Now playing: Little Talks, Of Monsters and Men (Julia Sheer ft. Jon D. Cover)

Hello friends, just thought I'd update this space considering the fact some stuff has changed. Instead of bumming around for the remainder of my holiday as I've so carelessly justified in my previous post, I've actually got a job now! I'm not contributing directly to the Singaporean economy, I'm actually in the civil service. In fact, I'm teaching at my alma mater :') Hello respectable profession!! A huge thank you to everyone who's helped me get this job, YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE, I really appreciate it. It's sort of a good prelude to what I should expect in the future. I know that relief teaching isn't exactly the most accurate representation of teaching, you don't have to deal with things like CCAs and your March/June/December holidays are actually holidays... but I've had the opportunity to speak to many of the full-time teachers I work with so that's been awesome in helping me understand what I'm getting myself into. Kind of strange returning to school and looking at the girls wandering around in their pinafores and having them GREET YOU, that's the weirdest bit. There's a small hint of nostalgia every time I get out of the car in the morning, then I have to immediately reconcile that with the weirdness of tapping into the General Office to sign in and the staffroom later on.

The thing I've realized so far is really the fact that a lot goes into preparing a lesson. I know, I know, it's cliched and it's the sort of thing that we've been told by teachers for ages... but it's pretty different seeing it from this side of the fence. It's not just about the Powerpoint, it's about making decisions on the spot about how you want to approach the lesson and answer the questions. Some questions will stump you. Some questions will force you to admit that you don't know all the answers- is this bit tested? I'm not sure. That's a pretty hard thing to say, actually, you feel like your credibility really drains. I'm getting used to that intellectual humility bit, heh. Also it's really odd when you teach 3 classes of the same subject and go in and repeat the same lesson 3 times a week. It's like Groundhog day, or as the teacher I'm relieving/shadowing put it- an absurdist play you repeat over and over again. He's a pretty cool guy- theatre kids for the win.

So he asked me what A'level texts I did and I said one of them was Richard III (nobody really recognizes the texts from our Women in Lit paper, surprise surprise), so he told me to check out Looking for Richard (1996) with Al Pachino, which turned out to be super interesting. Yes, I know, an English teacher using "super interesting". My vocabulary is still falling, by the way, from the months of brain rot before I actually got this job. It's from an actor's perspective exploring the significance/relevance of Shakespeare, basically tracing his influence on our modern popular culture, Literature and art, among other things... performing selected scenes from Richard III. So far, I've been convinced that Al Pachino and Ian McKellen have got the best Richards. I especially liked the Ian McKellen one, because he was really charismatic and had that dark, complex side of villain that really brought Richard to life. Anyway, I'm really glad I've gotten the opportunity to work with him (the teacher I am relieving/shadowing) because he's hilarious and can relate to all the theatre stuff, since he did TSD in university. The really awesome thing is that he was taught by Mr Lyon, once upon a time, so there's a little bit of shared history there.

The thing I will NEVER get used to about this teaching thing is the calling your teachers by their first names. I sort of mumbled it through with the formal courtesy titles for the first couple of days, until one of the teachers in my department told me to call her by her first name because "you're one of us now." Come to think of it, they're pretty cool people. In class your crippling fear of being graded terribly and then complained about to your overbearing parents might deter you from getting to know them better and see their fun side, but it's a completely different story when you're a colleague. Or maybe teachers are just teachers, in the same way that parents are parents, and you very rarely cross that invisible line that lets you become "friendly" with them when you're a student. When you graduate you can come back to visit, being cool and everything, but they'll always be a teacher to you. Which is why it's weird since I've accelerated the student -> alumni -> colleague barrier pretty fast. That being said the older (or those who have existed longer in school) teachers are incredibly nice to the relief teachers/new kids on the block. Almost everyone says good morning and smiles in hallways despite the fact that I'm in a different department/have never spoken to them before. That's just... well quite lovely actually. I'm not sure if it's just my school or if it's a general thing but I really like it.

I suppose teachers are inherently good people. It's a tiring job- you have to be driven by quite a fair bit of passion to stay on for as long as some people do. Marking is killer, planning events and coordinating things with students or parents who often over-estimate your efficiency and ability. Decades and decades. Like that conversation I had with a taxi driver on the way home two nights ago- "Teachers are good people. They love children, so they must be good people." It's a pretty simple take on things, but I think he put it very nicely. Quite frankly, my respect for many of these individuals that I've worked with has risen over the past couple of days. I still have quite a bit more till the end of term, and I know for sure that I'm going to be EXTREMELY SAD when all of this is over.

The other thing that's really awesome is the fact that they're a handful of people from my batch in JC teaching here also. "Young old girls", as one of the full-time teachers put it. So we share food, trade stories and swap encouragement when marking gets too overwhelming. I shifted upstairs to the staffroom with more empty tables so I could sit near my friends, and the teachers near us are just the warmest people. They're really chatty so inbetween lessons and marking I know I can just walk over and have a conversation. Or get some advice- do I need to go for assembly? Etc. It's really great to know you're not alone when you're trying to get through 3 classes worth of FAs to mark and have to stay in school till 6+

I LOVE MY JOB. I don't know whether I'm going to be a teacher for sure- there are a lot of other factors, but I'm so glad that I've got the opportunity to figure this out. It's just such a lovely and warm environment with the prospect of being very fulfilling as well.