19 May, 2006

Hello, vicarious travellers,

Well........we did it - we've completed our first week at our new school. It's a challenge! We came in at 07:22 on Monday, and at 10 past 9 our first lessons began. We're only teaching 1 class of year 1 and 1 class of year 2 per day, and 1 of Kinder 3, but we have to be here at school from half seven till half four every day! So that has been quite something - 9 hours in school, of which only 3 or 4 are lessons. We have plenty time to do planning, but thast seems to just go, so we're in the general habit at the moment of getting up at 6.30, getting to school for 7.30, start lessons at 9.10, lunch at 11, finish lessons at 3.30 at the latest, then we have to stay for another hour. After that we do a bit of internet or something, then have dinner, then start planning again, which goes on until after 11 most nights. Then to bed and up again! Don't tell me the whole year will be like this! please!!
I'm sure it won't be, once we get into the swing of it all and can better gauge what is required.
And also.........once we can work out how to control those bloody year 2 kids. They are absolutely horrendous!!! I mean that seriously. Today I FINALLY got them to play the game I was trying to do with them..........but they WILL NOT shut up and listen to anything, they have no respect, they are pretty unconcerned whether or not I want them to do anything. They are, what, 6 years old???????? Yet it seems that they have this class identity of being uncontrollable. They seem to believe they rule the roost - the Thai teachers have no lasting control over them, which is not much use to me - I generally have Jarn, a Thai teaching assistant, in the room too, when she's actually there, but she holds little sway, and anyway, none of any of it makes the least diffrerence. there has hardly been a lesson this week when they have paid any attention at all, and I've used all my usual strategies for classroom control. But they literally do not care, on the whole, so anything I do just seems pointless and I feel unable to do anything about it. It's very frustrating indeed.
As i said, I did manage to get them to play the game today........but that was this afternoon. The full story is, I had them this morning as well, and tried to get the game going, and it WAS a good game, but they would not stop talking and fooling around, so I spent the whole lesson trying to get them to be quiet and listen to how you played the game. To no avail. Same yesterday - I spent 55 minutes just telling them to be quiet and listen. Otherwise I cannot teach them a damn thing, and it's only 4 days into the year.
So this afternoon I did get them to do the game, and it worked, although it took 45 minutes to get to the point where we could start!
the year 1 kids are better, and don't seem to have the same defiant, we-as-a-class-do-not-care attitude. So it's a bit easier with them, and they're a bit easier to deal with. In those classes I have another assistant, Sook, and she has a good relationship with the students. Although this morning those kids were giving Rob merry hell, and when he spoke to Sook about it she said that if they're being naughty, they would like to sing a song, which wasn't really the kind of proactive solution for controlling those stuadents that we had in mind! Something has to be done - we're tearing our hair out most of the time. They're actually great kids, but they will not pay attention or stop being noisy. Hmmmmmmmmm. Any teachers out there - ideas, please!

I must say, though, on the whole I'm feeling ok about this year to come. Teaching this age group is so different to last year, and it's making me use my brain in a different way - this job requires different things to teaching teenagers. We shall see. It's Friday now, so that feels good to know that we don't have to get up at dawn tomorrow - some beers are in order! It's good to be working with Rob and having that support - we're teaching the same kids, but I'm doing social Studies and English - 19 lessons a week, while Rob is teaching Science and Maths and Health, 20 lessons.