1st week at school - lessons from the classroom

So, I didn't miss my calling to be a teacher, because there never was one. For that, I'm glad. :) Facing up to a whole class of relative kids is a whole lot more daunting than I ever thought it would be, and if that's 1st week jitters, well, I never want to go through it again!

Monday was okay, I think because they were getting used to the idea that they had a substitute teacher, and they couldn't think of things to do to me. (Actually, I think the whole week they were thinking, until Friday, but by then I was a bit more certain of my position as a teacher, thank goodness!) Anyway, Tuesday to Thursday were not-so-good, ending with a rather horrible 1+ hours with 10 incorrigible students who could hardly speak English, and didn't really want to, I might add. The upside of that class is, once I get something that they're comfortable doing without making noise, I think I can start learning some Chinese from them - all of them, even the non-Chinese, speak fluent Chinese, and I'm quite embarrassed by my lack of skill in that language when talking to them. The thing is, they're smart, but they don't apply themselves very much. They much rather stick with Chinese or their bahasa pasar than learn a language they won't use, from a teacher who can't control them. They'll just walk in and out of class, talk loudly among themselves when they have work to do, and answer you back quite rudely. At least some of them have the decency to ask for a hall pass when they do go out, supposedly to the toilet but really to wherever that's more interesting than in the classroom. The worst thing is that I have my double period with them just before school ends, so by the time they're 1/4 way through the 2nd period, they're already restless and asking to go home. ARGH! My challenge for this class is to make the classroom interesting, but with varied characters, I don't see how I can do that, at least not now. I'd be ever so willing to take suggestions though! :)

I have two other classes besides that class of 10 - a good class who actually gives me face (well, most of them anyway) even when I teach them things that are so very below their level; and an okay class of mixed abilities, which has quite a few noisy characters, and who nearly got the whiplash of my anger Friday noon (another last class of the schoolday, it figures :P) when I had finished teaching and they weren't doing to work they were supposed to do. Rather, they were monkeying around and getting ready to go back. Thank goodness there were only 5 minutes left on the clock, but boy were they 5 excruciating minutes! Lesson: never ever finish lesson early if you have the last period of the day; always time yourself to finish on the dot. That way, they don't get noisy on you.

Well, I haven't talked much about Friday, but that's because it was a good day. No Troubling 10 class, and I was going to teach Literature! They're doing Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and it was an engrossing book to read, even in abridged form. Unfortunately, the good class didn't bring their book (thanks to me: I have to remind them earlier next time) so we did boring grammar, which they all knew already anyhow. Literature with the mixed-bag class was good, because they were utterly silent for once in my class, while I was busy shooting my mouth off talking about the contrasts Robert Louis Stevenson made in the book about good and evil, in particular chapter 6. I'd even hazard to say, that they were interested in what new things I had to impart to them!! Okay, that's maybe going a bit too far, but teaching Literature is fun! :) That's the bookworm in me speaking, and proud of it!

So after one week, I've had plenty of experiences, and a whopping dose of renewed respect to those teachers out there!! Especially those I've known, who put up with my class and its share of mischievous monkeys (no names here of course!) and made learning such a joy! Imagine, if in 1 week I have such new-found respect, what that sentiment would be in 6!

Teachers, I salute you!

Next week will be a cruncher! There'll be:

• teaching in the morning (another thing I didn't mention above is the early mornings - 615 am! I'm not used to that anymore :P)
• orchestra at night, because there's this classical guitarist, Peter Korbel of Germany, coming to give a recital with the SONS string orchestra, and his recital is on Wednesday. I love all the pieces we're playing - fast lively pieces suited to guitar, except one, called Rocko Reisen (translated it means Rocko's Travels). The guitarist himself wrote it, and I don't think very highly of it. It's got small bars with a rest and a pause over it, with the word "text" scribbled below it, and we're supposed to ignore it when playing without him. That would be fine, just that it disrupts the whole flow of the piece. What's more, the piece has as many time signature and key changes as the syllables in Supercalifragelisticespiellidocious (that's a lot) AND it seems to be a mish-mash of little nursery songs and other such stuff, eg. Lightly Row, Greensleeves, and I don't know what else. Hopefully it'll be better when he comes in with this guitar-picking and what-not text stuff, on Monday. But it's a lark being back in orchestra, now in 1st violin position and having a rough but fun time with it! Anyway, anyone in Kuching this Wednesday with free time after 8 pm can get free tickets for the concert from me.
• writing up a presentation for the NHAM conference in KL. Yup, I'm going to KL, 31 March to 2 April! I'll be quite busy in the conference - want to milk it for the supposed rm450 its worth (!!!), but definitely will have time to meet up with friends, say goodbye to some, listen to some jazz, kick some football around... Hopefully the presentation will go great, and my plans go smoothly for this KL trip!

Anyway, that's all from me for now. Remember to do the survey in the entry below, yeah!