The Normal stream students are always seen as the problematic and disrespectful kids. But my relief experience in a Normal Academic class was really unexpected. When I first walked in, the kids were cheering and whistling. I felt intimidated by the amount of noise they made and their height. As I knew that I would not be able to shout any louder than them, I wrote my instructions on the whiteboard: If you continue to be noisy and refuse to sit down, I will not take you to the lab. It worked like magic, almost the whole class sat down except a tall lanky boy whose back was faced to me. He was reading the notice board in the classroom. He was really TALL and I panicked but did not show my panic on the face. Thoughts were running thru my head: Should I call out to him and ask him to sit down? Should I say: The boy who is still standing will not go to the lab? etc etc.. My head told me that it's not wise to single him out or else it may be worse. I did not even want to scream at him and antagonize him because we may end up with a screaming match or he may accuse me of preventing him from reading the important notices. So, I waited. I simply stood there and looked at him (note: I didn't stare). His classmates were too afraid to call out to him to ask him to sit down, they were sitting there in silent anticipation. The tall boy realized that the class was unusually quiet so he turned around and saw what I wrote on the board. He shrank in embarrassment. He strode back to his seat. When I was pleased with the class's behaviour, I gave them instructions. I brought them to the lab. They behaved like monkeys once again so I told them to behave or out of the computer lab they go. The tall lanky boy did not sit down and I asked him to do so. He said that he did not have a chair so I rolled my chair to let him sit. The whole class started teasing him and he looked sooo embarrassed. I made them calm down by instructing them to complete an exercise about Michael Jackson's biography and other famous people. They were so excited when they accessed the website and were screaming like MJ. I told them that they sounded like a bunch of slaughtered chickens. They laughed. I am glad I didn't make any enemies. I made sure that I walked around to check on everyone of them. When most of them finished the part on MJ, they asked me who else they could search on as they could not think of any other famous ppl. I asked them if they watch the World Cup and if they liked Beckham or Owen. The next thing I knew, the whole class became high with excitement. They asked me if I support Brazil or Germany and I said Brazil. The guys cheered while the girls said that Brazil sucks. I asked them if they found Beckham's hairstyle ugly and that it resembled the head of a rooster, most guys agreed with me while some protested. Being a busybody, I decided to walk around and check out who the kids love. Most of them looked up on Owen and Beckham. Two students actually looked up on Osama! I freaked out because I could not imagine them idolizing Osama! I told them that he is not famous but notorious. But they said that he is well known so he is famous and I told him that he is not well known in a positive way but in a negative way so he is notorious, not famous. Sigh, they still refused to search for other famous ppl and insisted on Osama. I shrugged and let them be. A girl looked up on Tom Cruise and I told her that I also like him because he is soo cutee so we drooled together at his picture. I made sure that I interacted with every student. Thank goodness my pop knowledge of stars and singers ranging from Chinese singers to Malay singers is pretty good so I could connect with these young people. They were willing to talk to me and yet respect me. One of the kids even told me that MJ is not a real man, I was really amused. I realised that I have to be in the know of current trends so as to identify with these kids. It turned out to be a pleasant experience being in a Normal Acad class for the first time, considering the horror stories I had heard about such kids. Even after school, two of the girls from this class greeted me because they remembered me and did not fear me. It was just a greeting but it meant a lot to me since I was just a relief teacher and yet she greeted me. You may think that I am silly for being happy over sucha trivial thing but the job satisfaction I derived was indescribable.