Moods

Coming back from the school break this week, you hear of me complaining about being mentally unprepared and tired. Actually, the prospect of meeting my sian English class also puts me off somewhat, especially when I have to think of English work for them every other day in advance.\

But I told myself to try be cheerful and go into class with a happy-go-lucky mood, and well, it worked wonders. I didn't feel so bad about things when students don't do work, students seem more inclined to do my work, and I could even stem mischievous behaviour somewhat with my cheerful demeanour when talking to certain students about their behaviour. Things does become more pleasant when you have a healthy attitude.

Anyway, I went back to that infamous class to collect worksheets from some of them near the end of the day, and saw the entire class all seated and incredibly quiet in my English HOD/Discipline master's EOA class. I timidly went in to ask for the worksheets, and asked one of them softly if a test was on; Nope, it was just a normal lesson for them like any other day. Sigh. No point wondering why they don't behave like this in the class - your status as perceived by students makes all the difference.

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On a unrelated note, I was very disappointed when 3 of my malay ODAC kids were caught for possession of cigarettes today. I had always thought that the malay students in my school are all pretty angelic in behaviour. Well, it's not that they are 'bad' after today, but it just disappoints me that they turn out to be somewhat immature in thought to engage in smoking.

The boy I interviewed told me that they picked it up quite long ago, and when I said they shouldn't be smoking when they haven't even started earning their own keep, he replied that he does work after school. Apparently his family don't give him allowance during the weekends and holidays.

Ok. My guess is that maybe he picked up smoking from seeing people smoke at work. And he work partly to support his habit, partly because his family cannot satisfactorily provide for him. And probably like many others, the work will inevitably have a negative effect on his studies, and the lack of good qualifications in the future will hamper his ability to obtain good employment. It all sounds like a vicious cycle; that's probably the scenario of a typical lower-income class family.