Earning my teaching stripes

Happy New Year everybody! I know 11 days after the event is slightly belated but the last few days seem to have run away with me.

Over the Christmas period I was introducing my students to a variety of Christmas movies - it's not Christmas without a good festive film! Arthur Christmas was a definite hit, with both them and me! If you haven't seen it I recommend it (no matter the age group) - it's an Aardman production so the sense of humour is great. I hope it's satisfied their endless demand for movies for a while...

Interesting welcome back to work this week - I was told first thing on Monday morning that I have to conduct speaking exams for all my 1200 pupils over the next few weeks! I'm a bit annoyed I got absolutely no notice or guidance to prepare for these exams - it's made for a slightly stressed week this week trying to work out the best way to conduct 1200 exams! ahhhhhhhhh I was under the allusion that I didn't have to do anything with my students like conduct exams (they seemed as shocked as me) so next semester will definitely be taught in a different way in preparation for next semester's exams.

I feel a bit sorry for the students if I only got a weeks notice to prepare for a speaking exam I would have started a riot.  Saying that the announcement was greeted by a lot of "NO. I don't want to." I think though, after the preparation lesson I did them all - including teaching them what the word 'revise' means - we are all much more confident about what the next few weeks holds (me included).

So basically the next few weeks will be an experience in itself.

It also turns out that no-one was telling the students that I have been for intermittent holidays for the last few weeks - they all thought I had abandoned them - I went into a lot of puppy dog faces and "long time no see's" this past week. It's more evident than ever that there's a serious lack of communication going on...

G x