Oh the joy ..... of teaching?
If I had written this post on Monday, I would have told you straight away that I NEVER EVER WANT TO BE A TEACHER! Stop laughing everyone! This is perfectly true, honestly. But maybe I should start at the beginning.
Last Friday my father gave me a call and asked if I could step in at my old school for two days to cover for some collegues who were on a further training session. I said yes, because it was a chance to get some more teaching practice and to earn some extra money. In Hessia the federal government has introduced a programme called "Unterrichtsgarantie Plus", which means that teacher (e.g. retired or on maternity leave), students but also everyone else who likes can cover or better supervise lessons, when there is need to do so. The aim of this programme is to guarantee that no lessons are cancelled and the students are not left alone. The person is paid according to his/her specific qualification. There are a lot of students who earn some extra money with that. On the other hand there have been some very nasty scenes in some classroomes where the people covering were totally lost in "the hell of a classroom." As I am a nearly fully qualified teacher I am allowed to really take over lessons in my two subjects and therefore I am paid 20 Euros for each lesson.
When I came home from Bamberg Friday afternoon my father presented me with a timetable: 11 lessons in 2 days! Okay, not too bad, even though I was also to cover in lessons of which I have no clue: e.g. Spanish, French and Geography. But I was told that they had work to do and my job was just to supervise.
The first 3 lessons on Monday were quite alright (Geography Yr 7, English Yr 7 and English Yr 8). But the last two lessons of the day were just hell - I am not kidding!
This Yr 11 group (Realschule - middle set) is know as the worst class in the whole school. Great. Well, I was supposed to take over two French lessons. The teacher had left specific tasks for a group work and so I thought that would go alright. Anyway, the first thing that happend was that they were all 15 min late, because they had to sit a maths exam and it took "a bit" longer. Therefore I could not really deny them to eat something or go to the toilet, as they had no break at all. But I guess we all know how motivated one is when one just came out of an exam, especially after a maths exam! They absolutely did not fancy to do anything at all. So first they told me that they needed a longer break, then they told me that some were ill that day and they were the only ones who had the tasks, and so on! I had to cope with mp3 players, feet on the table, singing, shouting and everything you can think of to annoy me. Of course they knew that as a U+ supstitute, I have no right to give detention or send someone out of the room or grade them in any way. So these two lessons were just absolutely demotivating.
When I came home that afternoon I slept for 3 hours and I really thought about giving up teaching as I had failed completely. Of course I had to cope with lack of discipline before, but never like this, that was more like a small rebellion. One of the students said to me on his way out: "Well, we gave you a hard time, didn't we? It was fun!"
I was not looking forward to the second day of teaching. But I had signed a contract and so I had to go. The deputy headmaster asked me how the day went and I told him about my problems with the Yr 11s. He then said to me that I am not the first teacher who came out of this class absolutely crestfallen and I should not worry about that too much. This second day went absolutely smooth and I felt a lot better. The lessons were good and I got some positive feedback from the students. I was able to help students to prepare for their upcoming exam and repeat grammar with them, I sang with the younger ones, I played vocabulary games with another class. I know I can teach (I proved that many many times), but somehow I needed this positive exerience on the second day, to get over this dreadful Yr 11 experience.
Last Friday my father gave me a call and asked if I could step in at my old school for two days to cover for some collegues who were on a further training session. I said yes, because it was a chance to get some more teaching practice and to earn some extra money. In Hessia the federal government has introduced a programme called "Unterrichtsgarantie Plus", which means that teacher (e.g. retired or on maternity leave), students but also everyone else who likes can cover or better supervise lessons, when there is need to do so. The aim of this programme is to guarantee that no lessons are cancelled and the students are not left alone. The person is paid according to his/her specific qualification. There are a lot of students who earn some extra money with that. On the other hand there have been some very nasty scenes in some classroomes where the people covering were totally lost in "the hell of a classroom." As I am a nearly fully qualified teacher I am allowed to really take over lessons in my two subjects and therefore I am paid 20 Euros for each lesson.
When I came home from Bamberg Friday afternoon my father presented me with a timetable: 11 lessons in 2 days! Okay, not too bad, even though I was also to cover in lessons of which I have no clue: e.g. Spanish, French and Geography. But I was told that they had work to do and my job was just to supervise.
The first 3 lessons on Monday were quite alright (Geography Yr 7, English Yr 7 and English Yr 8). But the last two lessons of the day were just hell - I am not kidding!
This Yr 11 group (Realschule - middle set) is know as the worst class in the whole school. Great. Well, I was supposed to take over two French lessons. The teacher had left specific tasks for a group work and so I thought that would go alright. Anyway, the first thing that happend was that they were all 15 min late, because they had to sit a maths exam and it took "a bit" longer. Therefore I could not really deny them to eat something or go to the toilet, as they had no break at all. But I guess we all know how motivated one is when one just came out of an exam, especially after a maths exam! They absolutely did not fancy to do anything at all. So first they told me that they needed a longer break, then they told me that some were ill that day and they were the only ones who had the tasks, and so on! I had to cope with mp3 players, feet on the table, singing, shouting and everything you can think of to annoy me. Of course they knew that as a U+ supstitute, I have no right to give detention or send someone out of the room or grade them in any way. So these two lessons were just absolutely demotivating.
When I came home that afternoon I slept for 3 hours and I really thought about giving up teaching as I had failed completely. Of course I had to cope with lack of discipline before, but never like this, that was more like a small rebellion. One of the students said to me on his way out: "Well, we gave you a hard time, didn't we? It was fun!"
I was not looking forward to the second day of teaching. But I had signed a contract and so I had to go. The deputy headmaster asked me how the day went and I told him about my problems with the Yr 11s. He then said to me that I am not the first teacher who came out of this class absolutely crestfallen and I should not worry about that too much. This second day went absolutely smooth and I felt a lot better. The lessons were good and I got some positive feedback from the students. I was able to help students to prepare for their upcoming exam and repeat grammar with them, I sang with the younger ones, I played vocabulary games with another class. I know I can teach (I proved that many many times), but somehow I needed this positive exerience on the second day, to get over this dreadful Yr 11 experience.
posted by Nadja @ 6:41 pm
1 comments
1 Comments:
my dear, relax. this is not just a teaching problem (although I have to admit that terrorising young teachers is soooo much fun! :-)
I would have to write a similar mail every time a CLIENT annoys me to the limit. and that does happen. then I tell to myself that I should work for the government, then you are the one annoying people.
but, at the end of the day, what else would you do if not teach, which is something that you very muck like and are made for? play games or answer to paperboat challanges?... naah, you're far better at teaching :-)
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