The Lady ♥

Thursday, May 11, 2006 Y

AWESOME!!!!! That's the word I'm using to describe my day today at NTUC Childcare Centre @ Sembawang. Totally amazing and coolest sensation ever! I met my partner, Lina at abt 8.30am today at the Sembawang Bus Interchange and then we walked all the way to the block. On e map, it was like the palce and the interchange r like sooo far....We're bth misled by the map. It was only abt 5-7mins walk from the Interchange and we reached there at 8.35am or so... We started our day at 8.40am. And i took the K2 and the Nursery today. Tis is gonna b my longest blog ever i think! Hehe, anyway, sit back and enjoy!

K2:
1st day, nth much, juz observe and observe the surroundings and the kids in general...abt their dev and all. So i went to the other rm, and gosh, my first impression of the rm is 'spacious' and 'clean'. It juz so happened that the aunty was mopping e floor so, yea, it's clean. Hehe! ;D Then the Indian teacher who was taking the class introduced me and i was known to them as 'Ms Foo'. I'm alright with it. Out of a class of 10-20, i only remembered less than a handful in abt 1hr+...Which is already pretty gd! Haha... So i walked around the classroom like an idiot(pardon my use of words), see see here, see see there, write down abt wad i saw in the classroom. And then when something happens like got kids fighting over toys or wadsoever, they dun call the Indian Teacher, they call me. No more 'Jie Jie!' it's all 'Teacher! Teacher!'..Haha, when they call, gosh u gotta try it, u feel really important at that time.

So, of cos, my duty is also to play with them, and i did ok? I did play with them, then observed them from diff parts of the rm. They're all very very active and outspoken, well except for a couple. Well, there's bound to b some 'outstanding' ones. When asked a qns, they dun juz ans, they screamed out the ans. Probably cos the whole big classroom belongs only to the K2s, so wadever they do, they wun disturb the rest. Haha. And then they'll compete to see who held the longest for the last word of the answer. For eg. E teacher today asked, "Wad's HFM?" The kids will all like, "Hand Foot Mouth!" Then for the word 'Mouth', they'll all make it sound like 'Mooooooooooouuuuuuuuuuuuuuffffffffffffffffff'(cos they cant pronouce the 'th' properly) I could stop smiling, cos cant laugh. They're all so adorable. ^.^ I had a great time.

Then at 10+, my mentor entered the K2 Classroom and i was being introduced to her. She's so friendly, and apparently she's very popular among the K2...Cos she's their main teacher or something. Cos when she entered, all of them screamed(Duh! seems like the only thing they know how to do!) "Teacher Sheran!" That's wad i heard. But that's nt her name. Lol. The obviously the kids obey her more..haha. cos when the rm was noisy, she juz said something and everyone did wad she said and kept their mouth shut! Then cos she knew I've been with the K2 for more than an hr, so she asked me to go observe the Nursery which is at the other room bigger than the K2, cos Nursery they share with K1 and Playgroup kids. So, ok...I moved there and then, new story! Haha! U can expect diff things from diff kids, from diff age groups, I tell 'ya!^o^

Nursery:
Now...Diff story... When i walked into the Nursery Section, they were all scattered around the tables and then there's this old teacher...well, around my grams age...I'll say 50+. She saw me and introduced me as 'Xin1 Lao3 Shi1' which means New Teacher. Then she taught them Chinese Nursery Rhymes, which most of them I know! Haha, I've been taught well by my folks and my Childcare Teachers. Hehe! Score 1 for Student Teacher! :D:D:D Cos the old teacher din introduced my name or wadsoever, so to the Nursery kids, I'm known as simply 'Teacher' Haha. I'm alright with it as well. As usual, I did wad i did best - Observe. It was abit diff compared to the K2 Side... Nursery side was more... erm...wad's the word...cramped. Yep. It was also clean and neat(K2 was neater, nt that I'm bias). I saw the aunty, yet again at the Nursery Corner(told u they shared a whole big area with Playgroup and K1).

