Clearing My Work Station Again

Today is the last day of the school holiday and I went back today TRYING to clear my work station. I realized that it's a mission impossible!

Found things that I've bought still in their plastics. Guilty of buying things that I don't need but thought I need... Boxes of gifts and stationery for children... children books... educational cards games, expired snacks... an ostrich egg...
Incredible amount of stuff I've accumulated over the years for my teaching... The amount of $ I've spent...
I can't possibly bring everything home...

Decided that I'm going to have the GSS (Great Sheryl's Sale). Everything has to go! Well, as much as possible...

Clearing Up

Have been clearing up my work station for the past 2 weeks now, bit by bit. Been lugging home 2 full bags of books and stuff every day. 10% home, another 90% to go... Can't imagine how much books and stuff I have accumulated over the past few years. I think the $ I've spent on children's books is more than a luxurious trip to Europe!

Actually I've started my own collection of children's books since my NIE days. I've always been interested in books and stories. Hmm... think I started collecting books since my primary school days...To date, as a conservative estimate, I should have not less than 500 books, maybe even 1000? I've always have a well-stocked class library to encourage my children to read. Knowing that many of their parents do not bring them to the national library and at that time, the school library did not have a really good collection, I provided a conducive reading corner in class and for allowing the children to borrow the books home, hoping  to pass on the passion for reading.

What about all my furniture? I've a 3-seater couch, an antique coffee table (left from Jerome's business), 6 book shelves, 4 long book shelf cum bench, plastic cabinets. Yes, incredible, but the school is like my home. I do spend more waking hours in school than at home. Wonder if I can have a garage sale in school to sell all my stuff... Hopefully I can get enough $ to buy my KitchenAid...

Anyway for the time being, the books are going to sit at home and occasionally entertain the children who will visit. Wonder when I can share some of my favourite stories again...

Last Day of School

Yesterday was the last day of school for Semester 1. The teachers will be meeting the parents these 2 days to give out the report books and talk about the children's performance, etc.

12.30p.m. I went down to the office to look for Mr W, the P, to submit my resignation letter. I had wanted to submit my resignation letter last Friday, but he was not in school. Then because of Jerome's sensitivity to numbers, he said that it was not good to submit it yesterday (May 24- sounds like I'm dying of hunger in chinese). So after class, when I saw his car at his usual parking lot, I quickly grabbed the chance to see him.

First, we talked about something else... my pupil. I presented him with a big A4 white envelope containing samples of a pupil's work. It was a case of trying to persuade the parent to send the child to a special school as she is not learning much in school. At 11 yrs, she still can't write a simple sentence independently, eg, "My name is ________________." And she's suppose to take the PSLE next year...

Then I presented the smaller envelope to him. He looked at me puzzled. I mumbled "my resignation letter..."
He opened up the envelope and read the letter and the resignation form (Yap, there is actually a resignation form downloadable from HR. There are boxes to tick for the reasons to leave. There are options that include stress, long hours, distance, etc. I wonder if people do really tick the real reasons. Anyway, I've selected others and stated family affairs. There should be one for Trying to Conceive) So as he was reading, I was feeling nervous, anticipating his questions that will follow. I'm afraid I'm going to cry...

Finally, he looked up and asked "You are leaving the service?"
"Yes." I replied with a forced smile, trying to blink back the tears I could already feel.
"For good?" he asked again.
"Well... at least for the time being." I replied.

He then suggested that I should take no pay leave to settle the 'family affairs' istead of just resigning unless I'm thinking of getting another job after leaving. It will be difficult to return to the service after resigning. I'll have to go through the interview process again, etc... So go home and discuss the option with husband first but submit the leave form asap...

So in the end, I walked out of his office with my resignation letter still in my hands...

Retirement after 41 yrs of service

A teacher proudly retired on 31st March after 41 years of service... An amazing feat!

As the principal put it, it's an incredible amount of passion, perserverance and resilience to stay in the same vocation for 41 yrs.

"I'll be back!" she promised. She'll be taking a 10 weeks break before returning to school as an adjunct teacher.

I'm just in my 8th year...

Back At Work

After more than 6 months of a 'domesticated' life, playing in the kitchen and being a devoted wife, I'm back at work! Spending over half the day outside the house now. No more time and energy to prepare meals or sit down with Jerome for breakfast & lunch. We've just started ordering Tingkat meals (4 dishes) now for dinner.

When I reach home at around 7pm, dinner is all ready as Jerome cooked the rice. Jerome does most of the housework now too! It's good to be back at work, more fruitfully occupied! Just hope that I'll not be over-consumed by it. Life's good and it's going to get even better! :) I'm enjoying myself!