Kids are love!

For the whole of last week, I taught malay to 3 sets (1 set of P1 kids and 2 sets of P2 kids) of classes as a relief teacher. It was a really good experience, I'll say. The malay teacher was off to NIE and the school couldn't find a replacement on time. So they asked if i could relief for a week. I've always wanted to have a feel of having a class of my own and i thought this would be a great opportunity to really see if i would like to pursue teaching as career. So i accepted the offer. And boy, am i glad i did.

I could just go on and on about the week la. I've babbled about my experience to anyone who would listen. So far, no one have asked me to shut up so i take that as a license to keep talking.

Since taking up this science coordinator job, i've done a fair share of teaching via science enrichment programmes/workshops. But those are only one-time, 1.5 hours long lesson. And most of the time, the kids' teacher would be present to manage the class. so i just teach and that's it. but with relief teaching, i'll have to teach and manage the class all by myself. Not surprisingly, it was quite a challenge. but i've learnt to embrace challenges. And since i was taking 3 sets of classes, there were little breaks in between, which can be quite hectic for a disorganised person like me. So i always end up deciding what to teach just minutes before each lesson. It doesn't help that i have to teach both P1s and P2s so the lesson plan are always different for each set of classes.

Another challenge is my (lack of) competency in malay language. Embarrassingly, I'm aware that my grasp in the language is not strong. I've always managed an average B score in malay during primary and secondary school. So i have strong doubts at first in taking up this relief teaching duty. During that one week, i had to resort to consulting workmate, Umrah (whose malay is just wow), on certain malay term or work that im unsure of. There was this once where i even frantically sms my mum to ask her what "5 stone" is in malay (i was covering the topic on traditional games with the P2s). So teruk right. However, i do believe that my grasp in the language has somehow improved by the end of last week. How could it not right? I spoke in malay (almost) all the time during lesson.

The biggest challenge would probably be class management. Man, it's no easy feat managing a class of 7/8 year olds. I was already warned beforehand that the kids will get rowdy and that they'll usually test the patience and capability of a relief teacher, more so if she/he is young. So me being 20 yrs old, was pretty much a target. Through this experience, i realised that no one (not even kids) really takes me seriously when i try to be angry/fierce. Muhaini thinks it's because im too nice and kind-hearted. [Oh, yes. Ok, no more self-appreciation comments.] So whenever i screamed (or, more like raise my voice) for silence, it'll only last for at most 5 seconds. I was so pathetic in class management, that a few of the kids even came up to me to suggest how i can get the class quiet. But last few days was fine as i got the hang of things.

This relief teaching experience had its share of good and bad moments but i find myself shutting down the bad moments and magnifying the good ones. Like what kindergarten teacher, Nura, wrote in her blog "Ever since i started this line, i've went through tons of ups and downs. I don't really mind about the downs but the ups are truly valuable." Hear, hear! Though there was a particularly bad moment which happened on the 2nd day, i find myself forgetting about it as days went by. Instead, i remember all the good ones.

Like i've mentioned million of times, kids are simply adorable. The things they say and do always somehow cracked a smile on my face. Like when one of them purposely mispronounce my name a few times, and when they correct me on the spelling of a word, and when they ask me silly questions. Sometimes marking their workbooks also caused me to smile and giggle to myself. It makes marking rather enjoyable when it really is tedious. I realised i'm beginning to get attached to the kids when i start referring them as "my kids".

One interesting thing i'd like to share is that there is 2 sets of identical twins in one of the class i taught and another set of identical twin in another class. Gawd, they look so same! Duh, i did mention they are identical, did i. Within that 1 week, i fail to spot the difference between each set of twins. Even their classmates still seem rather confused. There was this once the class monitor wrote the name of one of the twin on the whiteboard as that twin was making quite alot of noise. then he was like " ehh..!" and walked over to that twin, peered at the name tag on that twin's shirt, walked back to the whiteboard, erase the name and wrote another name. Apparently, he initially wrote the name of the wrong twin.

Relief teaching was fun. In a way, i am glad to be back doing my original job - more relaxed. But i find myself missing relief teaching those kids a bit.
I miss picking them up to class.
I miss marking their work.
I miss hearing their excited voices when we had fun lessons.
But most of all, I miss MY kids. Boo.

Yes, i do still get to see them around school. But it's not the same as really being there in the same classroom and teaching them. Whatever it is, it's nice when my kids saw me around school, they smile and wave and said hi. That's always nice.

There's still so much to talk about, but if i say more, this entry would be ridiculously long. I think this experience is a validation of my interest in children and how much i'd love to have a career involving kids. However, im still unsure if teaching in primary school would be the right path for me. one, I cant even solve some p5 maths sum. It'll be real bad if i teach and not know how to solve a problem. two, i'm horrible in class management. three, i get too attached to kids too easily. which is not necessarily good as this could bring about bias treatment and i always believe teachers shouldn't be too emotionally-attached to their students.

I'm still keeping my options open and will research on career paths involving kids that i can pursue. In the meantime, i've decided to keep tabs on my experience working with kids in the beautiful purple notebook Hanis got me. Like what she said, the notebook could be used to "help keep tabs of the kids that destroy/enhance your life in school". Through writing about my experience, God willing, i believe it can help me in one way or another in my quest to have a career involving kids.





The Pretty Purple Notebook!



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Today, the school celebrated teachers day. The theme for this year is superheroes. Several teachers came dressed as superheroes. There were catwoman, supergirl, powerpuff girls, incredibles, zorro, wonder woman. There were even 3 harry potters and a transformer robot, though im unsure how that fits into the tag 'superheroes'. Pity wolverine and spiderman wasn't around. I kepo-ed and sit in a bit for the concert. Thruthfully, it was rather dull. Muhaini mentioned that children's day concert would be better as the teachers would be the one performing. So hope to see that come children's day celebration.



AND i received presents from two of my P2 kids. So sweet right. im not even teaching them anymore.



Later in the evening we had High Tea at a hotel. All school staff was invited. Alhamdulillah, the food was oh so awesome. Muhaini and me keep gushing about the food, especially the dessert. Great stuff.

So all in all, today was quite a fun day. Yayness.



Us at the high tea.

Labels: kids

SFQ 11:35 PM