Day 19: A Gruelling Three Hours

Today is perhaps the most difficult day as a teacher so far. Mr Tan is on leave, so that leaves me with the rascals of 2A1. Alone. Add this to the fact that immediately after the 3 period nightmare with them, I had to teach one of the best class in English for 2 more periods. I was praying for mental energy to last the entire stretch of lessons. Nothing particularly makes sense here, but well, that's the work I had to do. And my friend and colleague remarked, "Hey, you have been preparing the lesson since last week!"

That was a very acute observation. Indeed I had... I had even gone as far as practising how to project my voice and reading several portions so I do not stumble in class. That was the extent in preparing to teach the best class. I had to make the lesson interesting (since I was given very boring topics that if I was still a student I would fall asleep) using powerpoint slides, take into account the time that I need to engage the students, which is always a constant struggle whether I'm preparing for school or preparing for bible studies, since I have an atrocious judgment of time. But all was well, since I usually over-prepare than under-prepare.

And indeed thank God all was well today. 2A1 was noisy as usual, and utterly disruptive. I think I scolded them like 30 times over the one-and-a-half hour. I was very disappointed that I was unable to control the class, and most of them had shown no respect towards me despite my efforts. Somehow English to them was periods where they can play and have fun... though I was pleasantly surprised and encouraged by the minority who bothered to listen and participate in the lesson. And I told myself, for these few students, I will persevere on!

And so I was telling my colleague, that the Secondary Twos are the worst batch to teach. The Sec 1s would be scared of you since they are in a new environment and do not know what you could do to them; while the Sec 3s have outgrown their childishness and playfulness such that you could talk to them like young adults. The Sec 2s, unfortunately, are in the middle, not quite reaching that state of maturity yet, yet no longer as easily intimidated as before, and always trying to test how far they can break the rules and test our patience.

Back to that 3E class. I was very encouraged that they managed to participate well in my lesson, though it was a boring subject. Much of the interest came from my powerpoint slides, where there were humourous examples related to cooking, simply by using the names of the students in my class and deliberately using them as examples contary to their personalities. The result was hilarious. Miss Tan feedbacked that they enjoyed it. Yay! Thanks be to God!

So overall, today was a tiring - in fact the most exhausting day yet, yet also the most fulfilling day so far.