Being able to teach something to little kids has been one of my little dreams and today I'm proud to have made it happen :)
After partying and sleeping at 3am and 2am consecutively, I also gave myself a challenge to wake up early (and on time) under a very much sleep-deprived condition. Sleeping at 2 and waking up at 6 is definitely one of a kind, at least waking up at 6 is definitely a first here. Thank god I was able to wake up and make it on time.
At 7am we are all in the bus heading to SJK(C) Pasir Pinji 1 in Ipoh. It was a roughly 50 minutes trip but with a little chit chatting, resting and scenery-viewing, 1 hour is not that long after all.
Taking up this project also means taking up a trip down memory lane, a long ago one. Upon reaching the school, I was so excited to meet those little cutie pies and of course phone-ready for all the pictures, like a tourist yes. Seperti rusa masuk kampung ( showing off my peribahasa here) So here's where I started the photo spree!
Memory lane station 1: I don't even remember my primary school being THIS positive about going to school. (or it's just me missing those times too much?) Anyway, it's totally an awesome and the sweetest thing to start off the day.
Memory lane station 2: UPSRRRRRRR! oh my gosh all those nostalgic feelings all surged up at once! 41 days left, is that why the standard 6-ers looked more serious and stressed out?
Memory lane station 3: Our school used to have these kind of things EVERYWHERE. Here shows the essays written by the students from pre-school to Standard 6. Yes they have pre-school though I have no idea where or why.
Memory lane station 4: Moral values decorated colourfully. Gahhh I don't know but I kinda wish our school had this too. It might seem a little bit childish, but that doesn't mean all adults follow all of them too. It feels like there's always gonna be something there to remind you to do something good and rightful.These might seem elementary but I think adults just underestimate the power of it. It looks simple outside but to practice it could be harder than we thought because we like to think things the complicated way. We tend to forget that they are actually the foundation to a simple, good life.
Memory lane station 5: KIDS!!! AND THAT SCHOOL UNIFORM! A friend even told us "Remember those times when we use to make roses out the belt of our uniforms? :)
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| 2 awesome emcees! |
Always feel blessed, appreciate, harmony; you happy, I happy, everybody happy xD
Before conducting our class, we had a little morning stretching before we started class; from our observation, only the Standard 6-ers were almost COMPLETELY unresponsive towards anything! The young ones were super cute! When we said turn around and hi-5 with your friends, the guys were like YERRR! when they had to hi-5 with the girls xD
We started with Standard 3 and 6 before recess. It was a little messy and nervous for the first class. Moreover we started with the youngest batch. So basically after finishing their class, it feels like you've ran around the field for 5 rounds. I suddenly had massive respect for my primary school teachers for handling us noisy children.
Although they were noisy, they were still cute kids and we tried our very best to teach them. I'll be honest I prefer the guys more since they are more active in participating and funny at the same time. As for girls, some are quite and shy, some are very competitive. I remember there's this girl when I passed by her, I asked if she's ok with the tongue twisted they learnt just now. (We have chosen the 2nd hardest tongue twister as a challenge to the kids) And guessed what she replied me, " Teacher I know the hardest one." Wow. Now I know why she was fighting to be the representative of her group to do the tongue twister, for numerous times. But there's another one even more competitive than her in Standard 4 and one no difference from her in Standard 5. There's also a cute one called 诺恒and a pretty, model-like宝儿。I never knew she was a Chinese-Malay mixed until I saw the class name list. Another memorable one is 姚文乐，a bald-headed smiley boy.
Next, it was the Standard 6 class. All the sudden leaped from the youngest to oldest. We were already preparing for a second panic attack after the first one with the standard 3 babies. As I mentioned earlier, they were like the fire-wall or they were insulators towards anything they were told to do, so it did freak us out a little.
Turned out their response weren't as bad as we thought. The 3 musketeers pictures are proof. Oh! and I spotted a pair of twins in the class too! Surprisingly, they were the most cooperative class, notice I mentioned CLASS, not groups. The whole class was very supportive and active in participation, not to mention much easier to teach compared to the young ones. Well, maybe they really thought this might be somewhat helpful in UPSR. There was one really quite one though. Apparently he's no.2 in class and he can read very well. But he's just so quite to the extent that I can barely hear him even when he was reading. He's just so small with that nerdy glasses. I still remember him as 伟阳。
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guess who's big bro who's younger bro?
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Standard 6 students, I call them the 3 musketeers. They are like the cutest student! Funny, cooperative, cute! Just love them so muchhhh!! I remember the left one's surname is 鲍，the middle one is 叶 then the last one is 朱民喜. Here's a conversation with the left one during class:-
Me: 等下到你出来讲。
Bob:不要~
Me: 做么不要？男子汉没有胆
Bob: 我的胆放在家，忘记带来了。
After class finishes and during photo-taking session, these kiddo put their hands on my head.
Me: 很大胆hor你们，不是没胆的咩？
Bob: 忘记了，胆放在书包里面 x)
The middle one is a tongue twister pro. Like seriously.
One more shot with Wai Sze. She thinks that they looked like minions. -.-
Memory lane station 6: CANTEEN! Ahh too bad I didn't have a picture of that. Since leaving high school, there's been dining hall and now cafeteria, canteen seems to be left on the same spot after form 5. It's good to have back that nostalgic feeling again :) We had Hainan chicken rice for our recess, quite surprising to me to be eating that in Ipoh.
