Funny life of a teacher of Arts

Thinking about what I’m going to write when opening my site again, it occurs to me that my mind is blanco. It’s not that I’m absent minded. It’s just that right now I’m open to new or other thoughts than I had recently. I don’t have any intention to focus on a subject. It’s just….. well, the sun is shining brightly, it isn’t too cold and I love being quiet for the moment. So, it will probably take a while before I have finished this blog.

An blanco mind has its advantages. I’m not prejudiced in any way I can think of. That doesn’t mean that I don’t have an opinion nor a will. It’s just that I’able to see things from a different point of view. It might help to solve problems or even arguments.

I was asked to keep an open mind, should I start writing again. Point is, are we – human beings – able to skip any opion when listening and or watching? I doubt it. Still, it might be a good idea to start being open one day. It might reduce bloodpressure and avoid a lot of irritation of annoyance.

What will you do after having read this blog? Will you be quiet for a while? Or… will you take up again what you were doing before reading this piece?. It’s an interresting question whether people are able to stop thinking for a moment, to have an open mind, being blanco for a few seconds. I wonder

one of the things I don’t like about being on the internet is spam. Here in the Netherlands it is forbidden and one could end up in jail the moment the government finds out about you spamming.

Perhaps it does sound foolish, but I think I’m just trying to point out: I’m trying to be informative, even when it sounds dreadfully boring what I’m writing about. Advertising, commercially writing or spam doesn’t suit me nor this site.

So, if the reader is really interested in my blogging: please, don’t use this site to spread spam all around the world. I don’t want to get in trouble because of spam.

If you would like to leave a comment I would like you to use your own email address for correspondence.

Thank you for your cooperation.

Yesssssss………………this morning my pupils received their report cards, a last “happy holidays” to my colleagues and I’m off! See you all later in August in one healthy piece and don’t mail me during this Break.
Lol, took me 20 minutes to pass them their cards and then they left.

Does anyone recognize these feelings: 7 weeks no pupils, loads of time for yourself but getting really sick during the first few days of the Summer holidays? What I mean is: having a severe headache sometimes with throwing up, concentration problems, and getting up at the usual time ( 6 of 6.15 AM)????? In that case: join the club. Seems to be a normal problem among teachers. In a way we teachers need to get rid of the tight curricula that give us a lot of stress. We have to get used to get up at normal times (let’s say about 9 AM, lol) and we have our evenings of because we don’t have to prepare any lessons for the next day.

So, I won’t be writing for a couple of weeks. Perhaps only for a funny story that really happened last year. Which reminds me of one really funny story.

Last year my colleagues and me had to monitor every small break. No one except a teacher who has to do this can ever imagine what a mess and noise these kids create when having their time of in the auditorium/ canteen. And it is almost impossible for an outsider to understand what those rascals can do to their classmates. Now, one morning it was my turn to monitor my pupils. As you probably might know there is a kind of fashion in jeans where pupils don’t wear a belt to keep their trousers tight on their hips. Instead they wear them half way their bottom and it “is fashion”(sic!) to wear them as low as possible, having their underwear just above these jeans, showing to their classmates that their wear Björn Borg underpants (among other name brands.) Now, I don’t know how you feel about this way of clothing but I think it disgusting. I can’t count all the times that I asked them to pull up their jeans because I’m absolutely, definitely not interested in their underpants, not in the name brands nor in the colour.
Anyway…… I had my turn of monitoring and I was talking to a few of my pupils when one of the fourth grade went to a classmate of his and before we know what was going one, he pulled these trousers of his classmate down to his ankles. Just try to imagine how hard the female pupils and I were laughing! And this poor pupil turned red- white -red, tried to hide is noble parts but couldn’t run away because of his jeans. There he was, in the middle of all pupils ( most of them were female!!!) and one of his mates made a fool out of him. Thank God for him that his underwear wasn’t pulled down together with his jeans.
The next day, this guy wore a solid leather belt to keep his trousers where they supposed to be. It’s one way of telling how other male pupils think about your way of clothing…..

Right, so much for this story….

I’d like to thank all my readers for their comments on my blogs. I hope to see you back in August when school will start again.

I wish you a very happy holidays and hope to meet you again in August . Take care….

