TGIF...

First week of proper placement is officially over. God I’m glad it’s Friday! And boy, do I need sleep… I’ve been feeling so overwhelmed that I could feel an impending emotional breakdown but it never happened, bummer actually, cause crying all that stress out properly would have undoubtedly helped. But no, so now I have to get around sorting myself out in a more conventional way – by getting work out of the way, wrapping my head around this bloody assignment that I don’t understand one word of, planning a few lessons ahead etc. Such are my exciting plans for the weekend.
But, on a more cheerful note, here are some random haps and mishaps of the week for your general enjoyment:
On Wed, I’ve managed to go to school without underwear. Which shows how tired I am. I realised it only as I walked into the staffroom. I’m really grateful that I haven’t been endowed with bigger boobs so I think nobody actually noticed. But, of course, I’ve spent the whole day overly conscious of the fact and so not really at ease.
Thursday, year 8 lesson (they’re 13, for those unfamiliar with the UK system ), conversation with one of the lads: “Miss, where are you from?” “From Poland” “That’s cool.” “I know”. Today he marched into the classroom, gave me thumbs up and said: “Poland, yay!” with an ‘I’m cool’ look on his face. Glad we’ve got that established!
Today, first lesson I taught year 9. Me (repeatedly poking at the interactive white board that wouldn’t react) “Oh work now, will you? Why are you doing this to me?” You can imagine the general amusement. I laughed to. Just as I did when in the same class, I asked one lad to answer a question and I got “Oh damn…”. Unfortunately, I failed to insist on getting the answer, so I’m afraid that they think now that “Oh damn” gets you out of answering. Oh well.
Finally, one pupil in another year 9 class I taught, let’s call him B (I have a vague feeling that using their real names could get me in trouble if anyone came across this), defined by the regular teacher as ‘lazy’, was one of the few to actually finish the task. I was very proud of him. And to be honest, I think he did it to make me happy. And well, he did.