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When can a teacher say that he/she is doing well in their career? When can a teacher say that they’ve failed? When can a teacher say that he/she has given more than enough and when could it be less? Some questions I am finding answers.
It was yesterday morning when I was called to the office to explain something. Something that shocked me. Something that I never expected to happen. I have a student whom I will call Student A, who will be the prime character of my story. Here it goes.
Student A is known in the campus for being lazy and troublesome. He’s the kind that comes to school with incomplete uniform and no homework. When you ask him why he’s like that, he’ll give you reasons of a kindergarten kid. Yes he maybe sweet some times, but the world is not flat and no matter how sweet he is, he’ll always go back to what he is used to be – troublesome student. One day came and he went to another teacher’s classroom. There he played with the teacher’s aquarium and all its fish. The next day, one of the most expensive gold fish died, the oxygen tank was broken as well, and the teacher who owns the aquarium complained. As the student’s adviser, I was outraged with what he did. I am always reminding my students to be mindful of others and respect their properties, but boom! He’s the one who never listens! As a punishment, I told him to replace the fish and the oxygen tank that he broke, if he’ll not be able to replace it, I will not give him a seat to take the exams. Days passed and no fish arrived. I reminded him many times and the only answer I get is “Yes teacher, I will bring it tomorrow“, but tomorrow never ends!
Quarter exams came and I stayed firm with my decision not to give him the test. I want him to realize that what he did is wrong and he needs to learn the lesson, this time – the hard way! Before we proceeded with the tests I initiated a call to Student A’s parents to inform them of the situation and both parties got surprised with the exchange of information. Apparently, Student A already asked his parents for money to replace the fish and oxygen tank, but he never bought them instead he replaced his old pair of shoes. Brilliant! Now the parents claim that Student A already paid his teacher when there’s no business like this happened. Wow, this student is a certified liar! To clear the situation, I explained to them that he has never paid anyone and no one has received money from him. So still no test without the fish and they agreed. A couple of hours later Student A’s sister came and handed him the fish, soon the teacher who owns the aquarium was happy to receive them and I immediately gave him his exams as part of our deal. Before we part ways that day, I gave him advices and I hoped that this will never happen again. Case closed.
As a teacher, I treat my students as my little brothers and sisters. I am their partner in everything as long as it is right. I impart my knowledge and shares them my happiness. But then, some of them will not be grateful of your deeds. Some of them will get angry with you when you discipline them, and one of them is Student A. After the incident, his parents decided to transfer him to another school. In just 2 days they have taken all his records and puff! He’s gone!
The school’s board of directors got this information and now they are issuing me a letter of warning for my actions. For what action? For disciplining my student?!? F*ck! My hands didn’t lay on his skin, I didn’t hurt him when he has done bad things, all I did is just discipline him and we made a very good deal. Then why am I being caught in the middle. For the school, they have business to keep and if I don’t get to keep the students, I am fired!!! Damn! This whole thing ruined my day and it gave me butterflies in my tummy! A letter of warning will not suit my beautiful record, I don’t want it and I will never like it!
The whole day, I thought of things while I am on my chair. To discipline or not to discipline? I don’t know. My mind’s messed but I will never give up. I am sure that I am doing a great job and I don’t want anybody to piss with me. Before I close this, I want to let other parents like me who have kids attending school to know this – teachers are our helpers in grooming our children, they should never take the whole responsibilities that you should be doing. Working together things will be a lot easier.
“A good teacher is like a candle – it consumes itself first to light the way for others.“
Come 1st of March, Cambodia International Academy held its annual academic competition from pre-school to grade 9 students. There are different categories per level; story telling, reading, and numbers for kindergartens, maths, spelling, and essay writing for the higher grades, and speech choir which is combination of different students from grades 2-5.
It’s more than 2 months preparation for my students. Knowing the capabilities of our opponent section – Grade 6B, I gave them a head start in everything they will need to win. 70% of my students have poor English and this makes it hard for my remaining 30%, they’re the ones who are very fast in learning. You can imagine clearly what I need to go through just to pull their senses out of them.
Whenever we do the practice or our lessons, I always remind my students to never give up in things that they want to achieve. Never surrender even though you know things are gonna be complicated. I always teach them that there’s a room for us to win something in the contest despite the fact that the other class has more students than us. I once told them “Quality is better than QUANTITY” so never be afraid.
