Trisha Reloaded

Dedicated to Trisha, as always. Dedicated also to L, my source of inspiration, and the reason why I choose to see the bright side of teaching.

Tuesday, January 09, 2007

Love/Hate relationship

I have a love/hate relationship with school. I mean, on 2 Jan, I was ready to slash my wrist at the thought of going back to the grindstone. The break was over, I couldn't imagine facing those students, the endless marking, meetings and those noisy juvenile Sec 1 kids.

3 Jan came. The bewildered-looking Sec 1 students amused me considerably. And my seniors, those whom I was in charge of, and who had been undergoing training since Nov 2006 to run the Orientation Program, I don't know how to express my gratitude to them. They were an awkward, diffident and lackadaisical lot when I first met them in Nov. But in the first 3 days of school, they miraculously rose to the occasion, took charge of things and had the Sec 1's eating out of their hands. It was a marvelous sight to behold and I want so much to give each one of them a big hug and say how proud I am of them!

Then I realised the transformation occurred in me too. I had met all my classes, and now I'm all ready to go. Yes, the madness will be there and I'll soon be bitching about the stupid admin work, the mountains of essays that gather under my desk and the students who terrorised me, but somehow, when I step into the class, I'm a different being. I have discovered that with each new year of teaching, I'm more confident, more certain of why I'm doing this and how I can do this better. The students are my fuel and my sustenance and it's a glorious feeling to be in the midst of so much youthful energy.

If I am not a teacher, then 3 Jan would come and go, hardly making a ripple in my working life. But now, I am in one of those few professions in which a new year literally means a new beginning, new class, new timetable, new challenges. So, in a weird, inexplicable and even perverse kind of way, I'll say "Hooray for the start of another new school year!"

4 Comments:

At 4:44 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

yea man. term 1 day 1 is the worst/best day for many of us. haha

 
At 9:41 AM, Blogger Sophie said...

I feel like going to school after reading ur blog. woof woof

 
At 2:58 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

welcome back friend. week 4 beckons and i am still not quite ready to go. pah.

 
At 12:39 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

We had a class reunion recently when our English teacher of 35 years ago officially retired. It was only then I realised that she was only 5 years our senior when she was teaching us Shakespeare in Pre-U. She left RI shortly after our batch and went on to a neighborhood school. According to her, we were such angels by comparison. But I confess I remember her faintly, as we had our noses in our text. Maybe if we had been misbehaving more, we would have more interaction with her. Who would have thought!!

 

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