The great & the not-so great (un)expectations.. the lament of a teacher newbie

Ever wonder how often things that actually happen in life turn out to be those that you least expect? Take for instance, my moving to Selangor... okay, that was expected,. But what I certainly did not expect was to end up teaching (temporarily) in a chinese primary school, just a 10-minute walking distance from my new 'home' in Selangor.

I also did not expect the huge bombshell I got upon the first day of reporting for duty at the school. When I mean HUGE.. I really mean HUGE.. I was given the wrong timetable 2 times by the school, then got a terrible scolding from the PK for something that was her fault, then was asked to teach a set of 'rojak' subjects- Science, PJK, Music, Moral, Kajian Tempatan and etc... almost everything except English and BM!

Then, there were also those students who thought that climbing up classroom door railings, screaming, making monkey noises and pinching other students during lessons were... fun! Thank God that didn't last long... cos 2 weeks after that, I was moved to the afternoon session where I finally got to teach- ENGLISH & BM! Hurray!

Just when things seemed settled for a while, three little troublemakers came into the scene. At first, all they did were to argue with me, called me names, used curse words, did crazy antics and and kacau the other students a bit.. then they turned to hardcore punching and bullying. A few times their victims ended up with a swollen nose, slight bleeding on the head etc. Things were quite bad- I'm not kidding! And often I wonder, what would these kids turn into when they become adults, considering they could do the things they did at the age of 9!

It saddens me that despite trying any means I could to discipline them, there wasn't much improvement. What's worse was that their antics stopped me from teaching effectively, and the ones who really suffered were their classmates who wanted to learn. I guess all I can do to really help them is to pray- God's power is the only thing that can change them.

Yet, despite all the 'torture' I received, I gradually ended up enjoying the time spent with most of my students- talking to them, listening to their stories, joking with them etc. And there were also those tender moments, esp when my students gave me a bagful of gifts (stationery and tit-bits) during the International Children's Day Celebration. Yes, there will always be those times when entering classes seemed a pain and a chore, but I think I'll really miss them when I finally leave for Johor in 2 weeks time. Oh well!