Monday I did PPA coverage at Derwentwater - Year 3 in the morning, then Year 2, and Year 4 in the afternoon. It's pretty neat having that sort of variety in my day, although it was just a bit too easy, sometimes feeling more like babysitting, really, than teaching. The Year 3 class, however, were hands down my absolute favourite class ever - the little darlings had NAME TAGS! I could have danced from the joy of it - all the usual awkwardness POOF! gone. The Year 2 class I had had before but basically all I had to do was supervise while they worked on their math assignment, then let them loose for lunch. The afternoon class, Year 4, was Guided Reading where the kids were split up into their groups and tended to themselves while I read with one group of five kids. After that, the pipsqueaks went off to practice their Christmas play and I supervised those kids whose parents didn't want them participating. They worked on a project about habitats, a bum deal in my opinion given what their classmates were doing. One half-hour, however, near the end of the day was taken for an assembly during which a priest told the kiddies about Advent. Fun times.
Tuesday I was back at Wembley in a reception class and Wednesday I had the day off. Turned out to be good thing, actually, since it meant I was home when the mailman came by with a package for me from home. My parents had gotten my name wrong on the package - again - but it contained Christmas gifts - pajamas and bracelets from my sister, an ornament, stuffed mini moose, and mysterious "Do Not Open Until X-Mas" envelope from my parents - so I'm willing to forgive them.
Thursday I got to go to a new (in the sense that I hadn't been there before) school. I got figure out the navigation on my own which worked out pretty simple enough - took the tube for two stops and a bus for twenty minutes. I was doing PPA - so it was a Year 2 class in the morning (a little chatty but overall pretty good - they worked on acrostic poems in the AM followed by a math lesson that was mostly just discussion and visual aid. In the afternoon I was with a Year 6 class. All they had to do was write a diary entry for their second day aboard the Titanic, work on some Titanic art and then it was PE. Simple. Easy. Piece of cake. Or it would have been if not for their attitude. Forget what else you might have heard - preteens in the UK are complete nightmares. Think spoiled rich kids without the riches. Absolutely, positively everything I asked them to do was an argument - "You're not the boss of me!" "Who died and made you Ms. Know-it-all?" "The Titanic sunk. Big deal - it was a hundred years ago! Can we get over it now?" "If diaries are supposed to be private, doesn't this whole thing defeat the point?" and on and on it went. I'm fairly certain they would have argued with me had I told them to bring water to the desert.
Which, of course, brings us to Friday when I was back at Wembley. I was in a Year 3 class and got a class renowned for their bad behaviour. Oh, they did their work, sure - but they did it with so much noise, so much chatter that by the end of the day half the class was crying from headaches and the other half were crying with frustration from having been punished for their inability to be quiet and listen. It was...not a good day. It was, truth be told, a lot like being a passenger aboard the Titanic - fun times. Thankfully, the TA and other teachers all assure me this delightfully hellish day wasn't unique to me - they're that noisy and disrespectful to EVERYONE - which made me feel loads better.
Nothing on the agenda for today but, yay, plan to go over to Christa's tomorrow for a movie day and supper.
I also have NEWS!! but I'm holding off on the sharing until things are more set in stone.
Until next time, my freaky darlings!
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