Achievement of the day.

3 Cemerlang holds the most notorious year 3 kids and I teach them English and Science.
About 15 or so has to go for a special reading, writing and counting class and 1 of them was sent to the special kids class. They could not read and write well in their first language thus teaching, doing activities and understanding English are tough jobs for me and for them. Not to mention, class control is considered as the battle of the day, where you might end up broken and bruised. They speak foul language, had really weird cases, they fights, they lie, they ignore authority and they are kids being kids.

After months teaching these kids, I have been dreaded and hated Tuesdays where I have to teach them 4 periods straight, an hour of English, followed by an hour of Science. Tuesdays are the days I lost my voice, my temper and my charm (I think). I've been a marksman, trained by throwing marker pens to the spot exactly next to the kids to make sure they behave and pay attention. Some hit their songkok, some hit their pencil case. And at the start of each class, I'd arrange the empty marker pens on the table. So as to be a sign for the kids that I'm ready for their misbehaviourism. And its because of this class I started to carry along a short cane. Not that I cane them everyday, just for special cases such as fist fighting.

And kids being kids, they tend to get immuned by the cane-waving-action. They made a sport out of it by trying to evade it. They even raced to get the thrown marker pens and give it back to me. And all were accompanied by giggles and laughters and snickers pointed at me, for failing to hit them.

Truth be told, most of the kids in this class came from broken family, or ignored, or has a hard life at home. Parents work from dawn till midnite, dad in jail, mum passed away and so on and so on. Their immediate environment consists of law breakers, gangsters, drug addict and such. Thus the reason them being them. Monkey see, monkey do.

Today, after an hour long meeting, still tired from the 3 days camp that ended on Saturday, hungry and dreaded the fact that I have class until 2.30pm, before I get to eat something, I entered the class. Facial expression set to mean machine mode. I got them to stand up, asked for their home work given while I was away (yes, despite post-end-of-the-year-exam, we still have to teach so that the kids would be ready for the next year). Gave them a few minutes of lecture for not finishing up my homework, I told them that for the class today they need to finish up their activity book. And I added that those who does not do what I ask, they will receive the appropriate reward. I said that while waving my cane in the air.

And they started to do their work. Even the most notorious kid was doing it. He even work as a pair with his partner in crime to finish up the work.

And to my amazement, the kids were so behaving while I was in the next class for about 10 to 20 minutes. The noisiest class in the afternoon session was so silent that I thought something was wrong. You can only hear murmurs of discussion of the work.

And before the class ended, I applauded them. And during Science at the end of the day, I let them watch Ironman, broadcasted from my laptop in the computer lab.

Achievement of the day: 3 Cemerlang behaved!

p/s: The naughtiest kid in the class wants to watch Doraemon instead of the Ironman...