The Author
It does not really makes any sense to describe the self, unless someone else asks for it. It is too honest for me to post lies here, and truth, if revealed will create havoc. We all have storm building and subsiding inside us, and when we describe we only talk about the calm deep sea water. It is actually not calm, it is pretending to be calm, or otherwise the battle of wind and water cannot be played on the surface.
I was born in 1963 on March the 20th. I am the eldest of Mum’s and Dad’s four children. I have three sibling – a brother and two sisters. Now, I have a family of my own. I am married with five children – four boys and a girl. At the point of this entry my wife and I have a grandson!
For a living I work as a primary school teacher. Prior to my teaching career, I was trained to teach Bahasa Malaysia (the national language), and Pendidikan Muzik (lit. Music Education) was my elective. In January 2004 I had the urge to further my studies in Open University Malaysia. The program – Bachelor of Education (Hons) specializing in TESL. My research was entitled “The Effectiveness of Using PowerPoint in Teaching and Learning Poetry in an Average Form One ESL Classroom”. My supervisors were Mr. George Diee and Mr. Clarence Jerry. With the first degree at hand my course mates and I hope that our ministry would appoint us to DGA41 category in which we are expecting better benefits. Better benefits means better life. Talks in the past were around the ministry’s target for secondary schools to have 100% graduate teachers by 2010, whereas 50% for primary schools. But I do not want to speculate or anticipate much on how the ministry would implement the staffing.
A very written piece. I was just surfing for Rajang Teachers’ College, my former college (1973-74) when yours came up and you took me back to Kuching, my former hometown up till 1979. I too enjoyed my college experience under Mr. Agas and made many native friends and even went to visit one of my friend’s longhouse in Kapit. I taught for 5 years in Kuching before migrating to the States.
Ms. Connie,
Thanks for your encouraging comments here. Besides this blog, I am assigned to create a blog for my workplace – sekolah kebangsaan st. augustine, betong at blogspot.com. I hope you don’t mind surfing it as we are using the bahasa malaysia in that blog. Once again, thank you.
Hi
It was nice to stumble on your blog when i googled my old stomping ground on google. You may remember us and our family from your early years while studying at St Augustine school. My parents, Philip and Susy Johns, were teachers at SMB St Augustine. My brother visited Betong last year and it brought back lots of stories about friends & places that we left back in 1984. Looking forward to coming back and reading your blog from time to time…Some of the names mentioned in your blog were my class mates from primary school…folks like Blake and Silva. Take care and best wishes.
Thanks, Philji for your comments. Yes, your dad & mum were our science teachers back in the late 70s. It was your dad who advised me to take science stream in form 4 & 5 when he learned that I showed no interest in science subjects like biology, chemistry or physics. Later, at this age, i owed them a lot and i really appreciate how they had worked to make us ‘what we are’ now. Pls convey my regards to them and also to your siblings too. And, do keep in touch.