Abalone “kueyteow” Soup

A couple of weeks ago, I found 2 cans of abalone in the kitchen cabinet, but too bad, one of them was going expired soon! I did not know how to deal with the abalone and was hoping that my eldest sister who would be coming back from PJ would know as she is the most excellent cook of our family.

When eldest sister came back home, I showed her the can of abalone and she didn’t seemed having any better idea than me as she never has any interest in serving abalone as a dish on dining table.

We don’t believe in sumptuous food like abalone, bird-nest or shark fins and none of us appreciates these kinds of food as others do, and they will always be left somewhere till they are always found almost expired, and they will then become a headache to the one who found them!

Finally, eldest sister recalled an abalone “kueyteow” soup stall she encountered at a hawker center where “kueyteow” soup with abalone slices in it was sold for RM5 per bowl.

In the end, we had abalone “kueyteow” soup for lunch which tasted no different from RM2 “kueyteow” soup. To those who really appreciate the abalone, they might think that we had spoiled the abalone, but meanwhile, it tells that the valuables will become valueless to the inappreciative, just like a giant diamond worth nothing to a bite of food to the famishing victims!

Harvest

It’s harvest season again！

UPSR result was released this morning. Feeling most satisfied with the results of my subjects, especially the composition paper. A number of boys and girls had unexpectedly aced their composition paper, I was really thankful to the children’s best effort put in both papers. I might not have done my best in teaching, guiding and training them, but I knew that they had really done their best! I used to tell them that even a little change in their attitude in the exam hall can always make things possible and make dreams come true, and yet they had really made it, 3 cheers to the children!!!

Thanks for the best results achieved, girls and boys, your most excellent performance was such a great harvest to your cikgu and may you keep up your excellent attitude in the days ahead, and do bear in mind, a tiny change in attitude can even change the world!

Back Pain Healed!

My back pain was healed miraculously!

My back pain had been troubling me for almost 2 years. I had been trying many ways to heal it, such as consulting doctor, doing exercise, taking calcium pills and even surfing on the internet trying to seek for any other possible solutions, but nothing worked, and finally, I gave up everything and let the pain become part of my life, accept the fact, get used to it and live with it.....

One day, I found a bottle of iron folic pills in the kitchen cabinet, it was a production of a direct sale company that I bought long ago, and I found that it's going to overdue, and I decided to take one every day before it gets expired. Meanwhile, I also saw another bottle of calcium pills in the cabinet too, the pill was given by the sponsor of a quiz contest, and so, I decided to take the calcium pills as well so that it won't get expired too......

In a couple of days, I found that my back pain had gone miraculously!! I kept observing the recovery for a week, and I was really sure that the pain had really gone! I was overjoyed by the amazing recovery though I didn’t really know which pill had really effected on me.

The story of the recovery of my back pain sounds ridiculous, but it was really healed! I feel thankful and blessed to be able to get rid of the pain, and being granted a healthy back again, I promise to work harder and to serve more and more people who may not be as lucky as me.

Haze

It's terribly hazy in the morning.

Thick smoke from forest fires in neighbouring Indonesia has blanketed the western parts of peninsula and I could even look at the sun with my naked eyes.

Drove to the town to buy newspaper early in the morning, the morning town was as busy as usual though the air was seriously polluted. Life still has to go on, despite how very much the air is polluted. There should be a way to avoid this from happening repeatedly....

In fact, the haze is caused by the selfishness and inconsiderate attitude of the human. Would severe penalization help to curb the slash-and-burn clearing activities? Has the government of Indonesia really made an effort to deal with this problem that has been happening every now and then? Couldn’t those culprits realize that thousands of victims are suffering because of their most selfish and sinful act?

When human mind is polluted, the whole world will might as well be polluted!

Sick

Throughout my career life, I had only taken 3 days of medical leave; it was during many years ago when I was suspected of suffering from dengue disease and was admitted into hospital under observation.

I was quite sick this time.
My sister who came back from KL felt really pity for me. She took over my job in the kitchen so that I would have more time to rest. I appreciated her kindness really much for taking care of my meals though she was here for only 2 days.

In the end, I still managed to heal myself with a few panadols as well as to maintain my 3-days-medical leave record. I had also failed the doctor from earning not even a single cent from me. :)

In fact, to be able to serve or to work restlessly is a blessing indeed...

Anicca

There was a young man driving to my house sending some fruits to share with his cikgu tonight; he was Benjamin! Ha, he drove! I just couldn't believe my eyes; I just couldn't believe that he could be so brave, so adventurous; he hasn't got his driving license and he drove here with his dad sitting beside him! He is no more a timid and fearful boy! Time can really change a person, especially the young ones....

Everything is impermanent, inconstant, in Buddhism; it's called "anicca" in pali language. Nothing is permanent in this world, and so, we do not have to attach to whatever we are possessing now, but that doesn't mean that we have to discard or abandon everything, we are just reminded to treasure whatever we are having or possessing, and when there is a day we are losing everything, there will be no regrets and not even pain....

