Your Relationship with The Children Comes First Before Everything - Teacher Lynette from R.E.A.L Kids Bukit Jelutong

Teacher Lynette's passion for teaching was both born and acquired. She was born in Ipoh in a family of teachers. Both her grandmother and her mother were teachers. Since young, whenever Lynette and her sisters played at home, they played teacher and pupils. Naturally after Form 5, Lynette went straight away to work and teach piano. She worked as a music teacher while she offered tuition. There weren't many job opportunities in Ipoh and that's how she ended up working in Subang, where her relatives were. She was young and without much teaching experience. The bosses weren't convinced she was capable enough to take the role of a Class Teacher that time, so she got hired as an Assistant Teacher.

Nevertheless, that did not deter her. Given a class with 5 and 6-year-olds, with not many tools to teach, without even white boards or soft boards, it did not stop Teacher Lynette from putting up lots of charts and visual teaching aids on the walls to make the lessons more effective for the children. She even helped to set up the syllabus later on. Before she noticed, Teacher Lynette was promoted as a principal in 1993 when the center branched out to 3 branches, another two of which were in Gasing Indah and USJ 2.

Teacher Lynette really enjoyed working on the children. She was also flexible to take a transfer to Shah Alam later when she had her first son. Determined to be a professional early years teacher, Teacher Lynette enrolled herself into Diploma in Early Childhood Education with ALFA International College after her 50's. Struggled with formal learning but graduated eventually. She felt good to learn that they had been doing it the right way. The way they dealt with the children. "Your relationship with the children comes first before everything. I used to be very strict. But after many years, I learned that it is about getting them to be interested, especially if they like you, they will do what you want, and that's when they slowly learn. There's a lot of give and take with the children."

"I find the Character First lessons really helpful in molding the children well. We speak about strengths to them and the MI method can help us see the child's strengths."

"My job satisfaction definitely comes from seeing the children improve.With your patience and dedication, you will also improve as a person. You are always learning how to deal with the people and children around you."

Teacher Lynette also shared with us how intricate dealing with every child could be. It is both an art and a science and you need to be patient enough to try different ways to help them learn better. "For example, a child was not writing properly alone, so today I made him join others and he can finally write. I learned that when put in a group with friends, he tend not to wander away. As opposed to another child, she could not read when put in a group. But when I took her out of the group, she picked up and could read and write. When they can, as teachers we get so happy and that in turn makes them very happy too. As children, they feel good about themselves knowing they can also do it."

In a nutshell, Teacher Lynette reiterated how crucial it is for all teachers to be loving and caring here. "As a teacher, it is important for you to treat the children like your own so the children can connect with you. That is when learning can take place."