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Thursday, April 27, 2006

These kids need a SHRINK!

It was during the Moral class. Out of the 18 students, 5 of them are girls and the remaining numbers are the amount of mixed hooligans and civilised young lads that I have to bear with in the class.

Things started off fine as the students slowly creep in. I managed to shout out some announcement regarding the previous test results and asking them to open up their books to discuss a passage. That took me a lot of screaming to get them to calm down and to literally sit down. The girls are to be complemented on their behaved demeanor but not the boys though. Few of the boys brought no books and it took me sometime to kindly coerce them to share books with their friends and write down the answers in a piece of paper.

Later two boys came in after being called out for some counsellings session with thier class teacher. Upon arriving in the class and in a mere split second, a cry broke out at the back of the class. Student A started crying while hitting some punches to student D and they started screaming. It turned out that, D tried to steal A's shaker mechanic pencil and even have the guts to say A stole it from him. As the supposedly only sensible adult at that time, I acted like a judge. "Both of you keep quiet and see me after class." Grabbed the pencil and walked to the front of the class and tried to resume the already paused lesson.

Ya di ya ya di ya...then came the teacher cum referee moment!

Student K and student N were fussing about who should be doing the presentation in the group. At first it was just a face to face shout at each other face kind of fight. In the next second, came the shove me and shove you part. Later, the teacher who happened to be yours truly intervened and tried to stop to whole chaos before it gotten any worse. At first I really had no idea on how to handle this two young guys. You want to know why?

Let me vividly try to picture you Student K physical being. He is slightly taller than I am and probably weigh three times more than I am. He is an obese 11 year old kid and has some anger management problem to deal with. On the other hand, Student N is just a normal ,tiny 11 year old kid. I presume him as normal!

So just imagine it, I was putting myself in between these furious monsters. I had nothing to worry about with Student N. My constant worries was with Student K. There I was, standing like a pathetic referee trying to break a fight. I tried to spread my two hands at my side. Supposedly that will separate the two from futher bashing one another. Student K was seriously out of control. He did not give a fuck that I was there in the middle of them trying to break them loose. Meanwhile student N was already ready to give in and gave up the fight.

Student K kept on pounding the other fellow while I was trying to miss some of the heavy punches from him. After what seemed like a minute of me screaming to Student K to stop whatever he was doing, the fight ended. I managed to break them loose with a price of a slight punch from Student K. Ouch!!!

I do not know if I have done a pretty darn good job or not. I guess I really suck at it. I should have been more stern with the kids. But how am I suppose to do that when these are the possibilities coming ahead of me if I could have whacked both students and screamed curses at them:
- Student K might beat me up instead of simply punching Student N (remember the size of the fella)
- K might turned into a green hulk and put on a fit of rage by trashing the metal chairs at me
- I might experienced some post-fight revenge like car scratches or God knows what these kids can do nowadays.

In the end of the day, I thought that I had done a pretty not bad job. Hahaha! It was difficult and I had no clue on how to handle them at all. Man, I was exhausted by the time class ended. Thank God recess was next. I ate and drank to fuel up on those lost calories. Who bloody says teaching is easy?

By the way, K definitely needs to see a shrink like ASAP. If only I could tell that to his parents. He definitely has problem to control his emotions. One second he is a chirpy, happy kid while the next he just turns into a rage machine. He is a grumpy kid and he needs help. I could imagine that if his behavior continues until his teenage life, he has big possibilities to turn into a hardheaded mobster! That's bad!

Wednesday, April 26, 2006

These kids need a SHRINK!

It was during the Moral class. Out of the 18 students, 5 of them are girls and the remaining numbers are the amount of mixed hooligans and civilised young lads that I have to bear with in the class.

Things started off fine as the students slowly creep in. I managed to shout out some announcement regarding the previous test results and asking them to open up their books to discuss a passage. That took me a lot of screaming to get them to calm down and to literally sit down. The girls are to be complemented on their behaved demeanor but not the boys though. Few of the boys brought no books and it took me sometime to kindly coerce them to share books with their friends and write down the answers in a piece of paper.

Later two boys came in after being called out for some counsellings session with thier class teacher. Upon arriving in the class and in a mere split second, a cry broke out at the back of the class. Student A started crying while hitting some punches to student D and they started screaming. It turned out that, D tried to steal A's shaker mechanic pencil and even have the guts to say A stole it from him. As the supposedly only sensible adult at that time, I acted like a judge. "Both of you keep quiet and see me after class." Grabbed the pencil and walked to the front of the class and tried to resume the already paused lesson.

Ya di ya ya di ya...then came the teacher cum referee moment!

