I taught my second class today, and implemented the whole point system thing like I planned... and it worked like a charm! Everytime I threatened to deduct points from then, the talkative and restless kids became more well behaved. And I got through the entire class without having to raise my voice or feeling like my head was going to explode trying to calm them down. To make it better, there was another new girl in the class today who was like every teacher's dream student. She was perfectly well behaved, kept completely quiet when I talked, paid attention to what I said (she even took notes! Aye carumba!) and answered the questions I asked in the class. In the end, the new girl, and another boy who was also quite well behaved, got the special take-home items I had prepared as my carrots-on-the-stick. I was teaching about the body, so everyone got a pieces of a cut-out skeleton to put together, but the special ones were glow-in-the-dark (which looks pretty cool in the dark, if I do say so myself. I had to paint on the glowy part myself by mixing glue with some glow-in-the-dark powder :Þ). So hopefully the other kids who didn't get the special item will be even more better behaved next time, so they can get something extra cool. :Þ Of course, I know it's not the best thing to do over the long run coz' it encourages the kids to behave only to get something in return, so once the hyper kids get more controllable, I'll won't do it anymore. I think it shouldn't take that long, coz' from what I can tell, all the kids want to learn, even the talkative ones.... just that I need to re-establish the importance of following the rules (which the previous instructors failed to do) and that they need to listen to and respect the teacher, which is me!
My little plan of giving the 'good' kids an extra special take home item did cause some concern with my supervisor, Dexter (yes, it reminds me of Dexter's Laboratory too. Dexter the Mad Scientist. Hehe :Þ). I think when he saw me doing up the extra nice skeletons and I told him I was giving them to the good students but I didn't tell him my whole point system thing, he probably assumed that I was just simply going to announce which kids I thought behaved well in the class and then give them the special items, which he didn't think was a good idea. BUT instead of pulling me aside and expressing his concerns, he went and sent out a email not just to me, but to the other instructors, saying something like "At Mad Science, we do not give special treatment to any particular kids. If any children are misbehaving, we should only try to encourage them to behave by praising them when they listen to us. If anyone has any problems with the class, they should let everyone know so we can discuss some solutions. Ablablabla..." And I was like "What the heck?". So of course, I had to reply to him and explain fully what I had planned to do, explaining the whole point system thing I was planning to do and that I believe that a little healthy competition helps to motivate the kids to obey the rules.... not that I was going to give 'special treatment' to any of the kids! And he didn't even reply to me, so it's rather annoying. I mean, my supervisor is a nice guy and we get along well.... and I suppose he didn't want to confront my personally coz' he didn't want to upset me or anything.... but I would've much preferred he talk to me personally about his concerns rather than send out such an email to EVERYONE. The other instructors knew what I was doing to, so I'm sure they would've figured out that Dexter was talking about me.... which of course gives everyone the wrong impression on what I was doing. *Sigh* Not that I'm mad lah, just a little bit peeved at how my supervisor handled the situation. But anyway, it's a minor issue lah. Better than he scolding me or something like some mean supervisors might've done. :Þ I'm still thankful that everyone in the company gets along with each other super well. My boss is still as nice as I thought (although he can really talk and talk and talk. Was in a one-to-one meeting with him this morning and it lasted more than an hour, I think!). And the boss pays for everyone's food when we go out for lunch. Woohoo! Free lunch!
Anyway, my boss has started piling more work on me to do. Apart from teaching, he wants to me get more involved in contacting more schools to start classes in, designing promotional vouchers and basically getting into the whole business aspect of the company. I have a gazillion and one things to learn. And when one of the instructors leave in about a month's time, which means I'm likely to take over her classes, I'll have to do more prepping for classes. So I need to learn QUICK. Bleh. I feel the stress levels rising.
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