Ms Shee Yuen Ling

From SJKC Man Ming

Nominated by Yeap Tsen Roe

Sweet. Thoughtful. Wise. These descriptions fit Ms. Shee Yuen Ling perfectly – the teacher that had inspired and shaped me into the person I am today. She is the awe-inspiring figure that played an important role throughout my primary school life. She never gives up on her students and ceaselessly helps them to become a better learner, a better citizen and a better leader. Not many are fortunate enough to meet a teacher who brings a positive impact to their lives. I am surely one of the lucky few to have encountered one – Ms. Shee Yuen Ling. During my early school years, I never liked English. English classes and exams had always been my biggest nightmare. Not until my year four in 2016, when Ms. Shee Yuen Ling came to my school and became my English teacher. At first, I thought that Ms. Shee, how we addressed her, was just like most other teachers, but I soon realized that she was different. Other teachers tend to teach us based solely on the textbooks, which I found the monotonous text uninteresting and frequently dozed me off. Instead, Miss Shee’s teaching methods were impressive. She let us studied by forming groups freely and designed projects for us that were relevant to our texts. These made our lessons much more fascinating. Moreover, through her class activities, I discovered a lot of new and amazing things when searching for information online. Sometimes, she conducted her lessons with group games that allowed us to learn English in a fun and interactive manner. She also played English songs which created an inexplicable sense of calmness and relaxation during the games. That had let us remained phlegmatic and able to think effectively, without a moment of a blank mind. Most importantly, we gained much knowledge while having fun. One of her unique traits, Ms. Shee never carried a cane to class. In fact, she didn’t even need a cane because she would never use it on us. Although we were mischievous at times, she just tried to persuade us patiently. I remember once, she cried secretly in the restroom, blaming herself for not able to stop us from our wrongdoings. Yet, she later came back into our class, hiding her upset and continued with her advice for us. We were all so touched by her sincerity that we resolved to change ourselves for the better, never to let her down. Besides, Ms. Shee liked to share her own experiences and stories of good moral values with us. Just like the Japanese proverb goes, ‘Better than a thousand days of diligent study is one day with a great teacher.’ Soon enough, with Ms. Shee’s teaching, I began to take joy in learning English and my English performance had gradually improved. During my year six, Ms. Shee nominated me to take part in the International Online Essay Competition (IOEC) 2018, which was jointly organized by University Sains Malaysia (USM). I felt honoured by her high regard for me. I was delighted but at the same time, I was extremely unsure of my capability in facing this new challenge. When preparing myself for the competition, I realized that my incompetence in English was way greater than what I thought of myself previously. My mind often went blank when practicing my essay write-ups, due to my lack of vocabulary and life experiences. I began to doubt myself and I was so perplexed that I could not sleep well at night. Ms. Shee seemed to have noticed my struggle. She provided me with a lot of reading materials to help improve my vocabulary and contents, most of which were model essays from Singapore. She guided me patiently amidst her heavy lessons and school works. She even came to school much earlier than usual so that she had more time to train me for the competition. During this period, we had been very close as she had been meeting and training me up whenever she managed to squeeze out time from her tight schedule. We prepared for the essay competition intensively in school. When I was composing the essay for the national competition, I somehow felt that it was harder than I thought it would be. Luckily, I still got a NATIONAL GOLD AWARD and entered the international round. At times, I was late to the training. I was nervous and worried as I saw her already there at her long table. Yet, rather than questioning my tardiness or reprimanding me, she calmly requested me to sit next to her and proceeded with the training as usual. At the end of the training, she merely told me to come earlier the next time so that I could have more time to prepare myself for the competition. That made me the more guilty as I understood that she had purposely came in early just to train me and that she had sacrificed her personal time, which she could have conveniently spent it for her leisures. Within this short time-frame, attributed to Ms. Shee’s patient guidance and undivided effort in training me up, my vocabulary and writing skills had improved tremendously. This had not only benefitted me for the essay competition, but also for my coming UPSR exam then, and had since built up a strong foundation for my English in my secondary school now. Finally, it was the day of the international round of the International Online Essay Competition. As I sat down in front of the computer at the competition venue, I had butterflies in my stomach. When I looked at the title given, my mind blanked out. I heard my heart pumping fast and I started to feel dizzy. All of sudden, Ms. Shee’s gentle and warm smile appeared in my mind. The feeling of uneasiness dissipated instantaneously, her teaching and advice started to flow back into my mind and I was able to complete my essay gracefully. When the result came out, to my immense delight, I received the INTERNATIONAL GOLD AWARD for the International Online Essay Competition 2018. As much as I was rejoiced with the achievements, deep inside, I knew that the success did not belong to me alone. I could have not won the competition without Ms. Shee’s teachings and guidance. Due to attributes of hers, I sincerely hope that Ms. Shee Yuen Ling could win this ‘Inspirational Teacher’ award. She definitely deserves it as she is a selfless teacher that would always place her student’s benefit before herself, striving hard to dedicate the best of the best for her students.