As an old, earnestly non-sweary chum says - "Jings".
A week in real school and I'm knackered. Er, and because of the Glasgow autumn holiday on Monday it was actually only a four day week. Four days of non-stop teenage mentalness.
Tuesday was spent doing the intro meetings and school organisational chitchat. All very necessary, but it was only after lunch that I managed to get in among a proper class and start to do some toe-in-the-water stuff. "Can you tell me what you're doing guys ?" I asked of the spikey-haired-shirt-tail-hanging-out group of 16 year old pupils.
"Momen'um" - was the reply, not really inviting any further conversation. However, recognising the frictionless track, exploding bogeys, light-gates and timing device, I started to ask them to explain conservation of momen'um to me. It's funny, but when you play the daft-laddie it can really open people up. Within about fifteen minutes I was being asked what team I supported. Apparently it's quite unusual for student teachers to get talking to pupils so soon. Woop.
Thursday's plan was shadowing an S1 pupil for the entire school day - this turned out to be one of the most tiring days I have ever spent. Period 1 : 20 pupils (12 year olds) in the Home Economics deparment, each one tasked with making a pot of leek and potato soup........in about forty minutes. Apron on, sleeves rolled up, I constituted a classroom assistant perpetual motion machine for the entire period. Some pupils easily on-task. Some pupils not grasping how to scrub a potato. Some pupils in danger of cutting their fingers. Some pupils needing watched in case they scalded themselves. Twenty pots of soup later, and it was on to maths. Sitting at the back of the class, on at least two occasions, I came withing a whisker of putting my hand up with an answer to a question.
There followed a day of more or less non-stop attention-keeping. Hard enough for a bought-in budding-teacher adult, but for a 12 year old it's simply not possible to keep focus for that length of time. And it showed. You could count on one hand the kids that didn't get reprimanded for not paying attention. This was a "good class" too.
Needless to say, a small sherry was required on Thursday evening.
Anyhoo - this week I will be flying solo with a class of S2 pupils. My mission (if I choose to accept it, and I have) is to explain series and parallel circuits. Given the fact that actual teaching isn't a requirement for this short induction block, I'm hoping this will put me ahead of schedule.
Interactive whiteboard, here we come.
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4 comments:
Hi David (or is it "Mr Gordon" now?)
Thoroughly enjoying your blogs so far - all sounds like far too much like hard work to me! Teenage kids are very scary indeed; you are a brave man.
You'll be missing the corporate world, no doubt. Chat to which I have been exposed this week includes "let's bake those learnings into the future model" (which sounds more Home Economics than Move Management, if you ask me), and "I'd like to energise a series of meetings" (possibly Physics-related?). I give up.
Keep it coming! All the best,
Mo
PS Any ideas for a good after-hours song playlist for our wedding in 3 wks' time? I'll be sorry I asked.
Ooh well now. A veritable plethora of wedding sounds springs immediately to mind.
Naturally:
Twisting By The Pool - Dire Straits;
Lady In Red - Good Ol' Chris;
You're a lady of a certain age so your air-guitar guests will undoubtedly require All Night Long by Rainbow;
Some drunken singalonga chorusing will be best served by Baltimoro's Tarzan Boy;
No cheesy wedding compilation is complete without Diana Ross's appalling school-fees payer Chain Reaction;
And obviously to allow your guests to get to the bar, fill up with cooking-lager and return to the dance floor without breaking stride you'll need the Stars on 45 medley.
Mr McGenius, you're better at this than me.
Arrrgh! Mum's favourite "conducting" track is Chain Reaction - can remember her at my 18th and don't want a repeat performance.
Having now worked out how to do comments on here, I've been doing a bit of grammar correction over on http://www.anniecopland.blogspot.com
Dire Straits always a winner for wedding cheesy dancing, but "Walk Of Life" shoorely preferable to "Twisting By The Pool"?
The Nolans "I'm In THe Mood For Dancing" is of course pure concrete [1] and should be considered essential.
And assuming that "airbags" might be Scottish, and want to keep things home-grown, then what serious wedding party could do without Kelly Marie's "Feels Like I'm In Love" or Aneka's "Japanese Boy"?
Have a good wedding.
[1] Pure Concrete - a certified floor filler - geddit?
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