Children are a joy to look at. Free in thinking and ambitious, nothing seems to keep them down. Although, at times they are hurt and are in pain, they quickly get up and get going. Lessons in childhood have made us what we are today.

Last Friday, being an assistant IT trainer, I was to teach a class of students who are aged at 8. Their nature of exploration and endless questions can definitely tire an adult’s mind. Especially when more than one seeks attention at the same time. But seeing their initiative to learn, I didn’t think twice in helping them whenever I can. Although they were groups of them with their naughty nature, I learned to be firm with them and remind them the result of their misdeeds.

Using MS Word may not be new to us adults but to children at that age, it is something they would like to explore. Soon enough you will get to learn who are the one’s who have had previous experiences with the software.

Typing out paragraphs of text and inserting pictures. That was the project for 2 hours in the Computer Lab. During those two hours, I realised that, the MS Word dictionary were not set at ‘English UK’. So a red line kept appearing in words that were ‘misspelled’. I had to set all of the computers to the right dictionary standard because the children were questioning on why ‘colours’ was a misspelled word.

Inserting pictures proved to be a problem. Visually appealing pictures appeared in their Clip Art search. And because there were so many of them, the computer hangs often. Because of this, some of them accidentally clicked more than once on a picture they selected only to have several pages of their pictures inserted into their document.

From my observation, each of these children have potential, and I actually had a prediction in my mind of what they will be when they grow up. The smart kids who were most likely to be good in their studies; would pursue further education. The quiet ones were good at visual detail. They could probably be artists one day. Then there were of course the naughty ones. I didn’t have a clear picture of what they will become.  I think because  I have not seen their talents yet. Maybe with their high energy, they could probably be sportsmen.

Only for 2 hours with them and you will realise how daunting a task being a teacher could be. One has to be creative and knowledgeable to handle children. Not to mention the stamina to handle a class of children.

Oh yes, of course patience plays a big key in all of that.