School was dismissed early at 10.30 today, but I ironically found myself having the bandwidth to give 1-to1 oral coaching.

First girl was quick to act upon my prompt and took off like a rocket. Second boy was instructed not to use informal terms like “stuff” and given instructions on how to elaborate on his presentation experience. Third boy was coached on how to use my idiot-proof answering template. I actually felt a twinge of pride on conceptualising this template for him. Fourth boy surprised me by adding sentences that had obviously appeared in his composition before — it is my hope that he will remember to do likewise for the actual exam. I was particularly pleased to have hunted down Fifth boy. He was an elusive target who had successfully evaded my coaching attempts so far. Came up with another answering template for him on the spot.

As if this wasn’t enough, I subsequently texted five other students to remind them to use “myriad” instead of “variety” in their responses.

PSLE Oral is snapping at my heels, but Sensei has got everything under control.