Yesterday I started teaching a 6-week ceramics course at a primary school in Yew Tee. Yes you read right. YEW TEE. Bl**dy far... took me 1.5hrs to get there from my Punggol home.
Yet I took on the assignment because it would be good practice for me in terms of classroom control and working with children. It was also high time to re-acquaint myself with the stuff I learnt in Year 1 at NAFA
(almost 5 yrs ago gasp!!!). It was pair work, so less nerve-racking than going it alone.
All in all, I actually enjoyed it! Although I was assigned to the 'worst class', I felt that most of these Pri 4 kids were interested in producing something they could call theirs, even if it was a severely mutated pot. The children were also not as incorrigible as another school's Sec 2 students whom I taught a few years earlier, save for a few hardcore ones.
My teaching partner and I were chatting outside the class while waiting for the previous teacher to leave. Both of us are jolly smiley people
(ok, she is slightly more jolly than me with regards to body size hee hee), so how were we going to manage the riotous students? Our conclusion was to evoke memories of our lecturers (she studied in Lasalle) and channel their super 'emo' faces.
Our attempt lasted all of 3 minutes. Once they said "Good morning Ms Chan and Ms Teo", we instinctively smiled and said "Pls sit." It went downhill from then, as the children saw our weakness and started to climb all over our heads. Luckily one of their teachers came to sit in and gave them a good shouting-at, managing the class volume for the rest of the lesson.
I was grateful and in awe of her shouting and scolding skills, impressive for such a pint-size lady. Yet somehow I felt a little bad about it. Art should be about relaxing and having fun, not about having someone breathe down your neck every second. My husband says that that is ideal, but impractical, as children will always need control in order to sit down, pay attention, and really absorb what you're teaching them.
If it were up to me, I would let them make as much noise as they want, as long as their hands are still moving and working on the clay. Such noise would be entertained if they are asking their friends for help with the clay, discussing with one another what they are trying to mould, or just out of plain excitement.
It's difficult to expect children to have fun in silence, isn't it? But I guess in school there's always the need to control the sound level in consideration for the other classes.
1 lesson down, 5 more to go. Let's see how it goes... hopefully I can have a better grasp of class management skills. I'm still in denial that a black face is necessary in order to control a class, cos I don't think that children will enjoy learning in a tense atmosphere. But it wouldn't hurt to have one handy in case I meet a bunch of real little devils someday.
Labels: Designing My Future
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