Bismillah.
Kids, each one of them are different. The way they learn, the way they are being raised, the amount of love, care and attention that they received at home -they are really subjective. Because of that, they can't be treated equally inside the classroom.
Adib was a kid with full of pride. He sat at the very back of the class, least he cared what I taught at the front. He was into drawing that during my lesson he would draw passionately at the back. The good thing was that he made no noise that could disturb his friends. But I was really concerned of his education. One time he was too out of control, I came to his place, took his drawing paper away and crumpled it before his eyes despite he begged me, "Cikgu jangan rosakkan!" He rebelled even further after I did that. I felt regretful for my harsh act but I really wished he knew I did it for his own good.
Few days after that, he didn't come to the class. The next day he came to the class, he acted out again.
"Adib, tak nak masuk syurga ke? Kalau baca Al-Quran nanti dapat pahala dapat masuk syurga," I looked into his eyes. He was playing around with his deskmates when the rest of his friends were reciting Yassin aloud together in the class. He put on a face. "Tak nak!" He shook his head. He threw me his prideful stare. As if he wanted me to acknowledge that he had freedom of choosing and at that point he chose he didn't want to study. At all. We literally stared to each other for a couple of mins before he gave up and looked away. Adib gave up.
"Adib, bacalah nanti dapat masuk syurga. Best tau syurga ni." "Adib cakaplah dengan cikgu kenapa Adib tak nak belajar?" "Adib nanti besar nak jadi apa?" "Adib ceritalah dengan cikgu, cikgu nak dengar."I didn't want to give up easily on him this time. I tried to talk to him few times before I decided to let it go this time since Aini was calling for a help. Adib looked at me as I was moving away from him. He didn't want to let my attention go but he also didn't want to study, so I decided to let him to decide of his priority.
After a few mins I left,
"Cikgu!" Adib shouted to me when I was giving my attention to Aini. I looked at him,"Iya Adib, kejap."
"Cikgu, sinilah kejap!"
"Kejap Adib." I turned over the page on Aini's book, looking for a pointer.
"Cikgu!!" "Cikgu!!!" Adib insisted. Immediately I knew, I needed to respond to his immediately before he changed his mind. I gave a brief explanation to Aini before leaving her for Adib.
"Ajar!" He shoved his Hafazan book to me with his stern face. His eyebrows twitched into a frown. I smiled and sat across from him. Adib wanted to learn.
The next 2 last lessons, Adib moved to the front. There were few kids who didn't attend the last week of the lesson and Adib took this chance to sit very close to me. He paid attention to the rest of the lesson and outdone his work than my expectation of him.
I didn't do anything big, all I did was spending a few minutes trying to talk to him, to understand why he decided to behave like how he did in the class. Perhaps Adib got the attention that he was looking for from me. Perhaps all he wanted was someone to ask "why" instead of giving him the "why-you-need-to-study" before understanding him.
Tips: Whenever I wanted to talk to these kids, I tried my best to squat down my body to their eyes level. I read from an article that by doing these it will assure them that you are giving them undivided attention to what they are trying to say to you.
Haris was the same. This 7-year old kid was running around in the class during my lesson, didn't even take out his book to the table. He made a loud noise at the back with his friend, Hirzan. Ahh... I thought earlier Hirzan told me he wanted to be his classrom's rep. I couldn't get it at how quick he changed his mind. Despite of my loud and firm threat, "Haris, Hirzan! buka buku!" "Siapa tak siap tak boleh rehat!", both of them didn't write a thing on their book the whole class.
The bell rang. All the other kids were running to the canteen after paying their respect to me.
"Cikgu, ajar!" Haris and Hirzan came to me with their books. "Awak tak nak rehat ke Haris, Hirzan?"
Both of them shook their head. "Tak lapar, nak buat ni," they shoved their book to me. I sighed. My feelings was mixed in between, tadi tak nak belajar with baguslah diorang nak belajar.
Again, perhaps what all these kids wanted was undivided attention.
I will not blame the teachers if they overlook this matter because truth is that it is really hard to give the whole class (30+ children) the attention they wanted in one-hour lesson a day. I sincerely hope that one day, when I have the chance to be a mother I will spend my time to listen to my kids' stories instead of viewing others' igstories, tell them straight to their face that I love them instead of wishing their birthday in whatsapp group and trust them of their capability instead of completely ignoring their opinion.
I love you, my kids, my one-month students.
Kids, each one of them are different. The way they learn, the way they are being raised, the amount of love, care and attention that they received at home -they are really subjective. Because of that, they can't be treated equally inside the classroom.
