challenging months

I’ve been out there teaching again after a year break.

These three months have been the toughest ever! I seemed to have never taught before. The knowledge obtained at the teachers training college, the university and eight year experience of teaching disabled kids, handicapped kids, normal secondary school kids, weird teenagers, talented teenagers, really hard-working guys and a few grown-ups DID NOT help. I had found myself absolutely frustrated by the end of the first two weeks of teaching at a primary school.

There are two classes that specialize in languages, so the children have been learning French 5 (!) times a week since the first form.

I “inherited” the third formers and the fourth formers. Both of the classes had never written a single sentence or a vocabulary test and their previous year activity books had been almost empty. Therefore my challenge number one was to teach them a little Writing and Reading. The children were as shocked as their parents when I made the pupils write new words in vocabularies, sentences in activity books and even *huge* compositions of 4-5 sentenced .

The second challenge was Testing. Another shock arrived along with the first vocabulary test, which was a total failure. It took me and the children a few days to recover and then I kept on pushing. They must hate me by now, BUT I’m looking at it from a different point of view:

-My pupils are now able to work in pairs,
-create compositions of 5-6 sentences,
-Talk on two serious topics: “my family” and “my home”.
Moreover, they actually know many words by sight not by ear, as I’m not always around to pronounce the words so that the pupils guess the meanings.

Am I an evil teacher? Could be, but foreign languages are vital nowadays.

I also teach second formers. Their class specializes in something else and it is their first learning-a-foreign-language year. It’s so cool and so much fun! We sing and dance, learn alphabet and transcription symbols, paint and what not. On the way I teach them a bit writing, reading and speaking so that they will not be too stressed when serious stuff begins.

three life-changing questions

Definelife has recently posted "three life-changing questions", which I tried to answer and see if I should do anything about my life.

1) Are you doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result?

As for work, I'm doing the same things every day and not expecting a different result as there're no options at all. So now I'm doing my best to find a new job, which, I hope, will be more multifarious and exciting to fulfil.

As for teaching, it is never the same, as the science is developing, pupils are growing, new books are being released, and these factors provide a huge variety of opportunities for self-education. The more I learn the better teacher I become. Сonsequently, results are different in a positive way.

2) Are you doing nothing but expecting something?

Yes, I am doing nothing about my love life, mainly because I just don't know what to undertake to meet my Mr. Right. Do you have any suggestions? I'd be really grateful if you share at least some of them.

3) Are you being who you are or who you are expected to be by others?

I am usually who I am expected to be and these social roles change hundreds of times every day. I'm either a nice patient teacher or a cold exigent manager or a party animal, what not.

Guess, that is why I like travelling. For some reasons, I can be my own self only far far away from home. There I become a free spirit, an adventurous lady.

back to teaching

I'm babysitting Boss' kid, again :)

We have English and Maths to do, however the kid'd rather have a cup of tea, cookies and sing to my cd.

I'm listening to the Beatles and the kid is curious who're these guys and if there'll be their concert soon. It is so nice to introduce the Beatles to the younger generation, who is mainly fond of hip-hop and drum-'n'-base, isn't it.

Anyway the kid got an A for the poem, and today we have to learn some more words and learn how to write "W" and "R". These two letter are very difficult as kids usually paint them this way: "V V" and "Я".

back to teaching

Yesterday Boss introduced his youngest daughter to me and asked to help her with the English homework. That's why my last working hour was devoted to learning the following poem:

What is you name?
What is your name?
Now tell me please,
What is you name?
My name is Diana
My name is Diana
That's my name.

The third and the seventh lines appeared to be the most difficult and it took a while to explain the difference between "what" and "that". Then the girl and me repeated the poem a thousand times and in an hour or so she learnt it by heart. Her English lesson is tomorrow and I'd like to know the mark she'll receive. Hope , it'll be A.