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..