Saturday 29 September 2007

Month-end approaching

A review of what the month has been...


Well, actually I'm quite exhausted right now; we just had a church bazaar today (which happened to be at the end of a rather tiring week for me). I'm definitely in need of some extra sleep.

Now on to the agenda: what have I been doing this month? Back in primary school, I remember writing down Scientist, Doctor and Teacher in the "ambition" space of my report document. It seems that I'm getting all three, except for the doctor part (the closest thing is an unconditional offer from the School of Medicine, The University of Melbourne, received by e-mail about 10 days ago). This month, I've taught 25 tuition class sessions in a variety of locations, and at various levels: Form 1, Form 3, Form 4, Form 5 and Upper 6. I'd describe the work satisfaction level as "all right up to a year", because staying on and on and on for a single subject at a single level - well, at least to me - eventually exhausts my interest fuel. Or maybe it's just me being impatient to wait for all my students to "hit the ceiling" in those subjects. I myself didn't hit any ceiling back then. Which means that it's quite a challenging undertaking.

On the Scientist part, I'd relate that to me self-studying my two STPM subjects: Mathematics T and Further Mathematics T (me, the scholar of Maths). Now a few questions repeatedly arise here. Why Math? Because I like it? "I'm born for this!"? 'Coz I'll be leaving it? Why STPM Math? Reputedly hard international exam? Self-satisfaction? Academic craze? Filling extra time?

I don't have official mark schemes for those questions, but those surely are some ideas which compel me to take this up as my academic hurdle for now. Exam is coming in roughly 8 weeks' time. And just a short word on these two brain "dishes", Math T is quite easily understandable (I just need to learn a few extra problem-solving techniques which I didn't learn in IB Math HL). Further Math T is harder. I mean, it really is hard (I think I've got the feel of what it's like to not know anything about what's coming out in the exam, 2 months before it comes!).

And in the last few nights, I'm always tired... This is bad. I don't like it. Perhaps I need some timing restructuring. And not just the usual lie-down-on-the-floor-whenever-my-head-feels-heavy treatment.

That's all for now. Will be back soon.

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