Learning...

It's tough when you sacrifice lesson prep. time for a bit more sleep so you can make it through the day, and then you have your 5 classes x 50 minutes each, of teenagers who constantly push the limits and have no problem lying to your face just to escape trouble. It's tough when you realise that your very own students are trying to cheat - when you were sure you could trust them. It's tough when you have to talk to them about it. It's tough enforcing the rules that students know they should follow but still try to sneak around...

So I'm learning...

I'm learning you need to be consistent, for their sakes.
I'm learning that you need to be able to take insults or tantrums or lies and handle them calmly.
I'm learning you need to be on top of things all the time - there's no relaxing at this grade level.
I'm learning that students cheat, and some may not feel any remorse, and will do it again.
I'm learning you need to find people to talk to, because doing everything yourself is too much.
I'm learning that it's impossible to keep up when you are in your first year of teaching.
I'm learning how little I really know.
I'm learning that I need to take more time to relax, but I also need to take more time to study and grade...
But so far I have not learned where that time will come from...

I also learned that there are some friendly tourists around who will stop and talk to you as if you are best friends! It was quite cool and unexpected - tonight while going through the night market for supper, my housemate and I happened across some tourists from Canada and Australia. We chatted about work and travel and had quite a jolly time comparing notes.

I felt a bit less down after that, and from that I learned that you need to take time to connect with people so you can go on and complete the emotionally taxing job of teaching. I am learning that in my job, I need to be both real and firm. And that's tough - for a personality like me :)

Well the unfortunate part of chatting so much is I haven't eaten supper yet and it's after 8:00, so,

Until next time

- R