Friday, February 20, 2009

I am not one for taking compliments.

I met 6 of my students' parents yesterday at the first parent-teacher barbecues...
One of which turns out to be my colleague.

He rocked up to me, shook my hand and said, "Judith, I've heard many things about you."
"Huh? What things?" I replied.
"Ohh, lots and lots of good things. Like how you are such an awesome Mandarin teacher."
At this point I start fumbling and stammering and go, "What? Who's been saying that?"

That's when I found out that his daughter's in one of my Mandarin classes, and after every lesson she goes home and raves on and on about how awesome I am, and how my classes are so fun!

*swoon*

And then the other day, I had my first supervision of the year! WOOHOO. I had to supervise another teacher's class due to her going away on an excursion. I had just opened the lab door for the kids to come in, and I hear, "Oh wow, we've got the pretty teacher today!"

I'm telling you, I have NEVER been so embarrassed in my entire life. Oh my gosh.

*blushes like mad*

Finally! To hear the most awesome compliment EVER from the PRINCIPAL herself!!!
Helen walked into our LOTE staffroom today just as I was stepping out, exchanged our hellos and I run off to class.
Later during lunch, I was speaking to Rebekah, (who had a spare lesson previously and managed to speak to Helen), and she told me that Helen and her had an interesting conversation about me!

Helen: "We're so lucky to have found Judith, the kids absolutely LOVE her. They're going on and on about how awesome she is!"
Rebekah: "I know! Isn't she just lovely?"
Helen: "Yes! And the fact that she's doing Mandarin as well! The kids are enjoying it so much!"

*has died and gone to heaven*

I love Corinda to bits.
I really really hope I can continue on there next year.
Or better yet, get permanent.

Posted by chibified kitsunes at 17:05

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Happy V-day/Single Awareness Day!

I just realised that in my social circle of uni friends (namely Jelly, Suguru, Mena, Jonathan, Goh, Griffith and Kenneth), I am the only one that's single. xD

I got roses from some of my students yesterday.
Only 5, not as many as some students who got up to 10+. Haha, they're popular.

Had dinner with the guys and girls who mercilessly teased me about my new job. LOL.
Something about how I should put Sex in front of my name tag to make it Sex Teacher. WTH?!
Or bring a whip to school to whip the kids into submission.
Of course, Goh was the one that suggested them, dirty minded as he is. xD

But otherwise, everyone had a gripe about me teaching Mandarin. LOL!
And I definitely had a blast showing off my new status. 8D

It's magnetic, which I think is damn smart, and that means no holes in clothes either! <3

Was a great dinner though, went to Lafka's Tavern down at West End, it was a nice cozy Greek restaurant with great service! Everyone was saying how I ought to have shouted out for dinner seeing I had gotten my first paycheck. LOL. I did pay for the entree ($25+) in the end though. Haha... And now I have 2 $200 notes in my wallet from everyone paying me in big notes. w00tzors.

In all, it was nice seeing everyone together again, and funny how the simplest of chocolate exchanges could be screwed up by one piece of paper. LOL.
Griffith was bugging me about another cosplay photoshoot.
Jelly wants to tag along. Mena wants to come over to my place.
Goh just wants to come bum over at the house and save on parking. LMAO.
Suguru just wants to come over and annoy the shit out of Joey.

Oh god. My friends are hilarious. Makes me miss Karin. T____T (MUST FLY OVER TO HONG KONG ONE DAY TO VISIT!!! I miss Kiki too. >A<)

So what did everyone do today? I was meant to go swimming with Jelly today but it was raining cats and dogs and I had really wanted to get a new tan. D=
In the end I bummed around at home playing TWEWY and drawing blanked face people and labelling parts for my Mandarin lesson on Monday. xD
I'm gonna spend tonight typing up a Simon Says sheet in Mando now too. LOL.
The kids are gonna go mental.

I at least know what my parents are doing. =D

Bought them two tickets to Menopause the musical. Hope they enjoy it! <3>//<

Haha...

Also, currently interested in attending the following cons...
Sydney Supanova (might holiday there for a week too)
Perth Supanova (most probably not though)
Melbourne Animania (might holiday there for a week too)

They all coincide with either my 2 week July break or my 2 week Easter holiday...
What are the chances I can fly over? *cross fingers*

Posted by chibified kitsunes at 22:21

Thursday, February 05, 2009

You're not a teacher until...

You've confiscated phones, dished out detentions...

And stopped fights in the class.

YAY for such an exciting Math lesson this afternoon.

Posted by chibified kitsunes at 22:43

Wednesday, February 04, 2009

So a student asked me for my number today.

"1300-4626-5348" aka 1300 I'm 2 old 4 u.

Can anyone suggest any Chinese movies that fit the descriptions below?

Kung-fu
Jaw-dropping scenery
Beautiful costumes
Famous actors and actresses
In the Chinese language
Has calligraphy
Great special effects
Not very obvious/no mature scenes
Shows a lot about Chinese culture/history

The only ones that come to mind are Hero, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, House of Flying Daggers... I was thinking Fearless, Ip Man, Curse of the Golden Flower would be nice for Chinese history as well but... @___@

Are there any others Chinese movies you can throw at me?
Thanks loads for the help!! ^^

Posted by chibified kitsunes at 19:48

Monday, February 02, 2009

Scratch that, TEACHING EATS YOUR LIFE!!!

Oh my god. I am going to eat my words. Right now.
I used to say that teaching is only a job I do, once I step out of school, it's RELAX MODE WOOHOO!
NOT!

The other night I was in bed at around 10pm about to fall asleep when this thought suddenly hit me. "I should teach my Mandarin students about the Zodiac animals!! It ties in with Chinese New Year!" So I hopped out of bed and did lots of research on the Zodiac animals, the list of animals, the history of the zodiac (race) and then decided, I need more information for CNY. And that started off a whole new search for CNY resources!

Guess what time I went to bed in the end... 1.30AM.

And then this morning, I got up at 5.45am just so I could reach school at 7am to do major photocopying. I swear, thank god we teachers don't have a quota or have to pay for photocopying... Us LOTE (Language Other Than English) teachers have been photocopying so much, the numbers have surely hit the roof. We're just praying we don't get a call from the Registrar (they're in charge of accounts) saying, "Um guys, can you please stop photocopying/printing so much?" LOL.

I have absolutely no life right now. Everything is just lesson plans, thinking about resources for my lessons.. I have not touched ANY of my cosplays at all. It is so sad. So sad to the point that my Science Head of Department and Kevin (Japanese teacher) is asking me when my next cosplays are gonna be. *cries* Haha...

And to top it off, the principal (OMG SHE KNOWS MY NAME... I AM SO INTIMATED AND FLATTERED AT THE SAME TIME!!!) IMPLORED me to take on this new subject called IcIs (Intercultural Investigations) where I teach the low literacy students about different cultures.

Holy crap. I'm a first year teacher, teaching 3 different subjects, one of which I am not qualified for, and now might need to start planning a different subject (although still related to LOTE).... I'M SURPRISED I HAVEN'T CAVED IN TO THE PRESSURE YET!!! *pullshair*

At the very least, if I DO end up taking IcIs this year, I might very well be secured in my job next year at Corinda because I will be the only teacher who knows how to teach IcIs (a Chinese teacher who is able to teach the Chinese culture? How often does that come by?)

But man. It's all about the resources. I really need to get a car just so I can drive to the QLD LOTE Centre to borrow resources. (Photocopy through the roof again! xD) Apparently we can get up to 100 items a month. *waggles eyebrows* 8D