With the build-up to the school holidays, I've been busy taking on freelance art teaching assignments. Schools have been desperately looking for 'entertainment' to keep the children busy after exams, so I've been going down to different schools almost every day.

Urgh! I hate to have to wake up so early in the morning, before the sky even starts turning bright. Can't imagine having to do that from January onwards. Yes, I'm almost confirmed to start teaching Secondary Art and English. In which school, I don't know, for MOE will only inform us via letter a miserly one week before school starts. I don't get why they have to be so last minute :(

Generally it has been a good experience teaching young children. I get great satisfaction from seeing the "ORHH!!!!" expression on their faces, and the smug smile of achievement when they succeed in creating their work of art. But I've also had to deal with some 'problem students' who either have discipline problems, or switch off because they insist that they suck at art. Or as one girl told me: "I HATE art! I HATE maths! I hate everything except English!". Oh well.


One student in a Secondary school I went to got on my nerves for the entire 1.5 hr lesson. As our lesson started in the computer lab, he asked "CanIonthesoundcanI?" I said NO. 3 minutes later, he asked "CanIonthesoundcanI?CanIonthesoundcanI?Canright?Can right?CanIonthesoundcanI?CanIonthesoundcanI?CanI?CanI?" And continued throughout the lesson. I suspected he was a ADHD sufferer and so put up with him. Nearly went crazy.

Then there were those who disrupted the classes with their rowdy behaviour and non-stop chatting. In the same class above, the students were using files from a common drive. Suddenly there was a commotion as people realised someone was renaming the files stupid names like 'who's big boobs' and 'who loves who'. My teaching partner and I couldn't figure out who was the culprit. The worst thing is that another class was using the same files at the same time, and this meddling made all the files unaccessible for everyone. That was my worst class ever!

I realise that I tend to pay more attention to the boys when teaching a co-ed class. This can't really be helped as the boys always create more trouble so they need more managing. Poor girls. Guess I have to be more aware of this when I teach at Secondary level, as teenage girls tend to be more bitchy and get jealous more easily. Won't be easy to get their respect if they think that Teacher is biased towards the boys.

Sigh. I still prefer teaching Primary level :(
Some photos of my classes here under 'Events'.

Labels: Designing My Future