A time to blog

Work at EF started last Monday and the first couple of days were rather nightmarish. I had not taught for almost a year and I sure could feel the strain. Now I can appreciate the bliss of sitting down quietly waiting for a lesson to be delivered rather than having to deliver it yourself. Hearing my own voice boom back eerily from the bare-walled classroom and having a dozen and a half hormonal teenagers staring blankly at me expecting me to produce little doses of fun is not exactly the perfect way to spend summer. I must admit I am not the liveliest of teachers. Nothing ever seems to work for me. Grammar exercises, conversation, activities, games, you name it- all that I try out in class seems to draw nothing more than groans from the little brats. Ok I admit, there are some really nice co-operative students but some classes are just, well, quite hopeless. Later on in the week things got slightly better. I got used to being in class and made some new friends in the staffroom. I realised I did not have to mind my students' disapproval. The thing is, when you're determined that your students should do an activity, they WILL do it. A classic example was last Friday morning, when, miraculously enough, I managed to get twelve Italian/Spanish students spend 45 minutes trying to figure out how to write a rather challenging picture story. And, wait for this, they did it SILENTLY! YES! Okay, so probably it was their hangover that quieted their groaning so much but, in any case, it was bliss for the teacher sitting leisurely at the desk! I was tempted to start producing my evil grin...

However, I will still switch to a single shift as soon as the current groups leave because teaching from 9 till 4.30 is basically ruining my summer, there's no other way around it. It is a good experience and it does do wonders for my self-esteem and assertiveness but I am not exactly aiming to become SuperPersonality by the end of the summer so I guess I'll take it easy. Moreover, I will try to find a more relaxed job by next summer. (Please God please God pleeeease!)

The morale of this whole story is that I do not think that teaching is the right job for me. Period. This realisation is not based solely on this experience, mind you. No matter how hard I try, I just do not like to deal with so many people at a time. I've always valued being left to think in peace and quiet on my own and teaching is the complete opposite. Since I am stupid enough not to have admitted this earlier and to have kept on trudging on in the Education course, such a relevation puts me in deep shit. I am supposed to go to the Faculty Officer/ the Registry/ the Head of Department as soon as possible to see what I have to do to switch to B.A.. I have a sneaking suspicion I will have to repeat the year but we will see. I hope everything works out okay and my mum does not freak out too much. I also hope and pray I make the right decision. And I also hope I will not be unemployed for eternity. We will see.(the favourite phrase of any master of passiveness). I have to realise that I am grown up now and that the only way I can be successful is to be happy doing whatever I do, even if it is more difficult to find a secure job. And my parents understand. They always do in the end.

I wish I could blog in a more polished way but I am a bit too busy at the moment (groooann!) and, being a rather slow blogger, I do not have so much time for it now
:(. Watching Live Earth online at the moment but I think I will miss/ might have missed Keane. Groan!

Till next time,
Take care
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