Dealing with a class that was dominated with men (with only ONE female) is indeed a very challenging task for me as a teacher. They are my freshmen Mechanical Engineering students. They are of different background with different attitudes. My six years of experience in teaching somehow lighten up the load. I have experienced dealing a student with tantrums, a student who just love to copy his classmate's output than making his own, a student who always get absent from my class and a student who wants to impressed you to the max!
But one thing that I appreciate the most in dealing with such kinds of students is that I learned from them.
I learned the value of patience...
I learned the art of listening...
I learned the importance of being considerate...
Above all, I learned to accept all their differences knowing that I, myself, is imperfect as well. (It just so happened that I was the teacher and they were the students.)
In their own little way, they knew how to brighten up my day when it seems too gloomy...
They even knew when to keep silent when it seems like I don't want to talk...
They also learn how to control themselves when they almost go beyond to what we have agreed... We agreed not to utter bad words in class and they were aware if they failed to keep such agreements... They remind each other...
They can make lots of excuses for being absent and I gave them the freedom to do so however, at the expense of their grades. I can determine their lies from the truth... Even that, they were already aware.
I was just completely amazed how they were able to perform their projects with less explanations... how they tried to hide that mistakes but whenever I discovered it they just laugh...
These were the little men of my life... Not literally of course because they are all much taller than me...
I just enjoyed spending my time with them...
They are another batch of quite naughty yet charming and talented students.
