Been relieving for a continuous 5 days, and my throat has taken a toll. Well it wasn't that bad for the past 4 days when i had been relieving upper primary students but the class today killed my throat. Took charge of a primary 3 class today, one of the more problematic class. The set of challenges posted by the lower primary are very much different from the ones from upper primary. Having to babysit them for a stretch of 3 hours continuously today, i knew i was in for some shouting and screaming when i received the schedule today. Once again, the teacher i was covering didn't leave any instructions and i had to search and invent my own program for the children. To keep 30 highly active and feisty kids under control requires alot of patience and skill and most importantly, work. Did the usual round of walking around the staff room asking the neighbouring class teachers if they have any work for the class. Sadly all of them didn't. Somehow got the impression that the teacher i was covering was a bitch since none of the other teachers bothered to offer much help, and told me not to dig from the box of worksheets on her table. Didn't care, took a set of maths worksheet from the box. Anyway, i also found a worksheet with the 12 zodiac animals for them to colour, that alone took away almost 45 mins off the 3 hours.
Then came the first problem of the day, sharing of colour pencils. It seems that the children these days are quite protective of their possessions. Initially most didn't want to share their colour pencils with their classmates, but after some persuasion, they relented with much disgruntlement. Soon an argument in one of the groups ensued. A problematic girl arguing with a group of problematic boys, boys call her names and said that her table is full of germs. Scolded the group of boys who didn't seem to care much. Sure enough she started to weep and i had to transfer her to the other corner of the class. Not long later, the localised problem became widespread. Boys continue to make lots of noise and the problematic girl created a stirr in the new corner. Sigh. A small check with the other students revealed that she was indeed problematic and the sitting arrangement was probably like this to contain the naughty students. No idea, just another presumption on my part.
Oh yes, there is another problematic student. Lets just call him J. Isolated from the rest of the class with his table next to the teacher's table, hes hardly at his table. Didn't notice it till one of the students complained about him standing behind her. According to his classmates, the form teacher couldn't control him as well, so she just let him walk around the class because he is "special". No one in the class could communicate with him. Any efforts to do so will only be returned with a blank stare or ignorance. Well he wasn't the noisy kind of problem, doesn't create much problem for the class as he kept himself busy with fiddling the objects placed around the class. Hasn't someone inform his parents about this problem? Why waste his time in a normal primary school when he clearly isn't normal?
It was english lesson after their art lesson, so i thought i might as well do something creative with these children. So told them to cut out the animals that they just coloured, and as a group project, come up with a story about the animals. Went terribly. While a couple of groups managed to work together to come up with something, most of them took the opportunity to go wild. The problematic boys group started arguing again, claiming that the other group members did not contribute and the complains go around the group. Like a vicious cycle, pointing at each other, nothing was accomplished after 20 mins and moods soured. Only after i started the story for them did they slowly tread along. Somehow at the other corner of the class, another storm was brewing. Problematic girl claimed that the 2 other girls didn't allow her to participate in the group work. So instead she took a broom and dustpan and walked out of the class without my permission. It was only when one of the students told me that she walked out again without the teacher's permission (apparently this has happened before). Found her shortly and reprimanded her. More students took advantage of this chaotic moment to make the situation worse. One after another they come to me complaining of their trivial argument with each other and doing the toilet plea. It was only after the threat of calling their parents by trying to force the number out of the kids did i manage to restore some order back in the class. All the shouting didn't help. About 1 and a quarter hour later, the last group finally wrote the last sentence of their story. After which i attempted to make these children present their story to the class. Once again it worked out terribly. Stories were written with so many grammatical errors without much content and flow that sometimes it was impossible to understand what they were talking about. Not helping was that they were too soft to get the attention of all their classmates. Not wanting to waste anymore time, i took over as the narrator, editing the grammar and story real time as i read. Still made no sense. Oh well.
Totally exhausted after the little exercise, i took out the trump card, math worksheets. It was only then peace was finally returned to this class. Even J stopped walking around. When i handed him the worksheets, he told me that he had no mood to do the worksheets. I told him that he was not special and he has to do it whether he likes it or not. He grumbled something which i didn't quite understand and didn't bother to pursue for i did not want the rest of the class to go out of hand again. He simply looked disgrunted and picked up his pencil. Left him alone after that. Gave them sometime to complete the questions before going through the first 2 questions with them. Of course they didn't finish, thus i was only able to discuss the first 2 questions. Spent the last 15 mins talking some sense into these children, not sure if they understood me, but they were surprisingly quiet.
