What's Going On?

Can you imagine being in a school, or any organisation for that matter, where nobody knows exactly what is going on? Well, that pretty much sums up what being in my school is like most of the time. You may start to wonder if we have a principal. Well, we do. Are there enough assistants to help him with his tasks? There are. In fact, we have enough staff in the school as dictated by the Ministry of Education to handle all school affairs. So why the chaos?

The problem lies in poor communication and leadership skills. My school has the tendency to make last-minute decisions which throws everyone into a state of unreadiness. Let me elaborate with some examples. Despite promising to notify us of any after-school meetings at least a few days earlier so that teachers can make any changes to their plans beforehand, we end up being told to attend meetings just one day earlier, or worse still, on the same day that the meeting is held! Mothers need to make frantic calls to their babysitters to arrange for a new time to pick up their babies, teachers have to cancel after-school tuition which they have promised their students, and these students are left stranded because they have no transport to go home. Or students are told out of the blue that there will be compulsory sports practice after school, causing them the inconvenience of notifying their parents at the last minute not to fetch them at the usual time. Worse still are those who rely on school buses to get home. There's no way they can ask the bus drivers to wait for them for a couple of hours more! There are also instances where students are told to stay back on a certain day, but when that day comes, they are suddenly told that they do not need to stay back anymore, because the activity has been cancelled. Needless to say, students are stranded with no transport to get home... again.

These are just some examples of what happens almost daily in my school. Teachers have reminded the administration time and again to at least inform the students a day beforehand if they need to stay back the next day, so that they can arrange their own transport. This is when I show what poor leadership we have in school. Despite being aware of these numerous problems and complaints, not a single concrete action has been taken to address the issue. The same problem crops up again and again, and yet, the principal seems oblivious to it. Oddly enough, he is the one who preaches on accountability and punctuality during meetings. If he values time so much, why is he wasting everyone's precious time?

What happened today and yesterday is yet another fine example of poor administration. Speech Day was held today, and teachers were assigned to specific tasks a few weeks earlier. Everyone did as they were told, and the vice principal asked us for updates during a meeting. All seemed well. However, he was not around yesterday and today because he had to attend a meeting somewhere else, and everything seemed to descend into chaos. Sure, the principal was around, but he wasn't coordinating anything. I would say that he was just making his presence felt, lingering around the school hall, not even the least bit disturbed that the rehearsal was not going as planned. With no one coordinating the rehearsal yesterday, nothing went smoothly, and there was another rehearsal scheduled this morning. Unfortunately, without a clear leadership again, it dragged on till noon and still, nothing seemed to be finalised. A full rehearsal never materialised.

Of course, this was not the only problem. With some of the teachers not entering their classes (as they were busy with the 'rehearsals') students were having a gala time in class. Some other teachers took the opportunity to not enter their classes as well. So, the whole school was in chaos, with students running all over the place, out of control. There were still a bunch of teachers who went on with their lessons, but the noise outside the classrooms was always distracting. I'm sure the principal was aware of this, but he did not do anything to rectify the situation. He also did not announce when school would end today to make way for Speech Day later in the afternoon, despite being asked about it earlier in the morning. Again, he should have made the decision a day before, so parents would know what time to fetch their children the next day. Students kept on asking teachers for the time, but nobody could give them an answer. All we could do was ask them to wait for any announcement -- but that didn't come either. Without a definite answer from the principal, the other vice principals and senior teachers dared not say anything as well. Eventually, teachers and students took matters into their own hands and dismissed at 12.30pm.

Personally, this is by far the most chaotic day in school. No one knew exactly what was going on; not the students, not the teachers, and I dare say, not the principal himself! Will there be another day worse than what I've experienced today? I dread to think about it...

