First Day In School

First day of school. Officially. But in fact, us teachers started working from 27 Dec, preparing for the opening of the new semester.

I teach the best form 5 class in school. It has been so for the past 7 years. This year, however, I opt to teach a weaker Form 5 class - just for a change. The best class this year, has been assigned to a newer, younger teacher.

Today, I went into class for the first time, and I must say that I'm encouraged by the students' responsiveness during the introductory lesson, where I made everyone introduce themselves, and to share with me what they did during their holidays. These students, having learnt English for 10 years, were able to converse with me in English. Grammatical or not, it did not matter. I just wanted to break the ice with them.

This year, instead of "The Pearl" by John Steinback, the kids will be reading "The Curse" by Lee Su Ann. I am really saddened, because to my mind, Steinback's book carries with it very powerful messages about racism and oppression. Every year, I challenge my students to read between the lines, and get very contented to see the awe in their eyes, as they come to realise the latent messages in the book. At the end of their learning journey, I am very sure that they'd learned much about humanity, because I could read it in their written response when they answered questions about the book in the examination. In fact, a few of last year's Form 5 girls were so good that I was sure they could score full marks for the novel section.

The other day, I was browsing on the Net, and I came across a link to my students' blog. And she wrote of me in her blog last year ...

"first period today is English class with Miss ******. i like the way she speaks :) i mean, the words & the way she says it. haha. she explains everything we need to know & do in her class. like, what book to use and book to buy. The Pearl :) after recess another English class. =.=" 'Lousy timetable' says Miss ******. haha. so, she asked us to write an essay about our resolutions. it's different from the resolutions i wrote in this blog. haha. she wants our resolutions in STUDIES, FAMILIES, MYSELF and ANY OTHER ASPECT. i didn't write what i wrote the other day in this blog :) haha. we have to finish it on Thursday in class cos she don't want us to do at home. no reason stated :)

Lol, that was something like what I did this morning too. I set some ground rules with the students. But this year's class isn't so academically-inclined. Hence getting them to write resolutions in the first lesson may be irrelevant. That was why I asked them to reflect on their holidays instead. I will get them to do their resolutions later in the week ;).

This year, in fact, I do not have a class entirely to myself for I am sharing my English lessons with other people. It's a strange arrangement, and I feel that I do not have that sense of ownership like I had previously.

Anyway, my aim this year, is to simplify a lot of things for the students, so that they will enjoy the lessons, impact from them, score in the exams, and of course, be able to use the language skills for life!