I made it!
To the last day of Term 3! HOLY SHIT! What a tumultuous few weeks it has been, filled with great and not so great experiences. I'm told that these up and down days constitute a pretty normal teaching career. Well done to me, anyway!
I had many a day where I wanted to call the deputy principal and let him know that I was going home to Brisbane, but I trucked on and have noticed growth in my teaching capabilities even across these short 7 weeks. Once I'd accepted the extended contract for next term there were days too when I'd considered how to get out of it! That said though, starting from the beginning of term offers a bit of security with the students and I'm optimistic that they are going to LEARN Japanese for the 8 weeks I teach them!
Was also lucky enough to land two English classes next term too which I'm quite excited about. One is Year 10 and they are doing Gothic Poetry (as is poetry isn't bad enough, just the word Gothic carries a giant stigma in most cities let alone the Beef Capital), and one is Year 9 and I'm not quite sure what we're doing there yet... That will be interesting to come in blind and teach them but again, optimism prevails!
Today I've got 5 classes but we are just watching dvds. The kids aren't going to be interested in doing any kind of work so I am putting myself through Waterboys with my Year 8s about 3 times today (and Linda, Linda, Linda with my Year 9s). That movie never gets old for me but I find it amazing how different the reactions are to it from kids of the same age. Some of my Year 8 classes love it, then you have other classes filled with immature class clowns and they just yell out things like "He's gay!" and "I would never go to Japan if they do that" etc. Can't help but roll my eyes and think that they wouldn't have them anyway.
So for two weeks I am leaving the Boulevard of Broken Dreams (that's our "street name" for our aisle we sit in in the staffroom) to gather thoughts and courage and return with a new vigour for intellectually stimulating the future population of Australia. Wish me luck!
I had many a day where I wanted to call the deputy principal and let him know that I was going home to Brisbane, but I trucked on and have noticed growth in my teaching capabilities even across these short 7 weeks. Once I'd accepted the extended contract for next term there were days too when I'd considered how to get out of it! That said though, starting from the beginning of term offers a bit of security with the students and I'm optimistic that they are going to LEARN Japanese for the 8 weeks I teach them!
Was also lucky enough to land two English classes next term too which I'm quite excited about. One is Year 10 and they are doing Gothic Poetry (as is poetry isn't bad enough, just the word Gothic carries a giant stigma in most cities let alone the Beef Capital), and one is Year 9 and I'm not quite sure what we're doing there yet... That will be interesting to come in blind and teach them but again, optimism prevails!
Today I've got 5 classes but we are just watching dvds. The kids aren't going to be interested in doing any kind of work so I am putting myself through Waterboys with my Year 8s about 3 times today (and Linda, Linda, Linda with my Year 9s). That movie never gets old for me but I find it amazing how different the reactions are to it from kids of the same age. Some of my Year 8 classes love it, then you have other classes filled with immature class clowns and they just yell out things like "He's gay!" and "I would never go to Japan if they do that" etc. Can't help but roll my eyes and think that they wouldn't have them anyway.
So for two weeks I am leaving the Boulevard of Broken Dreams (that's our "street name" for our aisle we sit in in the staffroom) to gather thoughts and courage and return with a new vigour for intellectually stimulating the future population of Australia. Wish me luck!