Teacher Life

Welcome to teacher life. The first week of classes is in full swing!

I received my teaching assignments on Sunday, and much to my dismay, was assigned a ninos (kids) class. Anyone who moderately knows me knows that I am not kid-friendly. My first instict was to swap this class immediately. However, I realized that sooner or later, I'm going to have to deal with kids. Especially if I want to keep teaching. So, the ninos class has stayed. I was also assigned two 201 (Pre-Intermediate) classes, one for Monday-Thursday and one for Saturday mornings. Three classes total, not bad for a newbie teacher such as myself.

So, my first day was 1-for-2. Kids were a total miss. My 201 (teens) were a hit. With my kids, I have two girls, ages 11 and 10. They are extremely timid and I feel like some scary monster when I'm with them. They literally run out of the room at the end of class. I play games, do activities, and try to move around and be fun. But then it was brought to my attention that maybe they don't like that kind of stuff; maybe they prefer working independently and in the book. So, I let them do that, and things got a bit better. They still run out of class though. One of the teachers suggested I reference One Direction and stuff like that. I almost puked. But I might have to. They did perk up when I mentioned Monsters, Inc.

My teens in 201 are great. Of course, they're still teenagers, so sometimes they just stop caring. I can usually use my sense of humor to get them more animated, and I've found that competition works very well to get them revved up. I so much prefer working with this class because they can vocally tell me when they're struggling or bored or actually into the material. That helps a lot, especially for me. Sometimes it's as if I'm just drowning and begging for someone to throw me a life preserver.

Saturday will be my first Saturday class, which goes from 8:30am-12:30pm. That's pretty intense, but I'm hoping I can use my material from my regular 201 class for the Saturday 201 class. All I know is that I no longer have those days of Hmmm, what shall I do today? It's plan, plan, plan. And it's so eerie to be the teacher this time, and not the student. Also strange (and kind of funny) how I'm only a few years older than some of my students, but I am THEIR MASTER (sort of.) For one hour and 15 minutes every Monday through Thursday, I am the boss of these teenagers; I can threaten them with their participation grades, I can make them groan when I assign homework, I can make them laugh at my silly antics. It's a weird thing, but I like it, and I'm going with that.

I'm tired. Teacher life.