It's Easy to Forget

I'm sure everyone agrees that a teacher should be patient and kind. That's common sense as we deal with children or teenagers on a daily basis, and these are a group of people who are still immature and rebellious. They do things to you that make you feel like strangling them... sometimes. At other times, you just wish you were somebody else in a different profession altogether. So, patience is undisputedly the most important virtue for a teacher.

But teachers are humans, too. We get bogged down with work, despite the illusion that we just work half day. We have feelings and self-respect, because we are not machines and robots. So, we get stressed up if we come into the class, all ready to teach, but find out eventually that students prefer to fool around rather than appreciate our carefully planned-out lesson. It's okay if it happens once in a while, but if this goes on every time you enter that class, you will eventually reach your breaking point too, I'm sure. That's when we turn into Godzillas, letting them know we are angry and hoping to scold them into submission.

This may work once or twice, but if used continually, students will grow 'immune' to it, and things will pretty much be the same as before. Students can also be deeply hurt by what we say to them, which is something we won't be aware of at the heat of the moment, but it can stay on with them for a long time, affecting their character and attitude in future. They may even feel more negatively towards us and be more rebellious in the future.

Common sense tells us that we should be patient with our students, but we always forget. This has also been my most recent experience. There was always so much negative energy around the class that I always came out of it feeling frustrated. I'm sure my students felt the same way, too. I would sometimes regret the harsh words I said to them as well. Negative energy just sucked the life and enthusiasm out of everyone. When I realised my students were getting more and more disinterested with the lessons, I decided that it was time to put a stop to this. I decided to bring in more positive energy. I tried to be more cheerful and relaxed in class, giving positive comments whenever possible, and smiled more. Not surprisingly, it worked. Seeing me more relaxed and enthusiastic, students were also more engaged and cooperative in class. At the end of the day, I felt satisfied that my lessons worked. Everyone was happier.

This is something I've learnt over the years, but tend to forget, especially when stress creeps in. Hopefully, this time around, I will not repeat the same mistake again. Experience is always a good teacher. In fact, all teachers should remember that a kind word does more wonders than a thousand harsh words.

A New Experience

Last Saturday, the preliminary rounds for the annual district level inter-school debate was held. As usual, each participating school was required to send 3 teachers to be judges on that day. My school pulled out the last minute, but the organising committee still invited us for the event. Having brought my students for the competition for the past few years, being a judge was nothing new to me. It was scary the first time, but I quickly realised that it wasn't that difficult after all. It only involved impromptu debate, where debaters were given the topic 30 minutes before the debate, and were allowed 2 to 3 minutes each to present their arguments. Short and sweet. Simple.

The final round was a bit tricky. Needing to find a team to represent the district in the state level competition, the format of debate on that day would be parliamentary style, which meant that students were given the topic 1 hour before the debate, and during the actual debate, each person was given 8 minutes to present the arguments. This final round was held last Wednesday. On Tuesday, I received a call from the teacher-in-charge, who asked if I could fill in for a judge who couldn't make it. I'd never judged in a final round before, and I'd seen how tough the competition was between two good teams, so my first reaction was to decline. However, the teacher sounded desperate, and reassured me that other experienced judges would be there as well. Ever the one to take up a challenge, I agreed, but regretted it as soon as I ended the call. I was honoured to be chosen, but very nervous at the same time. Would I be good enough? So I spent the night reading up on the pages of rules, hoping that I would not forget the criteria listed under the four aspects of style, substance, strategy and language.

Lucky for me, I was assigned to judge the match for the 3rd and 4th placing. At least it won't be as tough as the 1st and 2nd placing match. It was nerve wrecking in the beginning, but I soon relaxed and started to enjoy the debate. After sitting through the debate for an hour, diligently taking notes and cracking my head filling up the score sheets, I was glad to find that my verdict matched those of the other 4 judges. It was a unanimous decision. So I took it that I did well in my first attempt as a finals judge. No problem doing it again the next year. Well, I just hope they don't ask me to judge the 1st and 2nd placings... after all, I'm still a rookie!