I didn’t expect this victory will create so big impact in school. Neither thinking of this victory will cherish people in school from the administrators to students. Everybody congratulates me for the winning. I didn’t even think of the happiness of winning will be the attention of people in school. Perhaps, deep in my heart, I asked myself, was I dreaming??? Was it true?? My mind kept reflecting every single little thing that happened before and during the competition.
I still remembered the scenario when I entered 4 Science class a year ago. I could see this group of students was all active and talkative at the same time. Never denied that they did well in their academics as well. However, one thing that I could see they are lacking of was most of them could not speak fluently in English and they are lack of confident. Thinking that they were having talents since they love to talk and they were smart students, I tried my best to convince them to participate in Choral Speaking performance during the prize giving ceremony in school. Surprisingly, they did a good job at that time.
A year after that, I asked them whether they are interested to represent school to participate in choral speaking district level. Most of them agreed with different intentions. I was very happy and worried at the same time because some of them are not participating the competition willingly. As the date of competition getting nearer, everything seems getting complicated. As I was busy with other events at the same time, I could not manage to conduct the practice smoothly. There are many disturbances at that time. My emotions were getting tense where there was only a week left. I felt that my group was not ready at all. Students were still not committed in their practice. They made mistakes and could not satisfy me at all. The weapon that I could use was to point out their mistakes frankly in front of everybody whenever I see mistakes. I could not tolerate with all their mistakes at all.
My heart was broken off when a student commented that I was bias towards him because I kept on commenting on his mistake.
I was seriously upset about it because other students gave me the same feedback as I did. I could not control my anger and just walked off when they were practicing. I took some times to cool down and even before the competition I hardly smile. My heart was deeply hurt and I could not do anything. I wanted to do the best for my students and yet one of my students blamed me for being bias. I was really annoyed. I could not let go as I felt that one of my students was reluctant to accept and learnt from mistakes. What I could do was making them stress as I want them to realize the seriousness of being snobbish. During the day of competition, I just let them to decide what they want to be.
Funnily, most of them were so confident at that time. I tried to let them down by telling them that they could hardly win because they did not listen to my words before this. Actually, I really wish they could follow everything that I said because I could ensure that they can show their best performance. Unfortunately, they let me down at the very last minutes that I could not let go. I knew they wanted to prove that I was totally wrong as I told them that they could only be champion in their dreams.
The exciting part was the time when the result was announced. I could see that they were very nervous. Every time, the name of each school was announced, they would turn their head to look at me. Their eyes revealed that luckily their school name wasn’t announced. Until the end, it left only three schools.
The boys shouted at me, “Teacher, we are in top three!! YES!!!”
Shockingly, I could not believe this. Well, I suspected we got third place. After the third place was announced, I was totally surprised!! My school name wasn’t announced at all. Is this true?? Am I dreaming?? Are my students that good?? My students were really excited when our school name was announced and we got second place in the district. I was stunned at that moment. Is this a dream? It was totally unbelievable.
At last, my dream comes true. I have proved that students from rural school are able to perform on stage in English. I have proved that students from rural school are capable in mastering English. I have proved that teachers in rural schools are able to polish the students’ potential if they really want it that much. I have proved that not all town schools can conquer the top 3 in every competition in English Language. I do not want people to look down on rural school’s performance especially in English Language. I want them to change their perception on rural school’s students’ English language proficiency. They can compete with town school if they are well-trained in any competition.
After this, I have to look for more ways to get students to involve in English Language activity as to encourage students to love the language.
The victory has given me more confidents to follow my guts and work hard towards my interest. It was indeed the sweetest memory that I ever have in my career. The sweetest dream that teacher can have once in her career…