[fr] Un très bref état des lieux après quatre semaines d'enseignement. Fatiguée mais vivante. Vacances d'automne en vue. Pas beaucoup de temps ni d'énergie pour le weblog ou ma vie sociale.
I’ve started teaching. Four weeks have gone by already. I’m exhausted, physically and emotionally, and looking forward to the time when everything will be running smoother.
I’m finding it harder than expected. Teenagers (13-14) aren’t easy, and as all my colleagues have told me, the first year is always tough. No exception for me.
It’s a new experience for me to be teaching English and French. I’ve had to lower my expectations a lot, and I expect to lower them yet more. I’m flabbergasted at how much difficulty many pupils have at following simple instructions.
We’ve started a weblog project, as I mentioned previously, and it seems to be starting off not too badly. This gave me a chance to have a peek at the non-school weblogs a few of the pupils have set up on skyblog.com — I doubt many of the parents are aware of what their children are posting online (lots of photographs, personal information, and sometimes also sexually explicit stuff).
I haven’t been having much social life lately, and I feel drained enough that I don’t have much to write here. I’m OK though, no need for concern. Things will start falling into place (I’m already used to getting up at 5:45 every morning), I’ll soon be a bit less tired and emotionally stressed, and more visible to those (online or offline) around me. Three weeks to go until autumn holidays.
Courage!!
En effet, bon courage!!
Tu as trouvé un générateur de “pirate talk” ou ca vient de la moitié anglophone de ton cerveau, avast. Y a pas l’équivalent en français (à part “Tavernier, du rhum!”)
Here it is:
http://dougal.gunters.org/blog/2004/08/30/text-filter-suite
must say you’re pretty brave to change careers and get into teaching, one profession i am glad i did not get into 🙂 especially with my low levels of patience, i would be screaming at the students very often 🙂 but i’m sure it will get easier once you get into groove. plus all those long holidays to look forward to!
Ca marche comment en Suisse : combien d’heures par semaine faut-il assurer ?
Those children are our future. Steph, I wish you good luck in one of the most beautiful and meaningful missions a human can have on earth. 🙂 (Sorry if my english is bad)
je les trouve pas si terribles que ça, leurs skyblogs…y en a des nettement plus sexually explicit…
et avec un petit effort, on comprend ce qui est écrit, C pa mal pour dé skyblogz lolllllll
Pascale: 25 heures d’enseignement et une heure de décharge, donc je dépasse le plein-temps d’une période.
Flippy: je suis d’accord avec toi — mais n’oublions cependant pas qu’ils ont 14 ans et non 17!
As someone who began teaching 3 years ago, I sympathize. Many of the students don’t want to be there, and have little incentive to cooperate. Since punishment is no longer allowed, your only weapons are a good sense of humor and as many rewards as you can think up. Every minute you spend in advance lesson planning is worth it, because when you’re armed with a solid plan, most students will acquiesce and follow it. If you’re unsure, they’ll fill in the gap with restless misbehavior. I would advise you to eat lunch with the staff, as it’s a means of decompression and getting a sense that “we’re all in this together.”