Hari Kadet Polis 2013

I realised earlier this year that I have not blogged about my involvement with the Police Cadets even though I have been an advisor at my school since 2009!
So allow me to share with you what it is like to advise the Police Cadets.

One of the most important events of the year is the Hari Kadet Polis or the Hari Jadi for the cadets. It is officially on 31 March but, this year, it was postponed to April.

Sometimes, the police will make the long & sunny journey on a boat to my school to help train my students. Most of the time, however, it's the teachers who have to do what they can with the limited knowledge they possess.

In preparation for the event, I spent my afternoons, training the students to march &, the evenings, training them to sing national songs, police songs & cadet songs. I had to go intensive because my students were totally unprepared. I didn't want them to be an embarrassment during the event. There will be other schools involved &, like it or not, people will compare & people will talk. I want them to feel privileged, exclusive & proud to be part of this event. I want the other schools to learn respect & never to look down on rural schools.

Everybody looked really impressive & well-groomed. I'm so proud.

It rained after the event so we waited for the rain to subside before making our way to our boat ride back to school.

As expected, my students did very well during the event & left very good impressions on the police personnel. They sang the songs louder than the other schools because they were more familiar with them. They were also better at marching as a whole because of the training they received. I am very proud of them.

You might notice the lack of uniforms. My students are all too poor to afford uniforms with can cost around RM200. A month's wages for some of their parents.
In 2010, I wrote a letter to the MP asking for aid. I got it in 2011 & I purchased the uniforms you see in this picture. More are added to the collection every year.
I used to have a problem with inventory but now a very responsible teacher is taking charge so I'm pretty sure the uniforms will last for the long run.

There are a few more big activities planned for the cadets this year, including jungle trekking, a camp & a visit to the Song PD. Hopefully, all of these plans will materialise & you get to read about them right here!
Go, cadets!

All the pictures from this event can be found here.

Go & Vote!!

I love my country.

Although I have travelled around a little bit, the more places I see, the more I appreciate my home.

I may be descended from pendatangs who came from China in dingy boats 3 generations ago. But, I still consider my home to be Malaysia. NOT China.

I believe in God. I respect the King. I accept the rule of law.

I speak Bahasa Melayu. Anuar Zain is my idol. I love sambal. I use -lah excessively. I have many brothers of different ethnicities.

I want to call myself a Malaysian. NOT a Chinese.

I want to see my country grow.

Although I have studied in a faraway land, I decided to come back, stay & develop my country.

Although I am very ambitious, I decided to serve my country deep in the jungle as a humble secondary school teacher.

I am doing my little bit for my country every day.

That's just the thing. We are only able to do a little bit.

There are people who can make a BIG difference with a mere stroke of a pen.

On Sunday, you will be given a chance to CHOOSE those people. This is when our little bits make a BIG difference.

Whatever or whoever you choose, that's your privilege. I will defend your right to make that choice.

Make sure you go EARLY.

Make sure you bring your IC.

Make sure you do not have any political symbols on you.

Make sure you GO & VOTE!!!

Tomorrow morning, I will be going into the jungle to stay overnight at a longhouse.

On Sunday morning, I will set up a polling station with my team so that even the people deep in the jungle can exercise their right to vote.

Some of them have to trek through a jungle. Some of them have to ride on a boat. They usually come in full attendance. What excuses have you got not to vote?

I am sick & tired of people who brag about how they did not register or how they will not go to vote. They will have 101 of the best reasons why they shouldn't do it.

Honestly, I am ashamed of knowing you & you have just lost my respect. For you do not love my country. You are taking for granted something very precious & valuable.

It doesn't really matter who wins or who loses, what matters is the LEGITIMATE citizens of Malaysia chose them.
Your choice matters.
It'll only take a few minutes of your precious Sunday. Monday is probably going to be a holiday anyway so don't complain about not getting enough rest.

Our nation is at a crossroads. The next elections could go either way.
There is no better time to vote than this Sunday. Every ballot paper dropped in a ballot box will be a ripple in history. You'll have taken part in the most tightly contested elections ever in the history of our country!
Every vote makes a real difference. YOUR vote makes a difference.
GO & VOTE!!!

I Was Cetak Rompak-ed

Check it out. Somebody totally cetak rompak-ed a few of my FB pictures & used it in his FB profile.

A friend of mine noticed this FB picture from the friend list of a friend of hers. This was an old picture of me back in 2008.

