WE
LOVE YOU TEACHER
The
morning was dark and cold, just like any other morning in the month of January.
I walked through the entrance slowly and wondered how it felt to be back in
this institution of learning located in the heart of Taiping town. The sound of
students talking came from places like the school canteen, corridors and even
the assembly area. It was apparently the first day of school in the year 2014
and as a third-year student, I felt a little nervous getting back to the life
of a pupil. But there was something a little different about this year and that
was my batch began its studies in form three which means it was back to the
morning session for us. In SMK St George, form one and form two students study
in the afternoon while the rest study in the morning session.
The bell
rang at 7.25 in the morning and so all the boys (and girls including the sixth
formers) walked to the assembly area. Like any other school in town, the
national anthem ‘Negaraku’ was played and we sang it ‘proudly’ with the music
blasted out from the speakers. The prefect who wore a dark green blazer gave
the basic morning assembly speech which basically talked about the teachers in
charged for the week, the meetings for sports activities and announcements about
the new locations of the classrooms. Finally, we sang the school rally and a teacher read the list of students’ names and the
classes they were going to. Eventually, my classmates and I entered the
classroom of 3A1 for the first time and it looked as though it was remodeled by
a famous interior designer.
Not too
long after we entered the classroom, the infamous God Mother of 3A1 for the
past few years entered. It was our turn to face her as our class teacher and
our hearts pumped harder than usual as we knew about the popular stories of
her. However, my other friends in class and I knew her a little earlier than
the others through some of the activities in the school chapel. So I tried to
remain as calm as possible to avoid any unwanted facial expressions that my new
class teacher could easily detect. The selection for the new class monitor,
secretary and treasurer was held and so I became the new secretary, and it’s
not something I wanted at first. Paper work wasn’t exactly something I like to
do all the time, especially under that class teacher.
Apparently, my class teacher taught us English and she had many tricks
in her sleeves stored for us as she would often use really interesting ways to teach us. One of her signature techniques was
the Apology Song which many of us had to sing for any mistakes we made. From
being rude to being lazy, nearly the entire class had to sing it including
myself. Here was how it went :
I am
sorry, I am sorry,
I am
sorry for being (insert mistake here).
Please
forgive me, please forgive me,
Please
forgive me for being (insert mistake here).
Personally,
I found it embarrassing to sing it at first, but somehow she praised me for my
really deep voice (awkward moment). Another famous technique from her was writing
a certain statement 100 times as a form of punishment. Statements such as ‘I
will always wear my Scout’s uniform on Wednesdays’ or ‘I will not send my book
late’. Our hands ached as a result of the punishment, but it was worth it.
There was also one time, when the
students of 3A1 had to play a little game outside our class during English
period. It was a game based on the principles of homophones whereby all of us
were given a card with a certain word and had to fine another guy with the same
homophone as the word we had. For example, if I held a card which had the word
corpse, I needed to find another guy who held a card which had the word corps.
Those who couldn’t find their homophone partner had to walk and quack like a
duck. Embarrassing wasn't it? Well, I had to quack due to my slow speed in
finding my homophone partner. The quaking was loud enough that students from
the science laboratory heard it. But in the end, we had fun learning like kindergarten
pupils and I considered it a childhood flashback.
Time is like a river, it moves, flows and
bends. As time passed by, we began to accept the legendary teacher who always
had a smile on her face. English class was really unique under her teachings
and we learnt the subject differently compared to other teachers. She reminded
us that for whatever work or task we had to do, we had to it with a smile. As
the secretary of the class, I’m not going to show off or anything, but working
under my class teacher was really a blessing. She was happy to see me help her
with simple tasks like carrying the books, passing messages to the class and preparing
the duty roster at the beginning of the year. Eventually, we admitted that she
was the best class teacher ever.
However, all good things must come to
an end. In the month of May, she received a transfer letter to an all girls’
school. It was indeed sad to hear that she was leaving SMK St George. On a
Wednesday morning, during the assembly our beloved class teacher gave a
farewell speech. We were all sad as birds without wings and some of us even shed
manly tears. All of us regretted that we didn’t really like our class teacher
at first, but now we realised how kind she was. WE LOVE YOU MDM. MONICA! PLEASE
REMEMBER US.
