THANKS

A student came to me and told me that her mom wants to thank me for helping her achieve good results in English and also for helping in Geography.

Being a narcissist, I was quick to give myself a pat on the back. After doing that though, I quickly pointed out to her that the credit was, really, all hers. One thing I realised over the years is that teachers truly wield tremendous influence. Sometimes, even more than parents.

Thus, sometimes I feel very responsible when students don't do well. I definitely could have done better. I could have made that student more interested in English. I could have motivated him to work harder than he did. I could have helped her more and prepared more tips, and made lessons more interesting. Those 'sometimes', I really feel like an incompetent teacher.

Yet at the same time, when students do well, I feel that they really deserve all the credit for their success. I merely pushed them along that's all. They probably would have done well without me. They probably would have done even BETTER without me. Who knows?

Maybe I'm not that best, but I'm always trying my best.

Anyway, Zoe, thank you for making my day. =D

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WORK HARD

At times I feel like I have so much to offer. All my diverse life experience, I could use to teach my students and educate them on the finer things in life. Tell them what is the right thing to do and point them down the right way.

At times I feel useless. I feel like the students are not gaining anything from me. Like I'm wasting their time.

I really hope I can help everyone to the best of my ability. To have a student leaving me because his grades didn't improve makes me feel sad. To have students to be with me for a year and not pass at the end of the year really makes me downcast. I promise myself that I will work even harder this year, to make sure my students can realise their potential, and their dreams. I want to see their smiles when they come and tell me they did well. I want to tear when they tell me they passed. And I know I can help them all.

Work hard, Andy.

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WHY

"Why Andy, why?"

Why become a teacher? My friends always say it's retribution that I became a teacher. I was definitely closer to being my ex-teachers' nemesis than pet. I thank every single one of them, from the one who held up my half-a-mark-test-paper and insulted me in front of 39 pupils (including my crush), to the one who told me that she believed that I was really intelligent. I'm thankful to all of them. And that's why.

Why create this blog? Because of this story. 

Once upon a time, there was an old man who used to go to the ocean to do his writing. He had a habit of walking on the beach every morning before he began his work. Early one morning, he was walking along the shore after a big storm had passed and found the vast beach littered with starfish as far as the eye could see, stretching in both directions. 

Off in the distance, the old man noticed a small boy approaching.  As the boy walked, he paused every so often and as he grew closer, the man could see that he was occasionally bending down to pick up an object and throw it into the sea.  The boy came closer still and the man called out, “Good morning!  May I ask what it is that you are doing?”

The young boy paused, looked up, and replied “Throwing starfish into the ocean. The tide has washed them up onto the beach and they can’t return to the sea by themselves,” the youth replied. “When the sun gets high, they will die, unless I throw them back into the water.”

The old man replied, “But there must be tens of thousands of starfish on this beach. I’m afraid you won’t really be able to make much of a difference.”

The boy bent down, picked up yet another starfish and threw it as far as he could into the ocean. Then he turned, smiled and said, “It made a difference to that one!”

I figure, if the boy had made use of internet and Facebook-ed or Instagram-ed for help, he probably could have made a difference to more starfish. And that's why. I hope I can help more students through this blog.

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