Tribute to a Teacher's Life

A repost.

Having my ex-students tagging my blog, makes me think back about the past, when I was still a teacher. Those times really bring back fond memories...

I spent about 2 months at Xinmin Secondary, I was in no way related to that school in the 1st place. However I must say that I was a really committed relief teacher, I usually stayed till 6-8pm, even later than most full-time teachers. I taught a whole range of classes over there: 1E3, 1E5, 1T1, 2N, almost the whole sec 3 level, particularly 3E1, and 4E3. Interesting to see how different each class was, especially between levels and streams.
The sec ones were really adorable(at least most of them), even 1T1, though they were quite noisy and hyper-active. 1E3 and 1E5 even gave me farewell presents! :)
3E1, my scholar-class, with 1/2 the class filled with foreigners, always bombarding me with math olympiad questions(not easy, have to apply A-level math!), which I recalled that my fellow colleagues rejected attempting them and I solved them myself in the end. (Shows that teachers are generally only proficient at the syllabus which they teach, even if it's the same subject.)
I even remembered 1 of my student leaders then, BGR with a guy in another of my class. They were caught by a PE teacher and were punished.(Not for BGR, but they came into school with the guy's hand around the girl.) Recalled giving her some chocolate biscuits from the staff lounge while she was clearing some cabinets as punishment.(Yes, I care for my students. =p) They broke up in the end.
I enjoyed class 3E4 the most among all the sec 3 classes, though only taught them for 2 weeks. The competitive atmosphere there is less tense, yet they are keen to learn. The students there were also great.
4E3, air-conditioned classroom, shoes have to be removed before entering their classroom. Sleeping corner attached, superb place to slack.
Beyond lesson time, I also went around to look at their CCAs and help some with their homework. I realised that marking is not easy and I come to understand why teachers make mistakes and why they so often get students to peer mark. Setting tests were also part of the jobscope, though I overestimated 3E1 and gave them a really hard one. hahaz
Just one regret that I could not stay longer to impact my students' lives to a deeper level.

Then there was my really brief stint at St Nicholas and my own Anderson Junior College.
I realised that girls in an all girls school are either real quiet or super rowdy. I'll think twice about sending my daughters there, if I do have any.
Standing as a teacher in AJC during morning assembly was really very different. Weird too I might say. Easy job, showed the JC1s videos, chat with them abit. Thats about it. Met many of my juniors, JC2s that I know, hearing them address me as "Mr Chan" for the fun of it. Conversed with my teachers as a teacher. :)

All in all, I must say that I relished the time when I was a relief teacher. Xinmin secondary clinched the School Excellence Award recently.(I remembered that we, the staff, were preparing the school for it while I was there. =p) I would really like to return when I finish my NS to teach at xinmin again. My sec 3s may have graduated, but my cute little sec 1s will be grown up sec 3s by then, it will be great to see them again. Hopefully I can...

However if you ask me if I would be a teacher in the future, my answer is no. I just feel that teaching the same syllabus over and over again will get dry and monotonous. 5 years maybe, but not a lifetime career.
Having such large classes also hinders the personal touch. It is not just about teaching, but educating youths holistically, something that I find quite impossible with large classes and a packed schedule.
Well, but I'll never know where God will bring me to. Who knows after my degree, the Holy Spirit may just make this my calling.

Brother's Night

AOC celebrated Daniel's birthday on saturday after service. It appears that many think that our leader dresses shabbily. Majority of his gifts are clothing. lol
After which daniel showed his choleric portion of his nature with sub-district level SEED meeting following immediately.

CF1 had our 1st brothers night after that. We went to race daytona, then to jeremy's house. His mum was really hospitable. She made supper and breakfast for us. It was a great time of living life together and sharing "secrets". We watched a documentary about Lena Maria and discussed about it. An impromptu extended prayer followed which lasted for 45 minutes.
Stanley, Kaiyan and me blackout the earliest, close to 2am.

After breakfast at 8.30am, in which i had hot chocolate(Thank God for jeremy's mum! :p), we decided to watch Harry Potter and caught the 10.30am show at PS.
Finally, we bid farewell. Home to sleep.