Lesson learnt: Do not attempt to give project work to any children and expect them to come up with something if you do not have the necessary experience unless you want to end up with a sore throat. And this is especially true for classes with problematic kids. Doing so will only give them an opportunity to bust your throat and patience. Worksheets are still the best weapon for relief teachers. So glad that the week is over.
Friday, January 29, 2010
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Lesson 2: Never walk into the class smiling
Sounds very pessimistic of me, but hey, i am telling from the bottom of my heart. Not saying that you have to look angry when you enter the class, but you should not smile. Relief teachers usually represent free period and time to go wild for most children. Not saying that it is true for all students, since i have experienced quite a variety of reactions when walked into the class. One thing for sure though, never walk into one smiling unless you are already familiar with the class or if you already have a reputation for being no nonsense. But thats hardly the case for any relief teachers. I would like to liken walking into the class with a smile to walking into the tiger's cage holding out a piece of fat juicy meat. These children will not hesitate to pounce on your weakness. How is smiling a weakness you ask. Smiling is akin to writing on your face : I am lenient so please go ahead and step a little over the line and i would not do anything to you.
As such, i believe very much that how your period will proceed, depends very much on the face you carry into the classroom. At times the period can last over 2 hours, so you really do not want 40 kids to keep bugging you with their nonsense. The situation is worsen when the the teacher who was absent did not assign any work to the children. Controlling 40 restless children without work is terrifying. More about that later, but now back to setting the first impression. The moment i step into the class, I wage a psychological war against these potentially out of control students. (Not all the times as there are good classes which do not require this fear treatment). How do i do so? Not smiling of course. This is how it works, you walk in, you write you name, you greet the children. They will greet you back and then you tell them to sit, which they will thank you again. So before i allow them to sit, i state my rules clearly. Rule no 1: No talking or shouting when i speak. Rule no 2: No walking around without my permission. Rule no 3: No throwing of any objects around the class. As you can see these are the main 3 problems every class will have. And the punishment for doing anyone of those? Sit on the dustbin until the next culprit is caught. I will make them repeat the rules once before allowing them to sit. Oh yes, changing of place is a very common request which i tend to forbid unless they have projects. But since it falls in the "walk around and talking" category, its not hard to convince them its not allowed. You cannot imagine how effective this threat works on all children, whether good or bad. Main idea is not really to make them sit on the bin, but to send a clear message to them: even though i am a relief teacher, you better not play around with me or there will be consequences. However believe it or not, there will still be some who nevertheless flout the rules but they will first be given warnings and constant reminders of the dustbin throne. Repeated offenders will then be made to sit on the bin. Oh yes, they are to pay for the bin if they break it. Hitting it where it hurt most, the Singaporean way. Till next time..
As such, i believe very much that how your period will proceed, depends very much on the face you carry into the classroom. At times the period can last over 2 hours, so you really do not want 40 kids to keep bugging you with their nonsense. The situation is worsen when the the teacher who was absent did not assign any work to the children. Controlling 40 restless children without work is terrifying. More about that later, but now back to setting the first impression. The moment i step into the class, I wage a psychological war against these potentially out of control students. (Not all the times as there are good classes which do not require this fear treatment). How do i do so? Not smiling of course. This is how it works, you walk in, you write you name, you greet the children. They will greet you back and then you tell them to sit, which they will thank you again. So before i allow them to sit, i state my rules clearly. Rule no 1: No talking or shouting when i speak. Rule no 2: No walking around without my permission. Rule no 3: No throwing of any objects around the class. As you can see these are the main 3 problems every class will have. And the punishment for doing anyone of those? Sit on the dustbin until the next culprit is caught. I will make them repeat the rules once before allowing them to sit. Oh yes, changing of place is a very common request which i tend to forbid unless they have projects. But since it falls in the "walk around and talking" category, its not hard to convince them its not allowed. You cannot imagine how effective this threat works on all children, whether good or bad. Main idea is not really to make them sit on the bin, but to send a clear message to them: even though i am a relief teacher, you better not play around with me or there will be consequences. However believe it or not, there will still be some who nevertheless flout the rules but they will first be given warnings and constant reminders of the dustbin throne. Repeated offenders will then be made to sit on the bin. Oh yes, they are to pay for the bin if they break it. Hitting it where it hurt most, the Singaporean way. Till next time..
Lesson 1 : How to tell if it is really urgent?
