Got it figured out (i think)

All my friends out there, please offer to practice badminton with me! I need to be able to spar decently so I can pass my Physical Proficiency Test (PPT), that test I missed about this time last year? YES the reason why I'm not in uni yet haha. WELL SOME NEWS - I took the test in Dec and I FAILED (quite miserably, in fact). Thank God there's another test this March before the NIE entrance date, which I'm going for. And YES I've decided that I'm really going for this whole teaching thing - 4 years study, 4 years bond to MOE. And I'll be stuck in education cuz it's a NIE degree, I can't do much other than teach in schools or give tuition. BUT KNOW WHAT. I realised I really enjoy teaching! And the surprising thing is I'm not even talking about teaching PE, even like teaching English, I really quite like it! I'm actually looking forward to work, even though the children are noisy and the admin is disgusting, I find myself thinking about my class, praying for them, trying to innovate lessons using my less-than-genius brain and tapping into my minimal-experience and no-teacher-training-whatsoever resources.


My Dad said to me when he was driving me to school on the first day, "Another opportunity to bless your students".  I think that mentality is what drives many Christian teachers in Singapore. Teachers seldom get the opportunity to share about their faith to their students, whether in the classroom or not, it's obviously quite a sensitive topic in our secular country. It's quite a pity, don't you think, considering the number of young people that we come into contact with daily, and we nurture them for at least a year. Yet we can't share with them the most important lesson of all - how we all need someone or something to surrender our lives to, our cause and motivation. Something worth living for. And that thing is NOT the education that will get you a job that will get you alot of money that will provde for your family (which is what many practical parents teach their young children actually). But we can bless them! With social and academic education, with moral support, emotional encouragement, kind words and gestures. With much LOVE. The amazing thing about students ( and all young people) is how they can sense your sincerity or lack thereof. I guess teaching is the same as any other job, you've gotta use heart <3. 

You know all those TEACH advertisements talking about how students remember their teachers and how they inspired them - honestly I can't remember my Primary 2 teacher (i'm teaching P2 now so I was thinking about it) any I have no figment of memory of what happened in the classroom, but somehow I mamaged to learn all the English Maths Chinese that I was supposed to learn, and that gave me the foundation to learn the other important stuff. (Of course now my Chinese is hardly evident, sorry Lao Shi) What I mean is that even if my students don't remember me or remember my lesson, I sure hope they absorb the knowledge and the values that I impart to them in the classroom. Seriously, even things like cleaning up after oneself and listening when others are talking - they gotta be taught, re-taught, re-taught again. Perhaps my mere 6 months in their lives can make a positive difference to them, I'm inexperienced and idealistic, but I'd love to try.

Please God, teach me patience and grant me wisdom that I may be a blessing to these 29 children I teach.