Like to see their smiles..

In the beginning of a lesson, after the class had greeted me, I asked the entire class to remain standing. They were a little stunned, half-expecting some sort of tongue-lashing, I guess. Ha.. Nay.. Not this time.

It was almost immediately after a major test and I asked the class to predict their results even before they got back their papers. Those who think they can pass may take a seat and those who think they are not going to make it shall remain standing.

Almost all were standing, except 4. But actually about half of the class passed the test. Poor prediction. Mm..

I then asked everyone to sit down and I returned their scripts one by one right in front of them, at the same time expressing how badly they had predicted their results.

The interesting part came when I was near Jm and she was one of those standing earlier on. She was amongst the first few I approached. I noticed she was a little tensed up. So… I decided to…

Me (in a rather fake puzzled tone) :
“Jm, Aiyo… why you need to be standing just now?”

To this, she gave out a heave of relief. In fact, the rest of her classmates were looking at her with a bit of admiration.

I looked at her scripts and paused for a while. Everyone and especially Jm were waiting eagerly for me to announce her good results. Then I added, “Mm… But you are right. You should be standing. You did not pass.”

The whole class roared into laughters.
You may think I was a litte “evil”.
Haha.. But most importantly, she was laughing together with them, she was no longer so tensed up, she could then face her little set-back with a smile.

I hope she could stand up and brave through this year with style. I know she can make it.

- - - - - -

St appeared a little teary when he learnt about his results. He proclaimed to me (with all his classmates as witnesses), “Mr Nanzi, Term 2, you shall see. I will definitely make a come back.”

I playfully commented (loud enough for everyone to hear) :
Come back? Come back for what? Come back for the chocolate* ah?

To this, the class burst into laughters again. Most importantly, St was sitting there, a little stunned at first because of my comment, but recovered quickly and he was also smiling very broadly.

His eyes were no longer that teary. I can sense his fighting spirit getting even stronger.

* I gave the top scorer of the class a bar of chocolate. St was commenting loudly how come he didn’t get one since he is the top scorer (for the class and most probably also for the entire cohort) in another subject - Chemistry.

- - - - - -

Eu voluntarily came to me trying to explain his poor academic performance recently. He related what he had done during his holiday and how he had “wasted” most of his time in daze and not working on his academic stuff at all.

He was rather concerned and very confused what of he wanted to be in the future. This “confusion” was/is enough for him to think and think and not doing anything about it.

He asked me for advice.
Wa.. My immediate worry was that he must be feeling really lost enough to seek advice even from silly me. And erm.. I am never good at this kind of thing. I tried anyway.

I have forgotten what I had said or shared.

But it just felt/feels good to see him walking away wearing a smile.

I shall see what I can do to at least let him find back the energy he once possessed to move on.

Deep within me, I somehow feel he will be one of my top scorers. I shall witness that in the near future to come.

- - - -

When the lesson ends, I saw Jn meddling with the visualizer while I was talking to Eu. I only saw his side-view. I was a little shocked, I got to admit.

How come his side-view is so much like Lj (another ex-*little pal)?

Ha.. I was/am probably thinking too much already.

I was walking away from the lesson with a smile too.

- - - - - - -

Of course, I dearly hope they also took away some learning during the lesson.
It’s just the beginning of a year…
We all still have quite a journey to walk together towards blah blah blah..