Relief teacher? The dismay of parents, the disappointment of smart children and the fortune of naughty ones. Never have i thought that i would one day become a teacher, erm almost a teacher. Having been one for a couple of months, i would say that i have already been promoted to an "experienced" relief teacher. What is an "experienced" relief teacher? Its one who is trusted to babysit good classes =D . Not proven, but something i have been suspecting for a long long time. Anyway, the reason why i am starting this blog is to simply share my experience as a "teacher" with those who wishes to become one, or to those worried parents who have little idea of what exactly happens in the classroom and wishes to find out more. Some of you may think relief teaching is a simple job, go into the class, sit at the teacher's table, let the students go wild for that period, and finally leave the class. That is probably true for most relief teachers who don't care the least, but i am not one of those. The management of 40 kids in a classroom is no simple feat, but i can tell you, once you start to get the hang of it, it will be a very rewarding and meaningful experience.
Could remember my very first assignment almost 3 months ago. There was only one word to describe the situation : Exasperating. No school names would be mentioned here, for my fear of digital prosecution in our not so press freedom friendly country. Anyway, back to my first lesson. It was a music class for primary 2. When i was handed the schedule, I almost fell over. Music lesson??Not trained musically, i hardly know the name of the instruments handed to me. It was a bunch of noise making objects that is surely going to create one hell of a classroom. Since it was my first lesson, i didn't know what to expect, and handing out those instrument to the children was probably the stupidest thing i did in that week. Soon after the first few instruments left the music box, all hell broke loose. The kids dashed over (yes i mean dash) and started to pull out whatever that they could put their little hands on. Tried to stop them from getting out from their seats, but my shouting was simply no match for the instruments. Before it got really out of control, i screamed "STOP!" Short and sharp. With almost immediate effect, as if the entire classroom went into pause mode, they stopped! "Wow" i thought.
Also noticed that RTs have a special ability to induce pee syndrome. This is one phenomena in every single class that i go to. Why do children enjoy going to the toilet so much!? So much so that over time, a universal pee plea was created. When you turn them down, they will cover their crouch region trembling and telling you that its urgent before expressing a desperate look! How could you bear to turn them down!? Since the beginning, i have maintained a 1 by 1 toilet policy after realising that many want to go to the toilet with their friends. Has worked so far. Lesson 1, how to tell if it is really urgent. Usually when you say no firmly, only a few will turn back without a fight. A majority of them would insist that it is urgent and act out the pee plead. In most cases, they are false alarm. So i would send them back to their seats again with a firm no. They usually obey after some grumbling but works most of the time. Then finally when they complain about urgency again, they get the ticket to toilet land. There was only 1 case when a boy became exceptionally quiet and one of his classmate helped him to plea.
By the end of day 1, after a short 5 hours stint, my voice was lost. Well i survived! But badly defeated. The other staffs could only offer a sympathetic smile and words of encouragement, saying that it is normal and could have been worst. To be honest, right after that, i didn't quite look forward to the next day of battle with the primary school kids.
Could remember my very first assignment almost 3 months ago. There was only one word to describe the situation : Exasperating. No school names would be mentioned here, for my fear of digital prosecution in our not so press freedom friendly country. Anyway, back to my first lesson. It was a music class for primary 2. When i was handed the schedule, I almost fell over. Music lesson??Not trained musically, i hardly know the name of the instruments handed to me. It was a bunch of noise making objects that is surely going to create one hell of a classroom. Since it was my first lesson, i didn't know what to expect, and handing out those instrument to the children was probably the stupidest thing i did in that week. Soon after the first few instruments left the music box, all hell broke loose. The kids dashed over (yes i mean dash) and started to pull out whatever that they could put their little hands on. Tried to stop them from getting out from their seats, but my shouting was simply no match for the instruments. Before it got really out of control, i screamed "STOP!" Short and sharp. With almost immediate effect, as if the entire classroom went into pause mode, they stopped! "Wow" i thought.
Also noticed that RTs have a special ability to induce pee syndrome. This is one phenomena in every single class that i go to. Why do children enjoy going to the toilet so much!? So much so that over time, a universal pee plea was created. When you turn them down, they will cover their crouch region trembling and telling you that its urgent before expressing a desperate look! How could you bear to turn them down!? Since the beginning, i have maintained a 1 by 1 toilet policy after realising that many want to go to the toilet with their friends. Has worked so far. Lesson 1, how to tell if it is really urgent. Usually when you say no firmly, only a few will turn back without a fight. A majority of them would insist that it is urgent and act out the pee plead. In most cases, they are false alarm. So i would send them back to their seats again with a firm no. They usually obey after some grumbling but works most of the time. Then finally when they complain about urgency again, they get the ticket to toilet land. There was only 1 case when a boy became exceptionally quiet and one of his classmate helped him to plea.
By the end of day 1, after a short 5 hours stint, my voice was lost. Well i survived! But badly defeated. The other staffs could only offer a sympathetic smile and words of encouragement, saying that it is normal and could have been worst. To be honest, right after that, i didn't quite look forward to the next day of battle with the primary school kids.
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