So today was my last day of work at a student care which I have worked for the past three months. It was quite a different experience - different from what I have experienced for the past three years during poly where I had experiences in different childcare settings.
The student care which I worked at is like an after-school care for primary schools nearby and the class I was teaching is the upper primary boys. It might seem like chaos but actually it was easy to talk to them as the age gap is smaller (yes I would like to see myself as not that old) as compared to talking to kindergarten aged children. However, as compared to younger children, older children is harder to manage as they tend to be rowdier and have their own minds and opinions - which always causes conflicts, fights, arguments, emotional breakdowns as well as showing attitude and being defiant and actually cursing. Yes,I have experienced all that during my three month stint.
As teachers, it's always important to set a clear line with rules and boundaries. Children might try to get closer with you to "test the system" but of course, with some rules and classroom management, things might be different. But then again, there will always be those who wouldn't listen to you, and are really "not afraid". Then again they get scoldings after scoldings by other teachers as well - but still are mischievous. But with older children, reasoning can be easily done compared to younger children who are still forming conceptions of the world and things around them. Reasoning with the children in my class seemed to be a better method to get them on task, and also be firm when it's time to be firm.
It's actually nice to talk to them about school life again, which made me kind of miss schooling life. Then again there's the generation gap but it's interesting to hear their school stories, and I would also sometimes share mine as well. Such talks reminded me of the old times, when we were younger and we would talk amongst our group of friends about our crushes, who does this person like and the latest game craze around and complaining about various teachers etc and what secondary school we would like to got to etc.
The group of 13 boys which I was assigned to is a bunch of actually smart children, but a huge number of them seem to get really distracted easily and may seem very lazy. As a teacher, I would always remind them to get back on task, as it is work time. As a friend/adult, there's this feeling of pity as after a long day of school, they have like an hour of break before they start work again for the next couple of hours. Parents sending them for tuition and extra lessons, schools giving more homework on top of all the assessment books and exam practice papers which they have to do. No wonder some children do not like to do work and would find time to play and be distracted.
The other staff at the centre was really nice as well, my boss was really nice (and her husband too), always buying food for us and treating us like their own children as well, talking to us about life (and even NS lol)
Overall I would guess I have gained another new perception in this job, which also allowed me to understand the typical mindsets and problems of children these days. Not sure if after two years I would return, but I would definitely visit them once more soon.
Thanks for all the crazy moments for the past 3 months :)
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