Simply Contented

School was out just a few hours ago. I am home now, sitting in front of my computer, having my dinner and enjoying some peace and silence.. while at the same time single fingeredly typing out this blog entry…. Hahaa.

School has been alright for this week. Enjoyed teaching them their lessons, and I’m sure the children enjoyed playing the games too. Learning should be fun for them. But still I have to improve on managing their behavior and keeping their noise level down. Imagine 30 students in the class who incessantly keep talking non stop despite your shouting for them to “Keep Quiet!”. It gets a little tiring and not to mention a heightened risk of losing my voice and Will drive you crazy if you don’t stop for a moment to take a deep breath and calm down. So now, instead of raising my voice, I will fold my arms, keep quiet and focus my eyes on the students yakking. The last person to stop talking will stand up for the remaining lesson and I will deduct one point the group he/she is in. (Accumulative monthly points for answering group games in class) If it takes more than 1 minute for the whole class to stop talking, the whole class will be punished. Got to work on more strategies to promote good behavior, without really ‘punishing’ them, b’cos MOE is really strict on physical punishment and all. Not even grabbing the student by the hand to get his attention is allowed. You just might get sued for bruising the student’s hand.

Despite all these, there are things that I do learn from my kids. For example, the Art class I took today. The topic was for the children to draw an improvement they wanted to see in IT, in the year 2015. Meaning let’ say your spectacle glasses having the ability to watch your favorite TV program, while serving its original functionality of giving you sight. Some of the children had really good ideas, if possible I will share them with you personally. But some on the other hand, were pure, simple and contented. Very child-like. (Duh.. they're children!) One boy drew a Television set, with his favorite cartoon on the main screen. When I asked him what other functions he would want the television he drew, to provide in 2015, he said, “To show my favorite Cartoon everyday”. When I asked him again, “That’s all you want? How about maybe to play a computer game right after the cartoon? Or maybe to control the ending of the cartoon with a click of a few buttons?” My response was a side to side head shake. And this answer, “No need Miss Cheng, its enough already” I guess sometimes humans long for more and better things, always looking for improvements in life. Of cos I’m not saying its wrong, but sometimes learning to be contented is also like coming back to being a child, needing only the basic things in life to be happy.
Do the things you have in life make you happy? Do you think the things you long for in life will make you happy after attaining it? It may not.
I truly believe with all my heart that Life’s true riches are in God alone. He is able to provide the contentment, fulfillment, security, peace and hope that we look for in our lives. He did for me. Give him a chance to do that for you too. What’s there to lose?
I thank God for giving me a good week, and for teaching me new things everyday.

Love, Stephie