Let Us All Be Teachers

I didn't realise but I seem to have written a number of blog posts that were dedicated to school life, to teachers in particular.  I guess one possible explanation is the fact that I was fortunate enough to have a happy childhood in school days - bullying others rather than being bullied; scored just enough points to get past without being scolded.   

Flaunting.  Yes.   

My friend, who grew up to be a Mathematics teacher, recently showed me a letter that one of her students wrote to her.  It was a letter consisted of nothing but real number of thanks, natural number of appreciation to the nth degree, a rational note - that was quite touching indeed. 

The theory behind was a complex but a common one - we all have teachers that we adored, right?   I remember acknowledging some of mine at my head-girl speech in the graduation ceremony: the teacher who brought out the artist in me, the trainer who showed me how great an athlete I was and the headmistress who convinced me to rethink my scorn for Mathematics in case I might want to pursue the field of architecture.  Well, this mumbo jumbo's life could have changed drastically - if her Mathematics teacher then was as good as her little friend here!

So let me think....when was the last time - I - received praises?  OK, here we go.

I can still remember how I felt when I got a little sticker when I did something good as a child; a mention from my teacher at the school assembly; a professor in university who put up my assignment telling everyone that it was the standard he was looking for.  And oh yes, that marketing proposal that got buy-in from the management.  Alampy got a little embarrassed, sure I did, but it also made my heart leap for joy it did. 

What made these teachers so exceptionally memorable was because they respected us as individuals, they understand individuality and that they didn't care too much about how good we were but how much we have progressed and for that alone, we owe it to these great teachers. 

The fact that we have left school donkey years ago doesn't mean we can't continue to thank them.  We don’t have to be perfect to be influential and we certainly don't have to be a teacher literally to teach.   

Just like any one of those great teachers you so adore, our job is not to be the keeper of knowledge, but an encouraging vessel to pass it on, and my motto remains:

"The world is my classroom, each day is a new lesson and everyone I meet is my teacher."

You can, by all means, tell someone something but he's bound to forget; you can, nonetheless teach someone something and that he might remember, but you can almost always get someone to learn by engaging them with your own inspiring stories.

Well done to another school year.  Salute to all you brilliant teachers out there!

An Organic Saturday At School

Kwok Siu Lau Hall, for many of us old girls, myself included, is to be associated with solemnity of morning assemblies or perhaps the cold line-ups of desks during the season of examinations, if you asked me. 

The purpose of my recent visit provided a fresh new perspective to be appended to the nostalgic part of my school memories. I was back to school with a mission - as a mentor - and was struck by so many great moments worth accounting for. To start off with, the young lady who greeted me at the desk asked, "Are you our mentor?  We’d love to have you."

“Wasn't I lucky to be assigned to a group of courteous students”, I thought to myself.   The afternoon that followed was definitely one that was fun-filled, most valuable.   

A handful of old girls in my year volunteered to take part in the school's mentorship program and we were summoned to enjoy a Saturday afternoon bonding with our mentees while engaging ourselves with an entirely foreign, do-it-yourself activity - the making of organic lip balm.

Not knowing what constitutes as ingredients in the balm that we put on our lovely lips virtually every other hour or so, cooking up our own lip balm sounded like a daunting task to most of us in the first instance.  However, with incredible teamwork of trial and errors, coupled with hours of laughter, it was seriously quite easy. 

The whole process involved precision in the measurement and preparation of each and every ingredient in correct proportion.  The timing and coordination were also vital in the execution.  Our given task was to produce one lip balm per person and much of the fun was derived when we had to pick the best tube within our group to compete against the representatives from 15 others.  The job was particularly tough for us as our group was the largest of all, with 12 tubes of dazzling designs to shortlist from!

Not sure if you would agree but I feel like every time I needed to look for lip balm in my handbag, the tube would have grown legs and mysteriously walked away.  Very gladly, after an afternoon of concerted effort, we all went home with an extra tube.  We even imagined we can stop standing in line at stores to buy new ones, now that we have mastered how to make our very own organic one from scratch.

Our winning formula certainly caught a fair share of attention from the panel judges, even we didn’t win any prizes at the end, I found myself energised by the intense creative spirit, enthusiasm and sheer talent of everyone involved in this exercise.  

