Burning up, burning out

We just celebrated Shalom's birthday yesterday. Now my weeks go according to the school's weekly label - Term 1 Week 10. Week 9 is now officially known as NIGHTMARE WEEK... or should it be WEEK MARE NIGHT? Oh well.

I haven't had any time planning for any bash for Shalom. Just silently grateful that we've made it past the one year mark. He was clearly exhilerated when he realised we were singing the birthday song for him just after he heard his name...

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO SHALOM!..."

Even when we sang the Chinese version, he clapped and was really thrilled.

Wish I caught it on video. I think a relative or two might have.

Update: Ben's sis caught it, but only the second part. Nevertheless, it's great. :) Thanks! :D Note to self: Assign videographer/photographer (Claire?) during such events.


It was a Chinese do at a Teochew restaurant. First time in my life, I invited only my mum's relatives. I did not invite my dad's. Frankly, it was only quite close to the event that I realised I forgot to invite my dad. But I did, nevertheless. I'm glad I did so. Time apart does wonders. It doesn't hurt now. Only my maternal granny was fuming when she saw him there. She has to learn that he'll always be the kids' gong gong. Provided I don't forget about him.

I didn't invite the rest coz it seems quite mian qiang for them to attend. For Ben's side, it's about ren qing and to a certain extent, mian zi. My side, no issues like that (no need to give mian zi). I did check with my dad, and he also agreed to leave things as status quo. My paternal granny and my dearest aunt aren't here anyway, so inviting the rest seems painful for them. I think. Although I must admit that I do enjoy their company - the wives of the husbands. Oh well.

I requested for the kids not to stay overnight at their grandparents' place after the event. MIL wasn't too thrilled about the arrangement. Ben thinks that they might miss the kids too much coz they won't get to see them from Friday night through the weekend.

What about me? EVERY SINGLE WEEK I SLOG, I LOOK FORWARD TO THE WEEKEND ONLY TO FIND THE HOUSE EMPTY.

The original idea was to let the kids stay over coz PILs may feel the vacuum after we move out. But MIL picks Abby up from school everyday and stays with the kids from 11am all the way till 8pm, or sometimes later!

I get up at 5am, slog till 7pm, only to rush dinner at home to get the small window of 'opportunity' to nurse Shalom to sleep at 8.

And like I don't miss them.

My original intention was to spend loads of time with them this short one week break. But no.

STU had to take up the first two days of my holidays. AND INFORM ME ONLY ON THE LAST DAY OF TERM 1 WEEK 10. What the hell is wrong with them? I replied saying that I couldn't make it, coz I had prior arrangements, (I overlooked in the email the part where a replacement is needed in my absence) so I CAN'T CANCEL THE #@$#$#%) TRAINING.

So two days gone.

Wed - heart check up at NHC for irregular heartbeat and heart palpitations.

Fri - FULL DAY TRAINING FOR MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCE.

That leaves only Thursday free. AND I HAVE A SCENIC MOUNTAIN RANGE AROUND MY TABLE.

My original goal for this break was to Repair (the damages done in Term 1), Recharge and Rejuvenate for Term 2 and the rest of the year. I hate the fact that we get our class allocation so late (2 days before school started in Term 1) so there's absolutely no way to prepare anything at all.

Oh well.

I had an enjoyable time today with the kids. Although I wasn't feeling too great - eyes were stinging and I felt really sleepy - I felt recharged especially when I was watching Abby at the playground. I was clearing the music files in my phone and songs were playing. The breeze was heavenly, and that moment was frozen in time. It was refreshing.

It was then when I realised that recharging doesn't have to take a week or longer.

I feel recharged when I have stuff planned out. I hate firefighting and being late. I've been doing that for the past 10 weeks.

