first week of school

Honestly, I didn't know what to expect when I first got this school for my practicum. First glance at the surrounding area, basically gave me quite a negative impression of the school. No offense, but flat areas give me the creeps. SMK Sri Rahmat is nestled in the middle of low cost housing area and flat quarters for police, army and immigration. More or less I get an idea of the students there - low SES, lack drive and motivation to excel in academic and lack guidance from parents about future endeavours. What can I say, these students barely utter a sentence in full english and the population there is 90% Malays. I'm glad I was given good classes - good in the sense that they are well behaved and they bring their books except for some isolated cases. Anyways, my first interaction with students happened on Wednesday with class 4B1. It is a science streamed class with 42 students. Honestly, I'm not sure what they scored in PMR but considering the fact that only 3 people were the 'cemerlang' students in PMR, I'm guessing the majority in 4B1 scored 4 - 5 As. The first class I entered were excited with my presence - maybe because I'm new! They even go to the extent of flirting with me. haha. But I remained professional.It was fun getting to know them. In this class the students were enthusiastic and participative. A little bit too active at times, but still manageable. Somehow, I think being fierce in the class cannot work. As long as they listen to me and do my work, I'm happy. On Thursday I entered 4B3 with the impression that they would be similar to the students in 4B1, after all they are in science stream. This time I tried a different approach as I asked the students to write about themselves as the class was rather passive. Some of them revealed details that I didn't request for like their PMR exam results. I was astonished to find out that the students only managed to score 1 or 2 As for PMR, with a few Bs and strings of Cs and Ds. Can you imagine getting Ds for mathematics and science at lower secondary level and furthering in science stream??? How will they ever cope? It's ridiculous!!! They cannot make it. It's just impossible! Poor, those kids...they were never guided about the paths for their future. The best they can think of is working in Singapore that doesn't secure them with anything. Just because when you convert the currency you will get a decent amount in ringgit that seems like the jackpot for them already. Almost everyday teachers here would have to deal with disciplinary problems. So back to my 4B3 class, I wonder...did I scare them when I spoke to them in English? Was my proficiency the reason why they were quiet??? But I can't go down to their level and speak Malay to teach English. After I realised the silence, I tried to suit to them and threw in a little bit of Malay in order to know whether they understood what I said. However, I can't be doing that too often can I? No, I'm not teaching English in Malay. They need someone to call a role model, and since they don't speak English among themselves, and of course they don't to their family and they also don't watch English movies or listen to English songs I suppose the English teacher is the closest to the native speaker to them. My English is not immaculate, and definitely far from perfect. I know for a fact that I'm not a native speaker, nonetheless I will try my level best to motivate them and be a good English (speaker) role model for them. Hopefully, in the course of my time with them I can make some difference. InsyaAllah...