“Everything that needs to be said has already been said. But, since no one was listening, everything must be said again.” – Andre Gide
Let them find the puddles
you pointed out —
what you call falling,
they call jumping.
Let them fly
to figure out fortunes.
Let them forget my name
and find their own.
Let me still be here
but let me let them go.
Shared with dVerse Poetics – Let them
Today’s Daily Stoic poem:
This was written in November regarding a specific incident involving a student. Something common among many of the students I teach is the lack of affection they have received in their short lifetimes, not knowing or understanding that they are missing it. Just a simple hug has made a big difference to many.
Today’s Daily Stoic poem:
Shared with Reena’s Xploration Challenge #413 and based on an interesting incident this week. The inappropriate title comes from a translation of the subject’s name.
The form is the Wayra: This short syllabic verse has 5 lines with a syllable count of 5/7/7/6/8. It is unrhymed and incorporates onomatopoeia within the verse.
Today’s Daily Stoic poem:
Submitted for an AllPoetry assignment on free verse.
Continuing the theme from Across The Room. Inspired, borrowed and paraphrased from this post at Spinning Visions.
Today I’m feeling:
Not so good after a bad sleep due to all the spice from dinner. I skipped exercise for a little extra rest but this morning my stomach is still in a state of gurgling.
I’m also still not sure if I might be getting Amy’s flu. Without exercise, I couldn’t stand a cold shower this morning and today is my first jacket day of winter.
Around 9.30am, my stomach had settled and I could enjoy the rest of the day more. Still tired, though but at least don’t feel like any flu symptoms are developing.
Health:
Physical: 6
Mental: 7
Today I’m grateful for:
The wooden scent blocks in the car that are slowly removing the smells of it once being Amy’s mum’s and slowly becoming mine.
The best thing about today was:
Listening to students explain their decisions about some English work I gave them about the Thai TV show Hormones.
I was surprised at a couple of students at how close-minded they were, whilst a couple of others were able to well articulate their thoughts.
I’ll try to find some other topics and questions like this.
What was out of your control today and how did you handle it?
A couple of students in my last class were quite rude in their exclamations for the class to go faster so that they could leave early. I was firm with them the first time, threatened them the second and made fun of them the third time.
It was a bit annoying but maybe it was frustrating for them as they didn’t know how long the class was going to take, while I did and knew that they would have plenty of time.
Something I learned today?
A TikTok video taught me the significance of Chinese chopsticks, why they are the length they are and why one end is round and the other square.
Today I’m feeling:
Good again. I’m enjoying the feeling of being revitalised from my morning exercise. I woke up with a start this morning, though, which was good in that I wasn’t waking before my alarm like earlier this week.
For some reason, I was dreaming about opening a (?) for my student, Fah, and I also had an impression that I had been dreaming about an old workmate, Steve. I’m not sure why they were roaming around in my subconscious.
My first class was fun and straightforward but the two-hour break following it has made me tired and uninspired. I will teach the same lesson again soon to another class of the same grade but I’m doubting it will go as well. I may be doubting myself here rather than the students.
(After) Although the second class was a little more difficult to deal with, everyone at least submitted something to me, whilst some of my first class just left because they couldn’t answer the questions and weren’t interested in asking me for help.
Health:
Physical: 7
Mental: 7
Today I’m grateful for:
My student, Spain, who filled me in on some classroom gossip from his perspective. He’s a year older than everyone else as he has some kind of quirky autism which held him back a year and whilst he struggles to interact in a ‘normal’ manner, he’s fairly bright and knowledgeable and today I discovered that he is particularly observant.
He told me how he sees everything that is going on, who is with who, when they come and go, lots and lots of details. It was interesting to talk with him but also tiring as I struggled to hear him through his face mask and the sudden twists and turns he makes in conversation.
The best thing about today was:
Buying a punnet of strawberries at the walking street and scoffing them all with coconut ice cream, yoghurt and mini-Toblerones in a big bowl. So much for all that exercise and trying to lose weight!
What was out of your control today and how did you handle it?
I was not inspired to write after a provocative (to me) comment was posted on my poem, Christmas In Gaza, that I read this morning.
