Kana Blasted

Darrell did not come for tuition as stated today, thats pretty normal. Esp when he is usually very late for most of the time when he has tuition.I hate it when such time are wasted because the person is so late almost all the time. Appointments has to be shifted and whole schedule needs to be adjusted. The last time tuition was suppose to start at 11am, he end up coming at 1:30pm. I guess i must be the only tutor who has such high tolerance over this.

Surprisingly, when i called him just now, i could not get him, smsed the mum at 11:10am. I thought the mum was out working thats why she is unable to get darrell, but surprisingly she was at home and yet did not wake him up. Think if it was my mum, she would have done disastrous stuff to make me jump out of bed to rush for tuition. Sometimes i thought is it really worth it to teach.

Teaching has always been my calling. To teach to impact to inspire. But it really takes 2 hands to clap, a tutor works like a catalyst or a buffer, which hasten the process of a reaction. A missing spirit in the student could led to a no reaction at all. Have been teaching darrell for 2 years now. Darrell is one student which i spent the most amount of time talking to him, motivating him. Sometimes its really discouraging to teach.

Just now, i called the mum to inform her that darrell is not here for tuition, and wanted to ask if she has any ways to call him. I thought that she was outside. The conversation end up being a long phone call, was blasted by her. Can understand the point from a parent, i can understand that she is very gan chiong. How does a student improve when he is not doing his work. A parent really needs to work with the tutor in this. Its hard to get things moving when the student himself is not moving. Frankly, i do not know how to answer her. I do not want it to sound like i'm pushing the blame to her son, doing a lot of accusations. Maybe its my fault that the son is not improving in his chinese. Sometimes i really feel that maybe i should not teach darrell le or just concentrate on his maths. With that given free time, i could have taught sinkai more. At least he is showing trememdous signs of improvements and i get good confirmations from his parents. am determined to keep a record of the problems faced so that i can prove my conscience is clear when i am kana blasted and i have stuff to backed me up.

Fees will be given punctually. Am not blaming on christina but its really the first student i had, whereby the fees could be delayed by half a month on average. Darrell will alway seem to forget about telling the mum, sometimes i wonder whether he takes effort to remember things. Sigh.

To be frank, i have been a tutor for 9 years, have never encounter student with such an attitude. I have confidence in darrell provided that he really tries his best. Really do not have high standards for him, he can improve when he behaves like a normal student bah.

Come to think of it:
the students i taught are as follows:

indian girl(forget name)--taught in 1998- taught k2 chinese, i got the recommendation from a tuition agency, taught her when i was in sec 3, taught for half a year before i cancelled the tuition, because i cant stand the mum hitting the little girl with a rod everytime.

Huiqing's brother(forget name)--taught in 1999-- short term psle crash course

bobby--p6-taught in 2000- weichong gave me this student,citing that he cant cope with him as he is too mischievous
helped to pushed him from expected normal acad to express stream, taught him in sec 1 also until i went to army and lost contact because he shifted house

did army between 2002-2004

Hannah--taught in 2003-- bukit gombak--taught sec 4 express additional and elementary maths. That girl did well for her maths improved from a d7 to b3 but i must say that her attitude drove her to the grades.It was a good chemistry.

Morgan--taught in 2003--p3--taught for 9mths--cancel the tuition because i cant stand the boy's nonsense. Too young le. Enjoyed myself in teaching secondary school more. His grandmother is a pretty nice lady, morgan is pretty bright also, just that his parents could not care less. Its really a pity if he cant do well.

Darrell--taught in 2004 march ---before i was ord-ing. Need to breakthrough or breakup with this student. Feel for him as i really see him as a younger brother, want to be a mentor to him but things seems to be moving slowly. Given all that blasting, i dont know how to go for his mum's lunch treat tomorrow. sigh

Sean and Dilon--taught them when they were in P5. Tuition ended when the mums were not happy with my teaching. Its hard to teach when they are not cooperative. They are pretty bright students but things could have been much better if the mums were stricter. Sean has the potential to do very well, if he wants to, that is.

Rina-- taught in 2005. She has a really poor grasp of maths. Dunno what hongkah sec is doing. Very jialut. Started teaching 10 days before her end of year exams. The mum had to cancel the tuition slightly before her maths paper 2 because she was running very low in finances

Susan--taught in 2005. This was a 40 year old auntie whose son was around my age. Taught her before she has to undertake this ntuc exam and she has to relearn and refresh her sec sch maths. Had fun teaching her because she treated me like her son. Her attitude was good though her memory was failing her due to age. Of course, its not so easy for her since she cant really see well and is slow but her attitude makes up for it. I think given more time, she could have done well if she go to take O levels in maths

Anup --2005 dec-- This soccer fanatic was a pretty nice student to teach. HE has great potential to do well but just a bit lazy. However the level of laziness is still tolerable and acceptable. Its great fun teaching him i must say, but had to give it up because i have too many students and remained a few students so that i could conc. Din give darrell up as he was with me for many years. Taught pooja for 2 months or so. She stopped because she felt it was taxing on her. I think she might be struggling with her maths now as she has pretty poor foundation .

Huisze and her sister-- 2005-they belong to a low low income family group in a 2 room flat. Felt for this family as they are really living in poverty with one room rented out to other people. The girl has a problem with communication. Its hard for me to work through her when she doesnt respond to what i say. Prob she is not very comfortable with a male teacher. Her maths needs lots of coaching, very bad foundations. Her sister joined in later, as i notice that she can work better with her p6 sister around.

Sinkai--my current new student 2006, taught for 9mths le- has been teaching him since march this year. This little guy is bright and can do well provided that he can be consistent in his attitude. Realy not keen him in taking him up initially as i prefer to take secondary school student. Shubei recommended him to me and i had to do her a favor. Ya she still owes me a swenson earthquake. He has since improved from failing to getting an average of 74% in his grades, gotten an award for best improved student also. One good thing about teaching sinkai is that the payment are always prompt and instant which is good. As for other students, they are usually on the very next lesson.

Sean-- 19 years old chec. Taught him for ministry since may 2006. The mum is pretty concern with him just that he has lost heart in learning. He could have made to the headlines if he does well. He used to be a dropout deliquent that did not attend sec sch as per normal children.

Not sure if i missed anyone out...but so far as i could see from the list, i taught 16 students so far, of which around 10 , i have taught for more than 6months. God give me more ideas on how to teach and handle darrell. Change him pleeeeeese!! This really spoils my day. The reason why it spoils it because i take ownership of this student.

My mum will always tell me that the reason why a student needs tuition is because he is extremely poor. Pretty true, it doesnt matter if you are poor, but u need to ought to work hard and show good attitude. If a student is doing as these, and is still not improving. Change the Tutor!

arrgh, feeling frustrated, esp when its done by a member of our church, really spoils my birthday.Where has all the preaching and empowerment gone to? Yes it needs to be reflected on your daily life and not just on church ministry and guitar.

Glad that i have other students' results as an encouragement to myself. Maybe i need to work harder for my students. Teaching is still fun, i still want to teach to impact to inspire.I shall brace myself up, put up a smile and go for my tuition class with sinkai later. Let there be satisfaction in teaching!!

Jiayou bah Kaishen!