A brand new chapter.

Last week was my first week at work. For the first two days, we attended the Teacher Preparatory Course at the Teachers' Academy. I must say, Mrs Gatt was a great lecturer. She shared with us many precious personal experiences when going through the concepts and methods on classroom management. I guess we were all really nervous to teach, especially in terms of classroom management. Students nowadays are so unpredictable and not only do we need to manage them, we have to deal with their overprotective parents as well. On the second day of the course, we were feeling so excited but at the same time super worried and nervous for school the next day. One important takeaway from the course, or rather from Mrs Datt, was that no matter what, we have to persevere, to have resilience. The journey is not going to be easy, she said and we know it in our hearts, but we have to strive to perform to the best we can. It really is going to be harder than it sounds but I hope to put in my very best, to be a teacher whom the students will respect and of course to learn things from. Of course, I will need to learn from the students and my mentors and supervisors!

First official day at work on Wednesday: I reported to school at 7am promptly, feeling so proud of myself for being able to wake up at 6am hahaha. Lo and behold, the admin officer looked at me, shocked, and told me I was supposed to report at 12pm. Apparently, she had informed me over the phone but maybe I did not register that info ~.~ So I went back home and.... slept of course hahaha. So, I am going to shadow a Primary 1 form teacher (Ms Mah) and will be parallel teaching the class together with her. In the past, I had always thought that anyone could teach Primary ones and that it was the easiest task in school. In fact, I had all the while belittled a primary one teacher *feeling ashamed of myself* :c, feeling that the upper primary teachers were more important in a child's education. I was so so wrong :c After shadowing for only a day, I came to realise the importance of a primary one teacher and it was definitely not easy to discipline and teach the little ones. They are the ones who mould the foundation, be it academically or morally, of the P1s and prepare them for learning and the challenges in the near future. Not only do you need ample patience for them, you also need to be extremely caring towards them. Having seen how Ms Mah has managed the class, I feel in awe for her. She is so calm and treat the students with utmost respect. She never screams at them and she tries to engage everyone during lessons:') I would have never guessed that she had just graduated from NIE a year ago. I have so much to learn from her and hopefully, will be as effective, as a teacher, as her :)