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Monday 29 August 2011

You know it's going to be an interesting day when...

...the first song that you hear in the morning is Jon Bovi's 'Living on a Prayer'.

That alone is enough to make you wonder what the hell is in store for you for the rest of the day. So far, and it's only just 11am mind you, it has been, uh, interesting. And not cool in the Serenity define interesting speech.

I sometimes find myself questioning why I decided teaching would be a great job for me. Now, before you jump up and down saying that teaching is a good job, let me finish. I have no doubt that teaching is a great job. I've had days that are absolutely brilliant, where everything falls together and I feel as if I have accomplished something great.

I've also had days where I swear I want to bang my head into a brick wall, repeatedly, for an hour...

Sometimes I feel as if I take three steps forward and two steps back. Plus manners! Seriously. I don't know about you but when I was a child I was told to always use my manners. Even now I will hold open the door for others, smile and respond when spoken to and the list goes on.

I ask a student to open the curtains and she looks at me, sneer and all, before saying 'nah, don't want to.' This is said in a tone that makes me actually take a step back. I would never have spoken to a teacher like that when I was at school. Then there are the students who won't do anything unless they are given an incentive...normally this is in the form of a lolly.

What this does is make me feel as if I am not trying hard enough even though everyone is telling me otherwise. I guess this is what happens when you put too much of yourself out there to help people learn. (Plus, I have a giant sized headache going on in my average sized brain.)

Anyway, enough of my moaning. I need to salvage something good from this day. ::*::looks around classroom trying to find something to induce a smile::*::

There is nothing of excitement in my classroom. This is not helping. No, wait! In two of my classes I had to hook my computer up to the school projector and my wallpaper was Battlestar Galactica and my students wanted to know about it. They wanted to know whether I thought it was as good as Star Wars. If my mission is to train the next generation of nerds I think I'd doing okay, right?

Okay - and here is a link to an xkcd comic - Certainty - this made me smile, cause it's true.


I'm going to post this now as it is 5.08 and I'm still in my flipping classroom.

7 comments:

  1. need to give them the old hairdryer treatment!

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  2. So did you hit the student that didn't want to open the curtains with a rolled up newspaper and shove her in a crate? Because that works wonders with dogs. And bratty teenagers are on par with dogs, I hear.

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  3. @-E- hairdryer treatment?

    @A Beer for the Shower - the thought has crossed my mind...some friends keep saying that I need to invest in a cattle prod, that way I don't have to move to close.

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  4. it's been ages since i wanted to come to your blog, i've been seeing your name alot on -E-'s blog and i knew that i had to find you. I'm reading that you're an inspiring writer...that makes us both, because i love writing as well!

    thanks so much for the comment you left on -E- about my paragraph. it means so much!

    jos xx

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  5. @ jos xx - aw thanks. Sorry my blog is rather lacklustre at the moment. I really did love your paragraph, your writing is lovely!

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  6. I have a lot of teachers in my family and unfortunately hear stories like this all the time. I think that this kind of attitude at all levels is nurtured and goes on to cause real problems in America. I wrote a post about this not long ago with some facts that I think you will find interesting. http://murikah.blogspot.com/2011/08/economic-crisis-controversy.html

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  7. @WJ I will definitely have a look at that article. Thanks for sharing it.

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