The inevitable fate of NMC students

After teaching at this school for 8 years, I can see a clear pattern of matriculation students. In most cases, they will be enthusiastic for a while. After experiencing the difficulties, they will give up. Their whole academic life will go down the drain. In contrast, their social life will shine brightly for the rest of their study period at NMC. For one thing, it's good as they can be happy with few worries. In the past, only those anti-social type of students could actually succeed in entering university. I'm rather tired in dealing with students like that.

When students are not concentrated on their studies, they will start creating problems, for example, they would isolate some so-called weirdos and create small cliques to foster their social power within his or her own class.

I'm quite sick and tired of the whole situation. The worst period will be in April and May period. A period when NMC F.6 students still think that AL is still far away (which is not in fact). Just like a period before execution, people will do whatever they desire. I do wish that my students this year won't be like that. Nevertheless, judging by the "ongoing status" of them before Easter. It might not be difficult to tell what will happen.

Insight from the school picnic

During the past few weeks, I have been feeling really tired in motivating students. It is easy to explain. F.6 students at this school have started to feel at ease with each other, and the "judgement day" is still far away. They have a general feeling that it is not necessary to study. Then came the picnic day, I haven't actually been able to feel like one of them for a long time. The picnic actually gave me the experience. I think teachers actually have to immerse themselves in the students' social circles before they can fully understand their problems. There is still a long way to go yet.

EMI / CMI

I have just finished doing a research about the effect of medium of instruction on students' language use. The whole research is based on my sort of feeling from interacting with students. Students from CMI schools are a bit different from those of EMI ones. I think it's because of their exposure to English. They don't use much English in their daily conversations.
My current F.7 students give me a little more insight into the whole issue. One of them complained to me about his inability to comprehend an oral passage. I tried to help. But it is simply difficult. If a student doesn't have any sort of motivation to learn, what can he/she do? They will ask for advice. But after all, nothing will be done by them. It is somehow related to their limited exposure to English when they were still in junior forms. At the matriculation level, all I can do is to let them practise past exam papers, with a bit of help. Anyway, it's a difficult journey for those students.

Spain and Portugal

I thought it would be best if I could take a break from the school. So, I have decided to go to Spain and Portugal. I went to Eastern Europe last year. It turned out to be quite nice. I went to Poland, Czech Republic and Hungary. Both Poland and Czech Republic were worthwhile to visit. For Hungary, it was just so so.
This year, I'm going to Barcelona, Madrid, Seville and Lisbon. These living standard of these cities are relatively cheaper than other western European countries. One thing that shocked me a bit is the temperature. It can reach almost 40C at daytime. Wow, in Hong Kong. It just reaches 33-35C at most. But it is the humidity that kills in Hong Kong. It's much drier in those cities. I hope it would be bearable. I'm leaving tonight. Hope I can sleep on the plane.

End of the school year

At last, the whole school is about to finish. This year is a bit different. My school is going to close down. The school management said that it will still go on for 5 more years.
Well, they can say whatever they want. But the reality is that teachers have started to leave. Students will start to leave soon.
What am I going to do?
I'll still hang around for another year and see what will happen in the following year.

One thing that really pissed a lot of people off is the way the school handled matters during this period. The are afraid of teachers' leaving, that's why they offered some staff of a pay rise of HK$10,000 a month to keep them. Of course it would be great if you were one of them. But for the others, it's a blatant unfairness. This will create a big frigging problem for the teachers who are going to stay. Well, let's see what will happen then.

Generation/cultural gap

I just don't know what students are thinking actually. The students I teach are the kind of lower banding students (not so academically talented). Some of them come to study at this school because they still have got a sort of vague hope that they can go to university. However, after nearly a year, some of them have just given up.
Recently, that student called Vivian really gave me a lot of troubles. Her English is good, but her attitude is shitty. I had never bothered much to chase her for her homework. But things are getting worse. She's become a pain in the ass. She stirs up a sort of "hidden" feeling of hatred among her friends towards me. They gave me suspicious look or behave nastily in my lessons. I have enough of all these. I have to discipline her. And by chance she's one of the head prefect. How wonderful for her shitty behaviours and being a head prefect at the same time!!
To be honest, I don't like to punish students. I think they are mature enough to be dealt with. But not so. It's getting more and more difficult.

Apple computer

It's difficult to use a Mac in a Windows dominated world, especially in a Hong Kong secondary school. In Hong Kong, people simply don't suppose you'll use an OS other than Windows. IT supporting staff don't like Mac users. First, you use something that they don't know much. And when you want to ask them to give you technical support, they simply can't do much. When it comes to teaching materials, you can simply forget your Mac. They are solely designed for Windows only. However, should I switch back to Windows? I think all Mac users will know the answer. Once you're a Mac user, I think it's difficult for you to turn back.

Why I want to blog.

The other day I listened to a BBC podcast - Digital Planet, talking about bloggers in India. Basically, they are trying to make a kind of "archive" of how much they have to pay to bribe the officials in order to get things done. I think the idea of archiving something quite interesting. I think I know what I want to blog now.

As a high school teacher in Hong Kong, I think I want to blog about the day-to-day experience of teaching, whether they involve office politics, or troublesome students. I hope it can help me "archive" what I have encountered in the coming months.