There's also my latest FB picture where I'm all wrapped up I could be Keanu Reaves.

Honestly, I don't feel offended at all. This is really flattering really. I've seen people who use pictures of celebrities/cartoon/professional photos of made-up girls but I had never in my wildest dreams imagined that someone would use MY photos. lol. They're not even that good!

The first photo was a photo of me pretending to pay attention to a lecture when I was actually sound asleep a few seconds before the photo was taken. lol.
The biker picture was taken by my mom before my maiden long distance voyage on my bike. Way to go, mom!

I would send him a message to thank him personally but, unfortunately, he has blocked me. So, FB being the shining beacon of privacy security, simply tells me that he does not exist.
Well, if you're reading this, Ting PS, whoever & wherever you are... Thanks. You made my day.

Update (29/4/2013): After several readers easily Googled the identity of the person who owns this FB profile, I decided to protect her identity (including deleting comments).
Ting PS, I apologise for not foreseeing this earlier. I took action as soon as I got back from Hari Kadet Polis this morning & a tiring weekend conducting the Prefect Leadership Camp.

The Most Heartbreaking Thing In Teaching

When I'm heartbroken, I get more like this than teary or emotional. lol

When you read the title, you're probably thinking some colleague stabbed my back. Or, maybe an administrator shut down one of my programmes. Maybe the students played a prank on me. Or, maybe a parent came at me with a parang & blew sumpits at me.
Honestly, character attacks, criticism, backstabbing comes with the territory.

I am the nail that sticks out. Some people will feel like hammering me down. Some people will support me & learn from my experiences.
Either way, I've learned not to let it bother me & instead focus on what I want to achieve.
Achieving it, in itself, is a good enough reward to me. I don't need no appreciation. I ain't no kindergarten kid.

Also, let me say that I am not perfect. I do make mistakes & I do cut corners to get the job done because honestly there is just too much to do!
I really salute the person who can be a perfect teacher & do everything the ministry prescribes, fulfil all his/her obligations & materialise all his/her ideas inside & outside the classroom.
I wish to be like that one day... and then some.

Here it is.

The most heartbreaking thing in teaching is building something great the first time around, leaving it in the hands of another, coming back to it a few years later, seeing your work undone, and having to do it all over again.

THAT is the most HEARTBREAKING & DEMOTIVATING thing about teaching.

Yeah... Pussy gets me.

How many of you have experienced the same thing?
Do you feel like doing it all over again?
Of course, I can do way better the second time around. But, it just stabs really deep to see something you put in a lot of tender loving care to build, disappear.
What's the point of doing it so great again when it might just disappear again when I go?
Sad.

It's hard not to play the blame game. I wont go into that today because I have never walked a mile in their shoes.
I guess I'm a victim of my own success. I did well the first time around which makes it hard to fill my shoes & do something similar. So, very few try. They'll have 101 very rational reasons not to. Interior school. No resources. No support. Blah blah blah. So what did they do? They allowed themselves to be defeated before the war had begun.
THAT's just how I am feeling now... I guess I'll have to go through the 4 stages of how to survive teaching I wrote about recently. Talk about putting my money where my mouth is.

THE STORY

I was head of the English Panel (with it the head of the English Language Society advisers) & head of the Police Cadet advisers back in 2010. That was my best year ever because I could do so much within that 1 year. I will briefly list down what I've done so you get to compare & contrast.

English Language Panel: Resurrecting The English Language Society. Again the next year. Starting the Katibas Global newspaper. Bringing the English Language Week to a whole new level. Pushing it even further the next year. Joined a video competition with ELS members. Again the next year. Staying back during the August holidays & giving a talk about PMR English paper. And again the next year + SPM. Rewarding excellent English Language PMR results. And again. And again + Kuching trip for straight A students. Producing the first ever wholly English school magazine. Amongst others.

Police Cadets: Field trip to the District Police Station (career talk + safety talk + gun display + bike ride), Police Cadet Day, Police talk in school, marching training, amongst others. Unfortunately, I did not blog about those. Will do so for my activities this year.

