巧合 that some recent conversations with friends landed on the term “terrible two”, and yes, these friends have young ones either 24 mths old or fast approaching that “magical number” 😆
however, i shared with them a good-er view of the age, and i termed it “Incredible Two”. why incredible instead of terrible? well, my personal experience were, juniors at this age can really do unexpected things that simply put you in a state of “unbelievable”! these things are incredible cos (jaded) grown ups will never do those things (except we din realise these are not adults; we are but examining their behaviours thru the righteous adult lens).
yup, so if u too are having a junior approaching this magical age, put on the Incredible Two lens, and your (parenthood) experience may just be different from others (who 先入为主 and used the “terrible” lens).
“change your perspective and experience a different life” (Tan, 2022) #feelfreetoquotencite 😁
in the heart of gotham city, the wayang-loving gothamers have two wayang centres to go to on weekends (and weekdays too). the first centre is called the centre of wayang, while the other is called the centre for wayang. tourists often wonder what’s the difference between the two. well, as one gothamer explains, “the centre OF wayang, is truly the place that provides the best entertainment. all of gotham’s best actors and actresses are there. as for the centre FOR wayang, go there if you want to see actor or actress wannabe performing, for that’s a place for wayang experimentations.”
“therefore, outlander, where to go for the real stuff? it’s obvious, just remember the difference between of and for, and you wouldn’t be misled. anything else i could help regarding wayang?” asked the gothamer.
“no, OF course not,” replied the tourist.
“excellent! well met, and wishing you all fun for your holidays in gotham. oh btw, we are also called the city of integrity in case you aren’t aware.”
today marks the official last day of Rab who has lent great support to me this year.
what does the V stand for?
another thing I would like to note down in this storeroom is two other graduating students that i had 缘 to teach this year (earlier on I posted the first BSh):
the second student is ZQ. despite “我不喜欢华文” and dad’s pressurising was not too helpful, he has put in a lot of efforts when doing my homework. for someone who struggled so hard with foundational knowledge such as 词汇 and 句法, he still gave his best to compose 2.5 pages (that’s easily >600 words) essays. for someone where single digit score is common place, he has perservered in our 6 mths learning journey together. I’m glad he obtained a final grade that opens door for him to enter JC next year. and thanks to his dad for finally letting it go and not forcing his boy to retake in hope of further improving in grades.
with ZQ on Teachers’ Day
the third student is JX. he is another student who has struggled with foundational knowledge in 词汇 and 句法, and I learnt that he had been looking at offering CL B at the beginning of this year. at the beginning of the year when I am officially his 老师，we had two chats, where I encouraged him to continue to study express CL and to sit for the exams at O-levels, and only consider switching to CL B if results were unsatisfactory. like ZQ above, he has also demonstrated great perseverance in his work, and receiving essays >800 words is not uncommon. I knew he had a good chance of making a pass, but 天意弄人，he had fallen quite ill in June, and that greatly affected his performances for oral and listening compre which are important components of the whole exam.
with JX on a last prep before CL B oral
with these 3 students who we had 缘 and fought a difficult battle together, 2021 has been a good year for me despite some distant echo reminding me that teachers are only good and worthy if they produce 5-point value-added results.
2022 is going to be an exciting year ahead, for I’ll be once again teaching 12-13 yrs old after a 20 yrs break hahaha.
was packing things for the upcoming shift from bukit batok to punggol, and saw this thumbdrive that was given out last year. plugged in and recalled the last year’s yearbook (a whopping 333MB) was stored within.
compressed it to a 10MB file with acrobat pro dc and uploaded it to designrr and now it can be viewed/shared online:
