Mom said I should write a blog twice a week.. it sounds easy.
My job sounds easy too: short hours, discussions.. lunch.. however..
Let me tell you about my day..
I got to my focus school at about quarter to nine and wandered around looking for familiar faces. I really want to spend time with year one, two, three teachers, but usually have to be satisfied with anyone I can get: Year six, preschool: yesterday it was a year four teacher.
She wanted help with a paper she is writing.
The government has decided they need to get ½ their teachers educated to the level of a bachelor degree .. soon. The problem is it takes their focus off their lessons and on to university coursework. Learning new things is wonderful, however, I thought the government wanted them to 'study' with me?
Oh well.. talking is good.. I help where I can, and I am much more accesable than the uni prof based in KL. I explain how to organize a paper. Jackie helped me figured this one out when I was doing my 'critical' paper.
"Say what you are going to say.. say it.. then tell them what you said."
A little more to it than that, but really, that's it. Easy once you 'get it'.
Then I had something to eat in the cafeteria. Not much.. I hate those fish looking up at me from the plate... something about food with eyes just doesn't sit right with me in the morning.
A bit of cold chocolate milk is good.. and just sitting in the canteen is valuable mentoring time..
time to put forward ideas on how to insert English around the school.. what roles teachers, cleaners and the administration can play in assisting the year six class to do well on their final exams. Discussing the importance of years one through five .. looking at a long term plan toward their success.
GB's can speak English on the playground.. as should the English teachers. They aren't doing it now.. I hope it happens. The cleaners at one of my schools speak English.. sure they giggle.. but the kids love it!
After the canteen I look around for my intended ‘targets’.. but none of my teachers are around. They are all busy.. sports day takes weeks to plan for.. teachers are away at meetings, courses.. it is a crazy time: these six weeks squished between the two-week term holiday in June and before the fasting month of Ramadan coming up at the end of July. Teachers want to fit about three months work into six weeks. At this small primary school today there were 13 teachers away.
The government has set the National Exams for the middle of September. What is with that?! That means for two months afterwards the students will have no reason to study. They will become a problem. However, in the meantime, many teachers work evenings, and weekends. That means the kids get called in at night too.
And teachers are called upon at inconvenient times: like after my workshop.
I had them all trapped at my three hour (2 hour) workshop on Tuesday.. I just couldn’t shut up about phonics.. didn't realize that many had to go back to classes afterwards..didn't realize that time had passed so quickly and it was well after six.
"We have to go pray Jocelyn." Ahh.. the prayer card! I had no idea it was so late!
This morning one of my teachers was called away and so passed his students on to another teacher. There are no ‘subs’ like at home, in Canada. Here, teachers cover for one another. This could work, except it was parent-teacher day: interviews. I rocked up to the staff room just in time to discover he had no one to cover his class while he had interviews with the parents of another teachers students.
I volunteered to help. I mean, I love getting in there and teaching. I didn't quite get it I think..however I still feel, maybe quite foolishly, that a lot of our job is to show the teachers how to get kids to actually learn, instead of the obsession they currently have on teaching.
So there I was.. with less than five minutes preparation time, in front of thirty year three students and their parents?!
Yes, their parents: all sitting patiently at the back of the class: two rows of white plastic chairs. I had the attention of 36 kids.. and almost as many parents.
I stared in a panic at all the smiling, expectant faces.
Then I went to work.. and while the regular classroom teacher sat and discussed each student with his/her parent at the front of the stuffy, rather small, un-air-conditioned classroom, I talked about the date, days of the week, parts of the body, opposites.. anything I could think of..for two hours.
Sure I had some stuff in my bag: white board pens, a book by Dr. Suess… but not a lot.
After story time we ended the session with a rousing (note, sarcasm.. the children were tired!) game of ‘Pictionary’.
It all had a purpose.. I kept my mind on objectives, and ways to get there.
The parents were pleased: thank goodness.
