Written by Stephen Tse
Edited by Eric Lai and Matsuta Ng
'As you may know, I am Miss
tung, and I am a new teacher in St Joseph's. Where should
I start? (looking nervous, was she thinking where she
could end?) Before I am a teacher,
my career was in computer related industry, for examples,
telecommunication and software development. Then I decided
to make a career change, because teaching is something
that I want to do since I was young. '
Q: 'What was your first impression of
SJC?
A: Characteristic and historically remarkable.
Q: How characteristic?
A: The renovation right before the begin of a new school
year? But I am sure we are proud of our history.
Q: 'Why aren't you teaching computer
then? '
A: I think that there are enough teachers for this subject
already, like Mr Tse and Mr Choy.
Soon we proceed to the topics
in school life, about nicknames.
Q: Do you encounter any hearsay of teachers'
nicknames?'
A: I declared my name as Miss Tung with a similar sound
like "Miss tongue", because I think that it's
the correct pronounciation.I think I have heard students
mentioned Ms Fong to 'Fong Bau'(which means bread).'
Sure you can guess what happened next.
Q: How about students' nick?
A: I didn't hear much about that.
Finding hard to continue, she dragged
us away from the question by saying something irrelevant.
'St Joseph's students are active and
smart. Comparing with students from other schools, the
majority of us are fast learning,' she said.
Fast
learning? We soon responded to her praise by embarrassing
her with an old-fashioned question.
Q: Do you agree that school is a miniature
of society?'
A: Well, yes, a school has an organizations' structure,
authority levels and monitoring system,etc.
She likes seeing movies, reading and
playing ball games like squash and tennis. Will that be
a good reason for her to prefer us , students, to be active?
Here we are asking her to participate in the Athletic
meet.
Notice! She may be one of those wind-chasers, sprinting
as quick as our P.E. teacher Mr. Wong.
She learnt French and Japanese, claiming
that the main initiative was for the songs and TV programmes
of the countries.
She noted that our Principal Brother
Thomas had given her ample encouragement. She found her
favourite responsibilities on the extra curricular activities
list set to teachers which are the Tennis team and the
English society.
Her unforgettable memory in her secondary
is the students' day in Ying Wa. 'It's fun to set up those
booths, and those days I felt so close to teachers.'
Q: Have you ever browse our homepage? Is it okay?
A: I think that it is quite general though. Only students
can log-in
while teachers can't.
She said we could try to put some more
catchy things in the site.
Concerning studying, she said that she
placed a priority to playing instead of studying in her
secondary school life. But since University, things reversed.
Regarding to the HK education system,
she has some feelings.
'For secondary school systems, it didn't differ by much
after I left Hong Kong. As SJC has a long school history,
basically we did quite well, but the Education Department
didn't cease its limitations on us. Take the example of
teaching materials, sometimes it's hard to make lessons
interesting. Students always ask for things written on
blackboard. When she ask students for opinions on teaching
methods, they had many. But they seldom ask questions.'
She had once taught 10 to 20 students
for a class, and she found that there were more interactions
between the two parties. Now she is teaching 3 subjects,
English, Geography and History. She also give a hand in
F.1 remedial classes.
She came to our school with an option
in the SINGTAO newspaper. She had tried web searches,
and she had even send her request to YWGS to apply, but
the result was unlucky. She had firm teaching experiences.
She once taught in evening schools, for twice a week.
She had even taught Bible at the church in Sunday schools.
Q: Why do you choose SJC?'
A: When I was young, I lived just opposite to the SJC
school campus. I was moved when I came to see students
getting in and out of the entrance during the start and
end of school. Also whenever YWGS hold joint-school activities
with SJC, I knew more about this place.
We ended by questioning her to ask us
a question as if she is interviewing us.
Q: I want to know what kind of first impression I gave
to you guys?
A: (We smiled and pretended to answer with a deep meaning.)
It's still early to answer this.
Posted : 1 November 2001
