Tuesday, September 24, 2013

A double-period class in one day

- Scene 1 -
Teacher entered the classroom. Slowly put tones of stuff on the table. Students sat together in groups, playing chess or chitchatting like tomorrow's gonna be the end of the world. Nobody looked at the teacher.

T: (Try as hard as she could to put up a bright-till-you-turn-blind smile) Good afternoon class!
S: ...... (None responded. Some students sat like a boss, looked at the teacher in disdain. Some continued talking about their grandma stories.)
T: (Took a deep breathe and smiled again) Class~ Good afternoon~
S: .........(Some rolled their eyes)...tsk...G...ooood afternoooo..... (Slowly fading away) 

- Scene 2 -
T: Class, please take out your book. Today we're going to learn new things.
S: ...tsk... (Slowly moving their fingers/bodies. So slow until the teacher thought to herself: are they making a slow motion kind of animation?)
T: (Put up her bright-until-your-grandma-also-cannot-recognize smile again) Since we're going to miss quite a few classes during the PMR weeks, today we have to learn a lot of new stuff to prepare you for the end of year exam.
S: ...............................(Nobody was kind enough to at least look at the teacher or smile back at her. Slow motion move continued.)

- Scene 3 -
The teacher was explaining some grammar structures. Some students were chitchatting about how a boy next door was trying to hit on a girl next door. Some were staring at the teacher, with eyelids moving up and down quite frequently. Some were busy making the 'tsk' sound every once in a second. Nobody was actually listening to the lecture. Or responding.

One student took out her timetable and talked to her friend in a not-so-loud-yet-the-teacher-could-hear-it kind of tone: "Let's see, when are we direhatkan again ah? I don't care about other days, as long as we direhatkan on every TUESDAY then I'm so happy over the moon already."

They only have one double-period class with this particular teacher once a week.

And it's on a Tuesday.

- Scene 4 -
 T: Ok, now we are going to translate this classical Chinese article. Let's first copy down the original sentences....
One student talked to her friend in a not-too-loud-until-the-teacher-will-scold-but-the-whole-class-can-hear-it-including-the-teacher tone: "Copy. Copy. Copy. Always ask us to copy. Don't know what so good about copying. Copy got use meh?"

- Scene 5 - 
The teacher was teaching talking syoksendiri-ly about the classical Chinese article.
Student A: (Screaming at another student) Fxxk your mom lar!
T: Hey, no cursing at other person. Stop it.
Student A: (Turn to the teacher right away) I'M NOT TALKING TO YOU! MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS! 

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Throughout the class, that teacher did not once raise her voice and yell at the students (even though she had been suppressing so hard). 
In the middle of the class, she did stop talking for a few seconds and let the class quiet down. And she continued teaching.
When the last bell rang, everybody just packed his/her bag and run out of class without asking for her permission. Nobody turned their head and bid goodbye to the teacher.

Quietly, the teacher packed all her stuff, wiped the whiteboard, switched off the fans, walked back to the staff room and went up to the Bilik Gerakan for a staff meeting.



There, she quietly wept.  


1 comment:

dreamymom said...

Jia you Cikgu Lew! <3 We are always here for you.. just a call away ya.. :) Live up the lewsheauwen's spirit!