The Nature of Curiosity

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taken from metro.co.uk

It has been 6 full weeks since I started my teaching practicum at SMK Puteri Titiwangsa.
The school is a girls’ school so I did have some expectations and mental preparations for any possible situation of difficulty at the school.
I drew these expectations by listening to advice and stories from peers & advisors.
Going to a girls’ school, some form of attention is normal and expected…
especially when 3 striking young men step into a school to join the teaching force…

However, the attention was not applied gradually…
it was injected in large quantities.
Causing an overdose & a natural over-adaptation…
I never expected a tsunami of attention…
and I wasn’t mature enough to handle it well.

It was overwhelming.
so I became quite fearful of coming to school…
so I started to put up a cool front to discourage approaches for anything other than academia.
I wanted to discourage the frequent adoring “hi, sir”…
I wanted to discourage the deliberate visits to the staffroom…
I wanted to discourage the coincidental classroom passing-bys…

But then again…
after 6 weeks, the hype started to slowly die down...
gradually, students stopped becoming curious…
They stopped trying to get attention…
They stopped lurking…
They stopped adoring…

They would still smile & greet you.
But they would do it differently…
Showing awareness of a professional divide…
I began to feel more comfortable…
I finally felt treated like a teacher.

I started smiling more.
I started returning greetings warmer.
I walked around the school with my mind at ease.
My cold mask peeled away…
I could be myself again…

From these 6 weeks, I have learned a lot about the relationship between a teacher & his students
I will use this knowledge to become better at handling student attention
I’m still learning… there is much for me to experiment.
But I have set a goal for myself… I have seen through the fog.
I guess from now on, the next half of my practicum can only get better!

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