The End Of My Teaching Experience

Today is the final day of the summer course I agreed to teach at for 3 lessons a day;

• 8-9 AM: Kids from 4-8 years old.
• 9-10:30 AM : Students from 10-13.
• 1-3 PM: Students from 13-19.

The first group of 4-8 years old were the most enjoyable and tiring ones. All I had to do is teach how to write a new letter after revising the last one. There are times when they'd start calling me repeatedly, seeking for my attention and that's when their yelling hit my nerves.

Special students; Ru2a..There's a lot to say about her. You know how super hyper kids at 6 can be? Well, she's like that and even more. The word 'sitting down' is not in her dictionary and cannot, in any way, be added. At first, I just didn't want to deal with her as she simply disturbs the flow of the class and distracts the other students from paying any attention to what I say. She'd kick this and tease that as long as she does something then that's what pleases her. Another thing that appealed to her was watching Sana channel on TV so I snatched the opportunity as a threat and indeed, it worked!

Students from 10-13 years old were very pampered and wouldn't try solving a new worksheet on their own claiming that it was very hard. And the next thing I know, some of their parents come up to me and complain about it. Well, what if I gave your kids A B C's, will it satisfy you? Easy things won't improve anyone.

Older students group of 13-19 years old weren't used to being talked to with English all the time but by time, they understood that it's for their better good and started responding and asking if they had any doubts. I started out on a serious note and laid back when I knew I could be-friend them.

They wrote letters to me today and I was having the time of my life going through them and knowing that I have made a change in their lives, no matter how small this change is.

Would I do it again? So far, I don't know. But, if I did, I'd have the full knowledge on how it is going to be and hence, would take full responsibility of my decision. But for the time being, I'd say goodbye to my desk:

Now that this is off my shoulders, I should seriously start shopping & packing for China. So the countdown begins from now on and this topic shall have a post of its own. Stay tuned!

[Movie] The Notebook (2004)

It’s been 6 years since this movie was out but I only recently searched for its DVD version in my cousin’s piles of movies. It started out nicely and then, it was full of kissing scenes and I stopped right there. Today, while flipping the channels, Dubai One said it was ‘Next’ and I knew I had to watch.

An old man starts reading a story written on a notebook to a woman in her late years who’s suffering from amnesia...

He tells a story about two young lovers at the age of 17... And the way Noah approaches Ally on their first meeting at the carnival shows the great bond that erupted as soon as their eyes met. Also, Ally’s way of acting so hard-to-get means they’ll end up together eventually.

Then, the relationship goes on a more serious and faster progress with what spending almost every second of the day together. One day, Noah takes Ally to his dream house and farm and gets carried away in talking about his future plans, meanwhile, Ally’s conservative parents call out the police to look for her and things change from there onwards.

Seeing as how Noah was a poor man and Ally comes from a rich and educated family, her mother presses in this idea on the same night, saying that he’s not the right man for her daughter and she shouldn’t be seeing him again. Noah, in the next room, hears this and walks out of the house, with important things to think about.

Ally follows him and a huge fight was the cause of their separation. Before Ally knew it, the next day itself, her family wants to leave home.

Throughout an entire year, Noah keeps writing and sending letters to Ally without getting a single response. After 365 days, Noah decides to stop writing and join in the army. Ally, on the other hand, have gotten into med school and nurses army men when she meets Lon, the guy she agrees to marry.

Noah comes back, and with the help of his father, he buys the house he always wanted to have and starts to build it all over again, giving it the modern and renewed look with the addition of the white balcony he promised Ally to make.

While Ally prepares for her wedding, she sees the paper featuring Noah building his house from scratch and goes back to him and realizes that she can’t run away again and makes a decision…

The old man then stops reading the story and memories come back to the sick woman at the hospital and know that Noah and Ally will live together and that she was, all along, Ally and her doctor was Noah, trying to help her regain her lost memories. It's actually amazing how after all these years, Noah still is at Ally's side.