Adib was a kid with full of pride. He sat at the very back of the class, least he cared what I taught at the front. He was into drawing that during my lesson he would draw passionately at the back. The good thing was that he made no noise that could disturb his friends. But I was really concerned of his education. One time he was too out of control, I came to his place, took his drawing paper away and crumpled it before his eyes despite he begged me, "Cikgu jangan rosakkan!" He rebelled even further after I did that. I felt regretful for my harsh act but I really wished he knew I did it for his own good.
Few days after that, he didn't come to the class. The next day he came to the class, he acted out again.
"Adib, tak nak masuk syurga ke? Kalau baca Al-Quran nanti dapat pahala dapat masuk syurga," I looked into his eyes. He was playing around with his deskmates when the rest of his friends were reciting Yassin aloud together in the class. He put on a face. "Tak nak!" He shook his head. He threw me his prideful stare. As if he wanted me to acknowledge that he had freedom of choosing and at that point he chose he didn't want to study. At all. We literally stared to each other for a couple of mins before he gave up and looked away. Adib gave up.
"Adib, bacalah nanti dapat masuk syurga. Best tau syurga ni." "Adib cakaplah dengan cikgu kenapa Adib tak nak belajar?" "Adib nanti besar nak jadi apa?" "Adib ceritalah dengan cikgu, cikgu nak dengar."I didn't want to give up easily on him this time. I tried to talk to him few times before I decided to let it go this time since Aini was calling for a help. Adib looked at me as I was moving away from him. He didn't want to let my attention go but he also didn't want to study, so I decided to let him to decide of his priority.
After a few mins I left,
"Cikgu!" Adib shouted to me when I was giving my attention to Aini. I looked at him,"Iya Adib, kejap."
"Cikgu, sinilah kejap!"
"Kejap Adib." I turned over the page on Aini's book, looking for a pointer.
"Cikgu!!" "Cikgu!!!" Adib insisted. Immediately I knew, I needed to respond to his immediately before he changed his mind. I gave a brief explanation to Aini before leaving her for Adib.
"Ajar!" He shoved his Hafazan book to me with his stern face. His eyebrows twitched into a frown. I smiled and sat across from him. Adib wanted to learn.
The next 2 last lessons, Adib moved to the front. There were few kids who didn't attend the last week of the lesson and Adib took this chance to sit very close to me. He paid attention to the rest of the lesson and outdone his work than my expectation of him.
I didn't do anything big, all I did was spending a few minutes trying to talk to him, to understand why he decided to behave like how he did in the class. Perhaps Adib got the attention that he was looking for from me. Perhaps all he wanted was someone to ask "why" instead of giving him the "why-you-need-to-study" before understanding him.
Tips: Whenever I wanted to talk to these kids, I tried my best to squat down my body to their eyes level. I read from an article that by doing these it will assure them that you are giving them undivided attention to what they are trying to say to you.
Haris was the same. This 7-year old kid was running around in the class during my lesson, didn't even take out his book to the table. He made a loud noise at the back with his friend, Hirzan. Ahh... I thought earlier Hirzan told me he wanted to be his classrom's rep. I couldn't get it at how quick he changed his mind. Despite of my loud and firm threat, "Haris, Hirzan! buka buku!" "Siapa tak siap tak boleh rehat!", both of them didn't write a thing on their book the whole class.
The bell rang. All the other kids were running to the canteen after paying their respect to me.
"Cikgu, ajar!" Haris and Hirzan came to me with their books. "Awak tak nak rehat ke Haris, Hirzan?"
Both of them shook their head. "Tak lapar, nak buat ni," they shoved their book to me. I sighed. My feelings was mixed in between, tadi tak nak belajar with baguslah diorang nak belajar.
Again, perhaps what all these kids wanted was undivided attention.
I will not blame the teachers if they overlook this matter because truth is that it is really hard to give the whole class (30+ children) the attention they wanted in one-hour lesson a day. I sincerely hope that one day, when I have the chance to be a mother I will spend my time to listen to my kids' stories instead of viewing others' igstories, tell them straight to their face that I love them instead of wishing their birthday in whatsapp group and trust them of their capability instead of completely ignoring their opinion.
I love you, my kids, my one-month students.
Tahniah dah jadi cikgu.
ReplyDeleteMasa kecil dulu, tanya cita2 nak jadi apa? Di jawab nak jadi bussnesswomen.
Thank you :)
ReplyDelete