My tuition boy.

my dear student called me today, in the midst of his test.
so apparently he needed my help to 'cheat' his test!

and yes.

i did him the favour.

OH NO. what kind of a teacher am i!

haha i bet he went to the toilet and sneakily made that call.
so he memorised the question,
and was asking me what are the steps needed to solve it.

well, we did such a qn during tuition for millions of times.

but knowing that he did know how to do it previously,
and that probably he's just stuck and cant recall,
with the benefit of doubts.
so i just told him the general steps in solving that test question.

he's a normal tech boy,
being offered to do normal acad math now.
but, apparently he and his gang who are taking NA math is being looked down in class.

and who are the culprits?
TEACHERS.

heard his complaints during tuitions,
how much that they were being ignored during lessons,
them being deemed as CMI students,
and eventually, being looked down by the rest.

so what will happen to these students who can potentially do well?
GIVING UP.

they dont see the need to study,
they can never feel motivated nor encouraged,
and though they know they can do better yet they chose not do.

all because
peop chose to ignore them.
peop chose to look down on them.
no one chose to believe in them.

but of course,
it takes two hands to clap.

teachers do feel discouraged when these students do not cooperate in class,
or are not submitting their homeworks always.
so they started to ignore these students who do not seemed to be interested to study.
while these students start to feel discouraged upon the neglection,
and there it goes,
they start the give up on themselves,
hence not listening in class nor handing in homeworks.

its a vicious cycle.

but of course,
heard of touching stories of those noble teachers who really gave in all their heart,
to nurture all these group of students,
to believe in them and never once give up on them.

i salute these teachers.
its not easy.
but they had indeed made a difference in someone's life.

they changed all these,
to a nice virtuous cycle :)

anw, back to this tuition boy of mine.
so all that i can do was to fill our lessons with lots of motivational talks everytime.
hoping to infuse him with the motivation and enthusiasm to study,
telling him not to give up and have to work harder to impress everyone
and prove his teachers wrong!

anw im glad that,
it helps :)
and it works.

though these kind of things are usually a short term positive impact,
but well, i believe the consistent encouragements would make this impact a long one :)

and so, helping him to 'cheat' this test was a way
to help him to gain more confidence in himself!

since everyone knows,
the marks on our exam script tell everything.

although as a teacher/teacher-to-be,
i hated so much to see students coming up to me and 'pleading' for more marks.
its either they needed that mark to get a pass or jump a grade.

and i would be there kept on telling them that the marks are not all that matter!

true, in our perpectives.
but not others.

which parent wouldnt flare when they see the red failed marks on their child's paper?
which parent wouldnt compliment their children when they see the high marks on their papers?
of course, im only taking the majority for these analogies.

its so true that the marks tell everything, to them.
apparently they wont much bother to look at their mistakes,
but always set their focus on the marks/grade shown at the top right corner.

probably not just the parents,
but i guess the marks affect the students quite a lot too.

higher marks would definitely increase their confidence level,
boost their morale,
just like how at times my student would come to me happily
showing me her high marks on her math exam paper,
and feeling really proud of it.

as for vice versa,
low marks may demoralise them,
discourage them to work harder the next time,
or discounting the efforts that they could have put in for the test.

kk, enough of my digression haha.
anw my boy texted me after the test,
telling me that he should be able to score 80% for this test!
from the usual failed grades.

so i really hope he can gain more confidence and work harder the next time!
it always give me a great sense of fulfilment,
to see improvements in my students,
in terms of academic,
and their mindset :)

on a side note:
went to ica today to apply for citizenship.
mine was declined, cause i needed to work for at least a year before i can apply.
though all along i thought its more like declaring my citizenship by the age of 21,
since im born in singapore, though holding on to a msia nationality.
but its not.
while bro and sis can apply under my mom, since they are under 21.
but mom's was declined too.
since she is not working and could not of course produce any income tax statement,
which the authority needed.

im okay with the failed application.
it doesnt really matter with me though, since its just a difference in the colour of my ic.
i feel like a singaporean anw,
being born here, having my whole life spent here and with all my friends here.

but i can feel the huge sense of disappointment in my mom :(
she nagged at me for so long to apply for the citizenship.
and then, when i finally agreed to make a trip down to ica,
she spent so much time preparing all the docs for this application.

but, her hopes were dashed. :(