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.
this week we had a chat about the attitude of pupils towards their study at work. We couldn’t help but we compared our own attitude to that of our pupils. We realized that the way we we were thinking about our development differs a lot. “In the old days” we we scared like hell when we got a bad mark. Nowadays somehow they don’t care at all. We couldn’t sleep when we hadn’t finished our essays or papers. Nowadays they say: “well, that’s to bad but give me an F and we’re finished.” What??? and they couldn’t care less?
I don’t think that this has just something to do with school or homework. I’ve found this totally careless attitude in their way of thinking and life. Some pupils somehow seem to have no conscience at all when damaging possessions of others or hurting an animal or even destroying their own lives. Even worse: a lot of youngsters don’t care about their own body when using drugs and/or booze, let alone care about their own dignity or self respect.
I simply don’t understand them anymore. I think this way of thinking and living has nothing to do with a hopeless future. So that’s no excuse. I think it a kind of attitude that reflex too much about materialism and too little about what one really needs: a safe home, love, and care from those they really want to be close to
This morning I had to deputize. It’s not one of my favorite parts of my job. However, now and then we have to do this, only to avoid sending classes home or having them in class without anything to do at all.
This morning I had to deal with grade 3 at our school. With nothing prepared and no prelimary work at all, I entered class. There, 24 pupils were waiting for me, sitting in front of computers. Some of them (well, I guess most of them) eager to start gaming. Uhmm…… Sorry guys, it’s definitely not what I had in mind. I was eager to let them speak English. And I promised them, they would be allowed to play games 10 minutes before ending class. Well, to keep this story short: we didn’t reach that point of gaming at all. I had them talking to each other for about 10 minutes, in English of course. After those then minutes I asked them questions and during this kind of game my pupils and I found out they were making a few mistakes when using the wrong tense in verbs. So, I started to explain. And you know, the most funny part of it was this: when one of the students reminded me of what I had promised, he was booed away for most of pupils wanted to continue. They felt they were learning something. Lol, no gaming, but explaining grammar and exercises.
It really gave me a good feeling as I had finished this class.
Sometimes internet gives us the chance to find material that can by used in class when teaching a little part of English history. Here are the lyrics:
Speed bonnie boat, like a bird on the wing,
Onward, the sailors cry
Carry the lad that’s born to be King
Over the sea to Skye!
Loud the winds howl, loud the waves roar,
Thunderclouds rend the air
Baffled our foes stand on the shore,
Follow they will not dare.
Speed bonnie boat, like a bird on the wing,
Onward, the sailors cry
Carry the lad that’s born to be King
Over the sea to Skye!
Though the waves leap, soft shall ye sleep,
Ocean’s a royal bed
Rocked in the deep, Flora will keep
Watch by your weary head.
Speed bonnie boat, like a bird on the wing,
Onward, the sailors cry
Carry the lad that’s born to be King
Over the sea to Skye!
Many’s the lad fought on that day
Well the Claymore could wield
When the night came, silently lay
Dead in Culloden’s field.
Speed bonnie boat, like a bird on the wing,
Onward, the sailors cry
Carry the lad that’s born to be King
Over the sea to Skye!
Burned are their homes, exile and death
Scatter the loyal men
Yet e`r the sword cool in the sheath
Charlie will come again!
The origin of this song is to be found on Wikipedia: “The Skye Boat Song” is a Scottish folk song, which can also be played as a waltz, recalling the escape of Prince Charles Edward Stuart (Bonnie Prince Charlie) from Uist to the Isle of Skye after his defeat at the Battle of Culloden in 1746. “Come O’er the Stream Charlie” is a Scottish song whose theme is the aftermath of the Jacobite Rising of 1745. Written well after the events it commemorates, it is not a genuine Jacobite song, as is the case with many others now considered in the “classic canon of Jacobite songs,” most of which were songs “composed in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, but were passed off as contemporary products of the Jacobite risings.
Too tired to write something. Have been in my car for 4 hours!!!! Four hours and only 63 kilometers to drive. Just because there was a bit snow. Well…. a bit more than a bit snow….. uhm……..about 8 cm. And a van obstructing the A15. Sure….. why not? after all, there’s just a bit snow on the road…… pffftttttt.