To Sir with love

This is my kind of weekend...dok lepak2 kat rumah je. Got some work done yesterday. Today kepala ada ting tong sikit..my sinusitis is playing up. Nak sujud pun tak boleh, sakit kepala. Anyway, I'm supposed to be making some pavlova today...cey cey...maybe easy to some people but i've not tried it before. MG said better jadi since he has contributed in buying those damn expensive strawberries.

Anyway, it's Teacher's Day next week. Tak taulah..to me it's such a big thing. Not that i dapat apa2 pun on TD..(it would be nice, tapi...sapa nak bagi kan?). I always make sure my kids bring something for their teachers. Parents do tend to forget..or some have this opinion that teachers are paid to do what they are supposed to be doing anyway. But showing our appreciation to these wonderful people would not go amiss, kan?

Recently, my 'teacher' from the time i did my masters was in town. He is in this part of the world every few years and whenever he is in town, memang tak pernah miss jumpa dia. Purely for the fact that he is here on invitation to talk, jadi takkan kita nak lepaskan peluang mendengar. The last time i met him was in 2008. Kali ni memang i tau dia akan datang..i was hoping to catch up with him during the conference. One day to the conference, i got a call from a colleague asking if was going to be  there because DrD had told her that he would love to see me. I said, sure! That evening i received a call from an unfamiliar number...it was DrD who rang me from his hotel! Terharu tak??! Of course!! Rasa sebak sangat..sampaikan i made MG drive me to our local Mall nak carikan buahtangan utk DrD and his team. Cakap basa basi sekejap je because the next day dah janji nak jumpa dia. I was his anak didik 10 years ago. I had recommended and became referees to several junior colleagues to further their studies at the institution he is in and so far (kalau kena jalan caranya) he had never turned them down. He was so glad that i chose to pursue my PhD in the current field, continuation from my Masters (he was my supervisor then. Not the most organised one...quite hilarious to think of it now. He peram-ed my proposal, baca atas katebang on the way to some conference and left it behind! Sheeshh! A second copy came back to me penuh dgn tumpah kopi and he blamed it on his daughter). He offered buat PhD twinning dgn dia but i malas nak fikirkan pasal logistics etc. hence ended up where i am now.

With him (and others on the team), kita terasa diri sebagai student ni sangat dihargai. Kalau salah, salah lah tapi kalau ada yg betul, terus bagi pujian..positive reinforcement gittew. (Bukanlah macam sebilangan orang kat sini, kalau kita dah buat yang terbaik pun, susah sangat nak cakap well done (padahal kat org lain boleh bagitau yg kita actually did well)..siap boleh bagi komen yg macam, 'kalau saya, saya akan buat camni camni..' Please lah, sebagai pendidik, we must know when to 'criticise' positively...bagi komen bukan berbentuk kutukan tetapi ke arah penambahbaikan).

He had wanted me to stay on in the UK to be part of their team. Sampai siap carikan post lagi utk i. But alas, chenta dalam bentuk MG memanggil2 utk diriku pulang (although MG didn't know it at that time)..and of course utk berbakti utk anak bangsa. I've never enjoyed learning as much as i did when i was doing my Masters.

To DrD, jasamu dikenang selagi hayat dikandung badan.

To all teachers out there, Happy Teacher's  day.