It has been a month since I started teaching at the Studentcare centre. Got to know the staff and students better and was able to reach out to them more readily. The principal, Mrs Tay, is a friendly and approachable lady who gives me a free hand as to how I want to conduct my lessons and to handle the kids (as long as they don't complain or quit). She doesn't have a regular class and helps to discipline the children when needed. Then there is the Chinese teacher from China, Ms Huang, who not only teaches Chinese but also takes care of the children's meals. She tends to converse more with me as it seems that I am the only one, other than Mrs Tay, who can understand and speak Chinese (The other teachers are really those English-educated ones). Another teacher whom I talk to quite often is Mrs Dhama who lives near Sembawang. I would run into her at the bus stop near Yio Chu Kang MRT station. It turned out that the retired teacher from Marymount Convent is a neighbour of Ms Anandan, my former vice-principal from SPS. It's indeed a very small world and somehow we would meet someone who know somebody that we know.

So much about the teaching staff. My P5 and 6 kids are another lot of interesting characters. I have 7 P6 gals but only 2 boys and most of the time only one of the boys would be present. He is from Ai Tong and is the more hard working one. The gals tend to be more talkative and more lax in their work. But once they sensed that I am not too happy with the noise level, they would somehow automatically lower their volume. I guess they must have heard me scolding my P5 boys and wouldn't want me to torture their ears. Nevertheless as their PSLE approaches, they did show some sense of urgency and would try to complete whatever exercises given to them. Hope that they would continue to feel the pressure so that they would be more serious with their work and to work hard for the results they desire.

My P5 is a rowdy lot as there are 12 boys but only 4 gals. They tend to talk about childish stuffs like Pokemon cards and some online games. A couple of the boys would always complete their work way ahead of the others and would start to play between themselves. Then when they get too disruptive I would give them a piece of my mind and send them out of the class. Then there is a joker who would always make some nonsensical remarks during the lesson to amuse the class. Too bad I don't enjoy or tolerant such amusement and he too get send out quite often. Of course not all the boys would misbehave but somehow they would join in the fun that was being created by the mischievous ones. The gals who would normally occupy the first row of seats tend to be more attentive and more serious with their work. But they are the ones to suffer most whenever I raise my voice at the boys. Perhaps I should warn them the next time I shout at the boys again.

Though I do enjoy teaching a much smaller class as compare to a standard class size, I wasn't able to conduct a standard lesson for all. Having come from different schools, the kids are using different text and as such the topics that they are being taught in school are also not in the same order. I would have one group learning the chapter on Percentage, another group learning Rate and yet another learning Average. Thus, it can get quite messy and confusing when I need to help them with their school work. Now, I would find out the topics that most of the kids are weak in and conduct a proper lesson on those topics before helping the individual student with their problems on the other topics. Thus, there are times when I would keep some of the kids back to help them with their 'special' problems till the centre closes for the day.

One month already and I can't wait for the many more months to come as it seems that teaching in a centre can be as fulfilling as teaching in a school and more importantly it's definitely less stressful than in a normal school. I wouldn't be going back to school soon but I don't mind staying in a centre for a while, perhaps till I reopen my cafe or set up my own centre. Anyway, it would be quite a while before that happens so at the meantime, I would continue to enjoy what I have always loved doing and live each day to its fullest.