Been a while since i last updated this blog. Realised that it wasn't so much of being busy, but more of laziness. Writing this would probably take me an hour, which i could better spend on napping. Always craving for more sleep recently, for the past week, i have been sleeping at 10pm. Which for me is very early. Normally wouldn't head to bed before 12am. Anyway, enough about my sleeping habits. Back to relief teaching.
Just like humans, my workload has evolved into something more complicated. For the past 2 weeks, i have been relieving the same teacher who kept extending her MC. Well without her, i wouldn't have any assignment. So in some way i am thankful. At the same time however, i am getting pretty worried about the schoolwork of the children. While i try my very best to ensure that they do not just waste their time away, there is only this much i can do for them. I cannot be a substitute of their teacher, WHICH the school is trying to make me, while paying me at half the rate.
One fine day last week, while i was reading my german magazine in the staffroom during a break, a colleague came over to me and asked how was the marking. Stunned, i could only reply with a blank look on my face "What marking?" So she continued as if it was nothing surprising," Oh the principal asked about you just now and how is it going for the school work. Have you been marking their work?" So there it is, my workload has evolved. All those worksheets and testpapers which i have happily distributed are coming back to haunt me. The feeling of giving out worksheets, knowing that you never need to see them again is distinctly different from those , knowing that you will volunteer to mark them. Frankly speaking, they didn't force me. But seeing the rising pile of worksheets on her table, i felt the responsibility to do something. Furthermore, their exams are coming, i couldn't bear to see these children falling back since they are from the best classes. Oh have i already mentioned that?
Since then, my 5.5 hours mutated into an 8 hours assignment. Overtime pay you say? I wish. Purely volunteer, they say. Put it simply, my 13 dollars per hour job became a 9 dollars an hour job. =( What makes it worse is that it is eating into my study time. So thats one reason which i haven't been updating my blog. Anyway, took me 3 days of 3 hours to finish marking the composition of one class. Instead of grading them, i wrote down better phrases and corrected their grammar and included some pointers on how to improve their composition. Isn't that better?! Sometimes i really wondered what keeps me working so hard without added benefits.
Oh yes, grammar worksheets. Stumped by primary 5 grammar questions. 18 exercises, 10 questions in each exercise, 2 classes of 40 students each. Simple math, 14400 questions. Of course i wasn't so stupid to mark every single one. It would take me a month. So i just flashed the answer on the board, asked the kids to mark themselves. Took no more than half an hour. =) To flash the answer key, i need an answer key. Stupidly, the creator didn't come up with an ans key, so i had to come up with mine. Came across this particular question as i was doing the paper. Given 2 options, both seemed grammatically right, couldn't decide and justify. That spells trouble when you can't explain a question to 40 brainy kids. Like mentioned previously, they will pounce on every weakness you show, and leave you feeling dumb at the end of the day. So I consulted a couple of friends who clearly speak better English than me. Unfortunately they didn't convince me of any answer. So i thought i might as well as the english teachers, thinking that they would know better. And guess what! Out of 5 teachers i asked, 2 gave me one option, the other 3 another. Both with their own reasoning. To be fair, the 2 camps were able to justify using the nitty gritty grammar rules. In the end, we all agreed that the best answer wasn't among the options. So its the question setter's fault.
Walked into a class of cheers today. Its a bad thing. I am now the mascot for "End of oppression". Everytime i am in their class, it provides an opportunity for the kids to release all their toilet pleas, changing of place requests, the chatterings oppressed by the other teachers. Somehow i can't bring myself to shout angrily at the children. You need to sound fierce as mentioned in my earlier post, something which i found difficult. In anycase, i think the days are going to be harder. Even the best classes are starting to rebel.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Monday, February 8, 2010
Lesson 4: The experienced gets the worst
Awaken by the buzzing vibration from my handphone once again in the morning. Yet another teacher to cover today. It turned out to be the chinese HOD who hasn't been around for almost a week. Somehow i am beginning to dread the phone calls in the morning, far from looking forward to going to the school last year. No idea what changed me over the past 2 months, but today's experience certainly didn't help.
Taking charge of chinese lessons today, well not really, basically relieving them during their chinese lesson. When i was finally handed my schedule, an overwhelming feeling of dread just swept through me. Of the 4 classes that i was going to babysit, 2 belonged to the worst classes i had to relieve, while another 1 was without a doubt a problem class. How do i know? Well a teacher simply told me to keep them disciplined, no lessons required. Its called a foundation class, the new generation of EM3. While i have nothing against them personally, this class proved to live up to their reputation, well at least 2 of the students in the class. More about that later.
