Teachers' Day is round the corner. I would like to take this opportunity to say a BIG thank you to all the teachers who have touched my lives in one way or another.
I have been very fortunate throughout my learning journey as I have met many dedicated teachers who have inspired me to scale greater heights. When I was in Primary Four, I met Mr Wong who set up a class library to encourage his young charges to read. I did not love reading at first. I realised that some of the good writers in class had read many of the books that he recommended. The rest was history. I became a bookworm, thanks to Mr Wong!
I transferred to Chongfu when I was in Primary Five as my family moved to Yishun. There was only one graduating class when I was in Primary Six. Looking back, it must be tough for the teachers to cater to the learning needs of all of us as the class was very diverse. There was no luxury of streaming or banding the pupils as the school was new then and had only one class of P6 pupils. Being the top pupil in class, I found the worksheets in school easy. I approached my teachers and asked if I could borrow some resources that I would find more challenging from them. My teachers beamed at me and said, "Certainly!" I remembered working through the Challenging Problem Sum box sets by myself. When I encountered questions that baffled me, I would approach my Math teacher, Ms Lina Tan, for help.
I credit my writing skills to my Chinese teacher, Mr Tham. Yes, he was the one who made me discover the joy and wonders of writing. He coached me personally to prepare me for National Chinese Writing Competitions. He taught me the use of personification, contrast and Show, don't tell techniques. Many of these techniques were advanced for a primary school pupil then. Hence, it is my belief now that it is never too early to learn anything. If I think that my tutees are ready to learn something more advanced, I will impart the knowledge to them. For example, my P4 tutees in my English classes are exposed to writing techniques such as personification.
My English teacher, Mr Chan, was also very inspiring. He introduced the thesaurus to us when we were in Primary 5. He made me realise that English is a very interesting language. The words "move" or "say" have different synonyms that have different shades of meaning. I began to realise that there are many vivid words that we could use in our compositions. He also inspired me to be bilingually effective as he used to be an interpreter for the Parliament. I worked very hard and was awarded the Prime Minister's Book Prize.
There are many other teachers who have touched my lives. I will continue to pay tribute to them in my next few posts.
Do you have teachers who have touched your lives? As Teachers' Day is round the corner, I think it will be great for us to try to contact our teachers and thank them.
"The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires."
~ William Arthur Ward
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