My 1st driving lesson starts tomorrow.

1e5 chalet

I went to drop by my ex-students' chalet on tues night. It was really interesting. The last time I had been to a chalet was like last year, and it wasn't really that successful. Going to a chalet as a ex-teacher, really feels different. For starters, the parents who booked the chalet were pretty shock that I was their teacher. To a certain extent, there was an atmosphere of awkwardness. Some still called me Mr Chan, while others prefer to call me Nicholas, I'm fine with both. But the ice soon broke when I introduced some interesting games like "PIGGY" to them. Had a night walk, in which I offered to bring them to see the red house. However it didn't went through as many of them were afraid.
This question always appears: "Aren't you afraid of ghosts?" My answer is no.
Then next question: "You don't believe?" I wanted to answer: "I don't, but I believe in spirits." But on a second thought, it's the same to them, and at their level it's hard to explain, so I just answered "yes".
"Why not?" ensued.
Ans: "Because I believe God is with me and He is more powerful. I don't have to fear."

I slept a meagre 2 hours there and went back to camp.

Camp Shift

Busy week this has been, 1 Guards just shifted to bedok. We spent alot of time packing and unloading. Bedok camp 1 is a super old camp, used as a transitory place for many units. Guess I won't be going home during weekdays.

It hasn't been a very good week, with disputes in with someone who is really arrogant in camp. His arrogance is really getting to me.
Well but what he said, made me realise something about myself. I am someone who likes to do things alone in camp, e.g. go for lunch alone. Perhaps, this is partly due to my choleric nature, I'm quite task oriented. This makes some people think that I'm selfish and self-centred. I'm making a concious effort to change this right now, asking people to come along for lunch, volunteering to go the extra mile, etc.

Father I need your help. Help me to love those around me. Give me strength as I face obstacles.
2 Cor 12:10b For when I am weak, then I am strong.
Change me, mould me, refine me.
I need your empowerment.

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

General Paper students take note! This is useful for your GP. Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs.

I'm not going to expound on what it is, details of it abound the internet.
This was something I learned in my JC years, but has return to me once again, at a deeper level when self-fulfillment was mentioned during Central F seed meeting.

Self-Actualisation VS Serving God.
This hit me very strongly. Are we using the church for our own self-fulfilment? It is a thin line between using the church to achieve self-fulfilment and being fulfilled when serving God. It is a subtle difference, yet has major consequences to your spiritual health.
That is why as Christians, we must never aim towards self actualisation, but a higher level of self-transcendence. Not merely looking at ourselves, but having the heart of a servant of Christ & being the Almighty's beloved child simultaneously.

Check your heart motives today.
Which one are you?
I pray that I'll never fall into desiring for just self-actualisation, but transcendence.
I am here to serve.

Healing Rally

Healing Rally was on the 15 & 16 Nov. I asked someone along for the one on the 15, someone who I think needs healing. He wasn't sure about it, didn't reply me in the end, but I went, just for that small chance that he would turn up. He didn't.
No doubt there was the temptation of going home to rest after a long day, but I do not regret going for it, even when he didn't turn up.
I was the only 1 from central there, or so I thought, I went to sit sihan from NE.
The healing rally was a time of praise, worship, teaching, intercession and healing. We had visitors all around the globe, pastors from other Hope churches around the world in the rally.
The teaching was good. A quote: "God allows some people to carry weakness or illnesses in their life. It is within God's plan." Jer 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
Someone who couldn't hear properly was healed in the right ear. Someone who was troubled by pain in her right brain was relieved of it. We prayed for a by-pass patient, cancer patients and many others.
I found out that Daniel went for the healing rally after the whole thing ended, so that makes just the 2 of us centralites. :p Went home with him, Shirley and Eelee on NEL.
Work commitments, couldn't attend the one on the 16.

Other stuff: I acceded to do duty for a fellow campmate this Fri evening to Sat morning. Come to think of it, it is really... , since I have medical appointment on Fri afternoon and I actually don't have to go back to camp. Still I want to be salt and light, and it's within my capacity to help him, I don't really have anything on that night.

