Attitude

It's amazing what attitude can do for you. I've just taught my last lesson in school, and this fact has impressed itself on me yet again, with the rift between the good and bad classes.

Why is one class good and the other worse? It's not because they're such pros in the English language; in fact, the "worse" class has some more proficient users of English than the "better" class. It's their attitude that makes them a joy to teach, and makes learning a joy for them too. The more able (and some of the less able ones as well) students in the "worse" class thinks everything is boring, or that a replacement teacher can be fooled around with, and their attitude shows it - they talk (non-stop! who in their right mind can talk for 40 minutes straight, or even the whole morning, 5 days a week?), they walk around, they raise a ruckus, etc. And the poorer students who actually need and may want to learn are left in the lurch. The teacher ends up walking out with raised blood and intracranial pressure.

So, you have 1 teacher, 2 different classes. Quiet, obedient and receptive class = receptive, lively and fun teacher; noisy, unco-operative and wild class = frazzled, stressed and un-fun teacher. And as I was teaching Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, I found myself also with two different personalities, except it didn't take a potion, but a certain class, to transform me.

Yet in between all the transforming and lesson plans, I had some kind of fun - helping out with the Musical Night, hearing old-soldier stories from the veteran teacher opposite, eavesdropping on the lady teachers laughing and talking about their classes and lives, talking with my magnificent side-neighbour and fellow Form 3 English teacher as well as the two other replacement teachers there at the same time. Also the cheap food laid out for the teachers every morning - every day a different snack - prawn fritters, apam balik, pulut panggang, curry puffs, banana fritters, etc., with yummy smells just permeating the air in the staffroom, enticing you to buy and eat. Marking books is low on the memory list though, as with shouting and using stern body language and tone of voice to co-erce students into doing work.

At the end of it, would I do it again? Perhaps I would, but not this year. I also think I'm more of a small group teacher, rather than a 40-odd student class

Meanwhile, I've got some great momentos of my time as a teacher, courtesy of my favourite class, who have outdone themselves with these:

There are two classes of kids: those who will do well, and those who will do well if... The kind enthusiastic students of the above class are the former group. They will be remembered.