Surprises

It has been three weeks since I started teaching at SMK (L) Bukit Bintang. Monday, 3^rd September 2012 (first day of being a trainee teacher), approximately 1.25 p.m.: assembly, the school hall. The principal announces, “Kita ada menerima seorang guru baru, Cikgu Amin (we have got a new teacher, Cikgu Amin)”. The teacher stands and waves to the students. The students give him a round of applause and not even one of them says anything. I thought “this is great, they welcome the new teacher”. The principal continues her speech, “Kita juga ada menerima 2 orang guru pelatih Bahasa Inggeris……..(we have also got two English trainee teachers……)” and all of the sudden the students went crazy. They were screaming, booing and definitely not a single student gives us an applause. The principal had to yell to the students, telling them to behave before calling out our names and we stand. A teacher behind me whispered “tengok tu, budak-budak dah mula dah (Look, they have started)”.

Upon the event, I embraced myself for the ‘treatment’ that is waiting for me. For my first class, I introduced two rules.

1)      When I am in class, nobody speaks unless I ask you to speak and if you have any question, raise up your hand with your mouth shut.

2)      If you need to talk, please stand on your chair and talk, and don’t sit unless I tell you to sit.

Well, the cruel rules rule! I have the class in control and avoid being the victim of the bullies.

Next problem. “Sir, I can’t read and write, how am I going to do this?” At first, I really thought they really can’t read and write and that is going to be a real problem for me. So I used basic and simple materials from the primary school to teach them (my mentor gave the suggestion). But, on one very fine day of the first week, I’m having a class with 1 Ikhlas, a period before the recess. I gave them a short essay to write despite I’m aware of their incompetence. I said, “I don’t care if you can’t read or write, you will not go for recess if you don’t finish this essay”. To my surprise, the ones with “Sir, I can’t read and write, how am I going to do this?” finished first with minimal grammatical error. Those are the SMK (L) Bukit Bintang students for you. They have been fooling their teachers so they may be excused from doing work. Problem solved.

I have been observed a couple of times by my mentor and she said I’m doing fine. From what I’ve been through, I’ve realised that the boys are super active. They need to move around. They want to play games. They love to draw and do role play. They are really smart unless you ask them to copy notes on the board or write essays and definitely crazy about money, gadgets and girls from Assunta. So I let them be a bit noisy for some times by introducing games and group work activities before asking them to do their work.

So far, I’ve only been warned by the Penyelia Petang for high fiving the boys and being too friendly with the boys outside of classroom. The boys like to stick their hands out of the window to high five me when I walk past their class. The senior teachers are worried about that. They said the boys might lose their respect towards me and will not see me as their teacher but more as a friend.

To all my friends, no matter how bad your students are, find a way to bring the best out of them.