Monday, March 30, 2009
42 Pandan Road (block and street name)
#100-107 (unit no.)
Singapore 243681 (postal district)
Dear Alan (salutation)
Today was like shit.
Thank God it's just the one class in the morning, then later an added class (science. thank God again) at the end of the day. I almost wanted to cry in the class. Okay, I'm exaggerating. But I still feel like shit. I handled 1C very badly today.
Okay, actually, just Darrel I think.
We were learning informal letter writing (which I find rather useless, because now there's email ANYWAY. If they need to learn anything, it's formal letter writing. But, oh well..) so I spent assembly time organising cutouts into sets so that they could put them together and paste them on a template in groups. Dana told me I had to go for assembly next time, when she came up later. *blush*
Organised them into groups, gave out the templates. Next time I
must remember to start off strict and then loosen up. There's no way one can start of relaxed and attempt to tighten up later.
Groups were rather nightmarish. Not
that bad, since it's 1C, but Joel Ong kept changing place (I think the only reason I let him get away with it was because he has an intelligent face, and he knows when to back down), as did Samuel and Chen Shun and oh a few others.
The problem was with Darrel and Peng Shu's group.
I like Peng Shu. He's quiet, hardworking, cute, obedient. Jia Jing was (rather understandably) pissed off with Darrel - she's supposed to sit beside him, but their tables are
always a table space apart, and he's always taking her bag and kicking her chair and whatnot. Not in the I-like-this-girl-I'm-teasing-her-to-get-her-attention way either. Hai. I get the impression in general that the class doesn't really like Darrel a lot (thankfully they don't hate him like anything, either).
Peng Shu just didn't like Darrel putting both hands flat on his desk and leaning over him. So he tried to get him to take his hands off. That was when I first got them to start their work. By the time I was collecting the work, it had somehow escalated into Darrel slamming Peng Shu's table and Peng Shu shouting at Darrel. It's not as bad as it sounds, actually - it'd just started when I came to break it up, so Peng Shu and Darrel hadn't actually touched each other at all (not that I'd seen. They claimed differently.) although it no doubt would have gotten into a fist fight if I let it brew any longer.
I reprimanded Peng Shu for being touchy and easily irritable, and Darrel for provoking Peng Shu. Darrel claimed he hadn't provoked Peng Shu at all (which is such bullshit, I saw him, but then again I guess he didn't realise he was deliberately provoking him). To his credit, Darrel didn't shout at all, he was just being defiant and talking back to me, refusing to listen to what I said. Finally when he refused to listen to me and insulted me I ordered him out of class.
But since he was already not listening, why listen now, right? Sigh. To Peng Shu's credit, while I was arguing with Darrel, he barely said anything. Usually the kids try to add in ("Yeah, you were ..." "Yes, stop annoying me!") as I scold the other party. But after I told him not to, he shut up and didn't chip in. Joel did a little, but he was also smart enough to see I would get annoyed with him too if he continued it, and happily helped me give out the work when I asked him (so that he would have something to do instead of watching me debate with Darrel).
I think the problem was I was arguing with Darrel. You cannot
argue with students. You rebuke them, you correct them, you never
argue with them. I knew this, but I let myself get drawn into it anyway. Arrgh. =(
So anyway, I knew I didn't win the argument (because Darrel didn't listen) but all the more, I knew that I had lost the battle of authority with him. And, I'd wasted time so 1C didn't have enough time to do the highlighting-adjectives exercise that I gave out after that. =( Mistake, mistake.
I'm not sure what to do with outright defiance. I don't even know who the discipline master is, I can't give them a pink form or whatever it is they have, I can't hit them (goodness knows I've wanted to)... Teachers are all in all rather powerless, if you're in a war of power.
Although if you're in a war of influence, I must say teachers win hands down. Right along with parents and friends.
=/
Your friend, (closing)
Andrew (print name)
Posted by nayrakroarual at 8:50 AM
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