Holiday Break

     One of the most common impressions that people have about teachers is that they get to enjoy long holidays. As a teacher for 13 years now, not once does a holiday break go by without at least one person commenting, "Oh, it's the school break now. Lucky you!" or something to that effect. And my usual answer will be, "Yeah true, it's the holidays, but I have tonnes of exam papers to mark. Teachers may not need to go to school, but we are working from home." This is true most of the time because exams are always timed to end just before the school breaks, so that teachers will have ample time to mark them during the breaks. And there goes our holiday! But personally, I would prefer to mark my papers in peace during the holidays rather than marking them after I come back from a tiring day at school.

     At the present moment, schools in Malaysia are having a one-week break because of the Deepavali festival on 18 October. For a change, this has been a rather relaxing week for me, as I only have one class of papers to mark. For the 4 other classes, I will have to wait till the end of the month, after I attend a state-level meeting before I can start marking, because it is a national exam taken by all Form 3 students on 10 October as part of their PT3 exam, but marked locally by the students' own subject teachers. Therefore, coordination at the national level is necessary to ensure that everyone is on the same page when it comes to awarding marks.

     Well, so here I was, finding myself rather free, and somewhat at a loss on how to spend my time, other than the hours I would spend marking the one class of exam papers. It turned out quite well, actually. I had a good time tending to my small garden and tidying things up at home, going shopping, having lunch out with my sister, watching Youtube videos... all in all, a satisfying experience. I feel particularly happy that I get to straighten up my rather messy house (it tends to get that way after a few weeks from the last tidying up stint, because I am not a particularly tidy person), which makes me enjoy being at home more. Oh, I even went back to school one day and tidied up my work desk! A teacher's desk has quite the reputation of being rarely organised, and who would blame us, with the amount of things we have to take care of each day? 

     Now that the one-week break is coming to an end, I look back at it, feeling content that I have managed to remove the clutter, both at home and at work, and in doing so, created order in myself as well. I have enjoyed my time relaxing at home, and I'm sure, when I return to school next week, I will have more positive energy and  a more peaceful mind and heart. Now let's hope that the inevitable stress doesn't come back too soon!

This is as tidy as my work desk can get!