My Urgent and Important tasks:
- 2007 Workplan for P4 Science Club
- 30 week plan for P4 Science Club
- Lit program for P4 HA kids starting Term 2 - Sing to the Dawn
- PSLE Oral Communication Skills workshop (due in Term 2 Week 1)
- Science Diagnostic Test - mark and return
- Schedule Journal Topic for fortnight entries
- EPMS Meeting

My Urgent and (not that) important tasks:
- Straighten Compo files for both English classes
- Straighten My Pals WS files for both English classes
- Straighten English Unit Worksheet Files for both English classes
- Miscellaneous worksheets to mark
- Mark compos - 3 sets for 2 classes
- Mark Science WB - plenty of work not marked
- Go through their journals
- Mark Spelling for one class
- Plan Science Remedial for the rest of the year (term at least)
- TRAISI Training
- Get my edumail sorted out - gosh, don't get me started on that

My Not Urgent but Important tasks:
- Chase teachers for Graphic Stimulus and Compre Cloze WS for the rest of the year
- Plan Scrabble competition due in May
- Come up with 6 Dictation passages to replace the Unseen Dictation
- Start drafting the kids' Report book comments
- Create supplementary worksheets to drill kids
- Set P5 EM3 paper together with my SH (we'll see what happens...)

These are the tasks flying around my head for the time being. I was supposed to get most of these cleared by the end of next Friday. Right.

I just hope my kids don't get into any more trouble. Somehow there's this impression that my kids aren't a fantastic lot. And I really don't like that. My kids are fine - just that their family background is really an issue. And I really don't like other teachers shelling my kids when they can't even manage their own. I guess it's stinking pride. It's damn sad. Even when my kids aren't talking, they still get scolded by other teachers. And I take two classes, so I know that my form class really isn't all that bad. I really need to reflect on helping them shed that poor image. It's damn irritating - and it affects my kids also. They've been getting shellings from me at the littlest trigger until they are all so disheartened. The last day of school was terribly bad. It was painful. No wonder teacher absentieesm is especially high on MUFTI days. Sad but true. The whole school was chaotic.

I panicked the day before when I saw what I had to do with the kids in my other English class. Until I found out that time table was suspended so I didn't have to manage them. But still(!), I had to get the kids to do this! The kids were supposed to bring their own plasticine, Plaster of Paris bandages (!?!?!?!?) and gold paint (?!?!!??!). I don't even teach art.

Check out the 3rd photo on that site. I bet if the kids really carried out this activity, I would have MANY phallic symbols and many discipline cases to handle. Next landmine - dealing with plaster of paris bandages. It would be totally messy! And in home clothes some more! Some rented Egyptian costumes, so it would really have been a challenge keeping them clean. Ah, whatever. And the best part - all this done in half an hour - first period of the day. YAH. RIGHT. After assembly it would be 15 mins gone.

Thank God we didn't have to do that. Last minute instructions were given via email to change the activity to some P6 hieroglyphic drawing which we didn't do as well.

As for one of the schoolwide activities, my kids had a really tough time. The LA couldn't do the stuff at all, and my 2 runners had to shuttle back and forth, even when we gave the correct answer, we were marked wrong by the prefects - repeatedly, even when we found the correct answer as well as the worksheet online. My runner said another class put another answer (which was incorrect) and got it correct, so she suggested we try that answer. Still we got it wrong. That was when the kids were really fed up and just wanted to know the answer for its own sake. The bell went off and the game ended. Fed up, searched for the answer, gave up playing. Everything went downhill from there. Even during the fashion parade, when our class representatives appeared, no one cheered. No one was in the mood to, nor did they dare. I blasted them so much for being rowdy in class that no one had the mood to do anything else. And then they got scolded for being rowdy. WAH LAU.

Maybe my management really sucks big time, and my kids are suffering for it. Perhaps I've been really too laxed with them. They should be treated like convicts or soldiers in military training, instead of curious and lively children. I should shout at them and break their wills so that they will be totally compliant. If that's the case, then I should be a columbarium caretaker instead.