Student K and student N were fussing about who should be doing the presentation in the group. At first it was just a face to face shout at each other face kind of fight. In the next second, came the shove me and shove you part. Later, the teacher who happened to be yours truly intervened and tried to stop to whole chaos before it gotten any worse. At first I really had no idea on how to handle this two young guys. You want to know why?

Let me vividly try to picture you Student K physical being. He is slightly taller than I am and probably weigh three times more than I am. He is an obese 11 year old kid and has some anger management problem to deal with. On the other hand, Student N is just a normal ,tiny 11 year old kid. I presume him as normal!

So just imagine it, I was putting myself in between these furious monsters. I had nothing to worry about with Student N. My constant worries was with Student K. There I was, standing like a pathetic referee trying to break a fight. I tried to spread my two hands at my side. Supposedly that will separate the two from futher bashing one another. Student K was seriously out of control. He did not give a fuck that I was there in the middle of them trying to break them loose. Meanwhile student N was already ready to give in and gave up the fight.

Student K kept on pounding the other fellow while I was trying to miss some of the heavy punches from him. After what seemed like a minute of me screaming to Student K to stop whatever he was doing, the fight ended. I managed to break them loose with a price of a slight punch from Student K. Ouch!!!

I do not know if I have done a pretty darn good job or not. I guess I really suck at it. I should have been more stern with the kids. But how am I suppose to do that when these are the possibilities coming ahead of me if I could have whacked both students and screamed curses at them:
- Student K might beat me up instead of simply punching Student N (remember the size of the fella)
- K might turned into a green hulk and put on a fit of rage by trashing the metal chairs at me
- I might experienced some post-fight revenge like car scratches or God knows what these kids can do nowadays.

In the end of the day, I thought that I had done a pretty not bad job. Hahaha! It was difficult and I had no clue on how to handle them at all. Man, I was exhausted by the time class ended. Thank God recess was next. I ate and drank to fuel up on those lost calories. Who bloody says teaching is easy?

By the way, K definitely needs to see a shrink like ASAP. If only I could tell that to his parents. He definitely has problem to control his emotions. One second he is a chirpy, happy kid while the next he just turns into a rage machine. He is a grumpy kid and he needs help. I could imagine that if his behavior continues until his teenage life, he has big possibilities to turn into a hardheaded mobster! That's bad!

Saturday, April 15, 2006

Maulud Nabi Celebration!

While the Christians are celebrating Good Friday today, the Muslims at my school had a Maulud Nabi celebration for the children. Officially the birth of the prophet falls on the 11th which was two days back.

I could not recall having to celebrate any Maulud Nabi celebration during my school days. Probably there were such celebrations held during those days, I just could not remember participating in any. Too bad!

The only thing I could vividly remember during those days was whenever it was a Good Friday. Sister Lucy would make a big fuss about it. Yes, I think she did fuss about it. Or did we have a public holiday back then during Good Friday? I studied in a Convent School so I must have had a holiday during Good Friday. Oh whatever. I just could not remember. It was not that it was such a big deal back then.

The point is, the whole celebration at school today was something new for me because I could not seem to remember celebrating any Maulud Nabi celebration during my school days. Hahaha.

On the other hand, these are my say for the things that happened today:

1. I was struggling to read the ceremony's phamplet which was written in Jawi. Ouch!!!
2. I remembered having to be forced to memorize Quranic verses during school days and having no idea what any of them meant. I could admit that I had only successfully remember a couple of verses up until today.
3. It is quite ridiculuos to have young children aged from 6-9 year old to wear the head scarfs.I have nothing against the wearing of a head scarfs and no doubt it will be a good practise for these young kids to start wearing one once they hit puberty. But still again, it is sickening to see this kids wearing them because they are told to wear them without knowing any prior reason to why they are wearing it and at the end of the day, most of them went back sweating their scarfs out. Talking about the outcome of the scarfs after those aggresive play and runs during recess.
4. Probably because the school is densely populated with Ustaz(s) and Ustazah(s), the whole celebration was a success . But, if I would have stayed throughout the whole ceremony, perhaps I will get disoriented on whether I am teaching at a Muslim religious school or am I teaching at a public inter races school. Haha.

... I do have a lot more to say on this issue but I guess it will be rather sensitive to talk it out loud.

Friday, April 14, 2006

Maulud Nabi Celebration!

While the Christians are celebrating Good Friday today, the Muslims at my school had a Maulud Nabi celebration for the children. Officially the birth of the prophet falls on the 11th which was two days back.

I could not recall having to celebrate any Maulud Nabi celebration during my school days. Probably there were such celebrations held during those days, I just could not remember participating in any. Too bad!