So the contest came and it’s a knock out style, one question per student and if you don’t get to answer right – you’re OUT! One by one I saw my students eliminated…I never looked down instead I cheered more for the remaining students in the line…it’s okay if you don’t win, for me you’re all my winners!
Then in the end the winners were announced…
Spelling Contest:
1st – Lor Ty (G6A)
2nd – Davinn Tay So (G6B)
3rd – Money Udom (G6B)
Mathematics Bee:
1st – Soth Pich Sorphea (G6A)
2nd – Chenda Arika (G6B)
3rd – Voeurn Sophanith (G6A)
Essay Writing:
1st – Soth Pich Sorphea (G6A)
2nd – Bo Yi Houy (G6A)
3rd – Ly Van (G6B)
What else can a simple teacher like me ask for more than having champions in my class. Grand slam in all categories we have! It’s a blessing from above that we win and I feel great that we’ve harvested the fruits we sowed a couple of months ago successfully. Grade 6A – you are superb!
As a treat, I made chicken macaroni salad for all of them and they liked it 
Sang Him ate too much and now he’s sooooo full!
Meet my newest baby and addition to my gadget family – yellow four.
This DELL Inspiron mini 910 is a true gem and because of that pink five won’t be lonely anymore
Feb. 26, 2010 – Cambodia International Academy headed to Kirirom Hill Side Resort for the annual educational field trip together with more than 300 students from kindergarten classes up to grade 9. The start of the trip was a bit chaotic with all the unnecessary changes in the bus list, students without their name on the roster, not enough seats in the bus, and others that should have been avoided if the admins have anticipated these things happening. Anyway, my blog is not all about that!
It’s my first time to be at Kirirom together with my husband Nestle, he came with me because he’s after the Chambok waterfalls which is up in the mountain, but sadly, we didn’t go there as the trails are quite dangerous. In the resort, you can do quite a few things – visit the mini-zoo, ride the ponies, do the rope slide (which scared the hell out of me!), biking, swimming, kayaking, and enjoying nature. The place is perfect for families who wants to escape the busy life in the city. There are many cottages where you can relax and do some BBQ. The resort also have rooms rooms for ren just in case you want to spend more time with your love ones.
My students are all game to try the activities they have and we really had a great time bonding together, plus they’re all nice and quiet during the trip, no one is a pain in butt all through our journey. Most of them spent their time biking around while me, Neath, Dara, Rithy, David, and Him went to try the rope slide. I was so amazed with the little kids who did the slide first, I mean they’re way smaller than me and all of them were not scared to jump off the base. While when it’s my turn, they had trouble sending me off because I don’t wanna let go, hahaha! My knees were all shaking and I could feel my heart beating fast, as if it’s going to jump first out of my chest, geez! I will admit that I am afraid of heights and after that jump I swear that I will never do it again 
Rithy
Neath
David
Dara
Teacher Joyce
The short field trip brought me and my students closer together and we are looking forward for more activities like this. To those who’d like to come to Kirirom, it is advisable to rent a car to make your travel easier. You can book it to any local travel agencies here in the Penh. It’s been a long day…I hope all the teachers had a good time with their youngsters. I’m out to sleep now
Time flies so fast that the little girl which I used to carry in my arms is now a grown up. Looking at her makes me feel proud and somehow a bit scared on the things which are to come. Yet, I believe that Andrea will be a good person when she matures.
Baby Andrea, continue all your kind deeds, mommy is very happy with all your achievements, and though I get mad at you some times, that doesn’t mean that I don’t love you, it’s only a matter of disciplining when times get rough with you. I love you baby!
when i have time, i try my best to cook something i love to eat, and today i craved for some fried pork and potatoes so i cooked it 
best with mayo dip! yummy!
yes, you read it right. i call it imperfect because we both didn’t make any plans on celebrating valentines, but despite of it we managed to make everything perfect as long as we’re together! (i smell cheese here )
none of us wanted to eat anything special as it’s been round the week that we’ve been eating anything we want, so the ending, never ending chit chat about high school lives together with chickens and pizzas, sweet!
dad,
though we only had a couple of hours spending time outside, i wanna tell you that i enjoyed every single second with you, and though you know how irritated i am when you do not make plans especially on important dates like this, you managed keep your patience with me, thank you. i love you dad!!!
mhy
since it’s hearts day today, i’ll give you the cheesiest song ever made enjoy!!!
an outstanding collaboration of We Are the World by the world’s famous singers. debuted today, here is the official video of the song. truly inspirational!
here is the official press release from MTV:
LOS ANGELES — The energy was electric Monday night (February 1) at Henson Studios as more than 80 of music’s biggest stars gathered for a charity remake of “We Are the World” in support of Haitian earthquake relief.
