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.