Let me share with you my 1st day of Relief Teaching. Received a call at 7:10am. I was groggy. "Pls be here at 7:30 or 7:45am." Here's my 5.5hrs.
The 1st class was noisy. I was new and was observing the students. I didn't tell them to shut up. I let them talk and move around. I just kept quiet. When I entered, they didn't greet me. I don't give a damn about it. I just watch. You must be thinking I'm crazy but I just choose to observe. People watching. Haha. Then came a boy who got bored, I supposed and started to talk to me. I talked to him. He doesn't sound nor look local to me though the looked like a Chinese but my gut feeling is saying that he isn't 100% Chinese. So, I asked where he's from. Singaporean Chinese but of mix parentage. Voila. Observing is good. :-P 1hr passed and I moved on to another class.
My 1st normal stream. Just like the 1st class (Express). But this time I told them to get back to their places. In 10mins, everyone's all over the place. Oh, this class greeted me coz they don't have a choice. Their form teacher made them. Kwa Kwa Kwaaa! I didn't tell them to keep quiet either. But I am happy to see most of them discuss about Maths instead of talking crap. So, it's not like everytime a class makes noise, it means they're talking crap. Btw, they have posters of McFly, Jesse McCartney (i think that's his name), Hillary Duff and some magazine cuttings on the wall. And you should look at their baby photos at the front of the class and their recent ones at the back of the class. Hehe! I had my own fun.
I had a 30mins break after 1hr being in that class and I proceeded to another class for 30mins which was like so quick of course and then another 30mins with a Secondary 4 (Normal) class. Now, this I must tell you. They were having a mock test. I suppose it's Maths. No calculators allowed. While I was invigilating the class, at times I just feel like telling them that if they think they're smart and I am not as smart as them, I won't be in the class. They tried to talk asking for answers and they tried to use the calculator by hiding the calculator under the table. KIDDIES, you people just have to come up with something better than that. These things were done in the 90s. Where have you been? :-P But there was one time they laughed loudly at 1 of their teachers coz he went to their class at the wrong timing (apparently EVERYTIME). I find that rude eventhough it is funny. Don't they get tired laughing over the errr SAME THING? Tsk Tsk Tsk.
30mins break again and then I had to go to the hall for invigilation for 30mins. Gosh! For the whole of that 30mins, I was hoping that I could help at least 1 person. I know I sound crazy. I was thinking, "It would be pathetic if I come here and I just walk around. Someone please raise up your hand so that I could give you as many papers as you want!" Taaadaaaaaa! 1 boy raised up his hand. 2 papers given away by me. Haha! I was so happy. Btw, the boy had like MORE THAN 10 PENS on this table. Imagine a beaker you use in science labs. 1 beaker full of pens. No kidding. And I saw my neighbour's daughter there too. She was 1 of the students. :-)
My final 30mins in a class with 3 guitars. I kept quiet at 1st but it got too noisy. I just had to give myself a couple of shouts. It works. I purposely stayed until their English teacher came in. Hey, I had all the time in the world after that. Haha! And apparently, I looked like someone whom this girl is familiar with. Too shy to ask me. I pretended not to hear. Ahahaha!
That wraps up my 1st experience with Relief Teaching. It was good. :-)