An incredible story line that simply shows the miracles love can make if only it was as powerful as Noah and Ally’s.

Note: Noah’s character can’t get any dreamier than it already is, that much I can assure you.

World Cup Surprises!

(1) If today's result means anything, it only shows the unpredictability of this World Cup: Brazil losing against Netherlands. (When Italy, France and England were eliminated earlier, I said the only team that's left is Brazil and so I was right).


(2) Tomorrow's game between Germany and Argentina is the most deciding one. What are your guesses? Who'll make it to the finale?

(3) Speaking of World Cup craze, here's what this man's annoyance made him do;

Texas man kills daughter over World Cup annoyance

Washington - A Texas man has been charged in the death of his two-year-old step-daughter during a World Cup football match over the weekend, a Texas newspaper reported Tuesday.

The suspect, Hector Castro, 28, reportedly told police that he beat his daughter because she was screaming during Saturday's World Cup match between the United States and Ghana, The Monitor of McAllen, Texas, reported.

He said he had punched his daughter twice in the chest.

According to the police report, Castro shoved a screw down her throat to make the fatality look like an accident. Castro tried to revive her when she stopped breathing.

The autopsy report said the girl had four broken ribs, three of which were several weeks old.

...More like ignorance, if you ask me.

(4) Also, 'Wavin' flag' appeals to me along with Akon's 'Oh Africa' more than Shakira's Waka Waka.

Countdowns

5 days and I'll be done with teaching for good.

I should be jumping off the wall about it but I'm not. From now on, I realize how boring endless holidays are and if I didn't do anything about it, I'd become as lazy as I always was. We'd throw a party on Wednesday and I don't think I can say goodbye to the kids after one month. Mr. Physics was right, after all: The worst part of teaching is getting personally attached to your students.

9 days to the World Cup finale.

Who's not excited to know who the Winner is? Hope it's either Germany or Argentina!

20 days till we head to China.

I'm not ready at all. Haven't shopped or packed up anything. I guess I'll always be the last-minute kind of person no matter how hard I work into changing that.

One Year Blog Anniversary

It's been a year since I started this blog back in July, 1st 2009. I started out with an utterly clueless post asking everyone not to wait for any blog posts. I didn't exactly understand what Blogger was all about but things have changed and I now have 104 posts, 43 followers and over 2000 visits.

During the course of one year, Blogger helped me showcase my writings (short stories & poems), thoughts, opinions and various reviews on movies and books. With it, I was able to account many different stages and accomplishments I've done that I'm proud and ashamed of.

Many thanks to my dear readers, followers, and commentators for going through my humble blog! I wouldn't have continued updating without your encouragements and ideas!

Tagged Again!

• Who tagged you?

Both Lonely and Firyals.

• 6 things people can't tell about you when they first meet you:

1. Can be moody (or suddenly quiet) when I want to; as the first impression people get about me is extremely sociable and talkative.
2. That I'm actually younger than my elder sister. (I look more mature and older).
3. I'm serious most of the time (this is because of what's mentioned in no.1)
4. Hate lame jokes and silly, dramatic conversations or gossip.
5. Have different views and opinions on things.
6. A huge bookworm and a sucker for English Lit.

Sorry for boring you with these 6 short facts as I couldn't find any. Reason being, I'm always straight-forward when it comes with meeting people for the first time and they could read me as clear as an open book.

• Tag 6 other bloggers:

Buthy
Faith
Amarant
Toxic_Honey
Nella
Birkino

[Game Review] Guitar Hero III

When I first tried it, my young brothers kept laughing at how clueless I was and thought that I'd never master it but good news; I did, eventually.

I mentioned this before, and here it is again: I'm not a hard core gamer and if I get stuck in a level I'd leave it at that, but with Guitar Hero, you'd have to keep going. For one, the song finishes if the arrow of the rock meter deflects to the left. The song get stuck in your head and you have to keep going to hit the right tunes this time and listen to the rest of it. This what kept me going.

