Yep, that’s how I feel. The new challenges I meant were the unknown situations I might face with my 6th graders. After 3 years of teaching lower primary, I am expected to teach in Grade 6 this year. What a burden, I thought. It was non-negotiable my Academic Division Head. Oh well…I can’t keep feeling sorry for myself. I need to earn my ticket to complete this year smoothly. That means I need to work hard and find possible solutions for problems that may occur. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not always a pessimistic person. I don’t think that my students are trouble makers, it’s more about me not being ready to teach older students. Here are some of my concerns:
- How to build a caring community?
- How to encourage them to manage their emotions?
- How to make sure that both PYP and the national curriculum are served well?
- How to encourage them to be responsible and respectful individuals?
- Do I need a reward and consequence system?
- How to teach them to behave well without expecting extrinsic reward? I want them to do something good not because they will get a reward, but because they believe that that’s the right thing to do.
So, today…I browsed the net to find advices. Luckily I found this blog http://mrpullen.wordpress.com. It has a lot of good suggestions I want to try. I think it’s really important to change my approach with the students this year. I don’t think the reward system I used last year in Grade 3 will work. I need to focus more on building the sense of belonging as a class. I want them to feel that they are a part of a caring family. I want them to see that every member needs to be appreciated and that everybody is unique in their own way.
*Sigh*…a long journey awaits and I hope I prepare myself well for this…
This website looks interesting too. Teachers may want to check it out http://www.responsiveclassroom.org/
goresan ika 
hi there Jessica. congrats on your new job! wow. you love teaching kids ya. as for me, I prefer teaching adults ’cause they are easier to negotiate with. hihi. good luck. 🙂
thanks for the comment, mbak…
well yes, i suppose it’s easier to negotiate with adults 🙂
i like teaching children ’cause it’s really inspiring just to see they laugh and to listen to their comments on anything…
my class now is sooooo LOUD. i thought i had the loudest class last year, but this year it’s even louder..wish me luck mbak…