In 2011, I quit because I wanted to focus on being a good Chief Warden. With a laid-back leader, I had to play a bigger role in school discipline & academic performance. I organised an Earth Hour blackout. And again. Organised Hostel Open Day. And again. Organised Hostel Olympics. Got involved with almost every camp organised by the school because I was part of the discipline committee & representative of admin like this one. And this one. And this one. Organised motivation programmes for PMR students. Organised programmes for at-risk students. Organised birthday celebrations. Organised merdeka celebrations. Blessed the lower level staff. Defended the hostel allocation from buaya darat. Amongst others.
So you see, I wasn't just hanging around the canteen drinking coffee. I can't be a great Chief Warden if I still have to take care of a club or uniformed body.

This year, 2013, I quit as a Chief Warden because I feel that all my efforts to sustain school discipline & academic achievement has taken too big a toll on my body, personal time & well-being. I was almost doing the job of a principal albeit the power of a principal.
Now that I am no longer CW, admin wants me to do what I used to do. So, They made me head of the English Panel, head of the English Language Society advisers & adviser to the Police Cadet. I'm also a form teacher & I teach 5 English language classes: 1 Form 5 class, 3 Form 2 PBS classes & 1 Form 1 PBS class.
Yay to workload.

The English panel & English Language Society has become really simple under the previous head who was my junior & got transferred earlier than me. It has little or no impact on the school population like it used to in 2010 & 2011 like I designed it to be.
I'm still considering whether it is worth it to add it's re-resurrection to my workload.
We only have 4 English teachers. So, I'd rather not delegate unless they volunteer because the others are having an equally hard time with their involvements. And, who in the right mind would volunteer for more work except crazy baskets like ME?!

As for the Police Cadets, I was really disappointed when the uniforms I worked so hard to source were not taken cared of.
Back in 2010, after seeing how my students (all of them could not afford uniforms) looked really dejected for not having uniforms on Police Cadet Day, I wrote a letter to the Kapit MP for allocation to purchase uniforms to lend to the students. With some pulling of strings, I was successful. Then, I bargained with a tailor for top quality uniforms at a lower price. I obtained 27 uniforms.
In 2012, the ministry allocated some money for uniforms & a few more were added.

Today, there are only 18 uniforms left & all of them have missing accessories. The accessories can only be obtained in Sibu... 1 hour sampan ride & 2 hour express boat ride away.
The Police Cadet Day is on the 29th. I am involved in a Prefect Camp from the 26-28th so I have to purchase the missing accessories this weekend. However, this weekend has a school day replacement.
After teaching this morning, I rushed to Sibu & purchased all the accessories I needed. Tomorrow afternoon, I will make my journey back to school.

Why didn't I do this earlier? Well, I was only informed last weekend. I checked the uniforms on Monday assuming they'd be there with just a few missing. It hurt to find that more than 10 sets have gone missing as well as RM300 worth of accessories.
After this, I will never lend the uniforms for any parade, skit, etc unless it is a Police Cadet activity.

As a whole, the Police Cadets were much better off than the English language panel because the previous head adviser organised a lot of activities for them, like camps deep into the interiors.
This year, I am actually more motivated to do Police Cadet activities because I have a good partner. I plan to write a letter asking for uniforms or accessories as well as organise another field trip to the Police Station.

Also, I am going to build up Form 4 students to take over leadership of the English Language Society and the Police Cadets next year. I feel that the students are too dependent on teachers to spoon-feed them with activities.
Will attempt to train students to plan & execute their own activities.

At the moment, I have very little time to mourn. I guess I'll lick my wounds & soldier on.

How To Survive Teaching

This is how most people view teaching. And oh, how the envy goes both ways.

As with other professions, teaching has its own set of challenges; namely a posting in the interiors, overbearing leaders, unbelievable targets, Emmy award-esque classroom performances, classroom control, marking, clerical chores, office politics, subordination, workload taichi, etc.
It also has it's perks, long holidays & an above market rate salary. But, there are times I have been so drained & alone that I wonder if it was worth it. I have, many times during the past few years, seriously wondered why I'm still working at the level I am now. It is just so tempting & easy to join the "backbenchers". I'm glad that I didn't.

Today, I want to share about how I survived as a teacher. I believe the same principles can be applied to other professions & many aspects of life.
I know that there are many people out there struggling with the teaching profession. We have & will probably continue to have ups & downs in this profession.
The truth is. Work is work. It is especially hard if you don't enjoy it or do not think that it is your thing.

I guess we were not prepared for a hard life. Most of us had it pretty easy during our studying days. School & university was a breeze. We could sleep all day & do our assignments at the last minute.
We were probably not that serious about our part time jobs too because we had a parent-chute to rescue us should we fall into financial trouble.

