Chicken

Just a short post since I'm too busy marking the pupil's exam paper and preparing for my kids' English Carnival for Pekan Nenas Zone Level. Well, we got number one for both story-telling level 1 and level 2 and number two for Public Speaking. Now I'm training my Spelling Bee team and since we're still new in this, an exposure for the kids are good enough. District Level, here we come!!!

During the exam, a conversation with my pupil is still making me laugh and smile. A pupil was absent the whole week so I asked her, more or less like this;

Me: Yasmin, Dian dah lama tak datang, dia pergi mana?
Pupil: Dia sakit, teacher.
Me: Sakit apa?
Pupil: Sakit 'CHICKEN CHOP'
Me: Awak ni biar betul, sakit lepas makan Chicken Chop?
Pupil: Ala... yang sakit banyak bintik merah tu... (sambil menggaru kepala)
Me: ROFLMAO - Chicken POX lah!

Kids, you just got to love them.

Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah

Ever seen the movie 'There's Something About Mary'?
To be specific, the part when Ben Stiller's character managed to get his thingy stuck between the zipper since he was too busy looking at Mary while doing his business? Youch!

Well, same thing happened, only that the circumstance changed.

A year 6 boy was circumcised during last year's school holiday. Maybe he was playing rough with his friends or he was in such a hurry that he managed to... well get his thingy stuck to his zipper. Accompanied by his two smiling friends who were not at least sympathetic, his face was covered with tears and of course at that time, we, female teachers went berserk looking for male teachers to aid him. Of course, there are things that female teachers can't simply do.

The on-duty teacher was, thank goodness a male, so he sent the boy back to his house with the boy bawling his head off.

That happened last week. The boy is still absent from school.

Moral of the story: Parents, train your kid to wear their undies since young. It's important.

Ode to Mudirah

I could almost hear her voice shaking me up from my daydream in the classroom and asking me to construct a sentence from the Arabic word given...

She was our KTAM principal since my sister's time - and that was in late 80s until she retired when we moved to SMKAJB.

She was Puan Hjh Zaiton bt Atan.

Thank you for being our teacher,
Thank you for giving us guidance,
Thank you for being our mentor.

Thank you for being strict on me,
Thank you for believing in me,
Thank you for aspiring me.

You are an inspiration.

Syukran jazilan ya Mudirah.

Al-Fatihah.

Biology 101

It was a good morning today, albeit the cold weather. I was on my way to sign my name at the office when I saw pupils were crowding by the pond. I was curious of course and went to join the kids.

What the kids saw were frogs.

Not just any frog.

They were seeing frogs that were engaging in a threesome.

The arrow shows a dot that were the threesome frogs.

Hanis, a friend of mine was also passing through the pond when a curious year 1 pupil asked her what the frogs were doing.

How awkward.

She said "They're fighting," without elaborating more. Well, they were fighting so it's not wrong. Of course la, seven year old don't ask that much but the year 6 pupils were looking at her sceptically. So the crowd stayed with utter fascination until the bell rang and the frogs were carrying on for hours.

Darn the frogs for mating in the pond.

Kids Say The Darnedest Thing

Kids do say the darnedest things. They're sincere, straight up and most of the time - tactless. Some are flattering, some are funny and some are just downright embarrassing.

I was teaching year 1 pupils writing and as usual had to call up few pupils who need special attention while doing it or they might not even do their exercise. If they did, they might write with lots of errors and ended up being totally messy.

There is this kid, always up to mischief and needs round the clock supervision or he will run out of the class and play around the teachers' car. So this was what he asked me today:-

Pupil: Cikgu, cikgu nak kereta apa? Nanti saya belikan untuk cikgu (Teacher, what car do you want? I'll buy it for you)
Me: Kenapa? (Why?)
Pupil: Kereta cikgu buruk sangat la, kesian saya tengok (Your car's so ugly that I sympathize you)
Me: ??

Manic Week

It had been a very hectic time since school started nearly 2 weeks ago and honestly this is the first time I could ever manage to sit still and not falling back to sleep like I did the past days. And of course the first time I went on reading blogs since the time I updated mine. Along with other English teachers at school, we were busy preparing our pupils for the Zone level English Carnival. On Friday, we had 'solat hajat' event from 6.30pm to 11.00 pm, and on Saturday I was given opportunity to become a judge for the Storytelling competition level 1 for Bandar Zone. Sunday, again, trained my pupil who represents the school for the storytelling competition level 2 in the Pekan Nenas Zone English Carnival.

This is her, the pupil that I trained for months with the aid of her mother who also happened to be a teacher in my school and other English teachers. And this was taken before the competition in the teacher's common room.