“I feel like a kid in a candy store,” Wyclef Jean said, speaking to the press about the idea of remaking such an iconic song, which is getting production help from RedOne and Will.I.Am. “What’s bigger than a contribution is that you lend your voice,” the Haitian native said earlier in the day to his peers while trying to inspire them during the session, which began around 3 p.m. and lasted well into the night.
Among the voices in the 81-member choir were Pink, Lil Wayne, Kanye West, Nick Jonas, LL Cool J, Robin Thicke, Celine Dion, Akon, Rob Thomas, Wyclef, Jeff Bridges, Vince Vaughn, Barbra Streisand, Jordin Sparks, Good Charlotte’s Madden brothers, Tony Bennett, Josh Groban, Snoop Dogg, Justin Bieber, Jennifer Hudson, Keri Hilson, Jamie Foxx, Tyrese, Katharine McPhee, Sean Garrett, Will.I.Am, Carlos Santana, Melanie Fiona, Enrique Iglesias, Toni Braxton, Jason Mraz, Miley Cyrus, Busta Rhymes, Nicole Scherzinger, Nicole Richie, Usher, Julianne Hough, Raphael Saadiq, Zac Brown, India.Arie, “American Idol” judge Randy Jackson, Musiq Soulchild, Heart’s Ann and Nancy Wilson, Fonzworth Bentley, Kid Cudi, Iyaz, Bizzy Bone, Nipsey Hussle, the Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson and Al Jardine, Trey Songz, Faith Evans, Mya and Gladys Knight. (Head here for a full list of “We Are the World” participants.)
Kanye, wearing a red jacket with sparkling gold crisscross accents, stood center in the front row, between Wyclef and Hudson.
Among the soloists whose sessions were screened for journalists at press time were Bieber, Dion and Groban. Lil Wayne also came out and humbly noted that he recorded the solo originally sung by Bob Dylan.
The inspirational lyrics were laid down over a track that had a more modern Southern hip-hop bounce to it. The recording session took place almost 25 years to the day since the original song for African famine relief was recorded.
In a statement, Jones said, “Twenty five years ago, the entertainment industry showed the power of community to help our fellow man when we recorded ‘We Are The World’ to bring relief to those suffering from famine in Ethiopia. And while the need to assistant Africa continues, today the country of Haiti is suffering immeasurably from the destruction due to the recent earthquake and is in immediate need of relief that will last long after the television cameras have left. As artists, we have joined together on this 25th anniversary and in the spirit of ‘We Are The World’ to help meet that need.”
“The experience was out of this world,” said Bieber, who sang Lionel Richie’s original opening line. The world premiere of the song’s video will air during NBC’s coverage of the opening ceremony of the Vancouver Winter Olympics on Friday, February 12.
According to a press release from the organizers, both the new version of “We Are the World” and the accompanying video will be available for purchase through a consortium of on-line and retail partners, with all proceeds going directly to the earthquake-relief efforts in Haiti through the We Are The World Foundation, a newly created not-for-profit organization made up of board members Quincy Jones, Lionel Richie, Wyclef Jean, Paul Haggis, Randy Phillips and Ambassador Louis Moreno of the Inter-American Development Bank.
a bouquet of red roses, a box of ferrero rocher and some thoughtful messages written on the board are what surprised me when i went to class this morning, all courtesy of my grade 6A students
they are absolutely sweet in many ways though there are times that they’re uncontrollable, especially when they get excited on something. nevertheless, they have nice traits that no one can ever buy, and that is being sweet.
to my grade 6As, you’ve made my day! thanks for being my dates! see you next week and good luck in the upcoming quarter exams :-*
