DHS

This is the second day of my second time at DHS (fourth, by the time I post this).  The first time I was here was back in 2006, when Nancy asked if I was available to help out for a few months.

This time, the Geog SH called me, and since RP’s having a long break, I could come by again.  (Actually, they needed a tr from Jan, but RP was still on then, so I only joined after CNY.)

The school is back on their own premises at Tg Rhu.  For the past two years, it had occupied the old RJC campus at Mt Sinai while this location was under-going renovation and expansion.  This place is humongous.  The original circular block is still around, and the main staffroom in now on the third floor, rather than on the second.

As a result of having more staffrooms, the work stations are lots more spacious.  Instead of just one desk space, each station is now ‘L’-shaped.  No overhead cabinets, but with a lockable sliding door cabinet, and shelf space under the table-top along the long of the ‘L’.  I think that was a brilliant idea as every teacher in every school I’ve been to ended up buying those stand-alone cabinets, laying them on their sides under the table to fully utilize the space there anyway.

This is my personal space for the moment:

As mentioned, the school had undergone PRIME, and is now bigger, with more classroom blocks.  The classrooms are huge too!  They have liited the students to 36 per class, and the kids no longer have to squeeze.  There is ample room to walk around the class to supervise the kids.  Heavenly.

It is a veritable trek to the classrooms though.  The lower years' classrooms are at the block furthest from the staffroom, so I get in plenty of exercise a day. :P

My thoughts about this place as a relief teacher: I much prefer my experience here (so far) as a temporary staff member than at MSS.  Firstly, they are much more organized, and the lesson materials are prepared and provided. This is way better than MSS, where I had to prepare everything from scratch, lesson plans, presentations, worksheets, resource materials, set tests and exams etc, etc.  To be fair to them, they were so short of Geog teachers that there was only one permanent staff member in the Geog department and she was on the part-time scheme at that, so basically, there was no one else to do the necessary work.  Still.

I haven’t met all my classes yet, but the first impressions are, being a SAP school, the students here, on the whole, are better behaved and disciplined.  I do reserve the right to change my mind after a few weeks, though.

Being a new school, the place is nice and clean.  There are a few teething problems here and there, but nothing major as yet.

I’m in the staffroom on the third floor, and the workstation (24) I’m assigned to is in the direct path of an aircon vent, which means that it gets very cold.  I brought a wrap to school with me today, but I think I need to bring something with sleeves.  Maybe my Giordano one. 

Anyway, I’m making it a point to complete whatever marking I have on the day I receive them, so that work does not pile up on me.  So far so good.  I do hope that I’ll be able to keep it up once the work starts piling in.

I’m not sure if this time-table is reflective of a full load (or if they had lightened the load of the relief teacher so as not to disadvantage the kids affected too much, but I seriously doubt that), but the workload is not as crazy as that in MSS.  I have about 10 hours a week, which is 20 periods.  I could be wrong, but I seem to remember it being much crazier in MSS.  Must check with SP or Kevin.  My memory could be playing tricks on me.

The strange thing about their time-tabling here is that they have a 10-day, and thus fortnightly timetable.  It wreaks havoc on routine and remembering which classes to go to.  I can no longer rely on memory and will have to constantly check my timetable.

Although they have assigned me a laptop.  Or more accurately, although I have inherited the laptop they assigned to the relief teacher before me, I am considering bringing my own.  This one, for some strange reason, will not allow me to extend my monitor when presenting in class.  I like to have notes on my ppt, but when on slideshow mode, I can’t see my notes unless it has been extended. (I've taken to bringing my own laptop - I can extend the display, and I'm much more familiar with it and the keyboard, and it is quite a bit lighter than the assigned one. :P)