Many thanks also to my mom who helped me sewing the kain sampin and show me how to make the tengkolok. We got number 1 for Public Speaking Level 2 and Storytelling Level 2. I found myself enjoying the task of sewing the beads at the sleeve and pocket, making a fake beard and bedazzling a plain sandal to this:-

Yeah, yeah so I have to stick some more of that stuff before the district level competition this Saturday. Hope we can make it this district level since there's another round for the competition that calls for an impromptu storytelling. For an English non-speaker at home, that is going to be tough. Wish us luck!

Socked!

The watcher strikes again.
This time, it happened in my classroom.

I was teaching in the lab and was checking on the kid's note-writing progress at the back. Suddenly a prefect tapped me and said someone had been punched. Of course la, I pivoted back up front the science lab and there I saw a boy, also a prefect crying silently, covering his right eye with his left hand and writing his notes with his right.

I asked him, who did the punching?
He was just silent and kept writing and more tears fell.
Some good friends on his lab table said a name and I was shocked.

It is the name of a girl, also a prefect but a head shorter than he is. I looked at the other table next to his and saw the girl shooting daggers at him. The girl was also tight lipped. She did not answer why she punched him but of course la, her friends was saying that the boy was jeering at her. Still water runs deep, wahahaha.

It was so comical that I was trying so hard at not laughing while reprimanding those two kids.

Brotherly Love

The school watcher strikes again. This time, its not the weird things that the pupils did. It was heart warming. To me that is.

It is common for pupils to have siblings in the school whether they are younger or older. Not forgetting those who have cousins too. For the first week, usually parents for year 1 pupils would wait outside the classroom and eventually when their children were able to adapt with school life, the parents crowd would dissipate. It is different for those with brothers and sisters ahead of them though. Mostly, sisters would wait for their younger siblings during recess. Brothers would only wait for their kid sister and brother when the last bell rings. Maybe having younger siblings tagging along during recess would cramp their style, hehe.

That certainly brought me to this entry.

There are a pair of twin boys in year six. I have to say that they are among the popular crowd since both of them are in the leading year 6 class, one of them is a prefect and both of them are the school champion in shot put and javelin. They're both in the different sport houses of course and they have their own personality.

What made me aware of them?

They happened to be the only boys who would wait for their sister in year one for recess and I often saw them bringing their sister behind the school building to share food. I teach their sister's class and I never fail to notice them outside the classroom as the recess bell rang. Of course they escorted their sister alternately. When the prefect was on his canteen duty his brother would take her. One day as I was about to go home on a Friday, I saw them cycling. At that time the prefect was carrying their sister on his bike and the his brother was cycling in front. Their sister sat on the carrier wrongly. What made me pause was, the prefect stopped at the roadside and lifted his sister behind to properly positioned her on the carrier comfortably. The other twin noticed his brother's act and waited patiently in front. When that was done, they cycled home together.

Wasn't that just sweet?
And they're still the coolest kids in year 6.

Drabble drabble

Lunar new year had just passed and for us, school starts today. The road this morning was completely free flowing and since my daily route included 5 other schools, that was really something. For the 5 days holiday, managed to make my way to Serdang. There's the fact that my siblings are there and there's also the fact that my sayang is there so of course, that would be my main destination. My future-sister-in-laws's wedding was during the school sport's day and last weekend was the reception at the groom's place so yeah, it was one of the reasons too. Then the much long due visit to my uncle's house at the village in Sijangkang was also one of the top agenda. So little time so much place to go.

And then the much expected addiction.

I just so know it that once I get my hands playing Phoenix Wright on my brother's DS that I would be hooked. I am and too bad my laptop can't save the game *WARGHH!!!!*

*Sniff sniff*

Back to school and my schedule is getting busier since the schedule was changed according to new teacher's major and minor subject in the institute. And I wonder what possessed me to volunteer for the story writing contest for teacher's entry this morning. It's due next week, aiyoyoooo. And I haven't even checked my pupil for the zone level story telling contest. And then there's the sports meeting this Wednesday, afternoon class, night class *faint*. And I haven't even start the stock for the resource centre...

Whoever said that teaching job is the easiest is definitely a bystander who have no idea at all.

Anyway, I love it and it's worth it ^_^

*Tuneless whistle*

Yeah, been so long since I've written and too many things happened in between.

Well there was Heath Ledger's demise, a demise of an unfortunate monkey who managed to get to the Parit Selangor's power generator, got electrocuted and managed to keep my home area without electricity from 4.30pm to 1am. That was just fine and dandy *snickers*.

