I had a bit of a dodgy night's sleep last night. Lots of hours and everything, but kept getting disrupted, grrr. Thus this morning I was cross and resolved to hand in my resignation first thing. I am prone to dramatic extremes.
Anyway, my crossness rapidly dissolved when I entered my classroom and found my lost blue earring on my table! One of the cleaners had discovered it in another room, which cheered me no end. So I resolved to be positive all day to repay the good karma.
My classes were all really ace - I forget how much fun school sometimes is, and also how much I enjoy it. Obviously soon this feeling will be weighed down by the marking and incident reports and bad behaviour and bureaucracy, but for now it's ok.
The best bits were in Y10, when one of the girls said she really liked maths this year because of me, and when another stayed back after the lesson to show me the extra work she'd done in the holidays. Also in Y9, when I told the kids they only had 15 mins left of the lesson, and they remarked that they had no idea where the time had gone, the lesson had passed by so quickly. I took this as a good sign - when time goes quickly for me it's cos I'm enjoying whatever I'm doing.
Y12 made me laugh too. We're beginning the topic on gender and educational achievement, discussing stereotypes and expectations for different genders. We had a lengthy and comical debate about what we were like as children, and whether it's ok for boys to cry. All five of the girls in my group are "girly girls" so I was surprised to hear that three had been tomboys. Similarly, one of the very laddish and comedy boys told me he'd played with his own Barbies as a kid, setting up families with his dolls and Power Rangers. Funny stuff.
Only my tutor group were tiring today. They just talk too much. My new island table layout doesn't help much since now there are even more people for each child to talk to. However, instead of complaining, I have decided to create an inter-table competition for the class, so that good behaviour is rewarded on an individual and table by table basis. I've made a lovely poster and hopefully the kids will respond to the league table style set-up, and behave better. On the poster making note, I also made a "star table" poster to put up in the window next to my "students of the week" poster. The idea here is that each week the best table out of all of my classes will be photographed and put up in the window for all to see. Obviously by best table I mean the best working kids on a table, not the table itself, that would be rubbish, they are all boring and identical.
I have 25 pages of Love in the Time of Cholera to read (it is getting seriously good, and sad, they are all old and about to finally accept their love) but realised today that my copy of The Reluctant Fundamentalist is due back this weekend, so may try and blitz that in the next 3 nights instead. Tactical.
Anyway, my crossness rapidly dissolved when I entered my classroom and found my lost blue earring on my table! One of the cleaners had discovered it in another room, which cheered me no end. So I resolved to be positive all day to repay the good karma.
My classes were all really ace - I forget how much fun school sometimes is, and also how much I enjoy it. Obviously soon this feeling will be weighed down by the marking and incident reports and bad behaviour and bureaucracy, but for now it's ok.
The best bits were in Y10, when one of the girls said she really liked maths this year because of me, and when another stayed back after the lesson to show me the extra work she'd done in the holidays. Also in Y9, when I told the kids they only had 15 mins left of the lesson, and they remarked that they had no idea where the time had gone, the lesson had passed by so quickly. I took this as a good sign - when time goes quickly for me it's cos I'm enjoying whatever I'm doing.
Y12 made me laugh too. We're beginning the topic on gender and educational achievement, discussing stereotypes and expectations for different genders. We had a lengthy and comical debate about what we were like as children, and whether it's ok for boys to cry. All five of the girls in my group are "girly girls" so I was surprised to hear that three had been tomboys. Similarly, one of the very laddish and comedy boys told me he'd played with his own Barbies as a kid, setting up families with his dolls and Power Rangers. Funny stuff.
Only my tutor group were tiring today. They just talk too much. My new island table layout doesn't help much since now there are even more people for each child to talk to. However, instead of complaining, I have decided to create an inter-table competition for the class, so that good behaviour is rewarded on an individual and table by table basis. I've made a lovely poster and hopefully the kids will respond to the league table style set-up, and behave better. On the poster making note, I also made a "star table" poster to put up in the window next to my "students of the week" poster. The idea here is that each week the best table out of all of my classes will be photographed and put up in the window for all to see. Obviously by best table I mean the best working kids on a table, not the table itself, that would be rubbish, they are all boring and identical.
I have 25 pages of Love in the Time of Cholera to read (it is getting seriously good, and sad, they are all old and about to finally accept their love) but realised today that my copy of The Reluctant Fundamentalist is due back this weekend, so may try and blitz that in the next 3 nights instead. Tactical.
