The Rosebush

I can’t believe I’ve turned into all my teachers in just a week.  Teenagers, eh? :)  What a challenge!  Little b*ggers have been making my life fairly difficult the last few days, but I am still afloat and ready to kick ass tomorrow if any of them play up.

It is quite important to have unlimited supplies of boundless energy when it comes to teaching surly teenagers who would rather be anywhere else than in your lesson.  This is not an easy thing to manage but I hope I’m doing okay.  One of my students who had to move to a different group told me he preferred my class to his new one, and that’s really encouraging considering most of the little sh*ts have perfected their “I can’t believe you actually expect me to move from my arse and go and sit at that other table” attitude.  Today, I told them to get into 3 groups of 4 and they just looked at me, like… “Er, are you actually being serious when you say that?” So I surprised them with a big old smile on my face when I bellowed “***~~~MOOOOOOOOVE!!!!!!~~~***” in my best shouty teacher voice.  It worked…

Yesterday however, I was not feeling so good about the whole thing.  I’m sure every teacher questions their ability now and again, and with very little experience, it’s bound to happen to me more often than to others - at least I recognise the uncertainty for what it is… just getting used to teaching teenagers in an environment which completely drains them of their motivation to learn anything or have to use their brains.  I just need to work out how to convince them that it’s a hell of a lot more interesting if they just put a bit of effort in.  I think they possibly realised that today when the lesson started slowly but ended on a pretty good note.  They need to trust me when I ask them to do stuff, and believe that there is a good reason why I’m making them do certain activities.  But trust doesn’t come overnight and I’m a new face, so I guess they’re not doing so badly considering, and maybe I’m not either

Trying to convince J that some fun needs to be on the menu for the weekend, for both our sakes really.  Would be really nice to be able to let my hair down, just us, getting a change of scenery.  I sure as hell need a night out or some kind of pampering. It’s as close as I’m going to get to a holiday for a long time… I have a week off from 23rd July but I don’t have anybody to spend it with!! How frustrating is that?? My only chance for a bit of a trip somewhere or some well-needed (and frankly, deserved) time out, and I can’t even take advantage!! Gonna be a week of sitting round the house I guess.  It’s a shame