Mr James' "Retirement"

Surprise!

Steps (by Zheng Yang):

1) Wen May bake chocolate cake, cause Mr James always bake cookies and brownies for us. No. No. That's not the point, I mean he likes chocolote.
2) Must stay in class on Thursday or the plan will fail. Convince him to come to class!
3) Yong Jin fake faint on the floor + bubbles (he insisted it although we said it seems to be really serious having bubbles)
4) Wey Yng and Evelyn must do what they can to call Mr James to go to our class.
5) Everyone panic (or act panic).
6) Mr James tries to touch Yong Jin.
7) Yong Jin wakes up and scares/screams at him. (He gave Mr James a kiss on the cheeks with his mouth full of toothpastes in the end. Ew!)

8) Throw paper airplanes/rocks/physics books at him.
9)We start singing Thank You For Teaching Us. (With the Happy Birthday tune. Zheng Yang is a genius)
10) Take cake out.

11) Eating time.

12) Message reading ceremony.

13) Photography session.

14) End. Pack & leave sadly.

Success!

A few days before Mr James says he will be leaving for further studies in overseas, our class held a meeting among ourselves to see what we could do for him. So at least, he could have a good memory in this school as he was just a substitution teacher for Puan Ho. Zheng Yang came up with the ideas, Xin Ying volunteered to make a jar of messages written by us, Wen May promised to bake a cake, a chocolate cake, and the rest take part in planning how to lure Mr James to our class. Wey Yng suggested someone will pretend to faint in class but we needed a good actor. The scouts do the best for this role but after discussing on how hard will it be to convince Mr James to come to our class from the physics lab, we leave this job to Yong Jin. Evelyn and Wey Yng will do whatever to make sure Mr James arrive at our class.

On the day itself, Wen May came with a box of homemade chocolate sponge cake and camera (already have permission from Puan Lau). Xin Ying brought a huge glass jar with our messages inside. Yong Jin brought toothpastes for the “white bubble” effect. Chase gathered a team to help him make coloured paper aeroplanes as it will be used later. We were very excited, especially Zheng Yang as he said he was scared that the plan would not work. We hoped and prayed for the best. After the study campaign, everyone rushed back to class and get ready for the first farewell party we organized in low cost.

Yong Jin was on the ground, bandaged with the cloth Xin Ying brought from St. Johns and bubbles around his mouth. Wen May set up the camera as we do not want this precious moment to be forgotten. Everyone held paper aeroplanes in their hands. After the set up and make sure everything was going as we planned, we sent Evelyn and Wey Yng to call Mr James. A few moments later, Mr James came in and was laughing at Yong Jin (he already knew what we were up to). Yong Jin sprang up, spit out some toothpastes and gave a peck on Mr James’ cheeks (disgusting but well…). We immediately threw the paper aeroplanes and Wen May came out with the cake. Zheng Yang took the lead and we started singing the “Thank You For Teaching Us” song.

After the “surprise”, Mr James cut the cake and everyone got to eat. Xin Ying presented him our message jar and he was so touched. Due to the fact that we have nearly an hour more of physics period, Mr James decided he would read all the message we wrote one by one. Everyone gathered around him as he started to read the messages. Little by little, Mr James began to tear up and mumbled some unintelligible words as he was trying hard to control his tears. We were sad, the atmosphere was heavy and no one was speaking. Finally, Mr James decided to lighten up the mood by taking pictures before he leave us, forever. Everyone was enlightened and the scene became lively again, until the last school bell rang.

Well, that’s all for the low-cost-party we had. Once again, I wanted to thank Mr James for being our physics teacher for only 3 months. He might not be the best teacher compared to any other physics teacher but we were glad to have him when Puan Ho wasn’t around.

Thank You Mr James!