Whenever I enter classroom I always have a little basket with me. A white small basket that I put on the table. In this basket all the cellphones of the children are collected. They can have them back at the end of class.
Now, at first all my colleagues laughed at me. But after half a year most of them had to admit that I did the right thing.
I am not against cellphones in pupils’ hands. Most of my pupils live too far away from school and have to cycle up to 15 miles before the are at school. All the way long there are a lot of dangers and I support parents who give their kids a cellphone for this reason. But I disapprove the use of these objects during class. I do not want to be filmed, I do not want to be recorded and I certainly don’t want my pupils sending and reading text messages, let alone answering the phone. It’s really amazing that these pupils think it normal to have this object in their hands. Believe me or not: when pupil A is in class 1, he sends a text message to pupil B who sits in the classroom next door.
Hang on, don’t you see each other during the breaks?
Another thing to think about. After school they do their homework ( or they are supposed to do their homework.) However during these hours they are on line on msn and they have their cellphone in their hands when doing their writing, and in the meantime they keep up reading their texts they are receiving. How on Earth are they studying?

Well, I don’t think they do. They are not concentrated because of all the media things that are surrounding them. Hence marks like D en F are quite normal.

In the Netherlands we are worried about the bad level of knowledge. I’m not surprised at all as long as we allow our pupils to handle their cellphones and use msn during their time of study. Perhaps we should start with a bit of discipline by asking them to put their phones downstairs with their parents and make sure that they won’t be on the internet whilst doing their homework.

A few days ago I received nice comments on my blogs. It is funny; I never realised that people would be interested in my writings especially because I am a teacher of arts. Being a teacher means also being an educator, whether I like it or not. I’m not complaining because I like my job though the after work like correcting tests is a bit boring, to say he least.

I promise you, my dear readers, that I will continue writing my blogs. Some of them might interest you, some of them won’t. That’s a rule I can’t change. Now and then you’ll probably will find me nagging about small things but I’ll try to write positive things as well. I’ll try to give you some information about the country where I was born and where a grew up. Lol, the Netherlands will always be the Netherlands, no matter how weird this nation might be.

I’m not a fan of soccer so you won’t read anything about it. Fortunately one of the channels will broadcast Scandinavian and Britsh detective series like Lewis and Silent Witness. I’m a huge fan of British detectives.

Anyway…… We’ll surely meet again soon. Have a nice day, evening, where ever you are and take care.

Regards,

during the last few weeks I’ve had moments of surprize, amazement, being stupified, felt appalling, every word that comes up when observing my pupils’ language. Now, it isn’t that I am not used to the type of language my pupils use the way they use it.
But… Well……Somehow I have got this feeling as if they don’t care what they’re actually saying. I doubt whether they fully understand what they are shouting, screaming, taunting and scolding. It really is unbelievable. And worse: they just don’t care. Somehow that kind of knowing that they simply just can’t say what they’re thinking of of are thinking about, lacks. The moment I tell them that free speech also means having and showing responsability, they gaze at me, and raise their shoulders. “We live in a free country and we are allowed to speak out what we think”.
Yes, we do live in a free country and we do have the liberty of free speech. Thank God for that! However it doesn’t mean that we can ignore the feelings of the rest of the world. I teach my pupils that every word that they speak has consequences, in the way of probably offending someone near to you.
Believe me or not: they just don’t seem to care! They just don’t mind that someone might be hurt by words or actions. Somehow, they seem to lack conscience.
I’m certainly not the kind of woman who thinks that everything was better in the old days. No way…. I think that some events and some things were worse than the present world. But…. I think that our pupils need a bit of discipline in free speech before they don’t understand anymore what the verb “to insult” means.

needs no introduction, lol

oepsss….. lost my password but now I’ve found it again. Wouldn’t want to miss this site… Anyway….I’m back so within a few day you can read a few thoughts again, lol

How on Earth can I ever prepare a lesson when I don’t know which class I’ll get? This morning at the moment of writing, I have to deputize again. So much for creativity…… this class should have had a math lesson. But maths and me, we just don’t get along. This combination has never worked and will never work.

So, what now? Well, I have a classroom with computers and I have this class. Why not using the pc’s? I asked these kids to look for a picture and to write down all the things and persons they see at this picture. The words are in Dutch and have to be translated into English. And they have to create a file where they can put this picture, the words they found and a small story, created with the words they found.

Well, at least they are doing some usefull assignments instead of being busy with FB or something else.