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*Fairy Godmother blew sweet kisses at me*
When I was young, I never have big ambitions. Neither do I expect that I would get in touch with teaching during my growing up years and even now.
In Junior College years, I joined the Interact Club. My weekly mission is to attend the Wednesday breaktime meeting and to mentor less privileged children in a student centre located at Bukit Batok. I dreaded attending the dull Wednesday meeting because I got to eat fast and less. Going to the student centre seemed more interesting to me. After some time of volunteering at the centre, my friend and I got transferred to coach tuition on saturdays. Instead of checking school homework of many children, I got myself my first student in my life. I remembered that she was in Normal Tech secondary one and was very weak in her Mathemathetics. Guiding her in Maths wasn't as simple as it seem but I tried my best and Maths was my favourite subject. Sadly, I cannot recall her name, I only remember her as a soft-spoken and thin girl.
Community service played an important part in Junior College years. I'm not sure why was I so determine to complete 100 hours of CIP hours just to get an unrecognised Platinum Community Service award? Nonetheless, I did many tasks. One of which was a mentoring scheme to guide secondary 4 students from Yuan Ching Secondary school. It was an interactive and fun experience as the age different between mentor and mentee was just 1 year. So, no generation gap. I believe that the students are very smart and diligent, not difficult teaching them.
Everyone was very busy hunting for part-time or short-term jobs right after JC studies. I was pretty lay back and my first job in my life was recommended by my friend. She called my house phone and encouraged me to go for the interview. It was the first time that I called potential employer for an interview. After one interview and I got the job. I worked in a before-and-after-school student care/learning centre for solid seven months. My students' age ranged from 4 to 13 and they called me "Teacher Eileen". I prepared my own teaching materials and assignments. I love the feeling to being able to control and love the feeling of my students improving day by day. The subjects which I taught are too many: Maths for 5-year-olds, Phonics for under-8-year-olds, Creative writing for Primary 5, English for a Chinese girl waiting to enter into Primary school, Chinese & Maths for Primary 2, Science (my fav!!) for Primary 3 & 4, English(??!!?) for Primary 4. Like a superwoman? I still had to sweep and mop the floor after class, answer calls when I am near the phone, be a promoter to get more deals from interested parents, bring/pick students to/from school daily, mark the assignments, ... Some friends thought I have gone into drugs as I look very haggard during that time. A lot of hardwork for the pathetic $5-5.50/hr pay.
Left "Teacher Eileen" career behind me when I progressed to University. Days in University were peaceful until I joined the Welfare Services Club during my 3rd year. It's never too old to join a CCA so I went to join one with my 2 friends. This time was challenging. I had to learn Sign Language and get a basic certificate first! Why? I was going to be involved in teaching deaf adults Chinese. Venue was at the Singapore Association for the Deaf (SADeaf). It was a 2-way thing, I was learning sign language from my deaf students, and they were learning Chinese language from me. Everything is through English medium.
Being a graduate student, I have to teach undergraduates. For the past two semesters, I had taught year one experiment module. I find myself lucky to have gotten an experiment teaching assistant job. Teaching tutorials is more tough than teaching experiment. All I need to do is to prepare once, one set of presentation slides, and repeat the content every time every week. It may seem like a brainless job, but there is more to it. It's the handling of questions and interacting with the freshmen which I look forward to every lesson. Each time I finish one lesson, I would tell myself that I will do better the next week.
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This is a sudden realisation while showering... thinking that I may not be an official school teacher but I have been teaching in one way or another these years. Some people may have stepped into teaching for the sake of living or as the easiest way to get a job... I do hope that they teach well and really from the bottom of their hearts. Teach with passion and not for profits!
Oh my, what am i talking about??!!??? I guess I am getting sleepyyyyyy.....~
Ciao*