So, what are you going to do? Do you want to thrive? Or, do you want to merely survive?

The easy thing to do would be to quit. Honestly, if you quit before you've truly tired to fight for your survival, you're a coward.

Believe it or not, you are actually a professional. You've beaten millions of other candidates & gotten yourself into a premier civil service position. Also, you have a degree. That means that you have something in between your ears. Use it.

Teaching is not easy but it is also the most rewarding profession in the world. You get to shape lives & make a difference.
If you feel that this is not what you want to do, don't bother to continue reading.
If you are fed up with your circumstances & want to do something about it, read on & follow the 4 steps I took myself recently.

1. Allow Yourself To Grieve

We are humans & we have emotions for a reason. It is our greatest ally as teachers & also our greatest weakness.
When our expectations are not met or if we have been unfairly exploited, it will build up in our emotions. An extended period of overworked or suppressed emotions will lead to breakdowns or burnout.

Do whatever you need to do to vent your worn out emotions. Scream, cry, eat ice cream, dance, travel, take time off, do the Harlem shake. Whatever you want to do, do it. You cant use your head if your heart is in a mess.

Once you've taken an emotional dump, you can move on to the next stage.

2. Accept Your Circumstances

Whatever your situation, be it condescending colleagues, unsupportive superiors, unfair distribution of work, an assortment of knives sticking out of your back, uncooperative students, mischievous pranks, aggressive helicopter parents, etc, accept it for what it is.
Also, you might need to begin accepting your inability to change your circumstances.

Don't try to make your circumstances out to be what they are not, because, the reality is, they will NEVER be what they are not. Do NOT compare. The more you do, the worse you will feel. Look at your circumstances as they are & make peace with your misfortune.

The sooner you accept your circumstances for what they are, the sooner you can work on making things better for you.

3. Appreciate What You Do Have

The truth is every cloud has a silver lining. Admit it. There is something within your circumstances that you love & it adds to you. It could be the students who respond to you, the colleagues who support you, the parents who appreciate you, the unique opportunities you have, etc. Any little positive thing. Hold on to it.

Understand that in every circumstance there is a good side & a bad side. Unfortunately, we are usually too obsessed with the bad side that we often overlook all the good that is around us.
If we focus on what is bad, we will eventually become that which we despise. If we focus on what is good, we can build on from there.

Until you can begin to see good things about your situation & appreciate it, you are not ready to thrive.

4. Teach Like You're In The Best School Ever

It sounds crazy, doesn't it? There you are being spun around like Kylie Minogue & here I am some idiot in the jungle telling you to teach like you're in the best school ever when, in reality, you are not!

Well, until you have unloaded your emotional baggage, made peace with your circumstances & begun to see the good things around you, you can't teach like you're in the best school ever.

Honestly, what have you got to lose? Your only alternative is to continue dwelling in the depths of despair at a place you despise. Isn't it time you turned the sheet thrown at you into gold?

Let me give you a simple comparison. Imagine a teacher teaching in the best school ever. Now, imagine a teacher teaching in the worst school ever. Which one will do better?

The truth is it's all the in head. Best or worst is merely a matter of opinion. The same school could be the best to one & the worst to another.

But, there is a whole world of difference in the actions taken by a person who thinks that he's at an awesome place to serve compared to a person who thinks that he should be working elsewhere.

Imagine that you are in the best school ever. What kind of activities would you like to carry out? Make it big. Make it slightly beyond you. Bring other people in. Above all, make it happen.
This is probably the most important advice I can give you as a teacher: Make things happen instead of allowing things to happen to you.

Network. During the holidays, visit your PPD & JPN. Find out who is the officer in charge of your subject. Find ways to collaborate.

Build relationships with the teachers from other schools. Find ways to collaborate.

Keep an eye out for events by NGOs / GOs relevant to your subject matter. Attend. Build relationships. Collaborate.

Keep an eye out for conferences. Attend. Build relationships. Collaborate. At one point of your career, you should be a presenter during one of these conferences. Everybody has something unique worth sharing.

There are infinite possibilities on how to thrive as a teacher. There is no reason for you to be unable to top yourself each & every year.

The time for self-pity & excuses have passed.

It is now time to take control of your circumstances & make a difference.
Remember, your circumstances do not decide what kind of teacher you become. You do.