And to my glorious mentees - choosing to sit in a hall on a beautiful day beyond school hours – intent, eager to learn and ready to take on the world, all you youngsters who do not already know, are indeed winners! 

Indebted To Our Teachers

When more than 30 of my high school classmates gathered for a reunion dinner in the weekend to celebrate the school's 105th Anniversary, there was a lot of catching up to do.  Spirited conversations filled the dinner as party-goers traded details on everything from careers, on to travel tips, then to their kids and husbands.

Here and there, talk sometimes turned to another interesting subject as well: appreciation and affection for our teachers.  One friend recalled fondly her favourite headmistress.  Another expressed admiration of a Chinese History teacher.   And the funny thing was - we actually met some of them in dinner, they haven't seem to have aged a single year!  I wondered if they have been swallowing preservatives along with their textbooks or something!  

I thought to myself - if only teachers could hear these tributes to their lasting influence on students' lives, that would be marvellous wouldn't it?   Exactly.  Why on earth not.

I took the opportunity, ran over to one of my favourite history teachers, and very simply - I told her I thought of her when I was touring Egypt.  I recalled all the intriguing stories she told us about the ancient Egyptian civilization, the mystic fictions linking the Pharaohs, Cleopatra and Tutankhamun.

Retiring next year she is - after decades of teaching, still absolutely enthusiastic about her subject of expertise and as you can imagine, she is so thrilled to hear that after 20 odd years, some mumble jumble out there still remembers the tales she told!

Yes.  I have always liked History.  I come to appreciate we can't possibly live today without carrying a bit of history of anything.

At a time when many educators think they are more likely to be criticised than commended, a word of praise can make all the difference and this same mumble jumble has learned a thing or two nonetheless all these years - to thank her teachers for their job well done.  

What about you?  Have you thanked a teacher recently? 

The Alumni Choir

Didn't know much about history,
Didn't know much biology.
Didn't know much about science book,
Certainly nothing much about the French I took.

But I was a member of the choir in school,
Pre-selected and quite proud to be true.
Enjoyed the practices simply because,
my friends were in for it too.

Now that I've become an alumni,
can't sound much older can I?
No one forced me to be in the choir this time,
I volunteered just to look for that awesome feeling inside.

It was great to be back at the Chapel,
reminisced how I used to hate reading the Bible.
Then we revisited the good old gospels,
for a long time, nothing has felt so right in principle.

I am already looking forward to the next practice,
getting all ready and excited.
Sharing passion, love and joy,
never too late if you are interested to join.   



 

Back To Old Skool

Graduating from pencils to ink in elementary was a really big deal. It was also the time when you started carrying a binder full of looseleaf - along with your biros, rubbers and what not. 

If you have no idea what I'm talking about, feel free to skip this entry, kid!

Right, probably half the population has been eliminated.  

For those who stayed and read on, do you remember that one particular semester when the erasable biro from Papermate came to scene with the miraculous erasing feature?  EVERYONE just had to have their very own erasable biro.  I treated mine like it was special and refused to chew on it when algebra got boring!

Ok, why go old-school all of a sudden?  It is because I was in a stationary shop earlier today and I had no idea they still sell abrasive rubbers these days! 

I would have thought this is such a thing of the past and that everyone uses correction fluids or tapes.

Obviously that's not quite the case and now, I don't feel that far off from my school days plus...a decade younger! 

A Trip Down Memory Lane (3): Teachers

I was listening to the radio this morning and they talked about how our teachers or mentors are being remembered.

I have had awesome teachers in my life, along with some clueless ones and teachers who simply drove us nuts. We spent hours upon hours with these hateful adults each week, and at the end of the day, most often than not, you will find the tough teachers are the ones we remember after years of throwing away our books.

I am sure for those with me in St.Stephen's days, you would have no trouble forgetting the legendary Miss N and her creative "open mind" blackboard drawings. 

For those in Rosemead, we had "Coleman the mustard" Maths teacher who would never lend us a smile but that was how we got our Matrices right.  