So once again, when the teacher taught them the nursery rhymes i sat down and wrote down wad I'd observed and all, and i recited softly along with them if I knew wad they're learning, while doing my own stuff and observing them. Then the teacher also played cassette tape of songs abt Mothers cos Mother's Day is round the corner. Then a also sang along with them. The old teacher heard me and saw me and told the class in Chinese, "You see? Even Teacher also know how to sing!' Haha... Those songs that they sang, all of them I've heard and learnt i when I was young. I still remembered the tunes, juz forgotten the words. Hahaha... :D:D And so, after the learning of Nursery Rhymes, they split into 2 grps(there're only 9 of them) and started to play building blocks, something like LEGO, only bigger version. The K2 on the other hand play with the smaller version of LEGO, those that can be purchased anywhere. And i found out that both Nursery and K2 kids, all like to play LEGO-Based toys. Tehy dun like those wooden blocks which already cut out in shapes for them. They like to build new things from scratch, with their creativity and imagination.

Anyway, during their playtime with the toys, I also joined in. I played with table No.1 first(the table on e left). Then when i realised I haven't played with the kids around Table No.2, I went over to them. I ended up sitting in btw 2 tables where i can play with all of them at the same time. Stupid me, Y din i think of it earlier?!?! Then I've also noticed that if 1 id made something and I'm praising that kid, others will follow. For eg. 1 kid was making a camera, and i said "Very gd." Woah! Immediately 2 boys who were building other stuffs and 1 gal started working on their own "camera". And...ya...Now then i realised the hard work of a Childcare teacher.. U gotta cater to all the nids of he children in ur class and cant juz concentrate on one. So during the playtime, all around me they were all...once again screaming "Teacher! Teacher! Teacher!" And all were like trying to steal my attention. Phew! Lucky got the teacher around.

Then I think i have the most fun with the Nursery kids, cos i spent the longest time with them, and it was really kool. During their lunch time I was also with them, catering to their needs like more chicken, more water, more rice...blah blah blah... It was fun! Haha. And I've realised something, today changed my perspective of twins. I tot twins r like 2 of a kind, wun fight..Gosh, boy was i wrong! This pair of twin in the Nursery group..how should i say it... Can't keep their hands off each other. Lol.

Overall it was fun. Lina and I stayed till 12.40pm. We were aware of the time, it's juz that by the time we really ended with wad we were doing with the kids, it was abt 12.35pm-12.40pm. So the usual duration was 3 and a 1/2 hr... for each Student teacher, but me and Lina, 1st day and we "worked" 4 hrs! *claps* Yay! :D It was a gd start. Haha, sooo looking forward to next week attachment at the CC again. I wanna take Nursery if possble, cos I felt really great and relaxed when I'm with them. With them all calling u "Teacher! Teacher!" U really do feel like a teacher!

Then after that we rushed to Sunplaza and bought Mac and ate on the bus. I think the uncle somehow knew we were rushing or something cos he din really stare at us or giv us those "face" while we ate on the bus. We gt no choice! We left an hr to get to class but we're still at Sembawang at 1pm... It was impossible to sit down and have a nice lunch before going to sch. Almost got indigestion..Haha! I was like kept on looking at my watch on the bus to sch. Juz to make sure, i also told my classmate to tell the teacher we're gonna b late if there's a nid to. Turns out, no nid. Hehe, but it nv hurt to have a little bit of back-up. We ran and walked fast fast and made to to class within the 15 mins allowance time. Phew.

And on Wed, I got tekan by the coach during S&W, badminton. He was like... hit! run and touch the net! run back! hit! run and touch the net! run back! hit! OMG! My arms and legs were sore from his "torture', cos he was like telling my partner,"Let me torture her a little"... =.= Then it wasnt so bad on Thursday morning, but after the rushing to class, by the time i reached home, by legs are sore from thigh downwards. Aww...Pain!!! X.X And my arms were sorem esp the right arm. All Thx to that teacher!!! But that torture was a gd way of making me sweat like hell. Haha.

Y The Lady @
10:14 PM