Teachers, the good and the bad

I do not meet up with my girl's primary school teachers very much but from what she tells me, I know which ones are good, which ones are not, which ones work hard and which ones are lazy.

For example, I know that her Standard 1 English teacher was very lazy. There was hardly any work. Whenever he was in class, he used to play with the kids. Play with rubber bands, knocks playfully on their heads, plays play doh, do paper folding with strips of coloured paper etc, anything accept English. Mind you, he carries a rotan (cane) and has a rather loud voice but none of the kids are afraid of him. When he comes, they talk even louder.

Her Std 1 Malay teacher used to tell them all sorts of scary health stories. I think she meant well to try to teach the kids about personal health but I think she is overdoing the scare tactics for 7 year olds.

Her Chinese and class teacher from last year was strict, walks, talks and moves fast. Professional but not much rapport with the kids.

This year's English teacher is a bit better. She is a bit more innovative and quite strict so the kids are afraid of her. However her lessons are a bit more fun. Her lessons are not very evenly spaced out though. Sometimes there is no work and sometimes they have to complete an entire chapter of work in a day. Hmmm....

The Malay teacher teaches at a tremendous speed. Perhaps it is not really her fault but the fact that she has to rush through the syllabus to complete a school text book and activity book plus several other activity books. Most of the times she comes in the class and starts her lesson by talking or writing really fast and the kids have to copy really really fast or get left behind. Most of the time my girl comes home with perfectly copied answers and As but when I ask her what she has learned, she says she does not  understand what is going on.

When my girl is absent for a few days and asks the teacher for help on missed lessons, she says "later, later" then forgets all about it so absent days means missed school work unless you are good enough to borrow from a friend to copy on your own but who would want to lend you his or her book when they do not know when he or she needs it? They may need it for school work or to pass up to teacher.

The best teacher so far is my girl's chinese teacher and class teacher this year. Maybe it is the fact that she is the class teacher. She is very diligent in her work. Once my girl missed some work because she was sick, the teacher spent 30 minutes with her and another girl going through with them the work that they missed. She makes sure they do their missed homework by getting another child to lend the book to them for copying when she knows that the child does not need to hand in the book on that day. She is strict but kind and approachable. My girl is not afraid to ask her when she does not understand something because she says "teacher will always explain to me till I understand."

I wish for more teachers like this for my girl and boy. They are a treasure, so hard to find.