hello rover

i have survived 2 weeks as a fulltime contract teacher. i was sick one day this week, i only missed my 12maths b class though, so there was no problems getting a cover to take my class for that one. but what really annoyed me about getting sick was missing my grad ceremony. i was really looking forward to this graduation. the journey to become a teacher has been seemingly long and hard, and it's clear that there is still a long way to go yet.
today i took my first supervision. yr8 english/sose. i was expecting the worst being period 4 on a friday, but it went so well i was laughing inside all the way through the lesson. we did some reading, taking turns, and that took an hour! the kids were surprised when they realised there was only 10min left and they had been quite well behaved all the way. then they got a bit restless and we did 20 questions and hangman for the last 10min before they left. i think they were actually scared of me, they're still innocent yr8's.
i wish my 8s were like that. today they were difficult for everyone, not just me. it was weird, something in the air perhaps. i'm still no good with the 8s, i seem to excite them too much or something, and then not hammer them hard enough to be quiet when they need to be. i have to change that. my other senior classes of course are great fun, i'm learning lots of new mathematics and integration techniques.
i didn't get so stressed out this week. i'm not taking anything the students do personally anymore which is good. i felt bad today though when one of my 8s complains that she can't work because there is too much noise from the loud students. she was right of course, i could hardly hear myself think at times. i'm working on changing that situation.
and, i have about 5 sanity crystals left this week. a big improvement. i'm liking this teaching stuff. it's a real challenge.