two weeks down!

teaching is not easy. i had my first teaching "flop" this week. yes, it is indeed possible to "flop" in the arena teaching. role- teacher. audience- students. reaction- snoring. Is it possible to teach grammar in an interesting way? can we perhaps write a pop song to teach our students singulars and plurals?

okay, it's not that bad. everyday, it's the little things that keep me going, even if i had been up the hill at glenaly until 1015pm tearing my vocal cords apart: the smiles i get from the students, the outrageousness of our 215 staffroom, and the kindness of the other staff members. when i almost tripped over my laptop cords for about three times on friday, the little kid in the corner said "be careful, ms cheung!" for the same amount of times. i had kids offer me their fruit from their lunches (hopefully spare and not unwanted!) :p... i had d&ms again with people, not just bullshit (blowing water). us new teachers shared our own little challenges (e.g. flash animations... dreamweaver.... software and hardware... grammar...)

i made an effort to teach without using a microphone these two weeks, but i have decided to give in and start to use my portable mike again. my voice has taken quite a battering this week with all the singing at the singers and although i have never really shouted at my students at school, a lot of people have commented that my voice has sounded decidedly huskier over these few days. it's time to get with the trend, i guess.

oh, oh, oh, WE GET TO GO TO CAMP THIS WEEK!
(fellow form teacher and happy camper) queenie: you're more excited than the students!
me: ya-huh!!!!!
it'll be a fun time cos we'll be camped up at this funky facility at sai kung. fingers crossed, the typhoon won't get to us and make our three days a soaking wet experience.

---- random thoughts 1---- the hong kong cricket girls are in pakistan, training their butts off now. thinking back, mum was probably right about not going to pakistan:
1. i would have missed camp
2. i would have a crap load of work to catch up with the week after, seeing as i'm probably one of the last ones to leave the school every day...
3. i wouldn't have as healthy a relationship with the kids and the other staff at this point in time.
so... everything does happen for a reason.

---- random thoughts 2---- we had an earthquake this week here in hong kong. it was about 3-4 on the ricter scale. i was at the hk singers rehearsal up on the hills of the hong kong island, nearer the epicentre than the rest of hong kong. bloody 'ell, everyone there felt it, and it was really, really freaky. the last time i experienced an earthquake was back when we were still living here full-time. dad was snoozing on the easychair and mum thought he was being rude and having a fun time rocking on the chair. turned out he wasn't being rude after all.