At the beginning of my career, I was lucky enough to be hired by "L" who was all so famous for her super demanding chore.  Working with her made me feel like the dumbest person in the world.  She turned out to be my mentor over the years, who nonetheless taught me a thing or two applicable in life such as,

"Winners MAKE things happen; Losers LET things happen."

All in all, these people have inspired fear and instilled tears in me but I just can't be more grateful to their existence in my life.

How should I go about showing gratitude to them?  Would they be in Facebook by any chance?  Might be worth digging though.

Babies Meet The Aunts II

Union with Pauline

After, gosh...how many years?

Tonight's SSGC Reunion Dinner

Great night out with the girls.
The Event was planned 2 months ahead, started off with 20, but ended up with 10. That doesn't matter as we sure had a good laugh and agreed to do it all over again in 2 months' time, hope to have a few more to join the fun and giggles.

The 'Good old days' SSGC

Ah, the memories are flooding back as I revisited our old school in the Open Day on April 20, 2002......The School Albums - Remember how embarrassing some of those pictures were? They were less likely to be picked up 10 years ago as a pastime reading publication but now those were worth a lot and I wished I haven't thrown them away. Below just some of the snapshots that slipped through my mind as I jot down this email and I very much would like to share them with you all.....

Miss J.Ho, our marvelous math teacher in Form 1 - the one that got me stand outside the 1R classroom for half an hour just because I couldn't stop giggling with Chu Kar Yan. She emerges as the mother of a local pop singer. (Guess who) Algebra, geometry, trig....she managed to get us through it all.

And remember the blue Jumpers that everyone had? Why were they always several size bigger and torned and how on earth could we wear them all through the summer months? (Hoping to grow into them perhaps). Earning a 'reputation' was certainly a big deal in those days, wasn't it? The senior class plays, the fashion shows, the orchestra, senior choir conducted by Mrs. Fu..........Mr. Lee who teaches Chinese was sooo cool, Miss Law (then later called Mrs Yau) was the most elegant teacher of all times and the Putonghua classes by Miss Ho Sic Ming whom I can only think of a resemblence of a waterfall! Did anybody actually learn any Putonghua then, honestly? The enthusiastic Miss J.Ma who introduced "The Ancient Greek and Egyptian Civilisation" to us (anyone remember the map of Crete that was made of egg shells)?

Eating lunches in the shade of those beautiful trees on the front playground of the main building when the weather cooperated and hanging out by the covered playground when it didn't. How about that first Field Trip we went with Mrs. Lam Cheung Sun Ching's Geography class in Form 1 - Up to the Peak we went - collecting specimens, Flowers, bugs, frogs...I forget, what? Gym classes - Volleyball, basketball, badminton and worst of all - Dancing...ugh, the horrible folk dances with who else but Tam Por (Mrs. Tam). Those dreaded navy shorts we had to wear. The fire alarm that seemed to go off at the most inappropriate times. We never had a fire, did we? Lots of practice though. Just in case. Selling lunch boxes tickets to earn a bug or two and the smell of the chicken legs and instant noodles from the tuck shop....Ummmmm ! They were sure good.

And when we weren't in school - Always something to do, someplace to go - the great convenience store 7-11 just down the road, San Bin - our good old stationery shop, the Hallmark Galleria in the corner where we used to save up pocket money just for Hello Kitty, My Melody and Little Twin Stars or The Runabouts goodies. Those were the places to see and be seen.

As I sift through all these memories...each leading me off in another direction......I realise how much I miss the "good old days" at St. Stephen's Girls College in the '80-90's. We were family. The kids at St.Stephen's were family and I miss knowing my classmates and friends. Good times. Gone forever but the memories are oh so sweet. I loved it all. Who would ever have guessed?

I am so glad to see the changes made in recent years at school and I encourage each one of you to revisit it some time when you can. I must admit, I got lost in the middle of the Jubilee Path leading to the new building (forgot the name), but facinated and impressed to know that every classroom has a PC, connected to the school's network and every teacher has a notebook. Needless to say, air-conditioning in all classrooms - surely that was a privilege to the staffs only in my days. You should go check out the lovely library, I sure will study harder if I had such a wonderful and resourceful place before.

I hope the school will continue to excel in everyway, to educate marvelous students like me and let everyone who teaches in it and whom learns from it, be proud of oneself.