In Motion

It's FRIDAY phew. Don't get me wrong, I love my job, but it's been quite a week. Every day, I get barely enough time to finish everything I need to do and plan for the next day. And get this - I only teach 10 periods a week. If I had to teach 20 periods a week, I don't know where I'd get the time from. And teaching isn't the only thing - a real teacher has to do admin work and paperwork and has multiple roles as Head of Panel or some teacher advisor of co-curricular activities...how about their roles as mother and wife in their own family? No wonder teachers are so burnt out and disillusioned with the heavy workload nowadays.  The first thing to go is usually the lesson plan, I guess. With all their other responsibilities, and the reality of weak students, sometimes lessons just can't afford to be interesting. For example, when a class doesn't understand what you're saying in English, there's bound to be some restless souls who start d...

First week of practicum is over. And I'm raring to go into the second week. I miss my little tots already. Although I know only a grand total of 3 names in the class (and I'm not sure I can actually match them to the correct faces in my head), I can tell that my kids like me and they enjoy my class most of the time. I say "most of the time", because some of the time I'm threatening to deduct marks for noise and moving around, or telling them "3, 2, 1.." whereupon they will say 'ZIP!'. Okay, more like half the time. =P Kids will be kids. I don't mind the noise level, but if it interferes with how much work they are getting done, my objectives won't be met. A cold, silent classroom isn't the kind I want either. Another challenge is dealing with mixed ability students - some always finish the worksheet in a blink of an eye, while others are still struggling to write the first word down. It goes without saying that the ones who h...