Some moments you just have to stop and enjoy
For those of you who remembered my birthday on Friday, thank you. I had a great day and a great Saturday too. For those who forgot .... shame on you! My students remembered my birthday and I didn't even tell them. They wrote birthday messages all over my white board and behaved extra well. The other two English teachers even brought me cakes and pastries. The pastries I would describe as dry bread with bread filling. But the thought was sweet.
However, Vicky outdid them all by finding a piece of chocolate cake! And the next day she took me out for a great lunch, then went screen golfing with me. It was her first time to really ever try golf. By the end of our 9 holes, not only was she hitting the ball consistently, she even made par on the final hole! I was so proud. To paraphrase George of the Jungle, "Luke good teacher!"
A small island, only visible on the clearest of days
Vicky's first week went pretty well. Since the last teacher in her school had never heard of the word "discipline", she inherited a few wild classes. This has led to many amusing stories that began "Guess how much I got to yell at the little troublemakers today!" I fully support this method since taking joy in discipline early means you'll get to take joy from a well behaved class later.
My own classes are fine. I have one middle school boy who took 3 months to say his first words to Jess, the former teacher. I got him talking, albeit extremely quietly, on day 2. He doesn't always answer questions and never above a whisper but at least I've got him to engage and that i'm quite proud of. Ironically my biggest problem class isn't one that talks too much but one that talks too little. They answer questions correctly at a whisper and don't like games. I nearly always finish with over half the class time remaining and no way to continue to force them to talk. Fortunately there are much worse problems to have. For now i'm off to enjoy a nice warm day outside. TTFN.
Sunset over the sea
You forgot to mention the chocolate chip pancakes that I made for you. :)
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