I was very tired when I woke up today - I couldn't get to sleep until 2am last night. Let me have some venting time if you don't mind. Grrr. Yesterday was not a good day at school and I even thought for a minute that I would like to go back to Canada and teach my little lovelies at R.J. Lee. They were such great students (in general) - respectful towards me - and the parents respected me as well. It's so different here with some of these kids - let me fill you in on what happened yesterday to make me think I should look into teaching at the Anglican College (private school about three minutes from our house).
Travis is a new student to our class - he started a couple of weeks before I began my contract teaching job. He is very immature - acts more like a three year old - and he is intellectually low - more like a kindergarten aged child. He seeks attention - he loves to help, but does it mostly at inappropriate times. He has always been compliant up 'til yesterday. He just lost it - there are a number of thoughts why, but I think the most likely is that he was having a tantrum and the way he showed it was to go completely against what I was asking him to do: he was playing with something while I was talking with the class at the carpet. When I took it off him and asked him to stop, he picked it up again. When I asked him to go to his desk, he refused. When I took him by the hand and led him back to his desk and told him to stay, he got up right away and followed me back to the carpet. When I went toward him again, he just ran away. By this time, I had had it and just left him and thought I would deal with him after the class was sent back to their desk. To make a long story a little shorter, when I went to take him to the vice princpal's office, he ran away from me and I wasn't going to chase him. I went to the VP and told her what had happened and she said that she would find him and keep him in her office for the rest of the day.
I was up 'til 2am with all this going around and around in my head. I have never in all my teaching years had any student be defiant and now I had two in three weeks. It's very draining and I do not like it at all. I have been thinking about it since yesterday - and I can feel my blood pressure rising as I am typing this - and I have come to some conclusions as to why this would be happening in my classroom when it's never happened before when I was teaching at R.J. Lee. The children at R.J. Lee came from families who were either in the middle socio-economic class or whose parents lived in a house with more than one family in a really nice area of town. The students' parents were very respectful of teachers and passed that onto the kids. The parents were very hardworking people and had a very good work ethic. Because the parents worked so hard, the grandparents often took care of the children before and after sdhool and often the grandparents let them do whatever they wanted, but when it came time to listening to the teacher, it was expected that they would show that respect. Now, I am generalizing of course, but for the most part, that's the way it was. Now to the parents of this school - again, I am generalizing, but it will give you some idea of what I am dealing with. A number of the parents of the students in this school are 'on the dole' meaning they are on unemployment and since you can stay on it for life here in Australia, they pretty much do. The respect is not there from the kids (for the teachers) and the parents let their children do what they want (or don't have consequences for inappropriate behaviour) - I even had one parent ask me to tell their child to go to bed when they are asked! Also, it seems to me, that a number of the families have issues of some kind. When I see what kind of lives many of these kids have, it makes me want to remind you girls of the wonderful life you had growing up (as Dad and I did) and hope that you appreciate the way we raised you to show respect, take responsibility for your actions and to have a great work ethic.
I am not sure what I am going to do about the Travis situation. I don't want to go back to the VP until I have thought out some possible solutions to this problem. I am going to speak with Travis on Monday and let him know the consequences of his actions. Also, if he has another day like Friday, I will be calling in his mom to let her know what's going on. Anyway, I am not happy about going into teaching this class - there are other issues with kids in the class, but it seems like I am going well in helping them to learn to focus, listen well and to work well. I am not doubting my teaching ability - 14 years of good results helps me to believe that I am a good teacher. But, I am unhappy about being unhappy going to school - I have always been passionate about teaching, so it bothers me that I am feeling so down about going into this class. I know that if they had been my students from the beginning, that things would be different and I know that I only have two weeks to go with this class, but I would still like to enjoy it - it's amazing how two students can really mix things up. Oh well, two more weeks, swimming lessons most days and a student teacher to help out - I can look forward to those things anyway. And enough venting, I think.
