Sunday 14 February 2010

Breathless

 
It has been six weeks since the beginning of the year and it feels like three months have passed. It was to be expected, after all—the intensity involved in starting up a new school, accompanied by all the excitement, enthusiasm, and, of course, the sheer amount of work, which has left me quite breathless and deprived of time to myself. This explains why this second blog entry of the year has been so long in coming—today may be the Chinese New Year, but it’s not that I’m only blogging every time a new year comes round!

One of the favourite questions posed to me in recent weeks—by my colleagues and students, both past and present—has been whether there is a difference between teaching my former students and teaching my current ones. Well, actually, the difference is very slight, if any, and it is largely because the students I used to teach and the ones I’m teaching now generally possess the same calibre and attitude. I’ve discovered that it has very little to do with gender, though, certainly, the difference in maturity level between Sec 4 girls and Sec 1 boys is very vast.

In any case, the most important thing is that I’m happy where I am, and happy doing what I’m doing. The one-to-one computing environment in the classroom and the small class sizes have brought out of me a creativity in lesson planning never before applied with such intensity or sustained over such a long period. It is an exciting journey.

What is good is that things have settled somewhat, and I’m no longer as breathless as I was in January. Plus, this long weekend is a most welcome and much-needed breather. So I’ll keep breathing normally and hopefully keep a more regular blogging routine—failing which there’s always Twitter.