Sitting at the consultation benches waiting for students to print their InR...

JC2 boy sitting at the next bench bugging his maths tutor.

" Can you explain the integration by parts formula to me?"

( A levels Maths Paper 1 starts in 1 hour time)

* look of shock on maths tutor's face.....and then a look of resignation *

Totally unbelievable /faceslap/

Worn out from WoW

For the first time, I start to feel a little (just a little) sick of WoW. Don't get me wrong, throwing lightning bolts in the face of humanity's greatest evil and harnessing the power of nature to spam heals on my comrades is still fun, but with my guild being more or less defunct, there is just too much queueing and waiting for groups to form for my liking. And there is a limit to the number of times I want to level a toon to Lvl 80.

Also, the crazy PW period (WRs! OP dry-runs! InRs! Marking! Standardising!) means that I have to cut down on how much I play. And to my surprise.....I can survive.....not playing WoW for one whole week. Hee hee. See! How strong am I! * proud *

The look on your face last night really killed me.

I've never felt so guilty towards a student before, but this month I feel it twice. Two weeks ago, her words stung as she left the classroom - "Even if I have a real reason, you will also never understand." OUCH.

Then last night. Your sheepish, almost-tearing expression under the dim flourescent lamp. Squinting your eyes again like when we first met, which you fought so hard to overcome for the past months. OUCH.

But I believe I did what I have to do. I can only hope that you will also do what you need to do.

I can't remember who said this (i think it's zaoxiong).....those people who become teachers are those who enjoyed their own school experience so much that they join the teaching service in order to pretend they have not graduated. I used to dismiss this with a wave of my hand, but lately what he said came back to me and I have to wonder whether this is not true for myself.

* interruption * I was so exasperated with PW students begging me to tell them whether their written report is an EE (Exceeding Expectations) by now that I posted a threat in my msn nick. Sure enough, other people (i.e. non-students) start bombarding me and asking me whether they are an EE. Tsk tsk....grown ups are worse than students.

* back to emo mood * I haven't blogged in so long ....reading my own blog entries written two years ago which could have been written by a complete stranger. Have I changed so much in two years? Gosh... students that I was blogging about have already like GRADUATED. I didn't even blog anything about being a council teacher, and I have already been one for two years, all the ups and downs.

Teaching is slowly losing appeal for me. I mean, of course, all is good and fun now...but can I see myself eating supper with students or gossiping with them over lunch in 5 years time? 10 years? Gosh what a scary thought. I think I am not going to last if I don't make some mental preparation and adjustment.

Finding the courage to blog

Contention: Whether I should revive my blog

Main arguments:
1. As a GP teacher, I have a reputation to protect and expectations to live up to, especially when I write in a public domain, thus I am not sure if I can meet these lofty standards.

2. Teaching takes up so much time and effort that my life is embarrassingly bland outside of school. It depresses me when I realize the only thing I can blog about is...school..and students...and school...and students...

3. Blogs can be a never-ending source for trouble. Just look at the recent hoo-huh in one of the CCAs because of what a teacher has been blogging about. And who knows, one of these days my blog might be used as evidence against me when someone tries to claim that I harbour insatiable lust for my students.

4. 06S23 has previously printed pages from my blog...and * horror * plastered them over the walls of G101, much to my embarrassment. They didn't even bother to censor what I said about Brandon's underwear! (read 3 again) While colleagues came up to me and compliment my writing, or said that I had provided them with amusing entertainment while they were invigilating an examination, I am not entirely sure that I have not ruffled a few feathers among other colleagues.

5. I'm quite confident that nobody reads it anymore. Afterall it has been six months since I last blogged. Who would keep returning to a blog which has not been updated only to be disappointed time and again? (Okay, to be honest, I do, but that's an isolated example and I am not representative of the human population.) And I am not the sort who publicizes his blog in his msn nick, that is just so not the kind of thing I do. (To be inferred: somebody else should do it for me.)

Counter-arguments
1. The hordes of students who beg me to start writing again. (which just further confirms my fears for arguments 1, 2 and 3 stated above)

2. As a linguistic major and a GP tutor, I must admit that I do like writing. Meticulous rearrangement of words down to the syllable-level; rummaging through deep recesses of my brain thinking of the most effective word to convey the most subtle nuances; putting thoughts to paper (okay, fingers to keyboard) and laying out ideas to achieve the rhetoric effect that I desire. Yeah, that sounds like fun. (cue: shouts of "LOSER!" and rolling of eyes)

3. Encouragement from a student who says my blog is interesting, and different from the other dumb blogs he has seen. (Identity of the student is concealed so that his friends will not realize that he thinks their blogs are dumb)

4. As i re-read the earliest entries, they did bring some joy and nostalgia to me, and I could hardly believe that NIE 2005 seems so long ago, or that I used to * gasp * write Chinese poems. It would be nice, I think, in two years' time, when I have done sufficient damage to the minds of our youths and moved on to the subsequent phase of my journey, to look back at this short but momentous stage of my life.

VERDICT: Unsure. I know inconclusive writing with an unclear thesis is the hallmark of a failing essay, but I just can't bring myself to commit.

Advice Given For Free

I was walking back towards my car when I noticed from about 10 metres away that there is a piece of tissue paper under my windscreen wiper with words scribbled on. My first instinct was that somebody had scratched my car while he was parking, and has left his contact number behind.

But when I was close enough to read the words, they say "Please be more considerate. Driver cant get in." and signed off with "Advice given for free".

Then I remembered that when I was parking the car, I did notice that the car next to me has actually crossed the line and was slightly intruding into the lot that I was about to park in.

To: whomever it was that left the note on my windscreen

1. I parked perfectly within the confines of the yellow box, you are the one who had inadvertently (I hope) encroached into my space.

2. Yes, I could have parked my car closer to the other edge, but I see no reason to inconvenience myself just because you chose to invade another parking lot. Please do not depend on other people's generosity and kindness, especially when you are not considerate enough in the first place.

3. You left out an apostrophe in the word "can't". I would have dispensed this bit of information for free as well, but too bad you were no longer there.

There you go. Students screaming at me to update my blog, and with the innumerable rubbish and nonsense I get from my students , this is the one incident which annoyed me enough to write about it here.

BONSOIR!

The City of Lights! (That's Paris by the way)

Straight away I realized that Paris is not going to be as easy as London. The problem of the language barricade aside, it is a totally different kind of city, so unlike those that I've been to.


1. The French make out. A lot. And in public. In the museums, in the parks, even while crossing the road. And seriously some of these PDA goes beyond mere kissing...by the way I am not complaining, i'm not a prude anyway, i'm just stating what I observed. =p

2. And I just realized this internet cafe charges me a bloody 4 euros per hour. That's like 8 dollars! Gosh. And I thought London was expensive. So I'm not going to extend my time..and stop here..haha..anti-climax I know, but AU REVOIR!