I love the rapport we have. I'm quite crazy when I teach her, especially since she doesn't feel that she has a teacher-student relationship with me; I'm more of a friend. So she tells her mother that she wants to kick me out of the house in my face, asks for a break to delete some random friendster comment, while I constantly brag about how brilliant I am, and snigger when she makes silly mistakes. Of course the opposite is also true - she tells me the reason why I have the right to teach her, even if I might not be very good, is that I'm better than her, and I tell her constantly that she's good enough to tackle the questions I throw at her.
I enjoy looking at her intently with impatience evident in my eyes, which causes her to panic and demand for me to shut up even before I say anything. I think I've perfected the look that says, "Are you sure?", "Do you seriously not know how to do that?" and "I give up!". I use it to great effect and it keeps the students on their toes, although she'd usually react by saying, "Can I kill you?"
My entire tuition session has too much drama already.
I did feel that I went a little overboard when I jokingly exclaimed that she was retarded ( which she took it as it is, a joke), and was stunned when I realised that her mother was at home!
Well, for most part, her mom kinda likes me. I guess it's because I show dedication in what I do. I never seem to be able to stop when the time is up, and usually go on teaching for half an hour to an hour more, until she's so tired that she can barely understand the question that she's reading. She called me a sadist more than thrice during today's lesson!
There's nothing that makes the job easier than having a motivated student, and when one has the freaking 'O' levels looming closer every day, questions of discipline fly out the window. It's really different from coaxing a Primary 1 kid to do a problem sum or motivating a Primary 6 kid to finish his homework. With a Sec 4 kid, she's old enough to know what's at stake, and also mature enough to mark her homework and know what she's capable or incapable of doing.
She's really smart, as I told her mother after the first lesson, but she's got to make up for lost time. It helps that I have a sister who's exactly the same age, so I know what she's going through. Also, coming into contact with students make me feel much younger than I am, and I realise that time is ticking and as I grow older, the tougher it'll be for me to relate to them. I am loving every moment of this job and it helps that she tells me that she understands it much better when I explain it.
It helps that I had brilliant maths teachers during the course of my upper secondary school and junior college education. I had a terribly lousy one when I was in RVHS who drove me to desperation in the face of maths that I used to scribble Maths Makes Me Mad on every other page on my maths textbook.
The job pays me very very well too, so I usually put her needs above the other students. I'll be sad to see her go in 3 months' time, but till then, there's a lot more bickering to go!
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