It is Teacher's Day today

Today is Teacher's Day in Malaysia. It is celebrated to show appreciation to teachers for their dedication in their profession.

As a retired teacher I still can remember vividly how my students took paisn to prepare food for us and entertain on stage with various types of performance such as singing, dancing, playing musical instruments and doing sketches.

I really miss tasting the food prepared by Koh Hong Choon whose father owns a restaurant. He would be bringing very delicious food for the teachers of St Theresa Secondary School where I served in from 1979 to December 1989.

As for stage performance I enjoyed watching the dances, sketches and singing of my students in Sek Men Jerantut Pahang where I taught from 1974 to 1978. Sometimes teachers went on stage to add merriness to Teacher's Day celebration.

The joy of playing Scrabble

When I was serving as a teacher in St Theresa Secondary School, I enjoyed playing scrabble with my colleagues. One teacher, in particular, Mr Low Seng Hong liked the game very much. He would usually arm himself with a dictionary for reference should dispute over the validity of a word arise.

We did not play this game on normal school days. Usually we did it after the students had taken their PMR exam and we had more time to ourselves because they were grouped into a few classes and teachers took turns to guard over them. They would be then be playing chess of reading in the classes too.

I like playing scrabble because I will learn new words through the words formed by my colleagues. As I told readers in one of the posts, I would not like a new word escape my attention. If a dictionary is near me, I will look it up straight away. Otherwise, I will look for its meaning when I reach home. I have quite a number of English dictionaries and surely I can find it in one of them.

Teacher's Day

Today is Teacher’s Day in Malaysia. Although I have retired from being a government teacher, I am still doing a teaching job as a private tutor. Hence Teacher’s Day still means something to me.

When I was teaching in Sek Men St Theresa in Sungai Petani, Kedah I used to look forward to this day. I supposed all my colleagues had the same mind-set too. On this day, each of the classes would be holding class parties and among those invited would be their teachers. One particular class where Koh Choon Hong was a student was our favourite stopover. We enjoyed savouring the restaurant curried chicken prepared by his father, the owner of a restaurant there.

Besides food, the teachers had the chance to feast their eyes on the variety show put up by students on stage. There would be students singing their hearts out with songs to entertain the teachers. Traditional Chinese, Malay and Indian dances were quite entertaining too. We could never imagine how they could come up with such an excellent performance given the short period of time for preparation. The sketches put us in stitches for quite some time too.

The best part of the day was that teachers and pupils alike thoroughly enjoyed themselves playing games such as football, table-tennis and volley ball. The cheering team usually favoured the teachers, to our surprise

Iodine did the job all right

When I was teaching Science in St Theresa Secondary, I stayed in the lab most of the time. My buddy Fauzi would come and discuss with me the novels that he had read. He liked to read Johan Jaafar's short-stories and novels.

Students who got hurt after falling down and scratched their knees would come to me for treatment. I usually washed the students’ wounds with antiseptic solution such as Dettol and applied acroflavine before bandaging their wounds.

If I happened to know that a certain was disobedient and naughty, I would apply iodine tincture to his wound. He would be grimacing in pain and dared not be so playful again because he would not like to suffer the piercing pain again when iodine started to work on his wound. Mercury chrome is another solution which can be used to treat wounds

Working Outstation

When I was working or rather teaching in St Theresa Secondary in 1989, I had to travel from Penang to Sungai Petani daily. It was a tiring year for me. Let me explain why it was so.

As I lived in Jelutong, I had to take the first bus at 5.30 to reach the peer so as to catch the 6.00 or 6.10 ferry to Butterworth. There I would board the 6.30 bus to Sungai Petani. To reach my school, I had to walk for ten minutes.

Usually, I would not be late for school which commenced at 7.40 a.m.

I had lunch in the canteen, then it was my journey back to Penang. A colleague would usually give me a lift to the bus station to take the 2.30 bus to Butterworth. By 3.10 I would on the ferry to Penang Island. The 3.30 bus would take me home. By the time I reached home, it was 4.00 p.m. Imagine having to spend 11 hours to work outstation. I would be home by 5.00 pm or later if I missed any bus.

Clicking Away on Sports Day

Came Sports Day and I would be busy clicking away with the SLR I was holding (see pix) from the start of the opening ceremony to the prize-giving at the end of the day. You see, I was given the job of a photographer during events such as Sports Day when I was a teacher in St Theresa Secondary School, Sungai Petani from 1979 to 1989.

Do you know what event we're watching?

I liked to capture the act of jubilant high jumper who succeeded in clearing the bar in the high jump event. The final dash of runners towards the finishing line in the 100 metres sprint was also my favourite shoot with my camera. I never missed recording the joy of winners who were receiving medals on films too. Other scenes of interest to me were the faces of excited supporters comprising teachers and pupils who shouted their lungs out when the running events were in progress, the ever ready Red Crescent Society members in their white uniform treating athletes who collapsed out of exhaustion or over exertion in the race and spectators with various unique expression when a certain event was contested.

I was at the scene waiting for the right moment to click.

During the break, I would go to the tent of my house to give my boys and girls moral support for I was training them weekly before the great event. I would have been with them throughout the meet had I not been assigned the job of capturing the event on films. You see, films were still the order of the day during the late 70's. The school would bear the cost developing the films and printing the photos.

The three cute children of Mrs Saw, the school clerk drew me to them every now and then and I would like to tease the kids or talk to their mother while resting under the shade.

Having some fun with the clerk's cuties.

My joy would be beyond description when I came back from the studio, bringing the shots home because I knew some of them would turn out to be just the way I meant them to be. With an SLR, the control of the aperture and speed of the shutter is in the hands of the lens man. Then, I would recommend some good ones for the school magazine for inclusion in the sports report.

So much for Sports Day in good old St. Theresa.

Come to our class, Sir

When I left Jerantut in 1978, I was quite reluctant to part with her as I had very fond memories of the place there.

In 1979, I was transferred to Sungai Petani. The classroom atmosphere in St Theresa Secondary School, the school I taught in, was very conducive for teaching. What a group of darlings who were all ready to listen to my teaching! They did not make noise in class or in the lab. As a teacher, I knew that I must teach them until they understand my lessons. My effort was not fruitless. None of my students did badly in exams.

If there is anything that is indelible from my memory about St Theresa Secondary School, it is the Teacher's Day treat the pupils prepared for teachers. I never missed savouring delicious food prepared by my students for us.

On Teacher's Day, all classes were allowed to prepare food and drinks for the teachers. The monitor would always come to us, saying "Come to our class, Sir."

We adjourned from class to class, helping ourselves to the food and drinks. One particular pupil's class was the favourite of all teachers as he was the son of a restaurant owner. The fried chicken and curried chicken contributed by Sek Kiang Restaurant were the items we never missed. They were so sumptuous that a second helping was not surprising. I could still recall the name of the boy. He was Khor Choon Hong, a quiet, big-eyed boy with light dark skin abd he later became the monitor of my class.

Besides the treat on Teacher's Day, I can still recall other memorable occasions there. I will relate them here in my blog later.