Week 2 of teaching practice

Arrrggghhh...why is it so hard to teach Year 1 kids? *sigh* Yup, I'm teaching Year One Mathematics. Easy? Well, I'll give you RM 50 if you can make them just sit down quietly, listen to you for one hour and do their work without making the mistakes that you have just tried to clarify! RM 50 not enough? Imagine, I'm doing it for less than RM 20 a day!

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I don't know if it's just me or it happens with every Year 1 class, but kids sure do love to cry. No, they don't cry because of me. They just cry because they feel wronged or they were hit by their friends whom they just hit in the first place. I have been in the class 4 days now and I am still struggling to get them to understand how to find the difference between two numbers. The first day, everyone was quiet and listened to me but their homework was atrocious. The second day, they were listening but every now and then one or two kids will come to me to ask if they may drink water or go to the toilet. The third day, 3 kids were crying in the class because of abovementioned reasons while at least 8 of them came to ask me individually how to do a sum that I had just taught them and the others were busy asking for permission to drink water, colour their work, go to washroom etc.

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I finally lost my temper with them today when they still do not know how to find 2 numbers with a difference of 1. Even while I was scolding them, kids were still coming up to me to tell me that they haven't bought a magic book, they have a toothache/ sore throat/ stomachache, they have finished their work, they got a 'Good' written in their book (which I wrote, of course) etc. Kids? How can anyone remain sane with all these nonsense happening in class every day.

I was just telling my partner, Woon this morning that I wish I can be a student again and cry and beg my mother to allow me to stay home. School's no fun, especially when you are in Year 1 (whether you are the pupil or the teacher, trust me).

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Fortunately, my Year 4 English class is easier to handle. There are a few pupils who look arrogant enough that you just feel like kicking them out of your class, but most of them I think are glad that English is no longer a case of 'take out your books and copy these down' or 'open to page xx and do until page xxx'. But that doesn't mean that they would still do your work. I gave them a piece of my mind too this morning because some girls did not complete the simple task that I asked them to do.

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Yup, you can say that my blood pressure today must have gone up by a hundred points at least. Girls' school does not have discipline problem? I think where there are kids, there will be Trouble with a capital T. Ex-teachers of mine whom I bullied/ looked down upon, you have my respect now. So, please stop praying that I reap what I sowed! I believe in Karma already! Bless you!! ;)