Awe, I was mentioned in the Historian's speech during Grad tonight! =)

Perhaps my longest title for a blog post, but a key point for today's blog post!

I actually managed to get up early today, making it a pleasant experience to work out at the Genesis Centre. I was in the cage for nearly 90 minutes squatting, and nobody came up to ask how many sets I had left! (Well there was this one guy who just took the cage when I was standing off to the side. After making himself comfortable, I went up to him and told him I was still using it. He left soon after. =P)

After my workout, I went to get my car cleaned with a friend. It's a bit different now, since I started (as of today) to dry my car after washing it. It nearly took 30 minutes, and it didn't help that the brake dust sticks to my wheels like gum on pants...

Once my car was clean and dry, it was off to a quick bowl of pho before going home to get ready for the grade 9 grad at a hotel/inn near my house.

Unlike last year, there were a lot more students (or seemed to be a lot more students) at graduation this year. This marked the second batch of students that I have personally taught, which brought a slight tear to my eye. I've seen them grow since grade 7 (during my first year at my current school), and it's nice to see how some of them matured over the past two years! The valedictorian was well chosen, and had a nice speech. The Historians (two of them) presented next, marking memories throughout the year. Like last year, they would mark significant events and mention their memories with their grade 9 teachers.

Despite not teaching a grade 9 core class, they mentioned their memories with me in the previous year of how I would tell them stories and my "stoic" expressions when I got angry. They didn't know whether or not I was actually mad (I never knew that I was good at masking my face) and inquired about my love life. I actually chuckled out loud, since it was touching. It also probably helped that the two Historians were students from my homeroom last year! Nevertheless, it wasn't something that I was expecting, but I'm grateful for learning the "human side" of teaching from my last practicum teacher. She was absolutely 100% correct in teaching me that it's important to build a rapport with students by sharing my own personal experiences.

I didn't stay too long for graduation because I unfortunately have to prepare a final exam for my students. 100 questions, with only 20 questions written so far... and two versions to write since some students have to write a deferred exam. Oh well, it should help for next year!

And that's it for today! Just three weeks and three days to go!