raised my voice at the kids today. incorrigible bastards were whacking the hell out of each other (albeit with a newspaper). well initially it was just incessant chatting. right, i'll go over and single you out. all around they were talking, of course, because it was presentation time and the presenters, their own classmates were not capturing their attention.

"why you only scold us? other people also talking what." fine. so i'll scold the whole fucking class. shut up.

so was chatting on msn with one of my students just now, who probably checked if i thought his class was full of irritating jokers. of course not, they're just lively and i told them to remember me when they become pm/famous author/director/ or custodian of my cpf account (yes, that 30+% of my money which is meant for my retirement. can't i try to do better myself?). but it's this portions which i find meaningful, i guess. such a poor guy right, only fulfilment is chatting to 13 year olds. cradle snatcher!

and in explaining to him, i hope i've got it right. i don't want anyone to die under my watch (or get heavily injured), and i don't want people to have to waste time standing for half hour outside the staff room in some meaningless punishment. shout once, and you save a lot of pain.

another student of mine doesn't talk. i thought it was a physical disability (he kept asking me for marks by writing). the class seems to think he doesn't talk either. after checking with form teacher, turns out he just refuses to talk and his class has accepted that, even telling me before the presentation that he doesn't talk. well, before that, had written him something about the "principles of science", and hoping that he speaks up more just like he did for marks, maybe for something more important next time, because he accused me, the poor sod, of betraying the principles of science because i didn't give him an extra mark. sometimes you wonder whether you should indulge him by communicating to him by writing, or ignoring him, in the vain hope that he'd speak one day when he realised it's necessary?

i wish i knew more about psychology and stuff. would probably help with questions such as those.