Teachers in the English department take turns to present a book review in front of the whole school every Tuesday morning. It was my turn today.

I had received the notification two weeks ago. Straightaway, I went to our library to borrow a book on leadership. You see, student councillor nominations were around the corner, so I seized the opportunity to threaten my ambitious and earnest seventh graders. “If you want me to nominate you as a leader, you need to go up on stage and present three takeaways,” I growled.

Asking inexperienced teenagers - the youngest students in the school - to do a public sharing sounded like a recipe for disaster, but surprisingly, seven of my students were hungry enough. So, I printed copies of the first chapter and passed them around.

For the next two weeks, I became their accountability buddy. I would bellow at them, “Time is running out! You need to read the article and give me three takeaways.” I think they didn’t take me that seriously at first. But when the most conscientious student - incidentally their class chairman - handed in his three points, the rest of them suffered a good dose of FOMO. One by one, they got down to reading the article - and I managed to compile everything by yesterday.

I only managed to do 1-2 dry runs with them in the classroom. I told them to assemble at 7.40am at the school hall.

Today, when I reached school, I was pleasantly surprised to find five of the seven students already waiting for me. Another student came soon after me. The last student was on his way, but alas, we had no time to wait for him.

Moments before our presentation, a girl asked if we could stand in one straight line as a way to reduce nervousness. She brought up something that I hadn’t considered before, so it was real cool for me to adopt her idea. We then stood in front of the entire school and took turns to present our part. Kinda like sitting ducks on a row, united in solidarity.

Our sharing was over before I knew it. I thought some of my students might have spoken too softly, but it was good enough that they didn’t freak out and freeze. Public speaking is most people’s greatest fear after all.

Actually, it would have easier if I had done the whole sharing myself, but I felt a profound sense of satisfaction. Thrilled at getting my students to apply their English skills outside the classroom, I can still feel the adrenaline course through my veins. This is in spite of the fact that I woke up at 4.40am, feeling anxious about how the day would turn out. Today, I dare say that I made a significant difference in the lives of some of my students.