SHE took a collection of her students' mistakes, combined them into a parody and posted it on the Net.

The GP teacher, from a top junior college (we're not naming the JC to save the students further embarrassment), had put them in her online journal or blog under the title, Bad Engrish.

She says she did it to help her students in a fun way.

But most of the students and teachers we spoke to said it was mean.

One excerpt included this piece:

'I know that Singapore is a small dot in the globe but is giving aids to many countries and Indonesia is being hazy all the time.'

The entry was featured on local blogger bulletin tomorrow.sg, a site that routinely posts links to interesting blogs about different facets of Singapore life.

FRIENDLY WAY

The teacher, who goes by the online moniker Ondine, confirmed with The New Paper that the entry was hers.

The 29-year-old teacher added that blogging about her students' mistakes was her way of correcting them in a friendly way, and that they do occasionally read her blog.

She said: 'By using humour and parody, it would be less threatening for them.

'Trying to teach it in class was too much of an academic exercise.

'I wasn't scolding them for their mistakes - I was merely showing them what they were doing in a light-hearted and yet pointed manner.'

But did the teacher's good intentions come through?

A straw poll of 20 JC students and 20 teachers who read the entry indicated otherwise.

Fifteen of the students and 17 of the teachers polled felt the entry was mean-spirited, while just five students and three teachers thought it was funny and entertaining.

None saw it as educational.

Said Jessie Lim, 17, a first-year JC student: 'I don't like it that teachers gather round and get their amusement at our expense.

'It's their responsibility to help us improve. If we write poorly and fail our exams, it doesn't reflect well on the teaching either.

'If teachers can get on our case for being disrespectful to them in our blogs, they should respect us, too.'

Agreeing, Candice Ng, 18, a second-year JC student, said that many of her classmates who are weak in GP often stay back for remedial classes.

'They try really hard to improve. If they aren't trying, that's a different story - but to make fun of students who are actually trying - that's just mean.'

Teachers The New Paper spoke to also felt the blog entry was unnecessary, although a few did say that some students routinely make ludicrous spelling and grammar mistakes in their GP essays. (See report on facing page.)

RATHER CHILDISH

One GP teacher at a top JC, who declined to be named, said: 'It just seems rather childish to me - it's totally unnecessary to blog about your students' mistakes.

'It might be funny to some, but it could hurt the feelings of weaker students.'

Another GP teacher at a JC in the North zone said: 'Many of my students come from non-English-speaking families.

'Their command of the language is weak to begin with - add that to poor general knowledge, and that's where all the ridiculous mistakes come in.'

When asked if she thought students would take offence at the blog entry, Ondine maintained she didn't think they would.

'It wasn't taken from any person's piece of work - it really was just a parody of the different mistakes that I've come across through the course of teaching and observation,' she said.

FEEDBACK POSITIVE

She also said that feedback from her students about the Bad Engrish entry was mostly positive.

'Some have commented on how silly they must sound when they make such mistakes in class or in their writing.

'Those that I've talked to have taken it in good jest - some students have actually come up to me and told me that they check on one another now, to make sure they are not slipping when they talk to one another,' she added.