Since this blog may be a regular thing, I would like my readers to know me by this name: KL Sensei. It’s similar to what my students called me during my two years of teaching in Japan. I have a soft spot for “Sensei” because it sounds sagely.

Huh, KL Sensei, what else do you have to say that wasn’t covered in your inaugural post?

Oh plenty. Work is so multifaceted these days that I’m sure I will have plenty of material to cover (hopefully you won’t think that I’m whining!) for quite some time.

You know the cardinal rule about tackling your most intellectually demanding task of the day so that you will feel accomplished and have the momentum to power through those mundane tasks, fight food coma and manage office politics during the day? So I should be experimenting with ChatGPT because I’m entrusted to teach my colleagues how to optimise AI in the writing of graduation testimonials. What’s more, I had a solid 6.5 hours of sleep last night. See my probing question here: #414394

Instead, I went to tackle a task which I deemed is not crucial but has been occupying much unwanted space in my mind. Guess what?

Getting my students to paste their names on the front of their desks so that their subject teachers know how to address them.

It was a low-value task to me because while I acknowledge that doing so creates a conducive classroom environment, the subject teachers will eventually get to know my students’ names. So the utility derived from these cards will probably last for a couple of weeks. Is it worth my energy printing/laminating/cutting their name labels with a pen knife as well as getting my students to paste them on the desks?

Honestly, I think overworked teachers have bigger fishes to fry.

But this task leapt to the top of my to-do list because the School Staff Developer shared in a schoolwide meeting pictures of other classrooms ticking all the boxes in the school leaders’ checklist:

✅ names on the front of students’ desks ✅ students’ desks decorated with their drawings and photos ✅ calming corner set up

Don’t get me wrong. I didn’t feel guilty because I have been doing other assorted tasks of a form teacher pretty awesomely. But I didn’t want people to assume that I am uncaring just because I don’t get to pasting a few names. So, impression management comes first!

And yes, I got the calming corner settled too. I have already asked the boy who has anger management issues to decide how he wants to set up the calming corner. He suggested something that was entirely impractical in my opinion: move one shelf that’s reserved for students putting their bags over to the calming corner. Presumably, he wanted this shelf to be filled with knick-knacks and other fun stuff.

Well, I’m pretty open-minded. I mean, what’s empowerment if you tell a student that he is the co-pilot and subsequently dismiss his suggestion? So I let him do what he wanted. For starters, I placed a few copies of “True Singapore Ghost Stories” on the shelf so that it wouldn’t look so bare.

I happened to have several spare chairs lying around in my classroom, so I arranged them at the area where the shelf originally was. I told my students that they could place their bags on these chairs instead.

Boys will be boys. They are energetic and love disturbing each other. During a lull moment, some boys hung out on the chairs, playing the fool and generally spicing up the area with their noise. Ngl, it was quite nice to see it turned into an impromptu social area of sorts.

So what’s the moral of today’s story? On some days, I may not get to strike off the one important task that will make me feel productive. However, if I go with the flow and do those low-value tasks with heart, maybe I will gain something from the experience. Idk? 🤷‍♂️

Off to pick up my kids now!