The only thing I could vividly remember during those days was whenever it was a Good Friday. Sister Lucy would make a big fuss about it. Yes, I think she did fuss about it. Or did we have a public holiday back then during Good Friday? I studied in a Convent School so I must have had a holiday during Good Friday. Oh whatever. I just could not remember. It was not that it was such a big deal back then.

The point is, the whole celebration at school today was something new for me because I could not seem to remember celebrating any Maulud Nabi celebration during my school days. Hahaha.

On the other hand, these are my say for the things that happened today:

1. I was struggling to read the ceremony's phamplet which was written in Jawi. Ouch!!!
2. I remembered having to be forced to memorize Quranic verses during school days and having no idea what any of them meant. I could admit that I had only successfully remember a couple of verses up until today.
3. It is quite ridiculuos to have young children aged from 6-9 year old to wear the head scarfs.I have nothing against the wearing of a head scarfs and no doubt it will be a good practise for these young kids to start wearing one once they hit puberty. But still again, it is sickening to see this kids wearing them because they are told to wear them without knowing any prior reason to why they are wearing it and at the end of the day, most of them went back sweating their scarfs out. Talking about the outcome of the scarfs after those aggresive play and runs during recess.
4. Probably because the school is densely populated with Ustaz(s) and Ustazah(s), the whole celebration was a success . But, if I would have stayed throughout the whole ceremony, perhaps I will get disoriented on whether I am teaching at a Muslim religious school or am I teaching at a public inter races school. Haha.

... I do have a lot more to say on this issue but I guess it will be rather sensitive to talk it out loud.

Thursday, April 06, 2006

A poem entitled "It hurts"

A very young boy wrote a piece of poem with the above title during the English Club. While the rest of the club members wrote poems on their mother, father, friend, teacher and etc, this particular young lad wrote something that truely comes deep from his heart.

The gist of the poem is something close to this:

The young 12 year old openly express his disappointment towards his father who is constanly busy with his work and obviously neglecting his role as a father to his young son. The kid mentions that it hurts so much that he does not see his father when he is at home. He even questions if the father actually ever loves him? He even wishes that his father could be like any other normal father who plays and spends some quality times with his sons. You know doing the father and son sort of things.

The young child fully understands that his father is a busy, working man and why at times he gets the occasional scoldings from his father. Despite all that, the child never stops to say that he loves his father no matter what. He also explains that it hurts for him to be alone most of the time and forever wishing that he will get the unconditional love from his beloved father. Being young, he never stops to hope.

While reciting the poem in front of the class, the young child was seen trying to hold back tears and was stuck at his words. It was a pretty emotional scene really. No doubt, I was touched by his words too. It is sad for a young child to experience that early in his childhood years.

The scenario eventually depicts the real-life parenting for our children. I wonder if any of the adults out there understand what is parenting and how to become a good parent in a whole? I doubt that the child's father actually realised that his child is hurt deep inside. They definately are having issues and I am guessing that the poor child is probably going to end up dreaming that he grows up with his father guiding him by his side.

Therefore, for all the future parents and of course you, the young adults out there, please learn some lesson from this story. This is not something I made up especially for this blog but this is something I experienced.

I am guessing that my teaching experience is getting more wicked and the children has taught me to realise and ponder on the little things that we always take for granted. So the next time a child tries to speak to you, do lend your ears and attention for a little while.

Wednesday, April 05, 2006

A poem entitled "It hurts"

A very young boy wrote a piece of poem with the above title during the English Club. While the rest of the club members wrote poems on their mother, father, friend, teacher and etc, this particular young lad wrote something that truely comes deep from his heart.

The gist of the poem is something close to this:

The young 12 year old openly express his disappointment towards his father who is constanly busy with his work and obviously neglecting his role as a father to his young son. The kid mentions that it hurts so much that he does not see his father when he is at home. He even questions if the father actually ever loves him? He even wishes that his father could be like any other normal father who plays and spends some quality times with his sons. You know doing the father and son sort of things.

The young child fully understands that his father is a busy, working man and why at times he gets the occasional scoldings from his father. Despite all that, the child never stops to say that he loves his father no matter what. He also explains that it hurts for him to be alone most of the time and forever wishing that he will get the unconditional love from his beloved father. Being young, he never stops to hope.

While reciting the poem in front of the class, the young child was seen trying to hold back tears and was stuck at his words. It was a pretty emotional scene really. No doubt, I was touched by his words too. It is sad for a young child to experience that early in his childhood years.

The scenario eventually depicts the real-life parenting for our children. I wonder if any of the adults out there understand what is parenting and how to become a good parent in a whole? I doubt that the child's father actually realised that his child is hurt deep inside. They definately are having issues and I am guessing that the poor child is probably going to end up dreaming that he grows up with his father guiding him by his side.

