First week in St. Hilda's Sec

After being away for a few months on professional development leave (PDL), I'm finally back to work. As my PDL application was for a year, I wasn't able to remain in Ping Yi (but it's ok. The school is going through merger with Bedok Town, and that could be just another complicated experience too).

Anyway, my name goes into a common pool and I'm allocated by open posting to... St Hilda's Sec.

It's in Tampines and relatively inconvenient by public transport from my home, but I'll manage somehow, or maybe I should quickly make new friends and try to carpool???

The reporting date given by MOE was 16 Nov 2015, which happened to be the staff meeting/training day too. For the first 2 days, I was down for a workshop on Promoting Quality Thinking. erm, thinking for students, not teachers. But of course, to promote students' thinking, we have to think harder to conduct thinking lessons and, that was what the workshop is for. but more on that another time.

It was great that the seating arrangement was by department as it gives me the opportunity to get to know fellow Science colleagues whom I'll be working closely with.

St Hilda's starts its protected time for teachers on 23 Nov, which means, I still have to report till Fri. A few others were clearing their work station, working on SOW, budget etc.. But, since I've not been allocated any form class, cca or committee yet, there's nothing much I can do. Tentative deployment is out- I got 2E, NA, NT Science and 3E Bio. So, I kinda reviewed the materials that was used this year. I don't really want to do much work on the materials yet as it is not confirmed if we are teaching those classes given in the deployment. And so... that was it. I was done.

What else do I do over that next 3 days then? Well, walking around the estate. I kinda familiarise myself with the stuff around the campus, like the nearest ATM, other nearby schools, bus stops, and of course the eateries around that area. I guess this is still kinda work-related ;) cuz you know, it's like a recce to find out where are the possible hang out grounds for students if they skip remedial or how to survive when it's late afternoon and canteen stalls are closed.

So, that's it for my uneventful first week :)