P4 Math Carnival Helpout

Last Friday, a P4 Math Carnival was held at our school. I signed up as a student helper, guiding the students around, in class and around the school. At first, I was in Joe's, Nar's and two other strangers' group, but later someone made an unofficial swap that affected 3 other people just because there weren't any girls she knew to talk to at the last minute when we were leading the students off. Two others had to swap because one of them could not get a long with me and the third person was me. I have tried recognizing the student's faces and being swapped off at the last moment which caused a little confusion for me, I was quite, in fact, really pissed off. However, I did not want to turn her request down as it might look selfish. If I were a little more calculative, the swap would also be unfair. There were two people in my former group whom I know while there is only one in the other group whom I know. I suggested to her at first to make her swap the person I could not work with out, which was quite hard as he was the stubborn kind, but to think that she really went to the trouble of doing that and succeeded, I gave in as that was what I agreed to do-swapping with her if she could invite him out of the group. Breaking an agreement is lying. Once again, I could not say I was very happy with her.

Nevertheless, it was only a grouping for a simple help out, so no point ruining relations over it. So firstly, we had to go through with our p4 group a workshop regarding fibonacci patterns in nature to help the teacher. The morning batch was not that easy to control, as I was not very good at teaching and gathering people's attention. Basically, I did not think I could get very interactive with them.

Next came break. Probably our instructions were not too clear about staying with the group, but our class of 30 diminished to 7 in just a minute we walked into the canteen. Fortunately, they were intelligent enough to assemble back at the concourse after break. This is when the next and much more relaxing part came. We brought them to the hall where there were many game stations for them to visit individually. Thus, we let them go and we were free to do our own stuff. Feeling bored, some people set up 'unauthorized' Bridge and Uno Stations. We played cards for some time, and then it was lunch. My group and I plus many others had lunch at the staff room unlike others as one of the staff had a whole pile of something which were supposed to be torn out and clipped together.

In the afternoon, the entire process repeated itself. However, I had more experience this time and there were only four students at my table during the same fibonacci workshop so it got more interactive. In the hall, same thing, except that some of us played other games.

At the end of the day, I was really worn out. Through this day, I have experienced the role of a teacher. It is not very easy to get a group of primary 4s talking. It was quite a fun day, but tiring, thus as usual Joe told me I was giving the same bored look again on the bus.

I was so tired, I could not smile.