Friday, July 06, 2007
Its quite irritating at work when school teachers call up the student center to complain abt a particular kid.
Let me tell you the story of 2 kids from my student center.
Kid A is a very bright kid but due to certain upbringing issues and environment at home, he became alittle unpredictable and would often hide in school after class and not want come back to the student center. We tutors have to seach high and low to bring him back to the center on many occasions. We have been working/discussing closing with his teachers to understand where the problem lies and to help him.
My Take:
For this student, I am more then willing to help him in anyway possible. The onli thing that irks me is that we have to play "hide and seek" with him, searching for him high and low and worrying abt him when he doesnt return to the student center. He is a bright child (his results are far better then many others in the center) but he needs alot of supervision and guidance in order to do better.
Kid B is bright too but lazy. He always wants to do things the easy way out. Before his mid year exams, he kept thinking of entering his dream school via DSA (Direct School Admission) and kept telling me he will appeal to the school thru this and that means. But at the end of the day, not only was his appeal unsuccessful, he didnt do well for his mid year examinations too. His chinese teacher has complained twice to me that he has not been handing up his homework on time and told us to help keep an eye on him. Then his teacher called again the day before. This time round, its the same again. He had not handed in his holiday chinese assignments.
My Take:
I do not want to wrongly accuse the student of anything. And I found out from him that what actually happened was that during the June holidays, he misplaced on of his chinese worksheets and had gotten a replacement worksheet from his teacher. Upon school reopening in Term 3, his teacher was on leave and he had handed that assignment to his relive teacher. However when his chinese teacher came back, she claimed that she didnt not receive any work from the relieve teacher at all and she called the center to inform us abt this.
My point is. Then why didnt the teacher go check with the relieve teacher again?? I do not believe in faulting a student over the past mistakes he had made. Yes, this student hid his hw twice this year before. But that doesnt mean he did it again this time round. Could it be that the relieve teacher misplaced it or forgot to have passed it to her? Could that piece of assignment be misplaced among a stack of other worksheets? possible right? but her tone when she called the center was not a friendly one. So wat? now it becomes the fault of her student center which is ME?! hello~! so what, if a kid doesnt come to a student center, does the fault now lie with the parents that the kids doesnt hand in his hw?
Yes, parents and tutors can help monitor the kids. Yes we can scold them when teachers call to complain but the school teachers gotta do their part too. I remember back then when I was still in primary school, asking me to stay back during recess to complete my work was enough to frighten me. Even if that paper is realli missing, the teacher could have passed him another one to do during recess or after school right? okay fair, if the student lost the paper, then get him to copy the questions too. Why everything also mux complain to us tutors?
They are kids afer all.
Let me tell you the story of 2 kids from my student center.
Kid A is a very bright kid but due to certain upbringing issues and environment at home, he became alittle unpredictable and would often hide in school after class and not want come back to the student center. We tutors have to seach high and low to bring him back to the center on many occasions. We have been working/discussing closing with his teachers to understand where the problem lies and to help him.
My Take:
For this student, I am more then willing to help him in anyway possible. The onli thing that irks me is that we have to play "hide and seek" with him, searching for him high and low and worrying abt him when he doesnt return to the student center. He is a bright child (his results are far better then many others in the center) but he needs alot of supervision and guidance in order to do better.
Kid B is bright too but lazy. He always wants to do things the easy way out. Before his mid year exams, he kept thinking of entering his dream school via DSA (Direct School Admission) and kept telling me he will appeal to the school thru this and that means. But at the end of the day, not only was his appeal unsuccessful, he didnt do well for his mid year examinations too. His chinese teacher has complained twice to me that he has not been handing up his homework on time and told us to help keep an eye on him. Then his teacher called again the day before. This time round, its the same again. He had not handed in his holiday chinese assignments.
My Take:
I do not want to wrongly accuse the student of anything. And I found out from him that what actually happened was that during the June holidays, he misplaced on of his chinese worksheets and had gotten a replacement worksheet from his teacher. Upon school reopening in Term 3, his teacher was on leave and he had handed that assignment to his relive teacher. However when his chinese teacher came back, she claimed that she didnt not receive any work from the relieve teacher at all and she called the center to inform us abt this.
My point is. Then why didnt the teacher go check with the relieve teacher again?? I do not believe in faulting a student over the past mistakes he had made. Yes, this student hid his hw twice this year before. But that doesnt mean he did it again this time round. Could it be that the relieve teacher misplaced it or forgot to have passed it to her? Could that piece of assignment be misplaced among a stack of other worksheets? possible right? but her tone when she called the center was not a friendly one. So wat? now it becomes the fault of her student center which is ME?! hello~! so what, if a kid doesnt come to a student center, does the fault now lie with the parents that the kids doesnt hand in his hw?
Yes, parents and tutors can help monitor the kids. Yes we can scold them when teachers call to complain but the school teachers gotta do their part too. I remember back then when I was still in primary school, asking me to stay back during recess to complete my work was enough to frighten me. Even if that paper is realli missing, the teacher could have passed him another one to do during recess or after school right? okay fair, if the student lost the paper, then get him to copy the questions too. Why everything also mux complain to us tutors?
They are kids afer all.