Starting out with the Quick Play option can be good if you're looking forward to practice the many songs on the list. You can then click on Tutorials to get the hang of things, and when you do, starting a new Career with the aim of scoring high hits is right thing to do.

The song 'One' by Metallica was hard for me at first as it had double tunes at the same time. Practice made my fingers adapt to the beats and keep working with the flow of the song. Now, my highest rank in it is 92% but I'm getting there in no time. Click here to find out the list of songs featured in Guitar Hero III.

After practicing for so long on the Quick Play option, I now started a career of my own with Judy Nails. There are other great guitarists like Slash, Tom Morello, etc.

There's the Multi player mode as well and that would mean the second player wouldn't get the chance to play on this cool guitar;

The Wii remote control should be placed inside it (as you can see on the picture above) and the 2nd player will only play with the control. It's fun to compete, but I'd like to finish off my career then head for a live competition with my mocking siblings, just for the heck of it.

My rating: 9/10.

Have you ever played it? And which version of Guitar Hero do you like best? To me, Aerosmith's animation doesn't stand a chance near Legends of Rock.

World Cup Craze

And so the craze began about 12 days ago. WC is the most important event world wide. It brings all nations together cheering for the team they love best.

What I personally love the most about the World Cup is that it brings the family together. Packs us all in a cozy living room with our eyes fixated on that screen, following the ball going right and left.

Spending last weekend with my family meant gathering around at the living room three times a day, watching each game, no matter how unimportant it is.

So far, this WC was full of surprises, and I can say that it'll still be the same way. France losing against Mexico, Germany losing against Serbia, England and Algeria match ending in a tie.

As many cards were given on Germany Vs. Serbia match, I don't think that the ones given to Klose were really necessary. Other than that, 8 yellow cards & 1 red card is a record. The referee must love his job so much. To this point, I think you've guessed which team I'm cheering for: Germany. Micheal Ballack will not be playing as he's been injured in his last match with Chelsea and now, my other favourite player, Klose won't be, too.

Today's results are even more surprising. France got kicked out and USA scored at the last few minutes, kicking Algeria out and Slovenia while getting into the next round along with England.

Surprises..surprises! Let's wait for more!

Which team are you cheering for?

Or..You know What?

Quarter Past 5 ~ by Debasis

I thought about quitting teaching over and over but then decided to get it over with since I agreed to start. As from today, I'd be heading to Al-Seeb at 6 AM and coming back at 6 PM when the older group's lesson finishes.

This way, I won't be feeling homesick and the pressure of work somehow decreases after seeing my family and getting to spend some quality time by watching the World Cup games. When I reached school today morning, I remembered how frustrated and angry I was last Wednesday.

My parents talked me into it and after thinking about it, I realized I had to stick to my word and to never hold any responsibilities that I'm not capable of handling, straight from the beginning itself.

Another thing that kind of pushed me forward is that my cousin will be helping me. She'll be taking if not all, some responsibilities off my shoulders. Being with the kids again enlightened me as to why I really wanted this job.

Note: This is my 100th blog post.

Not Going Back

I've been counting down the days till the weekend so I could come back home. Tuesday and Wednesday were the toughest days I've gone through ever since I started teaching. I don't know why have I chosen to do this in the first place. Sure it seemed nice and wow at first, but now, it's just the opposite of all this.


Being with kids and teaching them is enjoyable, of course. But as fun as it may sound..it's also tiring. Very tiring, to the extent that I want to quit. No one seems to grasp this idea as they think I wouldn't dare to do it. Well, stay back and watch me.

What's worse is that my boss is no one other than my favourite aunt. She started this summer school at her own house and staying there on weekdays were part of my commitment. I wholly agreed on teaching the 14 to 17 years old students at the afternoon and the morning lessons of 4-13 years old weren't part of the deal at the beginning.

I agreed because the job was thrown on me and I couldn't do anything about it. I thought I could handle myself but I cannot anymore. 4-9 years old kids were packed up in one class and I had to put up with their noise and the older students complaints..