Presentation

A presentation session was held for the students of the PBL (Project-based Learning) class. The presentation was held in the library. Our PIBG chairman, headmaster, teachers, parents and some of the students were invited to witness the very first presentation by the students involved, not forget too our most helpful facilitators that had been coming in a big group all the way from KL.

The students were feeling most excited to be able to present their work for the very first time. The presentation proceeded smoothly throughout the session. The talent, confidence and courage shown by the students had really touched the facilitators, teachers and parents, and our PIBG chairman and headmaster were really proud of their students too.

Everybody was really satisfied with the presentation, particularly the students. Other than acquiring knowledge from their findings, they had also learnt lots of ICT application skills; they had learnt to collaborate, to solve problems and to distribute tasks among themselves too. They were so much interested in pbl learning as they found that learning could be such fun and they are looking forward really much to the starting of the second project!

Well done, children, we are really proud of you and to all the teachers and facilitators that had been contributing so much in guiding the children throughout the learning, you are very much appreciated and the excellent presentation of the children is our most valuable harvest, do keep up our good job!

Spider Man

2 questions were raised to my year 3 students during Science lesson today:

Q1: How many legs does a spider have?
A1: Eight! (Aren’t they clever?!)
Q2: How many legs does the spider man have?
A2: Eight………! ( Managed to hold myself from fainting!)

Tribute to Auntie A Moi

Auntie A Moi is the one and only Chinese non-academic staff in our school, she is retiring today. She is a kind and hardworking staff who has been serving in our school for a total of 35 years long. She has been contributing really much in maintaining the cleanness of our school. She worked tremendously hard for the school and seldom on leave.

Each morning, as soon as she reaches school, she will be starting her work by boiling three kettles of water to make three kettles of different drinks: coffee, milo and tea for all the teachers in the staff room. Once we step into the staff room early in the morning, we shall be able to smell the fragrance of the coffee that has always been stimulating our cravings of having a sip of it.

Then, she will start sweeping and cleaning the compound of the school to make sure there isn’t any litter at any corner of the school, trashing the garbage and cleaning the toilets. She is the VIP of the school, her presence is very much important to the school. All of us appreciate her contributions so much, and we have been relying on her so much to get the hot drinks prepared early in the morning.

After her leaving, there will be no more coffee smell, and neither milo nor tea too. The staff room will soon be filled with the smell of all kinds of 3 in 1 instant drinks instead. The most fragrant coffee smell will be gone with auntie A Moi……

We are most grateful to auntie A Moi for everything she has done for us throughout the years, and we would like to express our most heartfelt blessings to her on her retirement, may she be blessed with good health forever, and may the restful days ahead bring a peaceful heart and a contented soul that leads to genuine and a life time of happiness.

Happy retiring, auntie!

Thick-skinned

School has just reopened, the staff room is still in such a mess, it will be parents' day on Friday, but the system that generates the results can't still work properly and correctly. Anyway, we are always good at getting jobs done at the eleventh hour, so, nobody seems worry and panic at all... haven't got my power point slides ready for the talk to be delivered on Friday afternoon too, and is forced to work till late in the night...

I took nasi beriani for lunch today. One of my colleagues treated me nasi beriani, a kind of Malay style rice. He treated only three colleagues in the staff room, I was lucky enough to be one of the three. He is going to finish his service contract at the end of the month, and he was just trying to express his gratitude to us for helping him before, but..... I couldn’t even remember when and what had I been helping him??? I could really hardly remember!!! Anyway, I still gobbled up the nasi beriani, though I didn't know what had I really done to help, ’cause I was too hungry!!!

I am always such thick-skinned!

On The Way We Are!

concentrating...

Yes, we are on the way of the project-based learning!

There are a total of 14 students in two groups that participate in this program. Much grateful to the three facilitators led by Ms Oh that traveled all the way from KL to assist us at the beginning of this program, they are making their most effort to introduce and carry out PBL in the schools all over Malaysia to help to make learning more initiative, livelier and more interesting. Much appreciate to the other three colleagues that had been willingly consented in helping to implement the program in the school. With the assistance from all of them, the program has been running smoothly and the students taking part seemed enjoying the learning really much. Hopefully the program will be going on successfully.

Project-based Learning

Together with some of my colleagues, we attended a two days course in school. It was in connection with project-based learning (PBL); the course was given to us so that we will be able to implement such learning in the classroom in future. It's a unique approach to learning that provides students with the opportunity to gain experience in sifting and sorting data, working collaboratively, and using critical-thinking skills, all to solve real-world problems.

PBL helps make learning relevant and useful to students by establishing connections to life outside the classroom, addressing larger concerns, and developing usable skills. The students are encouraged to use the latest information technologies to conduct their research and present their findings. What differentiates PBL from traditional class lessons is that the teacher acts more like a facilitator than like the sage on the stage.

