As a reporter, life has been pretty hectic, especially with the recent Thai coup. On Thursday, I was having interviews at 10:30pm and logging off from my work mail only at 12:30 am.
The next day, I reached my office at 5am to do work, took a run break for an hour, continued working till 6pm before adjourning to Novena for my new Friday class. The lesson ended at 9:30pm, spoke to a couple of parents till 10pm, reached home at 10:30pm, took an hour’s rest, marked one of my students’ assignment, crashed in bed, woke up at 8am for a swim and started another five hours of classes on Saturday.
My friend heard my schedule and asked why I wanted to tire myself with the lessons.
Yes, life is stressful, but fulfilling.
As a reporter, it’s in your blood to get excited when there’s breaking news. As an educator, it’s passion for the children that gets me going.
My P1-2 kids are an adorable bunch but the hardest to handle. Besides trying to set up a strong foundation for their English, I have to think of ways to engage them because young kids have a short attention span. I want to let them have fun, yet I must maintain discipline. It’s not an easy job but very satisfying when some of them, who could barely finish a sentence initially, can now write three paragraphs on their own.
The P4-5 students are a promising bunch to have- I do not have to worry about them being too rowdy in class as they are older, yet they still have childlike qualities. They have an existing foundation in English and there’s a year or two to polish them to be the crème de la creme among their batch mates.
The P6 students are my darlings- I treat them as young adults, my friends and my “battle-mates.” It’s another three months to PSLE so we have to work together as a team on this “battlefield” to conquer the big exam. And they are mature enough to put up with my “old-man life stories” when I try to motivate them to do well.
So you see why this is all worthwhile. Life is very short and these kids add a lot more colour and meaning to my life.