So many books, so little time.

Theres just so many books that I want to read, but so little time.
In my house sits
Come Thirsty by Max Lucado
Too Busy Not to Pray by Bill Hydes
Harry Potter and the Half-blood Prince by J.K. Rowling

And in camp lies Purpose Driven Life, which I've reached the last chapter, yet unable to find time to finish.
Then theres still the digital ebook of Case for Faith.

My priority is always the Bible though. God's word can speak volumes. :)

Hope I can find the time to read other books too...

The Community of God

At X-square @ Plaza Singapura last night, the central group, majority from AOC, were playing xbox games and watching others play. The guys as usual were playing winning 11, while the girls discovered a new game: Fatal Frame 2(the game in which a girl uses her camera to banish ghosts). Their screams could be heard the moment I stepped into X-square. Jiehui and I just sat beside Daniel, looking at the entire group having fun, with a few dialogues between us. Not being the centre of attention, but just observing others having fun and bonding together, can be a great pleasure. It's great to see how AOC is bonding together. What Daniel mentioned I believe is true, that leaders have to be close to each other 1st, before the members will bond. The careleaders will bring their group to meet other caregroups. :)

I observed somethings about church friendship and friends in the secular world.
No doubt such xbox events can involved just a secular group of friends, to an outsider, I doubt there will be any observable difference. But there are significant differences in the 2 friendships.

1) I realise that in church, strangers can get well acquainted with each other quickly, I do not deny that personality plays a part, but there is much more than that. Within the church family, there is always this atmosphere of acceptance that is very pervasive. It is human to judge, but we try not to, and look beyond the surface. We readily welcome and accept each other for who you are, not your dressing, looks, etc.

2) We have a covenanted relationship. As children of a God of covenants, we are a covenanted chruch. There are unspoken covenants between us. One of it I believe is that of basic trust, that you are my brother/sister in Christ, and have no malice against me. It is this fact that makes it is so much easier to share your problems to someone in church, than elsewhere.

3) It is a friendship that lasts. Many secular friendships, do not go beyond the boundaries of the school/camp/work. Once you change school, that's it, I have my own life, you have yours, we all have to move on, it's goodbye! Perhaps we'll still meet up once a year, to see each other but that's it.
I'm not saying that you'll be in the same caregroup/unit forever, I myself have been through many transfers. But there's always the confidence in the past relationships, that as long as we all are still serving God, nothing can pull us apart.
Ask me to share anything to my exex-, or exexex-shepherd, I'll gladly do it. For my secondary school best friend, I'll think twice.
We'll still see each other 50 years down the road in the senior citizens group! LOL

4) We have Jesus. That makes a whole world of difference.

This list is not exhaustive, there are many others, I believe you will discover them as you stay in Hope Church longer. I have 1 regret, which is not committing my life to this family of God earlier in my life. Don't live to regret your youth.

This is the Community of God.

If true and genuine friendships entice you, we welcome you to Hope Church Singapore. :)

A long day

Well just summarising the past 2 days:

1stly the combined church prayer meet on Fri, I'm glad I chose to go for it, even though it was totally out of the way in Bukit Merah. There was a blackout during the prayer meet, there was no music, no lights. Amazingly however, the microphones were still working. We continued to pray as a church, worshipping God in Spirit & in Truth. It was really a great experience, it's more than the music, it's about Jesus. I'm reminded of the song "Heart of Worship" (If u know how the song came about, u'll be able to identify with me :p). Prayer isn't a natural activity, we have to deliberately set aside time to pray. I choose to build up my prayer life. I want to have longer conversations with the Lord, growing and exercising my spiritual giftings, to be in His presence is just so wonderful. I'll be going for every prayer meeting if I can.

Kbox on Saturday morning before service, sang quite a few songs, throat went abit sore. Kbox is really a good place to slack, even if u don't really want to sing :p The BBQ fish was nice.

