Sunday, May 20, 2007
wow-ing
Work has been pretty good so far, Alhamdulillah. I even had a bit of fun along the way. Conducted an enrichment class about cells and microscope for the primary 4 students over 5 days. I must say that it's a good thing i'm exposed alot to using the microscope during SIP and in TP. So preparation-wise all that was fine.
First class was great. I really had fun during that session. The students were responsive and obedient. And when i apologise for dragging the lesson past the time fixed, one of them said "It's okay, at least we had fun". So sweet right. Heh.
Second session went horribly wrong. The kids were super hyper active, non-responsive and just all over. It's so hard to control all of them. I'll be attending to a few of them at a table and there'll be a few at the teacher's table, playing with the lab's computer and the digital microscope. Although the teacher in charge was there and she scolded and shouted, it didn't make much difference. Can see that the kids dont have respect for her, which is really unfortunate. I pity the teacher la. I only had to bear with their bad behaviour for 1 and a half hours. But the teacher had to go through the crap every day. That aside, everything else went fine. There were a few other classes who can compete with this class in terms of bad behaviour, but it was alright as i've somewhat learnt how to react from the 2nd session.
There were 2 classes where their teachers were not around so i was all alone. 1 of those class was pretty bad. I raised my voice also they would not listen. Horrible la, i tell you. And it doesn't help there there was a hockey practise outside. The kids are more interested in what was going on outside than inside. Had to constantly remind them to return to thier seats and view their microscopes.
However, i have to say that it has been a really good experience. I kinda enjoyed teaching those kids. And they are quite responsive in the sense that if you ask questions, you will get answers. Unlike those project presentation in poly or sec school when you tried to get the audience involved by asking them questions, the only thing you'll get in return is silence. Heh. Okay, im also guilty of that. My point is, kids are generally responsive. I guess it's been taught to them in school since primary 1. There's this other class with no teacher in charge, they are supposedly the smartest class. Quite a pleasure teaching them. But they ask questions alot. Those questions that i myself am not sure of the answers. They really take it seriously when i say "stop me if you have any questions". There were like 2-5 hands raised after every sentence i presented. heh. Such enthusiasm was nice to see though.
I do get nervous before every session- anticipating how the kids will be like, will it be a breeze, will it be horible bla bla bla. And when i get nervous, i can get a bit ting-tong. Like once when the kids greeted me good afternoon, instead of greeting back like normal beings would, i actually said "thank you". And the teacher in charge had to be a young male teacher. So paiseh can.
Oh oh, and something similar happened a few days later during the HOD science cluster meeting. I had to sit in to take down minutes of the meeting. When a HOD from this school introduced himself to me, saying "Hi, I'm Mr. X" . Again, I said "thank you". so ting-tong right. But i think i have a perfect explanaination for that one. I forgot to ask my science HOD to introduce the rest to me beforehand. It was a bit too late when the meeting starts la. and so my minutes was full of "pink shirt says..." and "green shirt suggests...". i was figuring the name of Mr.X and Mr.Y [i have all their names. Just unsure who is who] and wondering whether i got these 2 mixed up. That was when Mr.X introduced himself to me. So it was like mystery solved and i was so happy and grateful. I didnt realised the word "thank you" just came out from my mouth. Okay, that long-winded explaination does not make me any less weird.
Whatever it is, I have learn alot from work. Will talk more about this in later entries. Being around kids is fun. And im looking forward to more of such moments.
First class was great. I really had fun during that session. The students were responsive and obedient. And when i apologise for dragging the lesson past the time fixed, one of them said "It's okay, at least we had fun". So sweet right. Heh.
Second session went horribly wrong. The kids were super hyper active, non-responsive and just all over. It's so hard to control all of them. I'll be attending to a few of them at a table and there'll be a few at the teacher's table, playing with the lab's computer and the digital microscope. Although the teacher in charge was there and she scolded and shouted, it didn't make much difference. Can see that the kids dont have respect for her, which is really unfortunate. I pity the teacher la. I only had to bear with their bad behaviour for 1 and a half hours. But the teacher had to go through the crap every day. That aside, everything else went fine. There were a few other classes who can compete with this class in terms of bad behaviour, but it was alright as i've somewhat learnt how to react from the 2nd session.
There were 2 classes where their teachers were not around so i was all alone. 1 of those class was pretty bad. I raised my voice also they would not listen. Horrible la, i tell you. And it doesn't help there there was a hockey practise outside. The kids are more interested in what was going on outside than inside. Had to constantly remind them to return to thier seats and view their microscopes.
However, i have to say that it has been a really good experience. I kinda enjoyed teaching those kids. And they are quite responsive in the sense that if you ask questions, you will get answers. Unlike those project presentation in poly or sec school when you tried to get the audience involved by asking them questions, the only thing you'll get in return is silence. Heh. Okay, im also guilty of that. My point is, kids are generally responsive. I guess it's been taught to them in school since primary 1. There's this other class with no teacher in charge, they are supposedly the smartest class. Quite a pleasure teaching them. But they ask questions alot. Those questions that i myself am not sure of the answers. They really take it seriously when i say "stop me if you have any questions". There were like 2-5 hands raised after every sentence i presented. heh. Such enthusiasm was nice to see though.
I do get nervous before every session- anticipating how the kids will be like, will it be a breeze, will it be horible bla bla bla. And when i get nervous, i can get a bit ting-tong. Like once when the kids greeted me good afternoon, instead of greeting back like normal beings would, i actually said "thank you". And the teacher in charge had to be a young male teacher. So paiseh can.
Oh oh, and something similar happened a few days later during the HOD science cluster meeting. I had to sit in to take down minutes of the meeting. When a HOD from this school introduced himself to me, saying "Hi, I'm Mr. X" . Again, I said "thank you". so ting-tong right. But i think i have a perfect explanaination for that one. I forgot to ask my science HOD to introduce the rest to me beforehand. It was a bit too late when the meeting starts la. and so my minutes was full of "pink shirt says..." and "green shirt suggests...". i was figuring the name of Mr.X and Mr.Y [i have all their names. Just unsure who is who] and wondering whether i got these 2 mixed up. That was when Mr.X introduced himself to me. So it was like mystery solved and i was so happy and grateful. I didnt realised the word "thank you" just came out from my mouth. Okay, that long-winded explaination does not make me any less weird.
Whatever it is, I have learn alot from work. Will talk more about this in later entries. Being around kids is fun. And im looking forward to more of such moments.