A weekend at Beladin

Hi blog, it seems that I only visit you when I am angry, sad or bored.

This weekend, I decided to rest here in Beladin after 4 weeks of driving 5 hours home and 5 hours back to Beladin. My weekend has been filled with munching on snacks, chips, sunkist, beans soup, instant noodles. I just can't stop eating. I even bought a bottle of 7up Revive to drink over the weekend!

It's almost 4 months of teaching, and it wasn't too bad. I have put the previous unhappy experience behind me. So far, it has been good.

I have learnt not to scream at my students, because that whole week i screamed my lungs out at my students, I could not sleep well the whole week! Now I wonder how do those teachers who always scream at students sleep?! So I learnt to not get angry. If I do get angry, I scold them but not scream at them. I also practice a lot of nagging. I nag so much that one of my student could imitate me. "........Jangan buat begitu lagi" (and turning/moving/ rotating his hands (could not find a right word to describe that action) Then I realised that I unconsciously move my hands a LOT when I talk. Talking about that student M, he can be very chatty that it disrupts the whole class. At times he is the joker of the class and makes me laugh. One day I can be very furious in that class, one day I can laugh my heads off. 

Teaching geography is fun. Syiok sendiri. I enjoy drawing the mind maps on Mahjong papers (so that I don't have to write the same thing on the board for 4 classes). I enjoy photocopying exercises for them to do. but it's quite disappointing when I mark their mid term papers. Well, I guess they do not understand what I am talking about, just like I don't understand what they are talking about. I say "huh???" three times and they stop asking me questions in their language.

Teaching English on the other hand is __________. I still cannot teach them, I mean I don't think they learn from my class. It's either they look at me blankly, or sleep, or talk to each other. They tell me they do not understand anything I teach. I need to find a way to teach them some basic English. but how are they going to take SPM English? I don't want them to fail. I had 4 passes out of 50 students for the mid term test. I hope the results will improve this time. BUT after doing the SNS, I realised the questions I set for this term's exam paper are mostly at low level. Let's see how my students perform this time. I am still learning how to teach English. I feel that I cannot remember anything I have learnt.

I do find that praising and scolding in a softer tone works on some students. Screaming helps at time to shut a students' mouth after numerous warning to stop talking at pay attention. 

One day one class started playing with paper 'lastik'. As I was teaching I see folded papers flying across the classroom. After punishing the students to pick up all the papers on the floor, they continued 'lastik'-ing. In anger, I snatched one lastik and lastik-ed the students nearest to me. It was fun! I had to hold my laughter. After that day, the lastik game stopped. They must have gotten a good scolding from their form teacher. Ha Ha.    

That's all for tonight!