and this marks the end of the last school day in semester 1 (in the singaporean K-10 schooling calendar). most, if not all, schools are having teachers meeting parents (under names like parent-teacher-conference, meet-parents-session) either f2f, online, or hybrid.
and something in my shirt pocket that had accompanied me for the past 144 days (100 days if we exclude sat, sun, & public holidays) reminded me of the end of the time passed during daily teaching/lessons:
even week seen here in an odd-even-10-day timetable
and while looking at it, i countdown to 10 days to a new timetable greeting me 🖖🏼
also to capture this day are two excerpts from M. Housel’s book The Psychology of Money, on happiness:
joy = control in life
having a strong sense of controlling one’s life beats anything else in life
and hopefully my new timetable will afford me the sense of control in life 🖖🏼
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.
柚子•美酒•月光•杯 cheers to welcome 2021, wishing health to return to the world and happiness to resume/improve for the world too in the new year 🥂 and a qotd to start the year (thanks the Crew for inspiring it):
“All sailings are good sailings; all weather’s good weather 🥳”