The teacher was happy.
I was exhausted.
Two hours.. with no planning? Not bad really. I had held their attention. I had kept their attention.. I had elicited language, focused on phrases, questions, answers and topics they needed to review. Ya.. not bad.
School admin wants me to wear a dress.. a long one: like theirs.
School admin wants me to arrive at the school at 7 and leave at 3: “we need you to have regular hours”.
I felt badly about saying “uh.. I don’t think so!”
But I am also very thankful I can say no!. keep my own hours. I mean, it takes just two hours of unplanned teaching, performing actually, and I am exhausted. I can't imagine what would happen if I had to do it in a dress.. and as part of a long day at school..
It is not the same as teaching.. where you can plan for things you know you can make happen. Where you can organize your time, your desk .. your life.
It is not the same when you have no space to call your own. That is clean and free of things that bite.
I have one school where I am afraid to even put my bags down as there seem to be invisible critters that love to eat me.. cover me with welts, and continue to bite after I change my clothes and shower?!
You can’t compare five schools to one classroom.
It’s not the same when it is hot, humid and the air is ‘conditioned’ by a fan…
It's not the same in a place where the photocopier doesn't always work.. and can only do one side.
It's not the same where the laminater is something you picked up yourself at the books store for 50 Ringette.. and when you are still experiencing hot flushes on a fairly regular basis which seem to get ‘turned on’ by just a little stress?!.. when you REALLY don’t need the extra heat!
No.. working here is definitely not the same as anything I have done before. But ‘not the same’ is what makes it really great:
as long as I don’t have to become Malay!
They want me back to do ‘something’ with the grade sixes tonight.. ok.. I talked them into it. They actually feel I waste valuable ‘teaching’ time with my games and activities.
I ‘know’ that is teaching and they waste valuable time with long talks and drills.. so, I ask to come back.
I love my job.. but often feel I am fighting a battle!
I really should slow down a little more at those workshops! .. and am going to start to relax a whole lot more.
I mean really.. it should be easy!
My job sounds easy too: short hours, discussions.. lunch.. however..
Let me tell you about my day..
I got to my focus school at about quarter to nine and wandered around looking for familiar faces. I really want to spend time with year one, two, three teachers, but usually have to be satisfied with anyone I can get: Year six, preschool: yesterday it was a year four teacher.
She wanted help with a paper she is writing.
The government has decided they need to get ½ their teachers educated to the level of a bachelor degree .. soon. The problem is it takes their focus off their lessons and on to university coursework. Learning new things is wonderful, however, I thought the government wanted them to 'study' with me?
Oh well.. talking is good.. I help where I can, and I am much more accesable than the uni prof based in KL. I explain how to organize a paper. Jackie helped me figured this one out when I was doing my 'critical' paper.
"Say what you are going to say.. say it.. then tell them what you said."
A little more to it than that, but really, that's it. Easy once you 'get it'.
Then I had something to eat in the cafeteria. Not much.. I hate those fish looking up at me from the plate... something about food with eyes just doesn't sit right with me in the morning.
A bit of cold chocolate milk is good.. and just sitting in the canteen is valuable mentoring time..
time to put forward ideas on how to insert English around the school.. what roles teachers, cleaners and the administration can play in assisting the year six class to do well on their final exams. Discussing the importance of years one through five .. looking at a long term plan toward their success.
GB's can speak English on the playground.. as should the English teachers. They aren't doing it now.. I hope it happens. The cleaners at one of my schools speak English.. sure they giggle.. but the kids love it!
After the canteen I look around for my intended ‘targets’.. but none of my teachers are around. They are all busy.. sports day takes weeks to plan for.. teachers are away at meetings, courses.. it is a crazy time: these six weeks squished between the two-week term holiday in June and before the fasting month of Ramadan coming up at the end of July. Teachers want to fit about three months work into six weeks. At this small primary school today there were 13 teachers away.
