Work has been making me pretty pooped the past couple of weeks (almost) since I last blogged, so I haven't had the energy to blog. Of course, work had been pretty fun, and also busy. The first week, I just followed the other instructors around to their classes to see how they run their classes and also to help them out in the class. I pretty much got the idea of how it goes really fast, so I took on my own class on Monday this week. For some reason, my supervisor put me in charge of the first class I went to with him the first Monday I was there, and that class is the most haywire one of the ones I've seen. The one with the disruptive kids who just talk non-stop and play around. When I ran the class on Monday, they were pretty much the same. One of the boys would keep on trying to ask questions or say something to show he's a smarty pants, and another boy would come right up to me very now and then to poke around whatever experiment I was showing them. And then some boys would just be fooling around and not paying attention. Fortunately, there are some boys who actually do listen and behave ok. There was only one girl in the class, who was the best kid in the class coz' she just sat there quetly, listening and did what I told them to do exactly like I asked.
According to the other instructors, the reason why this particular class is bonkers is coz' before I joined, the other instructors who took the class just didn't control them properly or did really clown-like things to amuse the kids, so they didn't respect the instructor. :Þ I suppose they played the 'MAD scientist' to the tee.... but it didn't help at all in disciplining them. Sure, a class has got to be fun, but not fun to the extent that the kids do whatever they want and don't listen to the teacher! There also used to be some girls in the class who were, in the words of another instructor, quite 'bitchy' because they used a lot of swear words and curses on the instructors and just refused to do anything the instructor told them to do. Thank God they decided not to join this term when I'm around, or else I'd just scream. But the nutty boys are still around, so now I'm left with the job of trying to undo the damage left by my predecessors. Oh joy. Well, the good thing is at least the kids do listen to what I'm teaching, even though they just can't stop talking. The thing is trying to get them to stop talking and disrupting what I'm teaching, coz' it wastes time and disturbs the kids who actually are paying good attention and behaving themselves. So I'm thinking of using a point system to try and get the little rascals under control. I'll give all of them 100 points at the beginning of class, and minus points for bad behaviour, or add points for good behaviour. And to make sure they pay attention, I'll give them extra points for answering questions at the end of class. And whoever gets the most points gets something extra special. They're supposed to get an item to take home after every class, so I'm thinking I just do up one of whatever item it is for each class extra nice and use that as the carrot on the stick. Gotta make it really good though, coz' these rich kids would probably have high standards. Ack, that's the thing with public school kids.
Well, other than that, work has been mostly good. My colleagues and I get along super well. We all joke around quite a lot, and they are so kind to give me snacks to eat every now and then. :D My boss hasn't been around since I joined, coz' he was away running other businesses and on some business trips. But tomorrow he's coming to office, so everyone cleaned up today to make the office look more presentable (coz' usually it's a pigsty. :Þ)
The thing I also like about the job is getting to let my creative juices out... last week we had to make some pinatas for kids' birthday parties! It's actually quite simple...just slap on two layers of some wet newspaper pieces on an inflated balloon til it's covered, let it dry off, then cover with white paper and decorate however you like. I made a ladybird pinata, which looked pretty cute if I do say so myself. Once it's sealed up with goodies, I'll get a pic of it taken to keep. :D Too bad my masterpiece will be whacked up by some kid someday soon. *Sigh*
Ok, I gotta get to bed. Got to work tomorrow!
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