Our facilitator and her assistants were all from KL, they are much younger than many of us. Though everybody seemed really tired at the end of the day, but we really enjoyed the course. Hopefully we will be able to carry out our tasks excellently when PBL is implemented in our school in future.

Tired!

Feeling tired of teaching!

The enthusiasm of teaching seems completely disappeared within me!

Really feels tired, disappointed and lost in my career...I had really been struggling so hard to regain my interest in teaching in recent years, and trying every way to refresh my mind as well as to uplift my spirit but yet nothing seemed works!

As the school teachers, we teach and teach and teach, just to cover all the syllabuses of various subjects within limited time!

We teach and teach and teach, trying every way to collect tones of homework given back from the students!We teach and teach and teach, hoping that the students will pass or even ace their exam!

I could neither derive any happiness nor contentment from my job, and the most frustrating and depressing fact is I couldn't bring much happiness to the students throughout their learning process other than pushing them really much to have their work done as required and to achieve better result as expected.

In fact, teaching and learning shouldn't be like that, just to fulfill the result requirements and expectations of the school and the education department, but nothing concerns about developing the character, behavior, self-discipline, intelligence, mind and even wisdom of the students besides loading them with tones of homework...

May be it's time for me to review and to make some changes or adjustment either in my emotion or teaching career.... I should really change myself to adapt to the uncomfortable situation facing now, but not manipulated by the situation, right?!

Well, will keep working my way towards the reviving of the inspiration, spirit and vigor lost...
Good luck to me!

Regular Visitors

what on earth were they staring at??

Jookim, Zili and the other boys and girls of my 2001 class were here tonight. They had been gathering here every Lunar New Year since they left school. There used to be quite a big group of them, but the group seemed smaller this year 'cause some of them couldn't stay longer as they had some other things to attend to. I really appreciated their regular visit.

They talked among themselves about their school lives and their friends. Zili was always the focus among them, he used to bring them a lot of funny stories and he really was the bomb of laughter. Some boys were always quiet and timid like chunhow, mingyang, weixiang and chunfan, they used to sit quietly and uttered only a few sentences with the others.

All the boys and girls will be sitting for their SPM at the end of the year, they had always been doing very well in their study, may they succeed in their exams!

Visitors From The Year 1998 Class

2 girls and a boy of my 1998 class came visiting today. Xinyee and Peijin had been here last year but the boy with gold-dyed hair seemed strange to me. He claimed that he was one of the problem boys in the class, I could hardly remember such a problem boy but those boys that created discipline problems. He finally told me that he was Liu shunlong, another boy that had always been punished for not doing his work too. He is now a grown up and hardworking boy. He wished to take hotel management course if he can get a place in the university. The three of them are waiting for their STPM result to be released, good luck to them.

We had a really long chat. They told me lots of stories about their old classmates, especially the boys. None of them had gone bad though some of them didn't finish their study in secondary school. Those boys were once naughty but they were howsoever ignorant. I really care about their future, I hope that they will learn to earn their living in a proper way at the right path.

Then we went to have pizza for our lunch and we bid each other good bye after the lunch. May they pass their exam with flying colors.

Boys From The Estate

Glad indeed to have some of the old students came visiting during Lunar New Year. There were always faces that could hardly recognize. There were always names that needed to be uncovered deep from the memories…

How small they were many years ago!

Several boys from my previous school SJKC Pangkalan Bukit Estate came visiting to my place. There were some faces that haven't appeared since I last saw them about 10 years ago and they have really grown up till I wasn't even able to recognize them or speak out their names. They were the Law's brothers, Chan Hock the eldest and Chan Seng the youngest are studying in UPM and UM, both of them has been working hard and I am looking forward to attending their convocation a year later. Chan Keong, the timid boy works as an air-con mechanic in Singapore after his STPM and I was glad that he was here together with them.

Guang Ming is a really hardworking and independent boy who has been trying very hard to upgrade himself. He worked in Singapore for years to accumulate some fund in order to further study as his family couldn't afford to support him. He is now taking interior design course in MIA, the Malaysia Institute of Arts. Wish him all the best.

Zhizhong, Chow Ming and Ming Hui were faces that haven't been appeared since I last left them. Zhizhong came all the way from Simpang Renggam, his family shifted there when he was in primary 5. He has been working in Singapore for almost 5 years and he is now staying with Chow Ming and Chan Keong in Singapore. I was told that they always help and rely on each other over there. In fact, they had been so close and always helping each other since they were small.

Chow Ming works as a cook and I hope that he will become a great chef in future. Ming Hui involves in the business of the spare parts of car in Skudai, he brought his girl friend along. He reminded me he was the one always being punished for not doing his work!

We talked about their career and present life, we talked about the past too, and they even asked for the pictures of the past. I was really touched when zhizhong was humming "The Ancient Temple" that I taught them many years ago. They shared the pictures that brought back lots of memories joyously. I feel really proud of all the boys, they are the children from the estate, their parents are mostly illiterate, but they have been striving very hard for their better future.

May they succeed in everything they do!