I'm so... FRUSTRATED! today!

First, it was the 1N1 students... they came in to my homeroom after recess with some still eating and drinking. That's not bad enough. They took 5 mins to settle down and when I asked them for their homework, 7 of them couldn't hand the work in! I gave them this pre-test worksheet about a week ago, and deadline was yesterday. They didn't bring/ didn't manage to complete their work yesterday so I extended the deadline to today. Still, they could not hand in the work!! I got irritated with them and told them to sit on the floor at the front of my room. Throughout this episode, guess what the rest of the class were doing! They were still talking among themselves! And no one bothered to take their textbooks from the shelf! Since they abused the privilege to leave their textbooks in my homeroom, they are not allowed to do so from today onwards.

Then, 3E4 came. About 15 of them did not bring their Chem textbooks yesterday. Fortunately, all have their textbooks today (probably due to the scolding yesterday). So far so good right? Shortly after checking some admin stuff with them, I asked them to take out a worksheet that was given on the 17th Jan. Upon checking, only 7 of them attempted the worksheet!! I almost fainted. Why such attitude? I have no answer to this. Told this to their form teacher, and then realised that they have been rather off-task during lessons. This is so pathetic. To think our school's mission is "A happy learning community where everyone strives for success and where students are developed into world-ready youths". World ready??? I told them that they are not even Singapore ready!!

As I didn't want to delay finishing the lesson, I told them nicely to complete their worksheet in class. After about 10mins, everyone handed in the work. So, I thought: Okie, at least now I can start the lesson that I've planned. This turned out to be wrong. I assigned them some reading from the textbook. After writing the instructions on the board, I took a quick glance across the room. Some were still engrossed in their own world, some were happily chatting. A few were doing homework from another subject. Only a small handful was ready. I felt my blood boil. Tried to ignore the irritants, but couldn't. So what did I do? I granted their wish. The wish of not having lessons.

The funny thing about these kids is that, when you grant them their wish, they behave in the opposite manner. Everyone kept quiet and some even read their textbooks! What an irony right?

I don't think my expectations of the students are high. But the students are simply not very motivated to study. Perhaps it's what I call the Sec Three Syndrome. After streaming in Sec 2, those who end up in the not-so-good classes just lose their focus in life. Correction. They have a focus in life. To make merry and waste this year away. What's this thing called the 'O' Levels? Don't know. Don't care anyway.

Sigh.