Sunday, May 15, 2011

Work related issues can wait until Mon... weekend are for me

I was grateful finally when the weekend approaches. But Friday instead of gym (Sat also nope, Sun also nope) I headed home. Tired and hungry. End up dozing off. I was contemplating just heading out, go buy some CDs or shop around. But in the end, the home was too comfortable.

On Sat, some events at work on Friday caught up with me. The implication and the possibilities of some things happening got me rather irritated. I was rehearsing in my mind what to say if that scenario comes true. But it got me rather irritated, very irritated. Basically I am just doing my job at work. Using my free periods to plan the lessons and printing out ws (photocopy from ass bks) SO that I wont have to stay a minute extra. Go off at 5pm sharp.

There's this joke of Eng class, which replaced the weekly Solo lesson I had to teach last year. The joke is that its Headless idea to have 3+2 teachers inside the whole class of 36. They would do some Eng-related activities as a class towards some sort of theme. The catch is this. What is the aim? Lame aims like enjoy the lesson, do as a class. Even the themes planned by her are a joke. Such that the resources that we made for the Solo lessons dont fit cos we planned those to follow their syllabus instead.

Just an example - Welcome the Incoming New Students (aka S1) In addition there was a lame ws with drawing circles labelled the Past, Present and Future. Where is the English in that? We were all scratching our heads at the poor lesson planning, each part 10mins. Huh? My eye-whites were showing everytime I was talking with my local collegue about the poor planning while we were inside the actual class. She said it better. "What planning? This is just throwing unrelated stuff together and just assigning 10mins to each part. I also know how." My sentiments exactly. Given that everybody in my level 5 of us are unsure, I was asked by the rest of them to conduct for the first 2 lessons. Which I did. I printed out the WS prepared by Headless (with a few slight changes but I didnt upload the softcopy) and also an extra printout for that lame Circle activity. First lesson okay with the help of the quick-thinking a more capable jap collegue, who added a twist by adding in a psychological explanation which he told students in jap. I let them lucky-draw the teachers to interview and wrote down the names drawn by class.

2nd lesson - with just a useless ws about making 3 statements about the teacher one true, other 2 false, which I photocopied for the level without changes at all. I had bought this stack of coloured cube memo paper. Actually it was meant for my own use, cos I realized I needed this type of memo paper for me to write down reminders for myself. I bought it together with my clear binders for my own lesson plans. Then just decided to give each group a set of it so that they can write their sentences on it. We could collect it back and use. Again the same quick-thinking jap collegue told them to write an information and add an extra question. Make it more quiz-like, participative. So with that it ended my 2 lessons.

The rest of the planning fell to this new jap teacher who just came in. He comes to ask me stuff and I dunno what is he really saying... is it asking for my opinion or just telling me the plan??? Anyway I washed my hands of it. He did a followup, where he took pics of the teachers, provided vanguard paper so the students use their earlier paper and paste and decorate etc. Just when inside, I try to add help with a bit of eng explanation and help students. With 5 of us inside, its less tiring on all of us but still sometimes we ask if so many is necessary?

The problem comes about when Headless saw the finished product and said to me "Its very good", I looked at her (stoned) and say its students ideas not mine. The problem is the wrong perception that I was the one responsible for the work... which isnt. Little has been attributed to the rest of my collegues. Its not fair plus the repercussion seems to be that one of the IMM collegue might not be able to go for his slots due to his busy time table. I heard Headless talking with hod over it and I heard my name. The 2 possible scenarios that I want to avoid are: (1) Put me into her team (cos I am at another level cos that IMM collegue is in her level) cos I dont work well with her. Not interested at all plus who do you think got to carry out those stupidly planned lessons (2) Put me in charge of my level's lesson plans which is unfair to me. Cos it's not in my workscope and the understanding of my what my workload would entail. Nothing is being said to me at the moment, but they dont mention until they have discussed it with other japs. We are always the last to know.

I am prepared to oppose strongely adn vehemently argue about either of these scenarios. That was why when the thoughts caught up with me on Sat, I was feeling very irriated. Its not in stone yet but I need to pre-empt it. I have a whole list of arugments ready. That Headless better be ready for a less-than friendly reply from me.
Later on into the Sat, I decided to leave the worries until Monday at work cos my weekends are precious. I shouldnt let these work-related stuff affect how I enjoy my weekend nor let it weigh me down. I shall deal with them when work resumes. With that thought, I compartmentalize it and threw it onto that part of my brain that starts working only on workdays.

After guitar, I headed to the music shop in Raffles shopping mall. My target was to look for the Glee soundtracks. So I got 3 for the entire soundtrack of season 2. In the evening though, when I asked my youngest sis if I could borrow the cd player in her room. Actually it used to belong to me many years back, its still functional but after my mom bought another one for me (many years ago), she took that and passed to my sisters. Its been a very very very long while since I've listened to my cds, partly due to the lack of the cd player (mine spoilt some time back) and not being able to rip my cds using my laptop (cd drive spoilt) into the troublesome interface of Apple! I hate the idea of having to have a copy in my computer before I can sych it in. ITS UTTERLY STUPID.

But my sister's first words to me instead was 'dont spoil it, its the only one left'. Dunno but that sentence irriated the hell out of me. I kept my thoughts to myself and just changed and headed to the electrical shop nearby. I am going to buy myself a new cd player. Its not like I couldnt afford a cd player. Its that I've gone so long without listening to my cds that getting a replacement player was something I didnt go about to do it. In fact I've just replaced my dvd player so that I can watch my anime. Then getting a new cd player didnt strike me. Instead of arguing with my sister over her insensitive words, I got myself a decent cd player and listened to 1 disc. Fine issue solved and I can now remember to listen to my numerous cds.

Today was tired cos slept quite late around 2-3am. Didnt go gym. Stayed home. Fell asleep around 3pm. A day is going to be over. Need to R&R more, so very glad that Tue is a public holiday. Just get through tomorrow, looking forward to dinner. Will go to the gym on Tue morning instead. Try not to stop.

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