I’ve left the comment there without response but it essentially boils down to divisions through religion – ie, my god is better than yours. There’s no reasoning with this, so I’ll not engage.
Internally, though, the rage of hypocrisy burns so brightly. I need to let it go. It’s not my business what others choose to believe.
A few minutes after writing this, I started thinking about how things in general these days are about winning and losing and while some folks lose online arguments, others are losing their lives and the winners are rewriting their histories in some form or another. This triggered off a flow of words and I managed to get the bad feeling out.
Something I learned today?
Hong Kong is the only city in the world that uses seawater to flush its toilets.
Review your acts, Good and bad.
This morning, I encouraged Baipad to finish off a drawing she had started and when I messaged her this evening, asking her what the best thing about her day, it was that she had finished it.
Today I’m feeling:
Pretty good, waking before my alarm again, though I did sleep earlier last night too. The BetterMe exercises are really getting me going in the morning, along with a cold start shower afterwards, meaning I step under the shower and turn on the tap to get about 15 seconds of cold water before it warms up.
It has finally gotten cold enough to not have aircon at night but I still have the fan on at the moment.
Health:
Physical: 8
Mental: 8
Today I’m grateful for:
Whoever makes the cookies that they sell at Le Paradis. I just have to control myself from buying them every day!
The best thing about today was:
My last class of the day with the grade 11 Hospitality students and J-Biz students. It was a light-hearted, fun class about Japanese culture, in keeping with the theme of the week.
What was out of your control today and how did you handle it?
I had to deduct points from more than half of my grade 8 students for not doing their work for me yesterday and it made me decide that I need to deal with them a little differently.
Today, I immediately graded all their work in front of the whole class. Not in a vindictive manner, but in a way that they can immediately see the outcome of what they do, or lack thereof.
Something I learned today?
I randomly came across an album online that had a picture of the artists on the cover and one was almost the spitting image of Hayden, from the facial hair to the cap and clothes. I sent him the picture and he laughed about it too.
Review your acts, Good and bad.
Nomsen absent-mindedly left her iPad behind in the classroom, so I picked it up for her to keep safe. A few minutes later, she called me and I told her that I had sold it at the market for 10 baht.
She laughed and soon came back to get it, looking a little sheepish. She was appreciative of my taking care of her but also acknowledged that she had just had ten points deducted in SchoolBright due to her not doing any work for me yesterday.
Shared with dVerse Poetics: “Despite and Still“
Today I’m feeling:
Great, despite getting up a couple of times in the night, the second time with forty minutes before my alarm was due to go off. I contemplated just getting up but managed to get back into a light sleep before the alarm roused me again.
Day 2 of BetterMe exercise was tough as it was concentrating on arms, so involved different types of push-ups, which my weakling little arms and dodgy shoulder still struggle with.
At school, I wandered around talking with students at the different stalls for Japan Day and everyone was in a good mood. I particularly enjoyed watching my students submit the tasks that I assigned them instead of having a class. I got them counting to ten, taking cosplay photos and singing songs. Some students surprised me, though not the lazy ones who didn’t bother to submit anything.
Health:
Physical: 8
Mental: 8
Today I’m grateful for:
Free time. With no classes today, I spent a lot of time wandering around school and sitting in the cafe.
Eventually, I had had enough and decided to come home early with the idea of telling the school that I forgot to sign out when I left today.
Because of all the free time, I got to prepare a lot of my photocopies for my visa application, clear up the backlog of poetry to read and get back to the garage as they didn’t plug the reversing camera back in yesterday.
The best thing about today was:
Feeling on top of things in general. Not one thing stands out in particular today.
What was out of your control today and how did you handle it?
My lazy students bothered me a little bit today but only in that they made me work harder chasing them up throughout the day and evening.
Personally, their laziness is their choice and doesn’t actually affect me.
Something I learned today?
I am delighted to see that Nong Praew is super happy in her new school. I hope she does well there, where she seems to have some friends.
Inspired by part of the essay The Way of Writing by William Stafford
Today I’m feeling:
Fairly invigorated and cautiously happy. I have a little tiredness behind my eyes.