So first class of the day, yes its the one which i mentioned in my previous post, the one with the problematic girl and problematic boy. If that doesn't ring a bell still, its the one which i had to babysit for a continuous 3 hours. Turned out pretty okay today since it was just an hour. Attempted to communicate with the kids in chinese this time, even helped them out with their chinese homework. Just before the class ended as i was helping another girl with the chinese homework, this boy walked to me and said in a very serious tone, " Teacher i know you are not going to believe me but this is true..." I looked at him wondering what was going to come out next from his mouth, like ghosts? or Vampires? Then he continued " I saw a UFO yesterday flying above my block." I almost burst out in laughter, but held back as i knew it would have unthinkable consequences. Didn't want to have a crying student right before i leave the class, i continued to listen. The girl whom i was helping couldn't help giggling. Then he started describing what the UFO looked like, even drew a picture explaining that there were blue and red lights coming out. So i asked him if what he saw was a police car. He gave me an incredulous look before saying, "It was on top of my block..."
Then it was the lesson with the foundation class. With a class size of only 20, i thought it shouldn't be too hard. I was soo wrong. As it was a Monday and the teacher hasn't been around for the past week, they had no homework no nothing. Seated right in front of the teacher's table in the middle of the class is this boy, or should i say gangster. Halfway through the class, he burst out in anger and started shouting vulgarities at this girl seated about 3 tables away. Grabbing his arm in time, i managed to stop him from going over to attack her. But only for that 30 seconds. The moment i loosened my grip, he stormed over to her table and gave the table a big kick. The impact sent the pencil case and one book on her table flying. Luckily the girl was not injured. Dragged him away from her table by the arm and pushed him back into his chair. Never done that before. It was shocking. Bear in mind that all these happened right before my nose. Not knowing how to handle this situation, i gave him a good scolding. Don't think that helped. Apparently this girl annoys every other person in the class and the class would cheer whenever one of them says something nasty about her. So i warned those around that if i hear anything nasty coming out from them, i would make them stay back with me for 5 hours after school. So the gangster boy took out a piece of paper and started scribbling something about the girl. I warned him to stop immediately and he argued that he wasn't saying anything. I didn't bother to argue with him told him firmly again to stop. Then he burst out in tears mumbling something about the girl being cocky before making some threats, saying that she better watch out after school. Of course with unthinkable amount of vulgarities in between. Think he mumbled something about me as well, didn't care. Had to do what i had to do. He was really agitated. His classmates simply didn't not help in the situation by adding more fuel to the explosion. But after that outburst, he did calm down a little so i just left him alone. Had to patrol around the class during the entire 1 hour. The hour never felt longer.
Then it was the third class that never happened, as the assembly program spilled over to the entire 1 hour. That was suppose to be the better class, apparently not. Luckily their teacher came and took over before i needed to bring them back to class. As i was there, 2 boys were wrestling each other, grabbing each other by the neck before their teacher pulled them apart.
Finally the last class of the day. The one which i took last week. According to them, their teacher had probably called in sick due to the lost of voice, which was partly contributed by them. Again no homework no nothing since their teacher hasn't been around for the past week. Well this class is not too bad, except that its noisy. 2 baddies in this class, one girl who is very rude, by rude i mean really rude and doesn't know her place and this other boy who cannot sit still. Hes okay today after i made him stay back to clean the classroom after school last week. Initially scared her by saying that i would make her stay back for 2 hours, and her response? "I am not going to stay back, i don't care. After class i will go home." I told her straight in her face to try. After lesson, i told her to sweep up the mess her class left behind and she took the broom very unwillingly and simply walked around swinging it, grumbling and complaining as she walked around saying that i am ridiculous and it isn't fair and so on. Didn't care, told her that she would not leave until the class is clean. She just stood there. Not long came her friend who was waiting for her and helped her out with the punishment. It was then she started moving again. Just as i thought its the end of the day, came 2 boys into the classroom, one of them with scratches on his face. The friend accompanying him reported that he was beaten by another classmate after i have dismissed them. Brought them to the office immediately. Told the boy to wash up his face first before it gets infected. They went and didn't come back.
If there is one thing i learnt today, it would be that the HOD or whichever experienced teacher usually gets the worst classes. If they are going to call me tomorrow, i will make it clear that i am not willing to cover the HOD, better leave it to some experienced teacher who can better handle these little terrors.
Taking charge of chinese lessons today, well not really, basically relieving them during their chinese lesson. When i was finally handed my schedule, an overwhelming feeling of dread just swept through me. Of the 4 classes that i was going to babysit, 2 belonged to the worst classes i had to relieve, while another 1 was without a doubt a problem class. How do i know? Well a teacher simply told me to keep them disciplined, no lessons required. Its called a foundation class, the new generation of EM3. While i have nothing against them personally, this class proved to live up to their reputation, well at least 2 of the students in the class. More about that later.
