By Chong Qingya (23J01)
Some, or most of us will start to wonder in the period leading up to Teachers’ Day: ‘What should I give to my teachers?’ ‘What would they want?’ 🤔 When we give gifts to our teachers, we intend to honour them with tokens of our respect and gratitude.
They do not have to be pricey to show our appreciation for them; rather, it is the meaning behind them that matters. Some of our gifts might even make such a deep impression on our teachers, that just thinking about them brings a smile to their faces.
Curious to know what the most interesting Teachers’ Day gifts some of our teachers have received are? Well, we have interviewed some teachers for you to hear from them!
#1 Mr Koh Suan Lam (PE Dept):
Q: What is the most interesting Teachers’ Day present you have received?
A: I remember in 2018 I had a JC2 class where everybody wrote down something on a book and gave the book to me. Until now, I still have the book. On the cover of the book they had written down the purpose of PE and to me it's very heartwarming.
Book Mr Koh received
#2 Ms Jael Tan (History Dept):
Q: What is the most interesting Teachers' Day present you have received?
A: A carton of milk.
Q: Huh?
A: Yeah! When I got it I was like, “What’s this?” It was a carton of Oatly milk…
Q: Why?
A: I don’t know—*laughs*—that’s why it’s one of the more bizarre gifts I have received. I have received food before, or like, tote bags and pens; those, I can understand, and I can use them too. But milk? I don’t even like drinking milk, much less plant-based milk… But ok la, I still drank it anyway.
Q: Was it at least chilled?
A: No, the person just stuffed it into my pigeon hole…
An example of Oatly milk
Credits: Direct Wholesale
Bonus! 🤩⭐
Q: Since we’re on the topic of gifts, what would you want your Teachers’ Day gifts to be?
A: Red pens, please! So, you know, I was just marking the J2 mid-year common test. I think I finished three red pens—three!—for one exam!
Q: Then would you want them to be ballpoint, or whatever?
A: I like the Muji ones, but I guess it’s more expensive! Just, in general, those sharper-tipped ones. The ink pens. I don’t like the ballpoint ones.
Q: Why not?
A: ‘Cause I write a lot of comments, and with words very small in size. So for ballpoint pens, the tip is too fat and I can't squeeze all the words in. That’s why I like the sharper kind. So I guess in general, either pens or appreciation cards.
Q: Ohh so would you want appreciation cards?
A: Yeah! I keep all the cards. I have many small boxes at home where I keep them.
#3 Mr Tan Boon Jong (Chemistry Dept):
Q: What is the most interesting Teachers’ Day present you have received?
A: The most interesting Teachers’ Day gift I received was a sack of rice. I think it was because I had used rice as an analogy to teach a Chemistry concept but my fellow teachers and family had a good laugh about it.
“No picture of me with rice. Here’s a picture with grapes 🍇” 😂
#4 Mdm Ang Gay Leng (Chemistry Dept):
Q: What is the most interesting Teachers’ Day present you have received?
A: A corkboard with photos of letters that say Happy Teachers Day. What's interesting is how the students applied their photography skills to capture the moving flashlights as letters.
Corkboard
#5 Mr Nazri (English Dept):
Q: What is the most interesting Teachers' Day present you have received?
A: A giant cockroach plushie.
Q: Could you elaborate more on the giant cockroach plushie? Who gave it to you and why do you think it's so interesting? How is the plushie doing now?
A: I think it was from a student last year. It might have been a reference to some meme about what would happen if I were a cockroach. 🧐
Q: What was your reaction when you first got it?
A: I was confused. Some teachers thought that it was a rude gesture(?) Gen Z humour things, I guess?
Cockroach plushie
#6 Mr Alvin Lam (Chinese Dept):
Q: What is the most interesting Teachers' Day present you have received?
A: 一整班写了祝语的鹅卵石。真的很重。我感觉他们对 “礼轻情意重” 是不是有些误解。
照片就这样呗
Translation: A whole class wrote their well wishes on pebbles, it was really heavy. I think they misunderstood the saying “It's not the size of the gift that matters, it's the heart that went into it.” [translated literally: light gift, heavy sincerity]
Picture of pebbles
Credits: Noah Garden Centre
#7 Ms Stephanie Chua (English Dept):
Q: What is the most interesting Teachers' Day present you have received?
A: It was a lovely blouse that was given to me by one of my first form classes in an effort to help me up my sartorial game 🤣
Blouse (a visual reference and not the actual blouse Ms Chua received)
Credits: Freepik
Isn’t it so interesting to hear from our teachers about the interesting gifts they have received? Are you inspired now? 🤡🤡
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