hello rover

Well, 5 weeks gone, 6 weeks to go. This was my first full week of taking classes on my own. It was successful. It was also difficult at times, lots of fun other times, and I learnt a lot more yet again. And I even took the 9's as well for another 2 experiments. The real key to successful teaching is still hiding from me somewhere where i have not looked yet. But i think i'm getting warmer. I've put students on detention, i've nearly called some parents (i will be next week) and i've got kids to write contracts to explain what steps they will take to modify their behaviour in classes. I've confiscated mobile phones in class, mp3 players and all manner of projectiles. And believe it or not, i even had one extremely good class with the 9's today. we did an experiment on lenses and formed images of candles, and talked about how to correct short and long sightedness with glasses and how the hubble space telescope was even short-sighted. And how they have announced the discovery of 2 new moons of Pluto and got photos of it and all sorts of great science stuff. It was the best science lesson ever (3 of the most disruptive students were absent) and i really had lots of fun. That's what teaching is all about really, helping explain stuff to kids who have lots of great questions about stuff. And you know what the saddest thing is, next week when all the disruptive kids are back again, it will be back to the old, 90% behaviour talk, 10% learning talk. i think class sizes need to be made smaller even than 25, about 10-15 would be great, that way kids would actually learn stuff and no one would fall through the gaps and develop behaviour problems to hide their learning difficulties. i have no idea how anyone learnt stuff in the old days with classes of 40 or even 50 students. even 30 is way too many.
anyway, life goes on and students grow up whether they learn maths or not.

Well it's now official. I am an intern teacher for the next 7 weeks. My supervisor signed and faxed off the form that gave me permission and a satisfactory report to pass my prac component and keep going ahead to become a teacher. I took my first lessons this week without my supervisor in the class. The 11 maths A were great, still you need to keep a close eye on them. The 11 physics gave me a hard time, they just would not shut up and they are supposed to be the best kids who are taking maths B and C also. We only got through half the work we should have and I was worried. I challenged them next lesson to bring their manners to class and behave appropriately and to not steal the learning time from other students who were well behaved. We had a good lesson after that and I think they know that I'm serious now. It was so good to end the week on a high note like that, it makes it all worthwhile.
Now, you might be wondering, what about that 'difficult' 9b class, how did I go with them?
Well, wonder no more. I took them for a lesson on optics (really basic fun stuff, like how you see an image of yourself in a mirror etc.) and my supervisor was in the room for most of the time. It took longer than I expected, I had to repeat myself many times because no one listened, and I couldn't talk loud enough to stop them when I needed to. My supervisor advised me to go home and practise talking really REALLY LOUD! I tried and I'm getting louder, usually when I get mad. But when I get mad at them I don't get mad enough and they don't think I'm mad, I've got to practice looking and acting mad as well. It is unfortunate that these kids only seem to repond and take notice of something if they think that their teacher is mad at them. That should not be the only motivation to correct their behaviour. Then today I took them for about 10 minutes of maths without my supervisor there. Of course the first thing that happens is the noise level goes up and they start using foul language and calling out. So I start the routine, don't call out, return to your seat, i don't want to hear that language ever again in the classroom, don't call out, don't call names, face the front, sit up, follow the solution steps, no don't call out again, no don't call out, no that's calling out, too much noise.... It's as bad as the non-stop chattering grade 2 class i took once. They choose not to follow the rules, and they will also choose the consequences as a result.
So after all that, it seems that I can become a teacher after all, and with more practice I might even get good at it. Time will tell.

my third week has passed with some good progress being made. i finally presented a good lesson today, the only truly good one so far (only took 3 weeks!) but hey, at least i got there. not sure what the next week will bring however as i will be taking the 'difficult' year 9's. today they really made a mess of themselves in one class, their behaviour was pretty bad. i have no idea what will happen when i take them. i only hope the outcome will be to get half the class to do half the work, and i'll call that a success.

well the end of my second week has brought a new class for me to start next week. i begin taking a yr 11 physics class (33 students!) that will be a bit of a handfull. hopefully they will break that class in half, cause there is no way that all 33 students can do all the pracs in a reasonable amount of time and space. not with a few misbehaving like they do every now and then.

as for my other class, i had the 11 maths a 3 times this week. one class was bad, i really didn't have the structure and flow that was needed. i overestimated their ability to work and already understand simple stuff like the volume and area of simple and compound shapes. at least my last class yesterday went well, i took them outside to measure car park spaces for an assignment they are having to hand in soon.

and the 9 math/science. holy cow what can i say. they terrify me somewhat. they're all great kids in the class, but together they choose to do stupid things to show off. some of the students would be better in separate classes. two of them are repeatedly in trouble with the hod for truanting, swearing, and just being plain stupid and affecting other people by their stupid actions. i'm not sure what will happen when i take them. we'll see.