It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas…
It’s the middle of November and I can already feel a definite heightened awareness that Christmas is approaching. Don’t let the title mislead you – it hasn’t snowed here, but the temperature has dipped below zero a couple of times this last week. So in that way it doesn’t look much like Christmas, but just like at home, as soon as Halloween was over, Christmas decorations started to go up in stores. When I was in Cardiff at the end of October, some of the Christmas lights were already set up, but not plugged in. Today, on my way back from grocery shopping, I saw that Colchester has now turned on some of the street Christmas lights. The kids in school are calculating how many days until Christmas. One asked me the other day how many days, and the girl next to him told him the answer right off the bat. To top it off, I have already received (but not opened) my Christmas gift from my parents. They wanted to make sure the package would get here in time because they sent it my ship rather than by airmail – it’s considerably cheaper.
I have recently purchased my first set of wheels here – a used twelve speed town bike from a Quaker Sale. Suddenly my radius of mobility has increased so much. It takes me a third of the time to go to Town Centre, which means I can zip out there do my business and be back again within the hour. On foot, it would I would have needed probably 90 minutes to do a simple errand – precious lesson planning time especially during the week day. It’s not the best bike in the world. The tyres are a little wobbly, and the wires to the back light have been severed, but it’s mine and it works. Today, I took the bike on the train and went to Walton-on-Naze just to bike along the coast for a while. As I was biking and gawking from left to right, I suddenly thought of the Monty Python sketch where this bloke was biking along back roads and getting into accidents – it wasn’t the funniest sketch ever, but it made me smile to think about it.
As far as teaching is going, I am having my ups and downs. Sometimes I feel I have the behaviour of a class figured out and under control, and then the control is lost again. A couple of weeks ago I was having a really good day until I was interrupted during lunch by some who noticed my room was flooding. A student had apparently broken in the class, turned on the water tap in the sink that does not drain well and snuck out again. I had to relocate my last class and the kids were too excited about the prank that not much learning got done. We have just completed Modular Exams for the year 10 and year 11’s (similar to standardized tests for the units they have just learned). I am a little anxious to learn of the results of my students. In the UK, the grades students get determines how good a teacher you are. I know that I could not make several of the students in the lower sets to get their work done or even to study extra for this exam. They simply do not care, though they really should. Their results in the standardized exams – particularly the big one at the end of their year 11 – is a major area of focus on their CV’s when they start looking for jobs. I like the system we have in North America - if you fail you have to take the course over again. The pressure to stay in the same grade as your friends is enough to get most lower achievers to buckle down and try hard to pass.
As the year progresses, I am feeling a little more comfortable with the staff in the school, but I sure miss a social life. All the adults I basically know here in the UK are teachers, and most of these teachers are too busy hang out with me after hours. Thank goodness for my radio which I purchased only for £1 – the best investment of a pound I have made since I arrived here. I finally get to listen to music and be updated with news across the UK and abroad. I feel more connected… more normal again.
I have recently purchased my first set of wheels here – a used twelve speed town bike from a Quaker Sale. Suddenly my radius of mobility has increased so much. It takes me a third of the time to go to Town Centre, which means I can zip out there do my business and be back again within the hour. On foot, it would I would have needed probably 90 minutes to do a simple errand – precious lesson planning time especially during the week day. It’s not the best bike in the world. The tyres are a little wobbly, and the wires to the back light have been severed, but it’s mine and it works. Today, I took the bike on the train and went to Walton-on-Naze just to bike along the coast for a while. As I was biking and gawking from left to right, I suddenly thought of the Monty Python sketch where this bloke was biking along back roads and getting into accidents – it wasn’t the funniest sketch ever, but it made me smile to think about it.
As far as teaching is going, I am having my ups and downs. Sometimes I feel I have the behaviour of a class figured out and under control, and then the control is lost again. A couple of weeks ago I was having a really good day until I was interrupted during lunch by some who noticed my room was flooding. A student had apparently broken in the class, turned on the water tap in the sink that does not drain well and snuck out again. I had to relocate my last class and the kids were too excited about the prank that not much learning got done. We have just completed Modular Exams for the year 10 and year 11’s (similar to standardized tests for the units they have just learned). I am a little anxious to learn of the results of my students. In the UK, the grades students get determines how good a teacher you are. I know that I could not make several of the students in the lower sets to get their work done or even to study extra for this exam. They simply do not care, though they really should. Their results in the standardized exams – particularly the big one at the end of their year 11 – is a major area of focus on their CV’s when they start looking for jobs. I like the system we have in North America - if you fail you have to take the course over again. The pressure to stay in the same grade as your friends is enough to get most lower achievers to buckle down and try hard to pass.
As the year progresses, I am feeling a little more comfortable with the staff in the school, but I sure miss a social life. All the adults I basically know here in the UK are teachers, and most of these teachers are too busy hang out with me after hours. Thank goodness for my radio which I purchased only for £1 – the best investment of a pound I have made since I arrived here. I finally get to listen to music and be updated with news across the UK and abroad. I feel more connected… more normal again.
posted by K. Stoesz at 14:52
1 Comments:
Hi Kevin!
Since your Blog “address” was noted in church I have been following your adventure in Colchester. Amazing! I give you credit for venturing out to spend some extended time in the UK. Thanks for letting us know what’s happening in your life. One tends to think that maybe life/culture in England cannot be that different from life in Canada, after all, we both speak English. Wrong! Your blog helps us back home to begin to see that there could be quiet some adjusting needed. I guess you might say that your informative page (along with links to interesting places such as Walton-on-Naze) and Jared P. in Mozambique, as well as Sandy and Barrette in Egypt, allows me to do some armchair adventuring. Among other things I learned that “The Naze derives from the Old English ‘naes’, meaning nose” and that your bike is fitted with tyres.
I must admit that as a retired teacher I have really been more interested in reading of your experiences as a first year teacher teaching in an education system that varies from the ed. system of your life as a student. Then too, your professional training in Manitoba was aimed at sending teachers into the Manitoba schools. Of course I know that teaching and learning in all cultures has so much in common. But teachers in Winnipeg are quiet aware of differences in “learning environments” found in different school divisions within this city.
The many courses for which you need to prepare, the great number of students you need to learn to know, and the discouraging behaviour of some students, all make for a tough year away from “home.” This certainly sounds more difficult than my first year teaching. BUT I sense that you experience an occasional ray of hope and it is my hope for you that there will be more of them. You must be a man of some ideals and I want to encourage you to hold onto them. A funny thing about teaching, sometimes the most unlikely kids will remember the most important lesson, unfortunately a “concept” never tested in Modular Exams. Keep up the good work.
Jake Peters
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