Happy 20th Anniversary ELS!

This month, November, ELS Malaysia celebrates its 20th anniversary. 20 years and still going strong. Far out! Check out the video ELS made in conjunction with its 20th anniversary.

P.S. Hyf’'s and my part rocked! :p

Please Rephrase

A student in my writing class wanted to write that he woke up from a terrible nightmare drenched in sweat.

This is what he wrote…

“When I woke up that morning, I got wet…”

Hehehe. It’s the funniest thing I’ve seen this month. I had to tell him why he had to rephrase his sentence. AWKWARD :p

 

Life is a Box Full of Chocolates

Guess what one of my students gave me today? :)

Sent via BlackBerry from Maxis

Observed!

On Monday, a teacher was absent so I had to substitute her class. I even prepared a lesson and everything. I always come to class prepared. What kind of a teacher would I be if I came to class unprepared right? Heh. You’d be surprised at how many of those teachers we have working at schools all around Malaysia

Anyway, the class I subbed was a 2 hour class, and Mr. Douglas, the Centre Director decided to observe me teaching the class. That was scary. I mean, he was the CENTRE DIRECTOR! But, class went on smoothly. In fact, he said I did very well considering it was my first time and everything. Yay me! WheeEEE! He said he could see that I was less confident when it came to the grammar bit (it was the usage of some/any. Trust me. It gets confusing huhuhu), but that I handled myself pretty well. Yay again! He said I had good rapport with the students. Yay! He said I used the white board well and that my writing was neat and that everything was organized. Yay! Basically he said a lot of good things about my teaching! Triple thousand YAYS! Muahahahha!

God, I love this job! Cross your fingers and hope that they offer me a full time job there after I’m done with the internship!

Happy Me after a successful lesson!

Goddamn! I’m cute! Hahaha!

Of Mosquitoes and Work

An update on what’s been happening in the past week:

1. Infected with Chikungunya
2. Severe joint aches and super high fever from Chikungunya
3. Severe joint aches and high fever subsided
4. Started internship at ELS Language Center PJ
5. Sat in the different ELS classes to observe how teaching is done there
6. Developed rashes – a symptom of Chikungunya
7. Swollen feet and fingers – another Chikungunya sympton
8. Got assigned my first sub class for Monday
9. Teaching Practice results came out -
• Major: A, Minor: A = 3.5 GPA.
10. Feet and fingers still swollen. Makes me feel fat.

Me, on my way home from my first day of work :)

SMK Meru’s “Jalan Sempit” Video

I’ve uploaded the video of SMK Meru’s winning theatrical debut at the Pertandingan Teater KOMSAS Daerah Klang 2009. Enjoy!

Sweet Smell of Victory for the Thespians of SMK Meru!

Back Row: Dolah, Munirah, Saihah, Syazwan, Sabihah, Munirah2
Middle Row: Pak Leman, Aznan, Pa’an, Kamal
Front Row: Murali, Tuk Penghulu, Ah Chong, Joyah

Today Mimi and I accompanied SMK Meru’s team of thespians and crew to compete in the KOMSAS High School Theater Competition Klang District Division 2009 at SMK Dato Hamzah. This was SMK Meru’s first attempt at a theater competition and it was a big deal to them.

We performed “Jalan Sempit”, a play found in Antologi Anak Bumi Tercinta Tingkatan 3. Only 4 schools competed – SMK Dato Hamzah, SMK Meru, SMK Rantau Panjang and Kolej Islam Sultan Alam Shah (KISAS) -- and out of those 4 schools, 3 schools did “Jalan Sempit”. We were the first to perform. Everything went by smoothly, except that some parts of the play were skipped due to obvious reasons. It was, by far, one of the students’ best performance. We were truly proud of them.

Then the other schools performed. SMK Dato Hamzah’s interpretation of their Tuk Penghulu and Murali was awesome :) Didn’t like SMK Rantau Panjang’s version of “Jalan Sempit” at all. Everyone sat behind tables, and that restricted their movements by a great deal. KISAS, the only school that didn’t choose to do “Jalan Sempit”, chose to do “Sri Nara” instead. They looked AMAZING! Their props were well done, their costumes looked expensive, their make-up was better than every one else’s, AND they used sound effects. But don’t ask me what the play was about. All I know is that at the end of it, the Sultan named the place Johor Darul Takzim. Hee Hee. Anyhoo, despite all that, KISAS did not manage to snag any of the top 3 spots due to some actors wearing glasses in an era where glasses haven’t been invented yet, and also because characters other than the Sultan were wearing yellow when in those days the color yellow was only worn by royalties.

