How scary...

Quoted from: http://singcitizen.com/portal/2002/08/

Reminds me of my slightly traumatic experience while relief teaching in 2005...

The day starts at 7.20am. It is the morning assembly and some students are fidgeting while the flag raising ceremony is being observed. The vice-principal has noticed this and makes a point to speak on this after the ceremony. A routine hair-and-attire check is carried out before the students can sit on the parade square for the morning reading session.
Some students start to talk among themselves and the teacher makes them stand up and keep standing. Some others forget to bring their reading material or are lost in their thoughts. The teacher attends to them.

At 7.50am, the teacher follows the class to the classroom where the morning greetings are exchanged and the students settle into their chairs. The first lesson of the day starts. It’s Monday today - a lucky day for teachers because the students are too tired from a weekend of play to fool around. They need some hours to wake out of their lethargy. By mid-morning the teacher’s luck will wear off as the students resume their normal self. Some students are lost in dreamland but as long they they do not disturb the peace in the class, the teacher keeps mum.

It’s only the first period and the students are already taking turns to go to the toilet. They like to go in groups but are restricted to only two students at any one time. The teacher passes to each of them an EXCUSE card which they clip to their shirt pocket.
It’s been ten minutes and these students have yet to return from the toilet. Some others want to visit the toilet but the teacher says to wait till the earlier two return. They finally return five minutes later. Their hair is gelled into spikes which vaguely resemble durian spikes but black ones lah. The teacher has no time to deal with their spiky hairdo as the teacher needs to rush to the next class - there are four consecutive classroom periods before the teacher gets to rest.

The teacher goes into the next class - a secondary four normal academic class. It’s prelim exam this week and some of the students are not at all bothered about the exam. It takes some work before the teacher can get the students to become quiet. There are four repeat students in the class and they are the ones who talk and talk and talk, taking no notice of the teacher. The teacher gives them a pep talk but to no avail. The teacher gets the foursome to stand in the corridor so the class will be quieter. At the end of the two-period lesson, the teacher collects the written work - only about 20 students hand in the work out of a class of 40. The teacher makes it a point to talk to the class’s form teacher about the students’ lackadaisical attitude.

The fourth period is spent in a secondary 3 normal technical class. It’s only mid-morning and the students in this class are restless. Some of them walk around the class much to the chagrin of the teacher who has some trouble keeping a rein on them. Others chat loudly; some shout across the room to other classmates. A few have removed rubber tube protectors from their chairs and are playing with them. One uses these tubes to drum on the desk. The teacher has been spending the last three periods in other normal academic classes and needs to conserve some strength for the rest of the morning so the teacher leaves them alone. There’s too many of these hyperactive chaps for the teacher to handle. It’s a normal technical class, the teacher thinks aloud - no point getting the vice-principal or principal to cane them. They have been caned many times already and think of it as only a slight itch. It always happens that these students are back to their usual nonsense within fifteen minutes of the caning. The period ends.

Ah! A free period at last! Back to the air-conditioned Staff Room to grab a bite and a much needed rest.

The sixth and seventh periods are spent in a secondary 4 normal academic class. A student takes a pot shot at the teacher using a paper bullet. The teacher - alert from years of teaching in a normal academic class - sees him in the act but pretends not to notice. The boy hurls another paper bullet at the back of the teacher; his classmates laugh. The boy basks in the limelight and takes another potshot but the teacher has decided enough is enough and turns around in time to catch the student in the act. The teacher tells the class chairman to keep the class quiet. The teacher tells the culprit to follow along to the principal’s office. The boy pleads ignorance of what he has done. The principal listens to the teacher’s and the boy’s accounts and then canes the boy after he finally admits to the misdeed. The teacher returns to the class to continue the lesson.

It’s the eighth period of the day and this period is spent in a secondary 3 express class but this class is the tail end of the express classes in the school. The students are rowdy and inattentive. Several shoot paper bullets at one another. This year, paper bullets seem to be in vogue at school, along with spiky hairdo and The Dog pencil cases. The teacher is too tired out to go after the errant students. The teacher informs the form teacher about the paper-bullet problem back at the Staff Room when the period ends.

The ninth period is a free period. The teacher is in the Teachers’ Rest Room reading the newspapers. A teacher comes up to him saying a parent is outside wishing to speak to him. The teacher goes out into the corridor. The parents of the student whom the teacher had sent for caning are there with the student. The father of the boy says his son has been suspended from school for a day and wishes to find out what has happened. The teacher asks the boy to speak first. The boy says he actually was aiming at his classmates but the paper bullet missed its mark and hit the teacher. The boy says he shot at his classmates because they had shot at him. The teacher tells his side of the story. The teacher had seen the boy shoot paper bullets at the teacher but didn’t want to blow up the matter.
However, the boy was apparently enjoying the attention of his classmates and the teacher had to catch him red-handed. Luckily, the boy’s father is supportive of the teacher and rebukes his son for his errant behaviour. The teacher tells the boy’s parents not to worry as the teacher will speak to the principal the next day if the principal wants to take further action.

The eleventh period is spent in the school hall. It’s Monday assembly. The students are treated to a mime display by a professional drama group. The teacher is a form teacher to a secondary 1 express class and sits next to the class in the hall. The express class is a world away from the normal academic classes the teacher has been to today. Unfortunately the teacher doesn’t have any periods with this class.

The afternoon is spent marking the students’ written work and planning the next day’s work.

A fresh reminder of the challenges I would have to face soon...