22 Dec 06 marks the last day of teaching ten lovely diligent Indonesian scholars from an independent school. They're every teacher's dream come true. Hehe..
Teaching these boys for the last two months has been theraputic, flushing away disappointments and discouragements I carried with me after teaching in a neighbourhood school for 5 years.
Let me tell you more about them.
These boys are hand picked by the school's principal. Yup. This means the P went down personally to Indonesia to pick them. Next year, they'll all be in Sec 3 although they're aged 14, 15 and 16 this year.
Juz imagine:
I gave an instruction and they followed.
I gave many sets of homework and they completed it. Always.
No rebellion. No defiance. No talking back.
They understood everything I taught.
I could be as creative as I want.
No matter how difficult the task could be, they did it.
They learn fast too. Initially, many failed in the tests and assignments.
But gradually, they spread out their wings and took flight.
Of course,
They struggled. Otherwise, why would they be taking this bridging course?
But there're only expression errors and very few grammatical mistakes.
They were taught metaphors, similes, personification, ironies, and other figurative devices since sec one. But they've not heard of idioms and proverbs.
They complained about the tones of assignments but would still complete them.
They would come alive after we played charades, boggle, Pretty Darn Quick cards and other vocabulary games.
Obedience and submission.
Respect and honor.
This is what they offered me and
What I would always remember them by.
Each one has at least one talent.
Kevin is a dancer. In fact, he's juz returned to Medan a few hrs ago so that his team can fly to Taiwan together tomorrow for a dance competition. He won the speech contest we had this afternoon. He's a Sanguine like me. He always calls me, "Miss ah... Miss" in his Indonesian accent. Here is one poem he wrote. Not the best but I thought it's a good try.
The Grief of Elephant
In the middle of calm forest
Elephant, I hear you
Mourning
The majestic beast, pleading for your life
Crying for your kind, I knew
How we would use
Your dying
Tusk for our violence house
Tusk for our priceless pride
Among the motionless tree
Elephant, I realized
You are dying
Dying without your pride
Dying without your tusk
A shameful
Yet tragic end for the majestic beast.
In the middle of exuberant forest
A violent act was did
A seizure of the freedom of an elephant
A seizure of the pride of an elephant
For our self indulgence
Tusk for our violence residence
Tusk for our priceless.
Kohar has photographic memory. He can remember almost anything once he looks at it for a moment. Now I think I know why he always flips the thesaurus during lessons. Haha. He also wins in almost every Boggle game and his classmates feels so exasperated with him. Haha. His descriptive essays are beautiful. He has fair complexion and feels he's an oddball coz sports is not his strength at all. But he's thoughtful, kind and sincere in everything he does.
Ali can drive me up the wall with his “Never say die” attitude in learning new vocabulary words. He's on the other extreme. He struggles using his new learnt words appropriately. I had to crack my brains to think of countless examples to explain why this word or that word cannot be used in this sentence or context. But I admire his perseverance. He is one of the boys who memorized the “Di di di di..” sound the MRT produces every time the door closes. He wanted to remember it so tat they could use it for the drama today! My goodness. I'd never bother to memorise such sounds. It's too fast for me anyway. Haha. He taught me to record the sound in my mind. Then replay it in my mind slowly. Finally, divide the sound into two sections and count the di di di di di... There were 11 'di' in total. Wahahhaha...
Gleen looks like cookie monster because he is petite. He proudly declared to us during dinner yesterday that he can survive on 2 packets of French fries for 3 days. He loves ice cream too. He only ate a Mac's ice cream for dinner yesterday. We were appalled. He mimics extremely well. He was the other boy who tried to memorise the MRT door closing “di-di-di” sound. He also tried to learn Tamil so that he can speak the phrase used in MRT when the train door is closing in hindi during the drama. He succeeded. Haha. He draws and colours beautifully too. All his drawings are cute and adorable. He's crazy about cartoons and he researches on this topic. Gleen is another introvert boy. He hates games and sports. He's a perfectionist. He writes and does his homework and class work neatly. Too neatly.
There was a time when he was late for class for 3 days. Reason? He spent time doing extra things for homework. I only told him to find meaning of vocab word and construct one sentence for every one. What did he do? Some of these words have more than one meaning. Gleen wrote down all of them and constructed sentences for every definition. He copied the phonetics too. I was so mad tat I made him write a journal on why he should be punctual for class.
Thereafter, he did not sleep for 2 nights coz he was afraid he'll over sleep. After class ended at 4pm, he went back to his hostel and sleep till 10.30pm. Then, he'll do his homework till 9am when the lesson starts. He did this for TWO days! I almost went ballistic. Haha...Tat's Gleen for u.
I wouldn't continue describing them one by one anymore. I don't think you will be tat interested. But I must add that they're really talented. One of my boys is Indo's 27th Mathematician Champion. Another lived in New Zealand for 3 yrs. 3 others can draw superbly as well.
Oh..I will miss them. In fact, I'm missing them like mad already. They're like God's gift to me before I depart my homeland. It's as if God is rebuilding my self-confidence. After teaching these angels for 2 months and seeing them improving leaps and bounds, I am now confident to continue my next phase, my next chapter in life.
