(The teacher in the photo is not the teacher in the story)
By Sumita Sreedharan, TODAY |
Posted: 09 August 2012 0758 hrs
SINGAPORE: Struck down by lymphoma for the second time at the
age of 50 - and after doctors told her she only had a year to live - Mrs
Maznahbi Peter's thoughts were with her students who were due to take
the O-levels.
So for several weeks, groups of students would gather and sit on the floor, by her bedside, as Mrs Peter conducted English lessons from her hospital bed. She defied her oncologists who advised her to seek early retirement.
"They felt that as long as I was in the service, I would feel duty-bound to keep on teaching even when accorded a long hospitalisation leave."
Mrs Peter, 64, has since beaten the odds and made a full recovery. She retired from teaching in 2000.
Currently a full-time school counsellor at a primary school, her dedication and tenacity typified that of many pioneer educators.
At 31, she was told that she had Hodgkin's Lymphoma and that she might not live beyond two years. She had to undergo operations, radiotherapy and chemotherapy, but in spite of her "fears of dying young", she tried to carry out her school duties "as normally as I could".
Said Mrs Peter: "I remember telling my school principal, Mr Chow Kye Lock, that I would like to take the Girl Guides camping while I was still on the sixth cycle of chemotherapy ... He gasped and asked, 'Are you sure?'"
She added: "I felt that the 'sentence' that I had been given should not affect the lives of my students."
When she began teaching in the 1970s, she would create her own teaching aids such as charts by cutting pictures from magazines and pasting them on vanguard sheets.
She recalled how she managed to get her Normal (Academic) students excited about writing by putting a little extra effort into her lesson preparation: Writing letters and putting them in envelopes with burnt edges, she told them that the letters were salvaged from a house that caught fire.
"From the contents of the letters, they were to craft a narrative about the life of the inhabitants," she said.
"They gave some pretty ludicrous scenarios but my aim was to get them to write - something they dreaded doing - and they did it with gusto."
Starting out with an O-level certificate, Mrs Peters received a Masters of Education (Guidance & Counselling) two years ago at the age of 62.
Despite her dedication to her profession, Mrs Peter said teaching was not her first choice for a career - she had wanted to become a singer.
As a teenager, she took part in many talent time competitions and was runner-up twice. "I was once in the same competition as Anita Sarawak - needless to say, I lost to her," Mrs Peter recalled with a laugh.
Her father was instrumental in her decision to become a teacher. "He was the one who brought home the application form, helped me complete the application and he personally submitted it to the Ministry of Education," she said.
Mrs Peter's paternal grandfather was also a teacher. "Teaching is in my DNA," she said. - TODAY
So for several weeks, groups of students would gather and sit on the floor, by her bedside, as Mrs Peter conducted English lessons from her hospital bed. She defied her oncologists who advised her to seek early retirement.
"They felt that as long as I was in the service, I would feel duty-bound to keep on teaching even when accorded a long hospitalisation leave."
Mrs Peter, 64, has since beaten the odds and made a full recovery. She retired from teaching in 2000.
Currently a full-time school counsellor at a primary school, her dedication and tenacity typified that of many pioneer educators.
At 31, she was told that she had Hodgkin's Lymphoma and that she might not live beyond two years. She had to undergo operations, radiotherapy and chemotherapy, but in spite of her "fears of dying young", she tried to carry out her school duties "as normally as I could".
Said Mrs Peter: "I remember telling my school principal, Mr Chow Kye Lock, that I would like to take the Girl Guides camping while I was still on the sixth cycle of chemotherapy ... He gasped and asked, 'Are you sure?'"
She added: "I felt that the 'sentence' that I had been given should not affect the lives of my students."
When she began teaching in the 1970s, she would create her own teaching aids such as charts by cutting pictures from magazines and pasting them on vanguard sheets.
She recalled how she managed to get her Normal (Academic) students excited about writing by putting a little extra effort into her lesson preparation: Writing letters and putting them in envelopes with burnt edges, she told them that the letters were salvaged from a house that caught fire.
"From the contents of the letters, they were to craft a narrative about the life of the inhabitants," she said.
"They gave some pretty ludicrous scenarios but my aim was to get them to write - something they dreaded doing - and they did it with gusto."
Starting out with an O-level certificate, Mrs Peters received a Masters of Education (Guidance & Counselling) two years ago at the age of 62.
Despite her dedication to her profession, Mrs Peter said teaching was not her first choice for a career - she had wanted to become a singer.
As a teenager, she took part in many talent time competitions and was runner-up twice. "I was once in the same competition as Anita Sarawak - needless to say, I lost to her," Mrs Peter recalled with a laugh.
Her father was instrumental in her decision to become a teacher. "He was the one who brought home the application form, helped me complete the application and he personally submitted it to the Ministry of Education," she said.
Mrs Peter's paternal grandfather was also a teacher. "Teaching is in my DNA," she said. - TODAY
PS:
I salute you, Mrs Peters.
There are alot of good teachers.
But great teachers, not alot.
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