It's been such a busy week! I'm giving music lessons most afternoons, which are going well I think. One of my students is the principal's son who I am teaching how to play the piano. It turns out that he is very talented, which is a nice surprise. When the principal first suggested his son for music lessons, I kind of just assumed he was using his clout to push his son forward, which perhaps he was, but it's nice to discover that his son is my most talented student!
I decided to show 'Finding Nemo' to my English classes this week and I think that overall most students really enjoyed it, although it was definitely confusing for them at times. For many of my students, it was their first glimpse into what life is like in the ocean. Many had never seen a whale before or a jellyfish, or indeed many of the other creatures portrayed in the movie. They loved the bright colours. However, a few of them told me that it was strange to hear fish talking, and moreover, to hear them talking English! One of my students also told me that it might dissuade people from a sea-related career because it was quite a scary movie with the sharks and all! I like being able to transport my students into a completely different world for a few hours.
This week I also organized a school anthem competition on Friday afternoon. Our school doesn't have a school anthem and wants one, so on Friday afternoon the entire school gathered to listen to six groups perform their entries, including an entry I composed. In the end 3 groups were chosen as finalists, including 'Miss Hunt's group', and the winning entry will be decided next week and will win N$500. I have to say in all honesty though, that the other two finalists are really superb and one of them should win. When I composed my song, I assumed that the melody, as well as the words, had to be original, but all the other groups chose well-known melodies and then just changed the words! The two other finalists chose beautiful hymn melodies that they sang with great harmonies. My song was so monophonic and dull compared to theirs!
This week I also had a run-in with some students when I was supervising evening study for the whole school a couple of evenings ago. In general I really dislike supervising evening study as I hate being the watchdog for hundreds of students by myself! One class, who I don't teach, started to become too noisy so I went into their classroom to find out who was causing the noise, and they were just extremely rude to me. This particular class is notorious in our school, but still, sometimes I think I am too sensitive to be a teacher! It's difficult for me to get accustomed to anyone, even teenagers, being really rude towards me! I know that it's generally not even personally motivated, it's just because you're a 'teacher', but I still find it tough. But the nice part was that when I told my colleagues about it, I really felt supported by everyone and it was really good to know that my colleagues care whether I 'sink or swim', as my mum put it. Also, I am lucky in that I feel respected by all the students that I teach and I know there are a lot of other students who do care about me.
I decided to show 'Finding Nemo' to my English classes this week and I think that overall most students really enjoyed it, although it was definitely confusing for them at times. For many of my students, it was their first glimpse into what life is like in the ocean. Many had never seen a whale before or a jellyfish, or indeed many of the other creatures portrayed in the movie. They loved the bright colours. However, a few of them told me that it was strange to hear fish talking, and moreover, to hear them talking English! One of my students also told me that it might dissuade people from a sea-related career because it was quite a scary movie with the sharks and all! I like being able to transport my students into a completely different world for a few hours.
This week I also organized a school anthem competition on Friday afternoon. Our school doesn't have a school anthem and wants one, so on Friday afternoon the entire school gathered to listen to six groups perform their entries, including an entry I composed. In the end 3 groups were chosen as finalists, including 'Miss Hunt's group', and the winning entry will be decided next week and will win N$500. I have to say in all honesty though, that the other two finalists are really superb and one of them should win. When I composed my song, I assumed that the melody, as well as the words, had to be original, but all the other groups chose well-known melodies and then just changed the words! The two other finalists chose beautiful hymn melodies that they sang with great harmonies. My song was so monophonic and dull compared to theirs!
This week I also had a run-in with some students when I was supervising evening study for the whole school a couple of evenings ago. In general I really dislike supervising evening study as I hate being the watchdog for hundreds of students by myself! One class, who I don't teach, started to become too noisy so I went into their classroom to find out who was causing the noise, and they were just extremely rude to me. This particular class is notorious in our school, but still, sometimes I think I am too sensitive to be a teacher! It's difficult for me to get accustomed to anyone, even teenagers, being really rude towards me! I know that it's generally not even personally motivated, it's just because you're a 'teacher', but I still find it tough. But the nice part was that when I told my colleagues about it, I really felt supported by everyone and it was really good to know that my colleagues care whether I 'sink or swim', as my mum put it. Also, I am lucky in that I feel respected by all the students that I teach and I know there are a lot of other students who do care about me.
posted by Sinéad at 10:20 AM
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