Year(s) and Subject(s) Taught Year 7 – 11 (Physics/Chemistry/Maths).
How long have you been teaching? 8 years.
What do you do in your free time? I like trying new things all the time. In the past year, I have been experimenting with baking bread, making simple furniture from scratch, rewiring some electrical components at home, making paper doll house and toys with my daughters and carry out some quick science experiments on the weekends.
Why did you become a teacher? Why did you choose teaching as a profession? I started doing some tutoring for some junior friends while in 6th Form and it went on through university days with many other students along the way up to my first year working as a water treatment engineer. One day I was invited for an interview to be a teacher with the ACE Ed-Venture group and I’ve been teaching with them ever since. What made me move into teaching was that I saw how much change a teacher could have on a young person’s life.
Tell us about your own education journey. I’ve graduated from University of Malaya with a Bachelor’s Degree in Applied Chemistry. Upon taking up teaching, I have had a series of teacher trainings conducted at the school by world class youth and teacher trainers.
What is the most memorable moment in your teaching career so far? An ex-student came to me in her visit back to the school and showed me a text message from her ex-classmate. It read to the sound of thankfulness to me as his teacher who didn’t just teach him how to get good grades, but taught him about life and what it takes to grow into an honest and respectable young man.
What do you like most about teaching? What keeps me here most is seeing the little lightbulbs light up in their eyes every time our students discover or are inspired by something new.
What is the best thing about teaching at your school? In this school, we go beyond teaching for academic achievements. We believe that every student should be given the freedom and the guidance to grow into his/her unique character – with great self-awareness, passionately motivated for excellence, academically brilliant, consistent in good life values and having kindness for others around him/her. To be involved in that process of moulding is no easy task, but it’s yield is highly rewarding. The beauty here at Sri Emas is that all our teachers are aligned in that respect. Our school leaders and top management generously goes all out for us to make great things happen for our students and also for its staff members.
Who or what inspires you? Visionaries of their time and even in our time. People who think and look curiously yet hopefully forward into the great unknown – waiting and expecting with great optimism, even when failures are delivered.
