Lesson 3: Nothing keeps children under control better than worksheets

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.