The government has set the National Exams for the middle of September. What is with that?! That means for two months afterwards the students will have no reason to study. They will become a problem. However, in the meantime, many teachers work evenings, and weekends. That means the kids get called in at night too.
And teachers are called upon at inconvenient times: like after my workshop.
I had them all trapped at my three hour (2 hour) workshop on Tuesday.. I just couldn’t shut up about phonics.. didn't realize that many had to go back to classes afterwards..didn't realize that time had passed so quickly and it was well after six.
"We have to go pray Jocelyn." Ahh.. the prayer card! I had no idea it was so late!
This morning one of my teachers was called away and so passed his students on to another teacher. There are no ‘subs’ like at home, in Canada. Here, teachers cover for one another. This could work, except it was parent-teacher day: interviews. I rocked up to the staff room just in time to discover he had no one to cover his class while he had interviews with the parents of another teachers students.
I volunteered to help. I mean, I love getting in there and teaching. I didn't quite get it I think..however I still feel, maybe quite foolishly, that a lot of our job is to show the teachers how to get kids to actually learn, instead of the obsession they currently have on teaching.
So there I was.. with less than five minutes preparation time, in front of thirty year three students and their parents?!
Yes, their parents: all sitting patiently at the back of the class: two rows of white plastic chairs. I had the attention of 36 kids.. and almost as many parents.
I stared in a panic at all the smiling, expectant faces.
Then I went to work.. and while the regular classroom teacher sat and discussed each student with his/her parent at the front of the stuffy, rather small, un-air-conditioned classroom, I talked about the date, days of the week, parts of the body, opposites.. anything I could think of..for two hours.
Sure I had some stuff in my bag: white board pens, a book by Dr. Suess… but not a lot.
After story time we ended the session with a rousing (note, sarcasm.. the children were tired!) game of ‘Pictionary’.
It all had a purpose.. I kept my mind on objectives, and ways to get there.
The parents were pleased: thank goodness.
The teacher was happy.
I was exhausted.
Two hours.. with no planning? Not bad really. I had held their attention. I had kept their attention.. I had elicited language, focused on phrases, questions, answers and topics they needed to review. Ya.. not bad.
School admin wants me to wear a dress.. a long one: like theirs.
School admin wants me to arrive at the school at 7 and leave at 3: “we need you to have regular hours”.
I felt badly about saying “uh.. I don’t think so!”
But I am also very thankful I can say no!. keep my own hours. I mean, it takes just two hours of unplanned teaching, performing actually, and I am exhausted. I can't imagine what would happen if I had to do it in a dress.. and as part of a long day at school..
It is not the same as teaching.. where you can plan for things you know you can make happen. Where you can organize your time, your desk .. your life.
It is not the same when you have no space to call your own. That is clean and free of things that bite.
I have one school where I am afraid to even put my bags down as there seem to be invisible critters that love to eat me.. cover me with welts, and continue to bite after I change my clothes and shower?!
You can’t compare five schools to one classroom.
It’s not the same when it is hot, humid and the air is ‘conditioned’ by a fan…
It's not the same in a place where the photocopier doesn't always work.. and can only do one side.
It's not the same where the laminater is something you picked up yourself at the books store for 50 Ringette.. and when you are still experiencing hot flushes on a fairly regular basis which seem to get ‘turned on’ by just a little stress?!.. when you REALLY don’t need the extra heat!
No.. working here is definitely not the same as anything I have done before. But ‘not the same’ is what makes it really great:
as long as I don’t have to become Malay!
They want me back to do ‘something’ with the grade sixes tonight.. ok.. I talked them into it. They actually feel I waste valuable ‘teaching’ time with my games and activities.
I ‘know’ that is teaching and they waste valuable time with long talks and drills.. so, I ask to come back.
I love my job.. but often feel I am fighting a battle!
I really should slow down a little more at those workshops! .. and am going to start to relax a whole lot more.
I mean really.. it should be easy!
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