In this series of chats with our staff, we get up close and personal. They share about things like their favourite drinks, to their experiences and motivations at work.
Hello, could you introduce yourself? Hi, I’m Xingyu and I am a Pre-Nursery English teacher at Woodlands Centre. What does a typical day at work look like? First, we come to school and we have morning assembly. We usually do Zumba and I get very tired sometimes cos its like HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training). Then we have bible stories, outdoor time, our lessons, our meals, naptime, snacks, lesson and dismissal.
Which part of the day do you look forward to the most?
Can I say nap time? Because I get to do all my other admin things productively. Thankfully, my children sleep very well so I can spend that time to rush everything that I need to do.
And also at the end of the day when everything is done and we can finally have a more chill period of time when I can actually play with my kids, talk to them and do whatever I want with them.
What is a pick me up that you need to keep you going?
I need my tea, Dilmah English Breakfast tea, just a teabag in the water. That’s very important. I also love all kinds of eggs except for hardboiled, every other kind is amazing!
What are the heartwarming/encouraging moments with the children that you remember?
My favourite part is when we can build a connection together. I can have a very good or bad lesson but if I don’t have a moment with my children to connect or have a laugh together then it’s not a good day.
One example of an encouraging moment is when they copied me when I thanked them for cleaning the toys - they started thanking their friends as well. The way they pick up good things or habits along the way encourages me, as well as when they care for each other when I don’t ask them to.
Once, a girl was helping a boy paste things back at the correct place, and she was a bit bossy so it was quite funny. She even asked him to drink water after his hard work, and she did these without me telling her to do so. It’s also encouraging when they still love me after I scold them, as well as when they feel the same way about me regarding our relationship and friendship.
What keeps you motivated?
Looking forward to the funny moments with the children and when we can laugh together.
What is one quality that a teacher must have? One is definitely care for the children, as being a teacher is beyond whether the children can meet the developmental milestones or lesson objectives. Patience too, as they can be quite difficult to manage and challenging to deal with.
Also teamwork, being able to work together with my colleagues - be it communicating or doing more for the team even if it is so-called 'unfair'. Cannot be 'ji ji jiao jiao' (计较 ji jiao - Mandarin expression for being fussy/calculative).
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