Today started out lovely with a Skype 'visit' with Terri-Ann and my boys. :-) We didn't get to talk with the boys for too long - our connection wasn't too good and the boys really needed to go to bed as they had been out all day and hadn't had a nap. So, we had a little chat with them which is always fun. Then, it was off to bed for them and so Terri-Ann and I had a really nice chat (as we do every week) and got caught up (although the poor girl had to listen to me vent about those 'feral' students ('feral is an Aussie term which seems to mean something like mean brats). It's great having such great technology that we can see each other and talk at the same time across thousands of miles. I look forward to this standing date each week.
The rest of the morning and the first part of the afternoon was taken up by going to the chapel to watch last Saturday's broadcast of General Conference. There weren't many people there today which is pretty typical - there will be a full house of people there tomorrow. We enjoyed listening to the speakers today and I took some notes - I will share a few of them here:
Rosemary M. Wixom
- The world will teach our children if we do not
Claudio R. M. Costa
- Heavenly Father communicates with us through our Prophet
- the Prophet will never lead us astray (I love that one!)
- the Prophet tells us what we NEED to know, not always what we want to know
David M. McConkie
- 'The How of Learning' - what matters most is the attitude and spirit by which the teacher teaches
D. Todd Christofferson
- Life offers you two precious gifts: time and the freedom of choice of what to do with your time
Pres. Dieter F. Uchtdorf
- Learn to see yourself as God sees you (a daughter/son of His)
Gerrit G. Gong
- Your testimony, when nourished, will keep you safe
Richard G. Scott
- 4 Principles which bring peace and happiness: faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, repentance, obedience, service
We are looking forward to hearing more wonderful messages tomorrow.
We brought the missionaries back home with us after Conference to have dinner with us. It's always nice to have them over and to feed them. Dad barbecued hamburgers and we had wedges and corn on the cob - yummy. We played a game of cribbage - Elder Wong and I let Elder Lock and Dad win. :-) After Dad drove them home and came back, we watched a show called 'Air Crash Investigations' and then three British detective shows. A lovely day all up! :-)
2 comments:
I was thinking about your obstinate student again. Did I tell you that Colin isn't the same at school as he was last year? Last year Mme Sims said she wished all her students were like Colin. She said he was a sweetheart, a doll, so helpful and kind and loved "working" at school.
This year, Colin seems to be completely different. I overheard his teacher talking with another teacher on the field trip yesterday, talking about three of the boys (there are only 5!) in Colin's class. "Keegan is such a doll! So sweet. Oh, and so is Riley. Just the nicest kid you could imagine. And so is Nathan." And that was it. I know the 4th boy isn't that great, because Colin says he's very naughty. But I thought it interesting that she didn't say anything about Colin. Not like last year, where the teacher couldn't stop gushing about him.
I've noticed that Colin is not enthused at all about school. Last year he didn't talk much about it, but you could tell he still really enjoyed it. This year, not at all. And he's started saying things like "No, I'm not going to do that." Long story short, I think it is an attitude that is spilling over from school. The teacher hasn't said anything specific yet (we haven't had parent teacher interviews yet), but the impression I get is that she is trying to give him time to settle in.
How does this tie in to your kid? I wonder if there is something else going on that is making him act this way. Some change that went unnoticed. I didn't think the change in schools would be a big deal for Colin, but maybe he just got used to the idea of Princess Elizabeth and can't adapt to the new school. Sort of like how he has a salami sandwich everyday for school lunch. He never wants it for lunch at home, but never wants snything else for lunch at school.
Sweetie,
Thanks for your comments about Travis. After I read your thoughts, I started thinking that there could be something going on with Travis which I don't know about. I am going to approach this situation differently than I might have when I talk with Travis tomorrow.
As for the situation with Colin at school, it's possible that the teacher hasn't had time to get to know Colin well enough yet. Or, some children get caught in the middle - they do what they are supposed to be doing and don't stand out (eg: for being naughty). Perhaps when you have the parent/teacher interview, you will learn more.
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