The winners are the following:

1st Place   : SMK Meru
2nd Place : SMK Dato Hamzah
3rd Place : SMK Rantau Panjang

Best Male Lead Actor: SMK Dato Hamzah – Tuk Penghulu
Best Male Supporting Actor: KISAS - (damn.. can’t remember the character’s name… So obvious I wasn’t paying attention hehe)
Best Female Lead Actress: SMK Meru – Sabihah
Best Female Supporting Actress: SMK Meru – Joyah
Best Director: SMK Meru

That’s 3 wins in individual categories AND winner as a whole. Pretty good for a first time, eh? Mimi and I trained these kids from the beginning till the end and we’re DAMN PROUD of them! State Competition, LOOK OUT! :)

Secret Admirer?

I was out with Muffinman and Ernie tonight at a shisha place in Gombak when I noticed that I had a misscall from an unknown number. So I called that number. It turned out to be one of  the students from the school, although he wouldn’t tell me his name or which class he’s from. He said, “Tu secret… secret admirer!” LOL. My very own secret admirer. As long as he doesn’t start stalking me, I’m flattered :)

Teachers Day 2009

Let’s see… What have I been up to? Well, there was Teachers Day on the 16th of May. Yeah, that was quite a while ago, but I’ve been busy. Sue me. Anyway, it was the day for all teachers everywhere to be appreciated by students for all that they’ve done for them… Really? Haha. I think there were more teachers than students at the school on Teachers Day. I guess the teachers did the appreciating bit themselves. Moi included :P

   P/S We took more pictures, but those are with Mimi. I’ll upload them once I get them from her.

Yummy Food for FREE!

One of the classes I taught had a cooking class for HomeEc last week. I went in to see how they were faring in the kitchen. And I got to taste ALL their food! For free too~! WheeEEE~! One of the perks of being a teacher :) Check out their cooking below!

Totally Made My Day!

I was eating lunch with Teacher Farah (hehehe) after school at the school canteen when I saw Nazri walking by. He was smiling at me, so I waved at him. And he waved back. Then I waved for him to come over. He did (dengan malu-malu LOL). I asked him about his hair. Last week when I saw him, one of his sideburns had been cut sloppily by a teacher and he had been trying to hide the botched up job with a face towel. Haha. Anyways, he totally made my day. One of the perks of being a teacher LOL :P

Catching Some Zzzs

Yet another picture of me sleeping. Surprise, surprise. Went to school for absolutely nothing today. We had no work to do. No one delegated any work for us to do. We ended up hanging out at the Home Ec room where I ended up falling asleep on the couch.

P/S I NEVER look pretty sleeping. It’s a curse I was born with. Huhu.

P/P/S We left school early without authorization from the principal either. Tee Hee Hee~!

Teacher of the Year

Yes, that is me at school. Being a teacher. Why the headscarf you ask? They made me wear one. I decided to comply, BUT I made a few adjustments. Hence the hair showing in the front. What do you think of my awesome newly-divorced-celebrity look? You like? Coz me likey! Muahahahaha.

P/S Picture was taken today, in between bouts of crazy coughings, throat scratchiness, and killer headaches. I still look good, no? :P

School Still Sucks. Surprise Surprise.

I swear, high school hasn’t changed a bit since the last time I was a student myself around 8 years ago. I’ve been doing my teaching practice for 4 days now, and these are some of the things I’ve noticed:

1. A lot of science class students still feel and act as if they’re superior than everyone else. I say: GO EAT SHIT!
2. The MALAY population still think that if you don’t wear a headscarf, then you’re a heathen that should be heading straight for hell. I say: My hair has nothing to do with my teaching skills. Maybe you should polish up YOUR teaching skills rather than dwell on trivial issues like my frigging hair!!!
3. Racial division is SO obvious at this school. In one class, you’d see ONE Chinese or Indian student, and they’d be sitting all alone. Don’t know if it’s their own fault or the fault of the majority, but it sucks either way. I say: They should have those stupid racial quotas they have for everything else. At least it’ll be used for a good cause in this case. The school is like 95% MALAY!!!

And 11 more weeks of this horrible horrible world~! Somebody save me~!

P/S Lower classes students actually rock! LOL! They’re the kindred spirits of the school :)