Teresa Kan known to some of her students as Miss T. Kan and others as Mrs. T. Wong met Helen Wong and Delpha Ho of the Editorial Subcommittee of DOGA on 26th October, 2002, just before the concert of the Diocesan Graduate Singers at school that evening. Teresa has kindly shared with us some of her recent photos, which you see together with this article.
Having taught at DGS for over 30 years, Teresa has by now retired from teaching at our school for about 7 years. While she found that retirement gives her much more free time and necessarily more relaxing than teaching, her love of teaching has resulted in a brief (3 year) stint of teaching after an initial couple of years of rest. In her retirement, she found that she misses DGS girls all the more.
Teresa taught sciences at DGS to students from Forms 1 through to Form 3 at various times, and had worked under the two different headmistresses, Dr. CJ Symons and Mrs. Elim Lau. She said that in the early days of teaching (to her surprise) some students subsequently told her that she was considered one of the stricter teachers then at school and would stand for no misbehavior.
Even though she is actually a cheerful and fun-loving personality, she certainly knew how to command the respect of her students. One wonders what the students would have thought had they seen Teresa's limbo rocking away at DOGA annual dinner 2002!
Teresa wants her ex-students to know that she is keeping well and is enjoying herself. She is certainly keeping slim and trim with her three times a week social dancing sessions. She has also kept up with her singing.
We asked Teresa what she found was most memorable of her years of teaching at DGS. She said she found that she was still learning throughout her years of teaching. "To me, [while I was teaching], DGS was also my school. I was not only a teacher, I was also a student of DGS." What she found most gratifying since her retirement was that the ex-students have constantly kept in touch with her. On her part, she felt the pull of DGS and is becoming a regular participant at DOGA functions.
When asked whether she felt that there are any material difference in DGS students over the years, Teresa commented that she felt that her first students had in general a stronger sense of belonging with the school while the students she had closer to her retirement seemed to be much more practical minded.
To all DGS girls, Teresa encourages them "to keep up with the DGS spirit" - this she felt is one of the most important legacies that a DGS girl could take away from school.