Therefore, for all the future parents and of course you, the young adults out there, please learn some lesson from this story. This is not something I made up especially for this blog but this is something I experienced.

I am guessing that my teaching experience is getting more wicked and the children has taught me to realise and ponder on the little things that we always take for granted. So the next time a child tries to speak to you, do lend your ears and attention for a little while.

Monday, April 03, 2006

Innocent souls!

Kids can be equally charming and monstrous or probably plain cheeky at the same time. Have a look at this scenario:

"Teacher, I want to go back to my class. I wanna take my ruler," said student A. The teacher answers, "No! I have a ruler. You can use mine."

In this case here, student A is trying to be a smart Aleck. He is trying to escape the class and would love to enjoy some loiter moments around the school instead of being in the classroom. As always, the teacher is always smarter. She denies permission, thus the student stays in the classroom.

Later during lesson, the teacher saw something in the student A pencil case. Guess what?? It is the ruler.

"Hey, you lied to me! You told me you left your ruler in the class. So what is this?" said the teacher while glaring with her two big eyes at the poor kid. "Oh, teacher! I'm sorry. It's here. I didn't see it before." Yeah sure. It is obvious that he is trying to cover up for the lies he made earlier and being a smart teacher, the teacher never believes the kid and straight forwardly tell the kid ,"You lied to me!".

After close to an hour of lesson, the teacher is standing behind student A trying to teach another kid on the exercises. Student A wanted to pull his chair using his good right foot but unknowingly kicked the teacher instead. Ouch!!!

"Hey, you just kicked me!" said the teacher.
"Sorry teacher. I wanted to pull my chair forward. Sorry teacher "said student A.
"Oh, you lied to me earlier and now you kick me!"

Student A never stops to apologise soon after. The teacher accepted the apology and said it is okay.

12.55pm,

The bell rings. Class is over. Kids are supposedly walking two by two in a fashionly order, rushing towards home. The young teacher is caught in the middle of the rushing kids. One kid stopped by the teacher and stuck a tiny hand to salam and sniff the teacher's hand. A few others follow suit. Surprisingly, student A suddenly appeared out of nowhere and greet the teacher too. He begins to salam by pulling the teacher's hand close to his oily face and sniffed at the dusty hands of the teacher. With a big smile he said goodbye and flee away in excitement to get home. The young teacher is left in awe. Never before she has been greeted and appreciated in such a way, what more the kid who salam was an Indian.

At the end of the day, the young teacher went home a happier person. The kids have definately touched her heart today.

Innocent souls!

Kids can be equally charming and monstrous or probably plain cheeky at the same time. Have a look at this scenario:

"Teacher, I want to go back to my class. I wanna take my ruler," said student A. The teacher answers, "No! I have a ruler. You can use mine."

In this case here, student A is trying to be a smart Aleck. He is trying to escape the class and would love to enjoy some loiter moments around the school instead of being in the classroom. As always, the teacher is always smarter. She denies permission, thus the student stays in the classroom.

Later during lesson, the teacher saw something in the student A pencil case. Guess what?? It is the ruler.

"Hey, you lied to me! You told me you left your ruler in the class. So what is this?" said the teacher while glaring with her two big eyes at the poor kid. "Oh, teacher! I'm sorry. It's here. I didn't see it before." Yeah sure. It is obvious that he is trying to cover up for the lies he made earlier and being a smart teacher, the teacher never believes the kid and straight forwardly tell the kid ,"You lied to me!".

After close to an hour of lesson, the teacher is standing behind student A trying to teach another kid on the exercises. Student A wanted to pull his chair using his good right foot but unknowingly kicked the teacher instead. Ouch!!!

"Hey, you just kicked me!" said the teacher.
"Sorry teacher. I wanted to pull my chair forward. Sorry teacher "said student A.
"Oh, you lied to me earlier and now you kick me!"

Student A never stops to apologise soon after. The teacher accepted the apology and said it is okay.

12.55pm,

The bell rings. Class is over. Kids are supposedly walking two by two in a fashionly order, rushing towards home. The young teacher is caught in the middle of the rushing kids. One kid stopped by the teacher and stuck a tiny hand to salam and sniff the teacher's hand. A few others follow suit. Surprisingly, student A suddenly appeared out of nowhere and greet the teacher too. He begins to salam by pulling the teacher's hand close to his oily face and sniffed at the dusty hands of the teacher. With a big smile he said goodbye and flee away in excitement to get home. The young teacher is left in awe. Never before she has been greeted and appreciated in such a way, what more the kid who salam was an Indian.

At the end of the day, the young teacher went home a happier person. The kids have definately touched her heart today.