I subscribed to a BetterMe exercise program and started it this morning. It was pretty straightforward with some new exercises for me. When I arrived at school my body felt great from the workout I had given it. Sitting in the cafe before my first class, though, I can feel a sluggishness coming on. Hopefully, my first class pep me up again.
Health:
Physical: 8
Mental: 7
Today I’m grateful for:
The BetterMe app.
A tip before subscribing: I searched for BetterMe promo codes and followed one of the links, which gave me a 50% discount. I then filled out the form required and submitted it, but didn’t respond to the email.
In the following 24 hours, I received a follow-up with a further incentive of 80% more discount. The price I am more than comfortable with.
I’m also going to figure out a way to save the workouts so I can continue using them after my subscription is completed – not forgetting to cancel it before being charged the full rate.
The best thing about today was:
I really enjoyed my quick afternoon grade 10 class where I turned the tables on them and asked them to make questions based in the text they saw on Monday.
What was out of your control today and how did you handle it?
When I arrived at my grade 12 class this morning, they all cried that they wanted to go and help with things for Japan Day tomorrow.
I was also thinking about what I can ask my grade 8 students to do tomorrow, as they will definitely ask me to attend instead of studying.
So I figured to kill two birds with one stone and asked my grade 12 students to come up with ten tasks that I can ask the grade 8s to complete during the event.
They are smart enough and came up with them quickly and then went off to help. I went to the teacher’s room for a little while and when I came back to check on the room, all the students were there again, saying that there was nothing left for them to do!
I let them have free time rather than try to cram in some work for them.
Something I learned today?
I checked out the Bluesky app as it has been talked about as the new better Twitter but to me it just looked like a dumbed-down version of Substack, which I will stick with instead.
Review your acts, Good and bad.
It was Fah’s birthday today so I bought her a slice of cake.
Any headline and byline using modal verbs can safely be ignored as news.
Today I’m feeling:
A bit anxious and overexcited for some reason. I woke up, did exercise and everything, all feeling good but then something compelled me to drive fast to work when it really wasn’t that necessary.
Once at school, I relaxed and enjoyed chatting with the students and my first class was fine. The second, though (grade 8s), was very frustrating with kids playing dumb, sleeping or distracting others.
I gave up and set them a small task and waited for them to complete it so they could go. The kids playing up didn’t bother and rather than getting frustrated, I just let them do what they want.
I shouldn’t stress myself over it.
Health:
Physical: 8
Mental: 7
Today I’m grateful for:
One of the ladies in the office where the photocopier is. I didn’t bring any paper with me and it soon ran out in the machine. I went into the office and asked if they had more, but the first two replies were negative.
I kinda shrugged ‘ok’ and went back in to get my bag, but another lady followed me and pulled out a fresh slab of A4 from a box (so they obviously knew that they had some but didn’t want to supply it). I was grateful for her help.
We are a school that wastes tons of paper printing nonsense every day, yet isn’t keen on its teachers printing out worksheets!
The best thing about today was:
My frustrating morning class made me take some time to write up some new lessons this afternoon in the teacher’s room.
From there, I could see George teaching in the room opposite and I was surprised when the students started leaving, almost 40 minutes early.
I’m not sure whether to be bothered by him not teaching his full-length classes (he always arrives late to class too) or to figure that I should relax myself more in my own classes. I know I should give myself the opportunity to chill about it but also feel an obligation to do my best for my students.
Anyway, the day provided me with some inspiration as I put together some slides and did some printing.
What was out of your control today and how did you handle it?
My mood was a bit up and down again today and I’m thinking to go back to my full dose of sertraline again. It’s not worth feeling like this just to try and stop taking it, really, with the only purpose to see if I can.
I have a half tomorrow and then will go back to a full pill again on Wednesday.
Something I learned today?
As I was going to my first class in the morning, I found Baipad talking with Cake. I didn’t know that they knew each other but they met during the last time they had scout week.
I told Baipad why I thought Cake was the smartest student I’ve had the pleasure of teaching and advised to stay around with her if and when she can.
1994ever 