Teaching these boys for the last two months has been theraputic, flushing away disappointments and discouragements I carried with me after teaching in a neighbourhood school for 5 years.
Let me tell you more about them.
These boys are hand picked by the school's principal. Yup. This means the P went down personally to Indonesia to pick them. Next year, they'll all be in Sec 3 although they're aged 14, 15 and 16 this year.
Juz imagine:
I gave an instruction and they followed.
I gave many sets of homework and they completed it. Always.
No rebellion. No defiance. No talking back.
They understood everything I taught.
I could be as creative as I want.
No matter how difficult the task could be, they did it.
They learn fast too. Initially, many failed in the tests and assignments.
But gradually, they spread out their wings and took flight.
Of course,
They struggled. Otherwise, why would they be taking this bridging course?
But there're only expression errors and very few grammatical mistakes.
They were taught metaphors, similes, personification, ironies, and other figurative devices since sec one. But they've not heard of idioms and proverbs.
They complained about the tones of assignments but would still complete them.
They would come alive after we played charades, boggle, Pretty Darn Quick cards and other vocabulary games.
Obedience and submission.
Respect and honor.
This is what they offered me and
What I would always remember them by.
Each one has at least one talent.
Kevin is a dancer. In fact, he's juz returned to Medan a few hrs ago so that his team can fly to Taiwan together tomorrow for a dance competition. He won the speech contest we had this afternoon. He's a Sanguine like me. He always calls me, "Miss ah... Miss" in his Indonesian accent. Here is one poem he wrote. Not the best but I thought it's a good try.
The Grief of Elephant
In the middle of calm forest
Elephant, I hear you
Mourning
The majestic beast, pleading for your life
Crying for your kind, I knew
How we would use
Your dying
Tusk for our violence house
Tusk for our priceless pride
Among the motionless tree
Elephant, I realized
You are dying
Dying without your pride
Dying without your tusk
A shameful
Yet tragic end for the majestic beast.
In the middle of exuberant forest
A violent act was did
A seizure of the freedom of an elephant
A seizure of the pride of an elephant
For our self indulgence
Tusk for our violence residence
Tusk for our priceless.
Kohar has photographic memory. He can remember almost anything once he looks at it for a moment. Now I think I know why he always flips the thesaurus during lessons. Haha. He also wins in almost every Boggle game and his classmates feels so exasperated with him. Haha. His descriptive essays are beautiful. He has fair complexion and feels he's an oddball coz sports is not his strength at all. But he's thoughtful, kind and sincere in everything he does.
Ali can drive me up the wall with his “Never say die” attitude in learning new vocabulary words. He's on the other extreme. He struggles using his new learnt words appropriately. I had to crack my brains to think of countless examples to explain why this word or that word cannot be used in this sentence or context. But I admire his perseverance. He is one of the boys who memorized the “Di di di di..” sound the MRT produces every time the door closes. He wanted to remember it so tat they could use it for the drama today! My goodness. I'd never bother to memorise such sounds. It's too fast for me anyway. Haha. He taught me to record the sound in my mind. Then replay it in my mind slowly. Finally, divide the sound into two sections and count the di di di di di... There were 11 'di' in total. Wahahhaha...
Gleen looks like cookie monster because he is petite. He proudly declared to us during dinner yesterday that he can survive on 2 packets of French fries for 3 days. He loves ice cream too. He only ate a Mac's ice cream for dinner yesterday. We were appalled. He mimics extremely well. He was the other boy who tried to memorise the MRT door closing “di-di-di” sound. He also tried to learn Tamil so that he can speak the phrase used in MRT when the train door is closing in hindi during the drama. He succeeded. Haha. He draws and colours beautifully too. All his drawings are cute and adorable. He's crazy about cartoons and he researches on this topic. Gleen is another introvert boy. He hates games and sports. He's a perfectionist. He writes and does his homework and class work neatly. Too neatly.
There was a time when he was late for class for 3 days. Reason? He spent time doing extra things for homework. I only told him to find meaning of vocab word and construct one sentence for every one. What did he do? Some of these words have more than one meaning. Gleen wrote down all of them and constructed sentences for every definition. He copied the phonetics too. I was so mad tat I made him write a journal on why he should be punctual for class.
Thereafter, he did not sleep for 2 nights coz he was afraid he'll over sleep. After class ended at 4pm, he went back to his hostel and sleep till 10.30pm. Then, he'll do his homework till 9am when the lesson starts. He did this for TWO days! I almost went ballistic. Haha...Tat's Gleen for u.
I wouldn't continue describing them one by one anymore. I don't think you will be tat interested. But I must add that they're really talented. One of my boys is Indo's 27th Mathematician Champion. Another lived in New Zealand for 3 yrs. 3 others can draw superbly as well.
Oh..I will miss them. In fact, I'm missing them like mad already. They're like God's gift to me before I depart my homeland. It's as if God is rebuilding my self-confidence. After teaching these angels for 2 months and seeing them improving leaps and bounds, I am now confident to continue my next phase, my next chapter in life.
7 to 6 weeks more...
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