Oh, puh-leeze. Teaching is hard? Who are you trying
to fool here?
On a daily basis, I teach graduates with a minimum of Honours
degrees, covering subjects like multivariate statistics and test
construction - are you telling me that you know any better?
Mind you, while I was an undergrad, I completed a stint as a relief
teacher in a government school, and within two weeks my class
averages went up
by 14%, and all that took was a bit of common sense that the
teacher I relieved (of 20 years' "experience") simply failed to
apply.
It's teaching, not rocket science, kids. Been there, done
that, and you're having a laugh if you actually believe that it's a
hard job - you just don't know what a hard job is.
If I pulled the kid out of your school, you'd be kissing my ass for
the favour. If I didn't make mincemeat out of you, any
half-intelligent kid would.
1) teaching smart Honours degree grads(I assume there has to be
some level of intelligence and motivation for them to get their
honours) vs playful, unmotivated primary 1 kid. That's so
relevant.
2) Which school, what level, what kind of students? 14% sounds
nice. but from wad marks to what marks? I heard of people who
improved their student's grades from 20/100 to 40/100, an increase
of 50%, but so what? still considered fail. And I'm sure most
fulltime teachers would have done relief teaching before signing on
with MOE. obviously, relief teaching is much much easier than
fulltime teaching, if not we won't be seeing the annual exodus of
teachers from the teaching service.
3) Teaching is easy, I agree. But making your students improve
is not. If the student is unwilling to study, and parents who not
want to/unable to discipline their child, the student will never
improve, no matter what the teacher do (which is kind of limited,
given that nowadays parents easily complain about teachers
overstepping boundaries. e.g. give too much homework/pressure on
their child. complain about teacher scolding child. complain about
why child is not allowed to bring handphone into O level exam.
They seem to insulate their child against everything, regardless
of right or wrong. Is it wrong for a teacher to comment that a
child's handwriting is ugly? In the past, my parents would have me
whacked upside down for that, for bringing shame to the family. And
today? Parents response by posting on stomp, and complain about the
teacher.
And lastly, the teacher where got keep the parents in the dark?
haha. She so clearly wrote down the child's problem: Ugly
handwriting, poor spelling, talkative in class. And she has
definitely captured the parents' attention.
It is good that she point out the problems early in the first
month of Pri 1, instead of giving the parents a nasty wakeup call
in Pri 2, when they discover their child failing exams.
