For those who waited patiently for this post... This portion is kind of complicated as it involved a lot of radical decisions, decisions that were not the expected norm.
Well, just before the GCE 'O' Levels, all secondary schools will conduct a preliminary examinations (also know as prelims) on thier own to aid students in their revisions, and at the same time, geared them towards the GCE 'O' Levels examinations. The results of this prelims will also enable the students to enter the junior colleges for the first 3 months on the next year should their results be competitive and accepted by the junior colleges. Maybe just a bit of background. The results of the GCE 'O' Levels were release on March the following year. As such, in order not to waste precious time for the students in their 'A' Levels, the prelims results will grant the student an early entry to the junior colleges, so that they can move on with lessons, and when the results were released, they can choose to stay, or upgrade to another junior colleges, or other choices availabe to them.
My prelims were rather satisfactory, and it granted me into TJC. TJC was one of my desired planned destination back then. I was settling down fine in TJC, and then I realised that it was not exactly what I wanted. Therefore, I quitted even before the GCE 'O' Levels results were released. There was a bit of commotion while making this decison. My family, relatives and friends were rather shocked. Simply because, I decided to go to a polytechnic instead. I would prefer more hands on than theory.
Now this decision was tough. Junior colleges were considered a direct route to university. There is only a fine slim chance for poytechnic students to enter university. Back then, going to the university was a must and if you're a university graduate, you're good. If you aren't, you're otherwise. What illogical reasoning is this!
Anyway, I'm firmed into going into a polytechnic. So, I enrolled myself into SP after my GCE 'O' Levels results were released, doing a Diploma in Chemical Process Technology. And my GCE 'O' Levels results back then was considered good. Good enough ti stay in TJC, should I had remain in there.
Now, since polytechnic school term started in July, there's a long gap from getting the results to the actual beginning of studies. It is this period of time that's getting more and more interesting.
I was given the opportunity to go back to my secondary school to do relief teaching, and earn a bit of money of course. That sounds interesting and exciting too. And that's how I went back to CCHSM. The place where I'd previously mentioned as the place where impacted me the most.
Doing relief teaching back in CCHSM was an eye-opening. Imagine working with my teachers whom had taught me merely a few months ago. The teachers were all helpful, but most of them were interested to know about my decisions. Familiar place and familiar faces. Such a conducive place to work in! On the other hand, imagine the juniors had to call me "teacher" or simple "cher" (This term is most probably used amongst Singapore students as they "eat" up the first word and emphasize on calling just "cher"). It feels a bit uneasy too especially relieving the Secondary 4 students. They were just 1 year younger than me and they called me like as if I'm generations older than them. And I did relief teaching in some of the classes where the "important people" (People in the credit list, which I'd also listed previously in Part 3b) are. But the most funny incident happened amongst the Secondary 1 students. Since they had not seen me previously in CCHSM, they wouldn't know about my age. And during 1 of my last lessons with the class, they asked for my autographs and took some pictures with me. And then a magical question came. "Teacher, how old are you?" And when I asked them to guess, the range spanned from late twenties to early thirties... That's what I am now! Not 10 years ago during then!
Oh well, normally this is the part where I would say I'm done with this part of the timeline. But for this case, it isn't. The above was only about half of this portion of timeline. But because of the lengthy text above, I'd think I'll better split the next half into Part 3d.
See... I told you the importance of my secondary school life. There's simply too much things happening then.
Well, just before the GCE 'O' Levels, all secondary schools will conduct a preliminary examinations (also know as prelims) on thier own to aid students in their revisions, and at the same time, geared them towards the GCE 'O' Levels examinations. The results of this prelims will also enable the students to enter the junior colleges for the first 3 months on the next year should their results be competitive and accepted by the junior colleges. Maybe just a bit of background. The results of the GCE 'O' Levels were release on March the following year. As such, in order not to waste precious time for the students in their 'A' Levels, the prelims results will grant the student an early entry to the junior colleges, so that they can move on with lessons, and when the results were released, they can choose to stay, or upgrade to another junior colleges, or other choices availabe to them.
My prelims were rather satisfactory, and it granted me into TJC. TJC was one of my desired planned destination back then. I was settling down fine in TJC, and then I realised that it was not exactly what I wanted. Therefore, I quitted even before the GCE 'O' Levels results were released. There was a bit of commotion while making this decison. My family, relatives and friends were rather shocked. Simply because, I decided to go to a polytechnic instead. I would prefer more hands on than theory.
Now this decision was tough. Junior colleges were considered a direct route to university. There is only a fine slim chance for poytechnic students to enter university. Back then, going to the university was a must and if you're a university graduate, you're good. If you aren't, you're otherwise. What illogical reasoning is this!
Anyway, I'm firmed into going into a polytechnic. So, I enrolled myself into SP after my GCE 'O' Levels results were released, doing a Diploma in Chemical Process Technology. And my GCE 'O' Levels results back then was considered good. Good enough ti stay in TJC, should I had remain in there.
Now, since polytechnic school term started in July, there's a long gap from getting the results to the actual beginning of studies. It is this period of time that's getting more and more interesting.
I was given the opportunity to go back to my secondary school to do relief teaching, and earn a bit of money of course. That sounds interesting and exciting too. And that's how I went back to CCHSM. The place where I'd previously mentioned as the place where impacted me the most.
Doing relief teaching back in CCHSM was an eye-opening. Imagine working with my teachers whom had taught me merely a few months ago. The teachers were all helpful, but most of them were interested to know about my decisions. Familiar place and familiar faces. Such a conducive place to work in! On the other hand, imagine the juniors had to call me "teacher" or simple "cher" (This term is most probably used amongst Singapore students as they "eat" up the first word and emphasize on calling just "cher"). It feels a bit uneasy too especially relieving the Secondary 4 students. They were just 1 year younger than me and they called me like as if I'm generations older than them. And I did relief teaching in some of the classes where the "important people" (People in the credit list, which I'd also listed previously in Part 3b) are. But the most funny incident happened amongst the Secondary 1 students. Since they had not seen me previously in CCHSM, they wouldn't know about my age. And during 1 of my last lessons with the class, they asked for my autographs and took some pictures with me. And then a magical question came. "Teacher, how old are you?" And when I asked them to guess, the range spanned from late twenties to early thirties... That's what I am now! Not 10 years ago during then!
Oh well, normally this is the part where I would say I'm done with this part of the timeline. But for this case, it isn't. The above was only about half of this portion of timeline. But because of the lengthy text above, I'd think I'll better split the next half into Part 3d.
See... I told you the importance of my secondary school life. There's simply too much things happening then.
