My colleague expressed surprise the other day. “You mean you file your students’ assignments for them?!” she exclaimed. “Yup,” I replied proudly, “I’m doing this for my own sake, not to pass some file checks.” I actually love filing my students’ assignments even though it takes up time I can ill bear to lose. But today’s filing made me feel good on the inside. I came to realise:

• two of the boys in my class are twins!
• one boy likes to write about a fight whenever he gets the chance. I need to drill into him the importance of answering the exam question!
• two girls overuse dialogue in their essays. I need to make a trip to National Library Board and borrow composition books and teach them how to use dialogue effectively.

So, filing wasn’t just a therapeutic exercise; it yielded useful insights for me to push forward with some of my students. Service Exemplary for Sensei! How do you indulge in service excellence?