Church service thereafter, my sorethroat didn't hinder me, I was all out praising & worshipping God. The sermon by our Thai pastor was great too. My throat was better already. There was this cute little British boy who came for service, name's Matthew, if he gets into a Singapore school, we'll have a British in our group. :)

Caregroup was long, more than 3 hours in fact. We really shared from our hearts, played jiehui's favourite game which I didn't really fancy hahaz and wrote encourage cards for each other. :) Our cg is growing. Thank you God.

Went to get new guitar strings, just made it in time, the shutters were half way down. Then accompanied jeremy to carrefour to shop around.
X-square the girls were playing fatal frame 2, screaming really loudly, they were really attracting attention. hahaz The gummies that I bought were really delicious, everyone said so, and daniel kept eating them. :p Raced daytona, in which daniel miraculously came in 1st, which he so proudly proclaimed and didn't want to play another game. LOL

Home. It has been a long day indeed.

Joy of The Lord

A busy week it has been. Working overtime to prepare documents and files for the human resource audit. Giving tuition to rayson until 11 plus on wednesday night. Yet I don't seem to feel that stressed anymore as compared to 3 weeks ago. My perspective of NS has changed and is still changing, to one that is not only less pessimistic, and also one that seeks to give my best to God. Even the voices of those who continually proclaim "ORD!" no longer affect me. Self-deception they say, but it isn't. This is the Joy of The Lord.

I rejoice daily, singing God's praises and worship Him wherever I go.

Psalm 34:1-8
1 I will extol the LORD at all times; his praise will always be on my lips.
2 My soul will boast in the LORD; let the afflicted hear and rejoice.
3 Glorify the LORD with me; let us exalt his name together.
4 I sought the LORD, and he answered me; he delivered me from all my fears.
5 Those who look to him are radiant; their faces are never covered with shame.
6 This poor man called, and the LORD heard him; he saved him out of all his troubles.
7 The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear him, and he delivers them.
8 Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.

Combined church prayer meet at touch community theatre after work tomorrow! :)

Guitar string snapped

My 1st string just snapped, im going to replace all the strings with a better set. Anyone knows where I can get good strings?

Time to serve

Advertised for church camp today, wearing uniform and doing a short skit. We had to be there at 11am for rehearsal, and do it for both 1st and 2nd service. I must say that at 1st I wasn't too keen about it. Honestly speaking, bringing and wearing uniform to nexus on saturday isn't really a "I'm excited kind of thing." It was more of a chore, serving out of my comfort zone, going so early to nexus. My mum wasn't too keen on me leaving that early either. We had a rather long conversation, which resulted in me being late for the rehearsal. Must work on this issue...
However, after the whole thing finished, my perspective changed. No doubt it was serving out of my comfort zone, and to a certain extend, humiliation for the funny act, but it was fun. And most importantly, we did it as a caregroup, serving together. We did it as a team. :)

Dying to die.

Ecc 7:10 Do not say, "Why were the old days better than these?" For it is not wise to ask such questions.

Ecc 9:7a Go, eat your food with gladness, and drink your wine with a joyful heart, for it is now that God favors what you do.

Ecc 3:22 So I saw that there is nothing better for a man than to enjoy his work, because that is his lot. For who can bring him to see what will happen after him?

Past, present, future. A verse for each. God favoured the present.

Man is never contented. We moan about the present, dying to savour the future. When the present becomes past, we reminisce about the "good old days", and complain about the now present. It is a vicious cycle that can suck the joy out of you, that can make you be unthankful for the situations you are in.

PSLE
'O' Levels
'A' Levels
Teaching Stint
and now, NS.
How true isn't it? I've always wanted for my exams to be over, and now I say that I prefer studying and teaching, and I look forward to university. But when it comes who knows? Perhaps I'll be dying to get over studying again. Are we always dying to get on with another stage in life that at the end of our lives, we will realise that we have never really lived?

No, no longer will I be dying.
I will keep the fond memories of the past, looking forward to the future, yet living out the present, giving thanks for each day.

Happiness depends on happenings, but true joy comes from Jesus.
Psalm 118:24 This is the day the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.

Time to exercise, a swim with jiehui later, and tonight Sound of Paradise concert with tryphena and jean. :)