Classroom Management

In the name of Allah, The Most Gracious, The Most Merciful
Assalamualaikum

Title: Teaching ain't easy!

I think I almost died from teaching today. Primary school students apparently, they're just too hard for me to handle! There were 23 of them in all; 13 boys, & 10 girls. I took a Primary 2 Kids aLIVE class just now, and boy oh boy were they an extremely active lot! I wouldn't call them naughty for they are afterall, just children. The thing that amuses me about them is that, whoa, they just love to talk a lotttt! & I often would have to tell them to keep their voices down.

For a second, they will go quiet for a bit and will start using their indoor voices to communicate with their friends. Then, at less than 5 minutes later, the class would become noisy again & almost everyone would be talking sooo loudly. I was like: Hey, hey there's another class next door, be quiet! But that didn't work. So that was it I thought. It's time that I show them the 'ugly side' of Teacher Su.

The 'ugly side' of me, was finally revealed while I was conducting a little game with them. They were given 15 minutes too memorise the 25 different names of the Prophet and then everyone will have the chance to come up to the whiteboard, and write down as many names that they could remember on the whiteboard, within a time frame of 3 minutes. At any one time, only 1 girl representative and 1 boy representative would be allowed to participate in the game. I thought that my instructions was clear.

We were only into round 3 of our game, when the class started to get really noisy. I got Boy A and Girl A, to participate in round 3. Time was running out for the participants and both participants could not think of any more names. Cheers from the boys came something like: " Quick! Faster lah, boys must win! Girls are losers! Hahahahaha! "

The girls were of course unsastisfied because they wanted to win. So they left their seats and went over to the whiteboard and whispered the answers to Girl A. The boys went like: " Eh teacher not fair! Like that, we also can help Boy A! "

Likewise, the boys left their seats, went to the whiteboard and whispered the answers to Boy A. I was taken aback by the chaos. Look at the image you see above, and you'll get what I mean. Haha! Oh man, what am I going to do? That was it I thought. Time to show them the 'ugly side' of me.

So I had to yell at them: " Ya Allah! Didn't I tell you to be quiettttttttttttt?! Hurry and go back to your seatssssss before I send you out of my class! You want to continue making noise? Then fine, GAME'S OVER!  " 
& then bam, a boy's bag fell to the floor. LOL. All of them scurried back to their seats and all eyes were on me. I had wanted to burst out laughing, looking at their innocent faces. But I kind of liked the look of guilt on their faces. It was really very cute! Then I talked things out with them nicely, and they apologised to me after that. Aww, it was sweet, I can cry!

I had to end the game though, because I realised that this isn't going to benefit them in anyway. So I sent them for a 15 minutes recess break. As usual, they go to the canteen to purchase food, come back in, and we had a little chit-chat session. The boys were all over the place in the mosque, so I left them be.

The girls, they were all crowding around my teachers table with breads and biscuits in hands. I scanned around. One of them was playing with my newly-bought spongebob squarepants keychain. Another was messing with my laptop cover. Andddd, one of them was playing with my handphone cover. Allah, for a moment I was like: ohmygawdddddddddddddddd.

So I told them firmly to stay away from my table, and go back to their seats. They giggled, but they did go back to their seats thankfully enough. When things were under control, I started a conversation with them; asking about their SA2 results etc etc.

Then one girl said: 
Teacher, I like you because you are so pretty-full. *giggles*

LOL. I had wanted to laugh at that. I think she meant beautiful. But she spelt it as pretty-full. So cute!

Another girl then came over to me:
Teacher, I like your hands because they look like Chinese hands. You see, you see my hands like Malay hands. My friend right, she is Malay you know. But her hands is like Indian hands!

I was like whaaaaaat? Just how more innocent can they get? Haha!

But amidst all that, there was this one little boy that caught my attention. I think he's an indian muslim. He doesn't socialise well, and doesn't talk much. He was very small, short, and petite in size. I don't know why, but I just empathise him. I think he could sense my empathy for him because while I was talking to the girls, he came up to me and said:

" Teacher, last Wednesday I went to the stadium with my sister at Jalan Besar. "

If it was a 17 years old guy telling something like that to me randomly out of the blue, I'll be like: Err, okay. So what?  But, this coming from an 8 years old boy, really shows that he needs attention. I turned over to him, smiled and asked him what he was doing at the stadium etc. & I don't know why but my heart just goes out to him somehow. He's like neglected, but I dare not make any assumptions.

At 10:45am, I was tasked to assist an ustazah in an Iqra' class for the 5-6year old kiddos. Ahah, I was looking forward to this period because I can finally put my skills in Early Childhood into practise! I consider this as a pre-industrial attachment for me. There were about 15 of them in class. I took the girls. The other Ustazah took the boys, thankfully enough.  & then before I realised it, it was already 11.45am, time to go home. It was a lot more easier to handle this class, than compared to the previous because I was better trained at dealing with children at this age.

At the end of the day, I realised that I work better with teenagers. Teaching Teens aLIVE was so much more easier for me to teach than compared to Kids aLIVE. In Teens aLIVE, I could relate to my students easier because I am a teenager myself. In Kids aLIVE, I guess I have to be a little more firm with them. & oh but of course, I work best when it comes to teaching little children! <3

Nonetheless, this had been an excellent form of opportunity for me to develop my teaching skills. I am only seventeen afterall and there is still so many things that I've yet to learn! Sigh. Let me tell you one thing. Teaching apparently, is not an easy task afterall! But since I've already landed myself in the teaching industry, I might as well just make full use of this opportunity, to be the best teacher that I can be, insyaAllah!