ONLY BY GRACE

Just staring out of the window from my living room and I love what I saw. Not every night is this beautiful. So I quickly ran to get my camera to capture what was before my very eyes. Maybe some shots of the evening sunset soon. At dusk. The great ball of fire!

Came across this article in The Sunday Times (July 26) titled "Great teachers in a class of their own" and found it thought-provoking. Below is an excerpt taken from the article: " Truly exceptional teachers, at whatever level - primary or secondary school, undergraduate or post-graduate- are rarer than exceptional doctors or lawyers . that is so not because the profession is filled with people who cannot "do". On the contrary, it is so because teaching - exceptional teaching - involves a rare order of doing . You cannot convey values by reciting them. An exceptional teacher conveys them by example, by osmosis almost, from every fibre of her being, even in her speech and gesture...bad teacher insists; good teachers are. The reason the last are rare is that the most important things in any subject, as in life, cannot be taught explicitly. they can only be embodied as examples - in the teachers themsevles. Being vs. Doing. The editor summed it well : "Ex...

My last entry was during my 1st week of TP 1 and I'm now into my last week! These 5 weeks whizzed by and it has been memorable. I remembered mentioning how apprehensive I was about the practicum and somehow over the weeks, those fears and concerns became so insignificant. While I was grappling with the school's culture, system and everything about it, I somehow still look forward to going to school everyday. God's saving grace - the new found friends. As been my belief, its always the PEOPLE who make the difference. My prayer has always been to be able to find like-minded teachers/friends/colleagues in whichever school I'm in and He answered my prayers. Faithful He has been and always will be. He never fails to bring people into my life to keep me on track and to remind me of my purpose. I can be grumbling about how yucky the school's system is but when I think of the people , happy thoughts just take over almost instantly. *Drum Rolls......* JIAWEN : Ever so sweet...

Almost a month since my last entry and it wasn't really due to lack of time. I just wasn't in the mood to update. All thanks to the teaching practicum which I'm in now. Even though it's for only 5 weeks and its a pass/fail thing, I can't help but feel the stress of it. For one, I hate all the observations & assessments nonsense. Its pure formula for high blood pressure. And I don't really enjoy lesson planning but it's the bulk of any practicum! Hurrah! Many negative thoughts ran through my head prior to the start of the TP and it surely didn't help at all. Even though I did contract teaching for 1.5 years, its just a different feeling altogether. Ideally, just be myself and pretend no one is observing me. Realistically, its a feat! This week was supposed to be my first observations by my CT & NIE Sup. I was all geared up for lessons until I had a sprain in my ankle. Alas! I'm out of action from school for 2 days and observations postponed. B...