My form class is made up of a good mix of students of different characters. There are 39 of them, out of which, 23 are girls. Well, the girls were mostly the soft-spoken type who would rather die than to ask a question or offer any suggestion. So shy!!! It was quite difficult to bring them out of their shell in the past 2 days of team building activities in school.

I do have a couple of girls who are more spontaneous and have more initiative. I was good to see that they could take over come of the planning of the competitions and they were able to work together with the boys. As usual, the girls and the boys are extremely seperated. They avoid sitting near each other so when I step into class, it would seem as if they were at a tea party where the guys on one side would dance with the girls on the other. I suppose the teacher has to be the thick-skinned one to make a few jokes, get them to laugh to do the ice-breaking. I don't really mind.

On the whole, after these 2 days of activities, I am able to see who are the ones in class who have initiative, who are those who need abit of pushing to get something done, who would prefer to just contribute silently and not speak up. I also have a rough idea on who are the ones to keep an eye on and whom should I seperate in terms of seating position in class.

I am their form teacher. How they move into 2003 largely depends on how I manage them and their class dynamics. I feel very excited and enthusiatic about being a form teacher again, after 3.5 years of not being one. I only pray that I will have enough time for them, as I have more and more duties coming my way this year. I also pray that I will not burn out too soon.

Sometimes I just feel like teaching is not a career. It's a commitment. Being a teacher, I owe these students an education that I can best provide in terms of every aspect of their teenage years. I am looking forward to 2003, at the same time I am aware of the amount of workload that's coming my way. I feel I have a healthy level of "fear" in me to stop me from becoming too complacent or over-enthusiatic.

Well, that's Day1 and Day2 of school for me so far. Let's see how it goes and whether this fire will burn stronger or die out.....