though this Teachers’ Hunt is new, we had another award that have been given in the previous two years.. the Most Caring Teacher award. This was a special award. It was not about the numbers. It was simply based on journals or essays written by the students.. they had to convince the “judges” (mainly the P or VP) that the teacher mentioned in their journals thoroughly deserved the award. I don’t mean to brag.. but yeah I got that award It was not written by my star student.. or someone that I’ve been counselling.. in fact, it was written by a student whom I frequently scold for being complacent! Somehow, he felt that my naggings had been beneficial for him Sometimes, you just don’t realise that everything you do will have serious consequences on these students.. its scary. I just hope that I have not made any student feel miserable because of my actions.

Anyways, here are some pictures taken by my prefects on Teachers’ Day.. they used my camera but my battery went flat it seems… drats.. so I will try and find more pictures from other sources later! Enjoy!

Oh yes.. For those wondering why the title of this entry is as such.. wonder no more.. The theme for this year was “Saturday Night Fever”!! That explains the pictures of the students wearing retro/groovy outfits! Even though we had a couple of students who dressed up groovily.. the concert items were not really related to the theme.. unfortunately! Oh well.. if we had done that, it’d be like watching Grease on stage! Would have been groovy though!

I have come to a frightening conclusion.
I am the decisive element in the classroom.
It is my personal approach that creates the climate.
It is my daily mood that makes the weather.
As a teacher I possess tremendous power
to make a child’s life miserable or joyous.
I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration.
I can humiliate or humour, hurt or heal.
In all situations it is my response that decides
whether a crisis will be escalated or de-escalated,
and a child humanized or dehumanized.

- Haim Ginott -
Teacher and Child
(1976) Avon Books