It was this early February when our school held the yearly sports day since the zone level tournament was due at the end of the month or early march. This is the first time ever, and I mean EVER that I was placed in green house. Before this in primary and secondary school I was in yellow house. Of course, during primary school yellow house was the weakest but good thing that in secondary school yellow house was one of the leaders. So anyway as for the school's green house, they always say that green house is the closest to the grass. Meaning - always the last and the bottom.

For this year, since the new school building is constructed, the field is off limits so we have to make do with whatever we have. The green house held their training - by borrowing another school's field and we do get some 'good-natured' ribbing for our enthusiasm since we're the only team who did. The rest did theirs around and outside the school compound, along the road and wherever that may be.

Brought 3 pupils back home since we held the event at a secondary school nearby home, and it was way much convenient than having to go back and forth to school and fetch those kids. With the electricity off and my eyelids nearly shut, I was running out of ideas to keep the girls entertained. I asked them multiplication questions throughout the hours and finally I caved in as I was waiting for their answers. My mom was thoroughly delighted with the girls' presence and *gasp* told me that she would so like to have them back home >_>

So anyway, the next day. Green house went off for a good start. We got the first gold. Had to take the picture while we were still leading, hehehe.

Then our star long jumper was injured -_-* who also happened to be one of our relay runners. My hope went downhill from that point during the relay when we were the slowest for the 1st runner but perked up again as our 3rd and 4th runner managed to catch up with everyone. We won!!! For the relay la. I promised the girls for a treat at Skudai's McD if they got the first place. 2 did and 1 didn't. Treat time!!!




For all it's worth, we managed to climb a step to the 3rd placing which was great. There's always a next time ^_^

Amusing Division

This happened during today's recess time when I was having a meal at the school canteen with other fellow teachers. We saw an incident that involved 2 pupils regarding dividing their share of fruit. So this was the situation:-

Pupil A was holding 2 pieces of honeydew melon that was cut in half at the middle to his friend pupil B. Piece 1 was slightly longer than piece 2.


Okay, so what do you think happened afterwards?


If you think that pupil A took the longer piece 1 and gave piece 2 to pupil B - you are wrong.


This was what happened.


After a few seconds of deliberation pupil A held out piece 1 to pupil B, not to give it to his friend, mind you, but apparently he asked pupil B to take a bite out of piece 1. Pupil A deliberated again and compared the length of piece 1 melon and piece 2 melon.

Obviously after the bite off from pupil B, piece 1 became shorter. Now the amusing part - he gave piece 1 to pupil B which was shorter then and took piece 2 that at that moment was longer, looking way too smug thinking that he got the better deal of the 2.

The other teachers and I, who were watching the incident was like, "Huh?!"

Moral of the story: Learn your maths

Okay, I'm going back to the television and continue watching Braveheart ^_^
Have a good weekend!

Report to the base A.S.A.P!

It's my first day reporting at the school. So far, so good. The size of the school is more or less like my school during internship, only that the area is way congested. The area is limited and currently the school lost its field to make way for the construction of a new school building. From what I have learned, there are not much outdoor physical education activity for the pupils and the parking lot is always full that they have to double park the cars to accommodate the teachers.

It was school registration and fee collecting day. They prepared food for the teachers and staff today and I was quite surprised when suddenly someone was looking at me weird and asked:-

"Adik Kak Nadiah ke ni?"

I guffawed with laughter since I don't even have a kid sister, my name is definitely that and the question was so out of the blue that I choked on the cendol that I was consuming. The person who asked that was my junior from my secondary school days, much to my delight and we caught up with each other.

Got my schedule, took the respective textbooks and I was off back home by noon. Later in the evening, went out with my childhood buddy, Yan to the local mamak restaurant and filling in each other with details on our new schools - hers being our past rival primary school. Her sister happened to get a very remote school with only 9 teachers and the co-op happened to situated in the cupboard at the common room.

It's good to be back home with familiar faces and surrounding.

Anyway, I went back listening to Leona Lewis's song and due to my curiousity went on youtubing and I was blasted away by the sight of the judges of UK's X-factor and the audience kept on giving her a standing ovation after the performance and the cheer went on for so long after each and every performances. I mean, hey, how many times did you see Simon Cowell and all the judges kept on ovationing in the American Idols? Surely not as much as he did for Leona. The girl got talent and as the judges said which I totally agreed - she 'Leona-fied' all the songs that she sang, making it her own. And dang they didn't air X-Factor here.

Seems that I'm totally hooked up with X-Factor winners, hehehehe.