I hate school. Strange that a teacher has to say this. Strange and a little weird that if I was in Singapore I would probably say the same thing. So is it the job or me? Or have I just lost steam and interest in the job? But as always it is not the kids that turn me off the job but the adults - the adults doing the admin. There is a timetable change which comes into effect on wednesday in the middle of the week - a single action that puts in place a stream of consequences that leads to one big mess. I can see the mess that is going to happen and I can lessen the mess to a lesser degree but at this point I am a little sick of being the one to predict these things - almost as if I am the eternal pessimist. So I have done what I can - the rest will unfold by itself.
On a positive note I had two fruitful lessons today. For English we did animal stories - the students had brought animal stories from home and I asked them to identify the main feature and asked them to contrast to traditional stories. They all knew what to do and were quick in picking up the main points. Then i pasted 4 stories on the four walls of the class and each group had to send reps to the walls to absorb as much information as possible in one min - then another rep would go and so on. After coming back to the group they had to reconstruct the story in their groups. In the follow up period they had to present the story as differently as possible to the rest of the class. Most of them acted it out and that was fun - Now they have to write a original group story for the class.
Successful Lesson No 2.
For Geography we had a five sided debate on which group deserved control of the forest. I had one round in which they all presented their points and in the second round anybody could have a go at what they felt - Oh they got really passionate and were still arguing (with some strong points) when the bell went. They didnt want the next teacher to enter the class. They only relented when I told them they could continue in the next lesson. Felt really pleased with how this lesson turned out as I observed some true learning taking place.