Teacher...I believe it is the most noble profession. Once you're a teacher, you will be called cikgu so and so even after your retirement. It is also one of the most respected careers; I guessed. Since primary school years up till upper six I could recall those teachers who have taught me and some of their words, characters or expressions, still linger in my mind.
Mrs. Lim Pin Teck - my class teacher for 2 years...standard 4 and 6. Due to her love towards us her pupils in standard 4, she purposely requested to be our class teacher again in standard 6. Very loving, gentle, at times she had to be fierce when she got mad, she was (and still she is) my best and favourite. I even heard our names (mine especially) was being mentioned in her class even after years I left the primary school (I got to know it from friends whose siblings went to the same school). Oh...glad to mention that I had a very lovely handwriting hence my handwritten work was always shown as an example in class. Even Ustaz Adnan (my Agama Islam teacher who drove a green-coloured Mr Bean's car) once told the class that my Jawi handwriting was like his. What else did I do to get my teachers' attention...? And owhhh....I used to score full marks in my Spelling and Dictation exams.
Cikgu Haron Idris - my class teacher in standard 5. A tall man with a clean-cut hairstyle, he was best remembered as having a name which was similar to the Selangor Menteri Besar then, the late Dato' Haron Idris....
Cikgu Mohd Noor - my class teacher in Standard 2. I could recall his unique way used in punishing pupils who were naughty in class. He would call their names, got them to stand in front of the class (near the blackboard) and face each other with a distance of about 1 foot, each had to stare at each other's eyes...whoever blinked their eyes would get a slap on their cheek by the partner (who was standing face-to-face staring right into him/her eyes). Sometimes, we even had instant spectators (other pupils who were playing at a nearby field) who came and stood near our classroom windows.
Mrs. Goh - my Commerce teacher in Form 1. She normally entered the classroom from the backdoor. She didn't allow us to thank her after her lessons (usually students would stand up and say "Thank you, teacher); claiming that she was paid for teaching us (that's what she said.....hahahah)
Mrs. Chong - my Geography teacher. I just loved the way she taught us the subject; we had to draw maps in our exercise books. I normally drew my maps with freehand; unlike some students who used tracing paper copying the map from textbook and transferred the drawing onto the excercise books. We had to colour our maps, too. I remembered her remarks to me..."Peta awak sangat menarik tapi kenapa air sungai awak sangat kotor?", she pointed at the rivers which I coloured yellow (they should have been coloured blue)...what to do....I have never seen a blue river here in Malaysia. She also taught us to use a map template where you would draw the outline of a map once on a cardboard, cut it, and later it can be used again.
Mrs. Foo - my History teacher...I supposed she was allergic to dust. Schools during that time only used chalk and blackboard (unlike now schools use marker on white boards). She made sure that before her lessons, someone must wipe clean the teacher's table and chair; therefore whoever was on duty to clean the class (we had duty roster for that), should not forget to do the wiping before she walked in.
Mrs. Chong - my Geography teacher. I just loved the way she taught us the subject; we had to draw maps in our exercise books. I normally drew my maps with freehand; unlike some students who used tracing paper copying the map from textbook and transferred the drawing onto the excercise books. We had to colour our maps, too. I remembered her remarks to me..."Peta awak sangat menarik tapi kenapa air sungai awak sangat kotor?", she pointed at the rivers which I coloured yellow (they should have been coloured blue)...what to do....I have never seen a blue river here in Malaysia. She also taught us to use a map template where you would draw the outline of a map once on a cardboard, cut it, and later it can be used again.
Mrs. Foo - my History teacher...I supposed she was allergic to dust. Schools during that time only used chalk and blackboard (unlike now schools use marker on white boards). She made sure that before her lessons, someone must wipe clean the teacher's table and chair; therefore whoever was on duty to clean the class (we had duty roster for that), should not forget to do the wiping before she walked in.
Ms. toot - it's not nice to mention her name here. But sadly I encountered bad experience as occasionally when I approached her for further clarification on what she had just delivered in class, she would reply "Berapa kali saya mahu ajar...?"
Mr. Ong - the only male teacher in a all girls' secondary school; you can imagine his popularity among students...we used to enjoy his Commerce classes. Quite strict and he expected his students to be prepared for he would ask questions on the topic covered that day. There were students who were not prepared and started looking outside the classroom (our class was the nearest to the main road) trying to guess the answers. Mr. Ong would then say "Apa kamu buat semalam? Saya suruh baca topik tapi tak baca? Tangan dalam tangan pandang bulan ka?" (What did you do last night? I asked you to read the topic but you didn't do it? You must be holding hands staring at the moon). The way he said it was spontaneous and we did not understand at first what he meant by the last phrase. Finally we did and as his Bahasa was not that fluent, he really sounded funny and we would always burst out in laughter. Another phrase that he was famous with was "Kenapa pandang di luar sana? Ada Dhalan Zainuddin lalu ka?". Anyway, Mr. Ong was indeed a very good and respectable teacher.
Mr. Ong - the only male teacher in a all girls' secondary school; you can imagine his popularity among students...we used to enjoy his Commerce classes. Quite strict and he expected his students to be prepared for he would ask questions on the topic covered that day. There were students who were not prepared and started looking outside the classroom (our class was the nearest to the main road) trying to guess the answers. Mr. Ong would then say "Apa kamu buat semalam? Saya suruh baca topik tapi tak baca? Tangan dalam tangan pandang bulan ka?" (What did you do last night? I asked you to read the topic but you didn't do it? You must be holding hands staring at the moon). The way he said it was spontaneous and we did not understand at first what he meant by the last phrase. Finally we did and as his Bahasa was not that fluent, he really sounded funny and we would always burst out in laughter. Another phrase that he was famous with was "Kenapa pandang di luar sana? Ada Dhalan Zainuddin lalu ka?". Anyway, Mr. Ong was indeed a very good and respectable teacher.
Pn. Nik Rokiah - my BM teacher in form 5. While we were seated in the school canteen waiting for our SPM results, I told her that if only I could get an A for BM, I would give her a kiss. Later, while we were queing up to get our result slip, I saw her jumping and gleefully she told me..."You owe me a kiss..!"
Pn. Dalilah - my upper six class teacher. She was one of the nicest teachers that I had. That was the final year of school (we were turning 19 years old then). One of the things that she told us (oh...by the way, just to let you all know that even after leaving the first school which was an all girls' school, I continued going to another all girls' school), if you get to go to university, if there's a guy approaching you for friendship (or relationship?), do not "jual mahal"....if not... once you're in the second year, juniors will be competing with you for boyfriends.....hahahaha. Well.....that seems to be a true fact.
Pn. Hanim - my Geography teacher in upper six. I had to change school after completion of lower six due to distance and transportation problems, hence in my new school, I had to take a paper which was not taught in lower six for STPM (Geografi Kawasan). Therefore I had to struggle somehow to catch up with the syllabus. Due to that, I did not score in the school exams for that paper. However, I managed to get A1 in the actual STPM for her paper and she was amazed and told me that I was her 2nd student (then) who got an A1 for that subject in STPM.
I also encountered some bad memories in school, nevertheless, I always cherish my schooling years as much as possible. I thank all the teachers who have taught me as without them I would not become the person as I am today.
No comments:
Post a Comment