One Kid

All I asked was to be able to make a difference in the life of at least one kid each year. This year, I certainly hope I had made that difference. To the kids who were abused, bothered by peers, losing interest in their studies, getting in with the wrong crowd, hated teachers and the like - I spoke to you all and I hope what I said made a difference. If not now, years down the line...

I don't know if this means anything to anyone, but today I checked my MySpace account and I saw that one of my students had left me a comment on my page. In response to the question of whether or not I'd be teaching him again next year, he had this to say:

"arap2 ckgu yg ajar.. amin.. :-D" [siap ada 'amin' yang tak tahan tu]

Oh God bless you, kid. You've made my year. You and the others who pray they get me for a teacher next year - I love you guys, too :-) Look forward to 2010!

The Fridge

The kids give me drawings and I stick them on my fridge.
Check the talent.

By Sophie Ng Shu Chin

By Alexander An Jie Douglas

Book (life?) Update

Argh! It's been forever since my last entry >_<
This is getting to be a really bad habit!

Anyway... Recently had my book assessed and the good news is my editor (can I call her that?) says it's got lots of potential. The even-better news (let's call this that) is that we're in for a lot of rewriting. Yay. Watch this space - I should be able to give more updates on the book by this time next year.

Back to work early this week, while everyone else was still busy enjoying their holidays (don't get me started on this) and other than a 24-hour-or-so-long blackout it's been awfully quiet around here. Teacher's Pet is still in Sarawak and won't be back till next year. Wondering if I'll end up teaching him then. I don't wanna teach him - he'll hate me and then I'll have one less friend here. Who am I gonna watch sunsets with? I'd rather teach the kids who already hate me anyway.

Kid pointed out that the cloud looks like a ship

During the holidays, TP sent me a text message to update me on the sunsets (We'd been experiencing pretty balmy weather of late so he was seriously excited to finally see a sunset worth texting about). That was when I realized I hadn't been looking out for sunsets in KL. Why? What evils were there to distract me from my usual simple pleasures? None. God forbid I only resort to watching sunsets because I'm that bored down south.

My second home

Actually, I think it's just because the kids are there and they remind me of the simple things. Which reminds me - Riss! You and I are supposed to do our own version of The Simple Life, remember? Next year, buddy - come on!