What comprises teaching?

In the second year of celebrating Teacher's Day and the first time in MI, I want to give thanks to
1) my colleagues, especially
Miss Jam for being such a joy to work with,
Miss Catherine Ang who is the most accommodating level coordinator,
Mdm Shamala who is the most experienced and big-hearted GP tutor I have ever met,
Mrs Meya who constantly keeps me on my toes and
everyone in MI who guided and supported me

2) my students who endured my lessons and lame jokes

3) Mdm Ong Chai Hong, my dearest co-home tutor

4) my family and friends who listened to my rants and forgave me for breaking promises last minute due to work commitment

5) God who blessed me for taking on this challenging job

Teaching was the first dream job that I wrote about in my Primary One composition because my mom was a kindergarten teacher. Along the way, I met some great teachers and many lousy ones. One of them, Mr Yip inspired me to write. He wrote in one of my Chinese compositions, "You will be a great writer one day." Hence, I aspired to be in media and learn how to write well.

Never would I imagined myself teaching General Paper as this is one subject which most Singapore students hated. "Think in-depth? I dig show biz and soccer. Hopefully there is an essay question on either beauty or sports in the twelve options." Yes, two came out in 1999 'A' levels ^_^
I was a major annoyance to my GP tutor - interrupting her while she was talking and asking her difficult questions which she needs to reply, "I'll get back to you." The worst I guess was being good friends with her favourite GP student as "I'm a corrupting influence". No idea who is corrupting who but I am going to marry this "corrupted" guy soon.
My fiance said that me being a GP tutor is karma so this reminds me and hopefully, you to start being nice to your GP tutor. Pay attention in class, do your homework diligently and don't irritate her or you might end up being a teacher. Haha... Happy holidays~

What do Teachers Make?

The dinner guests were sitting around the table discussing life. One man, a CEO, decided to explain the problem with education. He argued, "What's a kid going to learn from someone who decided his best option in life was to become a teacher?"

He reminded the other dinner guests that it's true what they say about teachers, "Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach."

To corroborate, he said to another guest, "You're a teacher, Susan," he said.
"Be honest. What do you make?"

Susan, who had a reputation of honesty and frankness replied, "You want to know what I make?"

"I make kids work harder than they ever thought they could. I can make a C+ feel like a Congressional Medal of Honor and an A- feel like a C+ slap in the face if the student did not do his or her very best."
"I can make kids sit through 40 minutes of study hall in absolute silence."
"I can make parents tremble in fear when I call home."

"You want to know what I make?"

"I make kids wonder." "I make them question."
"I make them criticize." "I make them apologize and mean it."
"I make them write." "I make them read, read, read."
"I make them spell definitely beautiful, definitely beautiful, and definitely beautiful over and over and over again, until they will never misspell either one of those words again."
"I make them show all their work in math and hide it all on their final drafts in English."
"I make them understand that if you have the brains, then follow your heart
... and if someone ever tries to judge you by what you make,
you pay them no attention."

"You want to know what I make?"

"I make a difference."
"What about you?"

(Source: http://www.bpsd.org/williampenn/room103/whyteach.htm)