Memory lane station 7: Seeing kids eating food brought from home. I used to be one of them x) I saw 伟阳 eating alone and I asked him why don't he join his friends and he just shook his head. Le sigh~I tried.
Memory lane station 8: Toilet. Alright it'll be gross if I describe a primary school toilet here, but anyhow it still gives us the nostalgic vibe. And of course no pictures of those x)
Ahh my favourite photo! Initially I was going to take picture with one of the most memorable student in the Standard 3 class called 顺毅. He's the one behind the scene-stealer. Then came the other kiddos. 我要！我也要！我也要！！So there's a mix of Standard 3 and 4 students here because it's at the hall.
After recess, we continued our class with Standard 5 students. This class has an obvious imbalance of ratio between male and female students (studied too much QT) . There are a lot of male (and noisy) students than female ones. In fact, they are the most naughty and noisy ones compared to the other class. As much as I love them, they are the only ones who refuse to read along with me and making noise, playing games with rubber bands. I managed to snatch away one of them's though~hah! But of course I returned it.
Speaking of those rubber band games, then I realized those games weren't just the games of our generation. It was quite a relief to see none of them (so far) holding any electronic devices but were still learning how to make a double star out of a rubber band. Or talking about silly game cards, comparing them like how the guys in my primary school did. Another nice thing I witnessed is that I haven't heard a vulgar word from them, even if they were fooling or teasing around. Not even the word a-s-s like how my time, the boys used to emphasize it. A-S-S.
Once again, I spotted (no, not a twin) a younger brother who has a elder sister in Standard 6. Because their surname is so special. 聂。Quite good looking anyway x) That class has a few good looking ones honestly, and some with pretty special names, like 君健、振亨、顺亿。The class monitor (according to the boys) was so...I can't say matured, but he kinda speaks like an adult, you know like his pattern, the way he speaks. It's like I could already picture him as an adult. He even wants to get my Facebook :O I told him, kiddo if you're my brother I wouldn't allow you to have a social network. Facebook ain't something you would need at 11.
Last class would be the Standard 4 class. I guess due to the lack of time, I didn't really have any memorable moments with them. Except for the bald head 弥乐佛 hahah. Apparently it was really his nick name and I got it right first time. I was going to make it sound like a compliment but he cried! I was like, shit. I even apologized to him many times but his friend told me it was because of his friend not me. I still don't get the difference though hahah. Oh there's also the super competitive one. He's really good in English but really show off though, hardly gives others the chance to read. Didn't bother to find out his name anyway xD There's also one in Standard 5.
Like I said girls have their girls pride or pattern or whatever you call it. I spotted one in Standard 4 and 5. The Standard 5 one was when they were voting which group did the best recitation. When they were voting for a group she didn't support, she was like," You're not fair you're this you're that" so aggressive till it almost became so offensive. As for the Standard 4 one, after the kid finish reading and went back to his place. The girl told him "You weren't good at all, you suck and you shouldn't win!" O.O
Even Standard 3 kids also show this kind of attitude. After a girl won, the guy went over and said "You stopped for a while, you shouldn't win, Cherry should win!" This brings me to another aspect. Winning. I was told that in other classes, they were kids crying when they didn't win. I mean I understand that they're just kids but at such tender age already having this kind of mindset. Say wut?!
There were also some who were slower in learning and our time was limited. So I enjoyed walking around (with those dwarf-like chairs and tables xD) and checking on those students, then slowly reading with them.
Memory lane station 9: Dem dwarfy wooden chairs, tables and that teacher's chair-the only chair with cushion in class.
Watching a cartoon movie-The Princess and Her Desert Kingdom, before leaving.
Memory lane station 10: Computer labs! Though it seems to be more like my high school computer lab.
It's been a long time since seeing these kind of essays after my brother left primary school. This is the work of a Standard 1 student.
Overall I can see 3 types of students there. The first one is the cute and innocent ones. Another ones are mostly girls with their girls pattern, I don't know. The other one would be the quiet one (or maybe slow learner ones) who are rather quiet and less participative in class. I've seen one in almost every class. The one in Standard 5 was like completely negative to every question you ask. No reading, no going out answering questions, nothing. But in the end when he was chosen out to play the game, he actually did a pretty good job! Kudos to that boy!
It actually feels great because I'm doing something productive. I'm contributing, or giving back to the society. For me, the younger generation are the most important ones and therefore education is the most crucial part of it. This trip did not just gained me experience of how hard it is to stand in front of class and educate them in the best way possible, but also relaxation from the adult world; and also it brings me back down the memory lane of good old primary school days. Those were the days~It also showed me how pure and kind these kids are. Despite all those dramas, they are still young kids and....just look at that angelic smile! How can you not love them?! I just wish we can all be like them even though we are grown ups. I'm also glad to meet a lot of new, amazing friends during this trip! My groupmates, Wai Sze, Shell Mun, Siew Mian, Fong Xian, Maple and Jia Jun, you guys are awesome! :D
written: 3/8/13 1am.
photo credits to Stewart, wai sze and other cameras x)
