Happy Teachers' Day!! And more importantly... it's the Sept holidays! Woohoo!!!

No lessons on Friday! Ah... Happiness! Bliss! But I had to walk round the neighbourhood with my form class kids for ACES Day. =_= Tiring... but also rather fun because of the silly things the kids tried to do during the walk... I'm glad I walked that single round with the kids coz I won't see them anymore next year. Hopefully. =P

The ex-students came back to visit their teachers and it was heartwarming to see them so enthusiastic about seeing their secondary school teachers. I do wonder if my kids will come back next year to see me. =( I do hope that they will!

I have my fair share of presents this year. Loads of stuff toys(upper sec), mugs, home baked cookies and chocolates. Cards I like the best because they're words from a student's heart. The cards and chocolates from my darlings in the lower sec also touched me a great deal, seeing as I'm always yelling at them or making them clean up different places for detentions. But I'll still see them in the years to come so I'm not feeling particularly sentimental about them. Plus I think they spent too much on Teachers' Day. The poor things. I feel kinda bad.

But it really makes me wonder if it's just a popularity contest. When I first decided to join the profession, my brother told me that it's not a popularity contest, so I don't have to bother if the kids like me or not. The important thing is to be an efficient and effective teacher. I've since realised that his words are true and yet lacked an additional dimension to the reality. It is indeed gratifying to be appreciated. As one of my colleagues put it, once a year, we accept their "lies" without further questions. It does feel real good when your kids (for whom you have suffered and slaved hellishly the entire year) called you out and celebrate the day with you with something THEY had planned. The gifts made me feel..."awww... you guys are so sweet". Right until one stupid kid told me he bought me the soft toy because it reminded him of me and it was piglet from Winnie the Pooh. =_= Needless to say, he got smacked on Teachers' Day.
My form class... well, some of them at least. =)

My kids, with dan in the background playing with one of my gifts... a giant banana... =_= Thought it looks rather obscene in his hands. =P

Oh well, there will be good years with nice kids and there will be lousy years with horrid children. The important thing is to take each year as it comes and look forward to a better year.

Nat and Wen

The Classic Wen Pose! Haha... with the Bhai gal trying to squeeze in at the corner.

Me and the spastic Beng. Thought I'd include his face since he's forever taking pictures for others.

The Humanities Dept!!

Oh btw, dinner was disappointing... but I guess that sort of bonded us together even more... complaining about the food after dinner over drinks at Bar Stop. Drinks were ok I guess but Loser Tan was tired and I guess I was too, so we decided to leave earlier and ended up waiting at least 40 minutes for a cab. Murphy's Law really does hold true. Whatever can go wrong, WILL go wrong. The moment we walked out of the small street, empty cabs started to turn in. The moment we crossed the road, empty cabs started to zoom down the other side. Even calling a cab doesn't work because of the heavy call volume. =_= But we made it safely home in the end. =)

This year (so far) has been a good year for me. My only wish is that it will be a good one for my graduating kids as well.