While the lesson of 10-13 years old were a mixture of different levels of understanding and having to prepare various activities each day was a drag I had to go through for 10 days and that was that.

Coming back home this weekend with the intention of not going back to that hell-hole ever again. Although it's not that easy given the fact that I already started. Praying to get out of this trouble in no time and resume enjoying my summer in the real sense of the word.

Goodbye IGCSE, Hello Summer

I can officially and finally say that I'm done with IGCSE, finals and most importantly, school! As usual, I had already preplanned how to spend summer break and I'll be sharing any updates with you soon.

Going through IGCSE used to be something that I've feared and anticipated for the past 2 years seeing as how this is an important part of my academic studies. And, it gives me great pleasure to say that there won't be any international examinations to go through again now that I finished IGCSE. Of course, as for the other private schools, there's the IB and AS level to take after IG but our school, fortunately for me, doesn't provide this. Instead, we'll be taking the Government's Bilingual system next year, which is based on Edxcell's syllabus (they haven't gone too far, have they?)

I hope I can accomplish, if not all, most of my plans on the to-do list. Both teaching and writing for Oman Observer at the same time are one of them...but I'm still struggling on multi-tasking. Funny how we assume that summer starts when school finishes only, when in fact, summer in Oman have started since March around here.

*Some of you, fellow readers, have been asking me to update this place regularly, but that just clashes with my summer plans... so I can't make any promises.

Leaving you with a brilliant piece of It's Your Day by Yiruma, because today is MY day! ;)

Cyclone Phet Damages

I just came back home and had to cross a wadi to do so. Our house, which had been badly damaged during Gonu seems alright now and water haven't entered this time. Such a relief. Fortunately for us, the storm's category reduced to 1 and changed its course again, leaving the Omani coasts with heavy winds and rains.

Masirah, Sur, Jalan and Ras Alhad are flooded literally. Thankfully, the residents have been informed earlier and have gone to safer places.


So, all in all, the storm headed to Pakistani coasts yesterday evening and some parts of Oman are flooded and wadis are still flowing. 8 death cases have been registered so far. May they all rest in peace.

Muscat is very bright and sunny today which makes it all the more harder to believe that it had been hit by Phet cyclone yesterday (except of the wadis)

Hoping Beyond Hope...

By now, we're all aware of what's coming. Surprisingly enough, Oman TV paid attention to this at the last minutes and if it did earlier, during the day, it didn't exactly make a huge fuss out of it. It's sad to see this given that that was what happened when Cyclone Gonu struck Oman nearly 3 years ago.

Cyclone Phet (Meaning; A diamond in Thai) have changed its course and id expected to hit the coastal areas of Oman, probably Sur, Ras Al Had and Masirah (which have been evacuated earlier). Let's just hope it's not going to be as bad as Gonu, because we've been through literal hell during and after it. Allah yester.

A Small Gesture

"Day 3
June, 2nd"

Today was the third day; we kicked off with revising the letter A & B and how to write the letter C. As a fun activity, I scattered around letters’ cards and asked them to find a specific letter. They all took it as a challenge and competed with each other to impress me.

Another thing I have to get used to along with being called Ms. is to always keep a smile on my face even if I loses the hope. As I said, I didn’t sign up for teaching kids originally and when I did, I didn’t exactly realize how hard it is going to be. But, I know that the outcome is far important than the process it self. Being positive is a bonus in this job.

By time, I’ll keep up and they’ll do too. I’m utterly happy that they’re having a great time in class which is why their parents look around for this new English teacher to tell her how much their kids mention her. They keep repeating the word ‘7abooba’ (lovable) When in fact, it’s fortunate that they’re only kids.

I was checking the student’s notebooks and that's when this cute girl comes to me and hands me a stuffed bunny carrying a tiny heart. She said, almost soundlessly, ‘hathi elhadiyah 7alish Ms.’ This little gesture brought tears to my eyes and I held her in a warm hug.

It is when I realized that being who you are matters more than what you teach.