So first class of the day, yes its the one which i mentioned in my previous post, the one with the problematic girl and problematic boy. If that doesn't ring a bell still, its the one which i had to babysit for a continuous 3 hours. Turned out pretty okay today since it was just an hour. Attempted to communicate with the kids in chinese this time, even helped them out with their chinese homework. Just before the class ended as i was helping another girl with the chinese homework, this boy walked to me and said in a very serious tone, " Teacher i know you are not going to believe me but this is true..." I looked at him wondering what was going to come out next from his mouth, like ghosts? or Vampires? Then he continued " I saw a UFO yesterday flying above my block." I almost burst out in laughter, but held back as i knew it would have unthinkable consequences. Didn't want to have a crying student right before i leave the class, i continued to listen. The girl whom i was helping couldn't help giggling. Then he started describing what the UFO looked like, even drew a picture explaining that there were blue and red lights coming out. So i asked him if what he saw was a police car. He gave me an incredulous look before saying, "It was on top of my block..."
Then it was the lesson with the foundation class. With a class size of only 20, i thought it shouldn't be too hard. I was soo wrong. As it was a Monday and the teacher hasn't been around for the past week, they had no homework no nothing. Seated right in front of the teacher's table in the middle of the class is this boy, or should i say gangster. Halfway through the class, he burst out in anger and started shouting vulgarities at this girl seated about 3 tables away. Grabbing his arm in time, i managed to stop him from going over to attack her. But only for that 30 seconds. The moment i loosened my grip, he stormed over to her table and gave the table a big kick. The impact sent the pencil case and one book on her table flying. Luckily the girl was not injured. Dragged him away from her table by the arm and pushed him back into his chair. Never done that before. It was shocking. Bear in mind that all these happened right before my nose. Not knowing how to handle this situation, i gave him a good scolding. Don't think that helped. Apparently this girl annoys every other person in the class and the class would cheer whenever one of them says something nasty about her. So i warned those around that if i hear anything nasty coming out from them, i would make them stay back with me for 5 hours after school. So the gangster boy took out a piece of paper and started scribbling something about the girl. I warned him to stop immediately and he argued that he wasn't saying anything. I didn't bother to argue with him told him firmly again to stop. Then he burst out in tears mumbling something about the girl being cocky before making some threats, saying that she better watch out after school. Of course with unthinkable amount of vulgarities in between. Think he mumbled something about me as well, didn't care. Had to do what i had to do. He was really agitated. His classmates simply didn't not help in the situation by adding more fuel to the explosion. But after that outburst, he did calm down a little so i just left him alone. Had to patrol around the class during the entire 1 hour. The hour never felt longer.
Then it was the third class that never happened, as the assembly program spilled over to the entire 1 hour. That was suppose to be the better class, apparently not. Luckily their teacher came and took over before i needed to bring them back to class. As i was there, 2 boys were wrestling each other, grabbing each other by the neck before their teacher pulled them apart.
Finally the last class of the day. The one which i took last week. According to them, their teacher had probably called in sick due to the lost of voice, which was partly contributed by them. Again no homework no nothing since their teacher hasn't been around for the past week. Well this class is not too bad, except that its noisy. 2 baddies in this class, one girl who is very rude, by rude i mean really rude and doesn't know her place and this other boy who cannot sit still. Hes okay today after i made him stay back to clean the classroom after school last week. Initially scared her by saying that i would make her stay back for 2 hours, and her response? "I am not going to stay back, i don't care. After class i will go home." I told her straight in her face to try. After lesson, i told her to sweep up the mess her class left behind and she took the broom very unwillingly and simply walked around swinging it, grumbling and complaining as she walked around saying that i am ridiculous and it isn't fair and so on. Didn't care, told her that she would not leave until the class is clean. She just stood there. Not long came her friend who was waiting for her and helped her out with the punishment. It was then she started moving again. Just as i thought its the end of the day, came 2 boys into the classroom, one of them with scratches on his face. The friend accompanying him reported that he was beaten by another classmate after i have dismissed them. Brought them to the office immediately. Told the boy to wash up his face first before it gets infected. They went and didn't come back.
If there is one thing i learnt today, it would be that the HOD or whichever experienced teacher usually gets the worst classes. If they are going to call me tomorrow, i will make it clear that i am not willing to cover the HOD, better leave it to some experienced teacher who can better handle these little terrors.
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