Unexpected, Yet Funny

In the name of Allah, the Best Planner.

Today is so full of unexpected-ness. If I were to direct a short drama, I'll call it "Series of Unexpected Events in SMKBJ."

Yes, some unexpected things happened to me at school today.


Event 1
My cooperating teacher observed me conducting a lesson today. It was Form 4 Cemerlang and I was teaching about depression among teenagers. As we were entering the production stage, I gave the students a group task. Every group received a role, e.g teacher, school, parents, friends, siblings; and they have to list down at least 3 things they can do to help a depressed teenager (Q: What can you do to help?).

Suddenly, a group of prefects barged in the classroom and interrupted my lesson (I was having an observation, remember?). I had to stop my lesson and gave in to the spot-check to be conducted. Who would have thought this to happen during an observation eh?

Here are some pictures I snapped during the spot-check:

And I lost about 20 minutes for this spot-check. But I still had about ten to fifteen more minutes left while the cooperating teacher already left during the check-up. So I continued my lesson. There were two hilarious things happened in that last minutes:

1) I found out that one of the things confiscated from the class is a bag full of underwear. Male boxers and underpants.I asked the students, "Why in goodness' name you have the underwear in your classroom?" They told me that it is their tradition. If it is your birthday, you will be vegi-ed (I think so because this is what I heard). Perhaps some kind of ritual people in college usually do to birthday boys, which we call as "rumble." Along with that, whatever underwear you wear on that day will be taken and kept together with other underwear of the previous birthday boys. Disgusting, but hilarious. Is it not?

. . . ah, I forgot to ask why they keep the underwear and what they will do with them. Perhaps I should ask later.


2) I burst out laughing together with the students during the last group's presentation. Let's see why:

Look at the students' answers. The first answer was written before the spot-check, while the rest were written after. Isn't this funny?

And owh, a boy from this group said this the moment the prefects went out, "So much for a spot-check . . . only wasting my precious time to learn English." I don't know whether he really meant it or simply complaining, but I was touched by his remark. Thank you, boy!


Event 2
During the abovementioned lesson, an Indian student which is one of the jokers in the classroom, out of the sudden said, "Teacher, ****** (a student's name) is a social rubbish. He is sampah masyarakat." when I was checking them doing the comprehension exercise I gave them. I was like . . . errr? But I laughed anyway. It was so sudden, it was too funny for me.


Event 3
After Form 4 Cemerlang, I went to teach Form 2 Gemilang about "Safety in Aeroplanes." It was a simulation-like listening activity: We pretended to be boarding an aeroplane and I played the role of a steward (though I showed the students picture of stewardess) while all the students are the passengers. I read out the instructions usually read before a plane takes off and students have to fill in the blanks on the handout I gave them. When we finished all the activities, that was when our "aeroplane" arrived at KLIA airport. The students had a lot of fun, but we finished earlier than time. So I let the students to rest and do their own work while not being too noisy.

While I was rubbing off the whiteboard, a student called out to me and said, "Teacher, I have a stupid question."

"How stupid it is?" I replied.

"Very stupid," he laughed. Then he showed me a scribble on a piece of paper and pointed at the word "what". I looked at him with a questioning look. And he said,

"Teacher, what is what?"

It was too sudden and unexpected that I remained silent for a few seconds before saying "apa" but he said, "No, in English." Seriously, I didn't know what to reply so I said I want to finish rubbing off the board while thinking for the answer. Then I went back to him to give the answer: "What" is the word used to ask a question. And we both laughed because I just realised that he was pulling a joke using the pun.


I guess that is all for this entry. I love being a teacher. :')



"O Allah! I thank You for showing me this path. Alhamdulillah wa syukrillah"

What Would You Do If You Have $16.7m?

"What would you do, Hafiz, if you have $16.7m?" asked Api, my Samoan friend who also works at Wellington City Council as a Spotless cleaner last night when we sat together after finishing our task for the night while waiting for other staffs to finish theirs. Next to us was our supervisor - Silipi, a Samoan lady who was flipping through the day's newspaper.

The discussion revolved around the news from Dominion Post about a mystery lotto winner who nets $16.7m. Yes, lotto and any other forms of gambling is strictly forbidden in Islam but it does not hurt to participate in a heated discussion about it. And so I joined in the conversation. To Api's question, I laughed as I said, "I'll buy Spotless company and fire Andi (our former manager nobody really liked)." Api laughed heartily hearing that and said he would buy all facilities in Wellington such as the hospital. He said he would buy Spotless from me and fire many other people aside from Andi. Everyone laughed. Joining in, Joe said he would buy properties like a house and want to settle down. The conversation died down as Zack emerged out of the elevator and Silipi chased everyone to go home.

Really, what would I do if I really have $16.7m?

Before answering that, I'd like to reflect a conversation I had with Stefan, a co-worker when I worked with Martin to set up marquees during summer, when we were driving back from Petone. Stefan was a nice guy with an admirable ambition. Here's our conversation:

Stefan: Hafiz, you're a student?
Me: Yes, doing TESOL.
Stefan: What's that?
Me: Teaching of English as a Second Language. See, I wanna be an English teacher.
Stefan: Wow! You learn our language to teach it to your people?
Me: Yeah, but my English ain't that good yet. Still learning.
Stefan: Nah, your English's fine. But teaching ain't gonna make you rich, no?
[We both laughed]
Stefan: Talking about rich. What would you do if you're rich, Hafiz?
Me: Dunno. Never thought of it.
Stefan: Hm'mm. Me, I have this dream when I was little. I wanna establish a commune. You know what a commune is, Hafiz? As in the word Communist?
Me: Yup.
Stefan: I wanna establish a commune, a place for poor people. There, they can live happily among them sharing things and facilities. No one feels envious of the others having more than them or being more lucky than them. You see, I always think our society is not good - the rich gets richer, the poor gets poorer and oppressed. I want a healthy society where people can live peacefully.
Me: I see.

Okay, don't get the wrong idea just yet. I'm not gonna establish a commune as envisioned by Stefan. I agree with him that there is a sickness needing a cure in almost every society - his and mine, more or less the same. But a commune isn't the answer. I believe such sickness originates from unhappiness every individual has repressed in their heart. Yes, I agree with Alexander Sutherland Neill who founded Summerhill School, and some parts of his philosophies about rearing happy children.

Yes if I were rich, if I have $16.7m, I would establish a boarding school with an alternative education. I will find people who share the same vision and dreams to run the school. The school shall be available for any children from any socio-economical backgrounds so that the school won't be a ground for any kind of social nor cultural reproduction. The school should be fun but in order. Thus there will be rules, unlike Summerhill, but there will be no strict rules that instill children with fear such as those in conventional schools. The curricula will have a wide coverage, ranging from theoretical knowledge to living skills; and children got to choose whichever course they want to learn basing on their interest. Why? I believe a person forced to do something they are reluctant to do is an unhappy person. In this school, children will learn more about social skills such as cooperation and negotiation so that they will know what it is like to live in a society that functions.

Yes, $16.7m may not be enough to achieve this dream of mine. But well, I'm just stating my dream. I may not be super rich by becoming a teacher and establish the school I dreamt about, but I know one thing I can do with becoming a teacher: Eventhough I have to follow the National Syllabus and Curriculum, I will teach my students my way. I want my students to grow up a happy person.