The Conclusion of a Pedagogical Chapter

Everything in life comes in a package.
With it's share of bitter, and a doze of sweet.

Tuesday marked the end of my stint as a relief teacher at my alma matar. With teacher's day celebrations and the end of term filling up the rest of the week, and the holidays thereafter, there's no chance that I'd be returning anytime soon.

Chatted with Lawrence Koh, my Sec 3 A-math, and Scouts teacher just before I left the staff room one last time. Related to him how I've enjoyed coming back to school and relieving my sec sch days as I worked as a relief teacher; how I've enjoyed working with all my old teachers, though I've come to realise that teachers hardly get time to interact among themselves, nevertheless it was a great experience... How beautiful the new school compound is, and how I relish being greeted by the stunning view every morning as I walked into school.

Chapel of the Accension atop the hill.

A warm view of the refurbished old school building.

As with everything else in life, this experience hadn't been entirely rosy. Throughout this tour, I've exchanged my idealistic, romantic view of a teacher for a realistic, and more sobered one. I started teaching envisioning myself capturing the imagination of the kids, but I soon realised that before a teacher can do that, he first has to subject them to his control. And that's an immense challenge! I take my hat off to all my teacher's on this teacher's day blog entry. Cos I was one of those students who provided my teachers with such a challenge :p

I began this chapter as a relief PE teacher around 2 months ago. And within these two months, I've practically took every genre of class from Sec 1 Express to Sec 5 Normal, relieved a whole spectrum of subjects from PE to D&T and Homec, Science, Maths, Chinese! English, computer lessons.

School aside, I just received my first ever teacher's day card from my a-math kid :p I never thought of myself as a teacher all this while, just some guy helping a kid at the subject. Well, this card served to prove me otherwise, sealing my role as a full fledged teacher. It's kinda encouraging to know that your efforts are appreciated. But better than cards, I now understand how the greatest reward of a teacher is seeing his student do well...

Trackforward: Reaping the Rewards of a Teacher