Teaching practicum, day two.

Yesterday I felt a little out of my depth. But today I feel totally in over my head. There's so much that you've got to do before every lesson. It's more work than I originally thought. I only have around two or three classes a day at the moment, but I'm so buggered by the end of it all. It's just so draining. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining. I suppose it's just something one needs to get used to.

I had year eight today and they were a bunch of little shits. I'm still only observing and helping out at the moment, but I don't know how I'm going to cope when I get my turn next Monday. I need to work on my teacher's voice. It's just not in my nature to shout at someone. Like in class today, the kids were supposed to be performing the first-hand investigation they designed yesterday. But instead of putting an iron nail into a test-tube of Coca Cola, some kids pour some Coke into a beaker and drank it. Like ohmigod! People put all sorts of chemicals and shit (literally shit, i.e. dog poo in one instance) into beakers. It's not just potentially dangerous, it's downright unhygenic. I should've yelled. BUT IT DIDN'T COME OUT. Bah!

I bought a meat pie from the canteen for lunch. Oh memories: canteen pies. They're probably made exactly the same way as any other pie, but somehow school-bought pies taste a little different. Maybe it's psychosomatic or something. Hmm. Now I'm well aware that you can't ever be too sure about what's in a meat pie, but at least it makes whatever entrails it contains tasty. I think meat pies and sausages do the world a service: they make offal, which would have been otherwise wasted, appetising.

Spent the rest of the afternoon bumming around in the staff room with coffee, biscuits, and chatting with the other teachers. Bumming around in staffrooms is becoming my favourite pastime. We talk about all sorts of shit and I'm learning a lot just from the conversations I have there. I was told today in one such chat that we prac teachers won't fail if we fuck up; we'll fail prac if we fuck up and don't recognise it.

Meanwhile, the crush on the teacher who looks like the slightly older, nerdier version of a shag from the beginning of the year goes on. We had a D&M about earning and getting respect from the kids and, well, he's just so sweet. Sweet enough to eat. Le sigh.


Listening to:
Title: Don't Panic
Artist: Coldplay
Album/station: Ministry of Sound: Chillout Sessions, Vol. 6 (2004)
Length: 2.06