Skip to main content

Veni Vidi Vici

It's over. I've made it through the first day.

The first three lessons went frighteningly well. Period 3 and I had the Year 7 kids in the palm of my hand. I was proud, arrogant and totally unprepared for what happened after lunch, with Year 10 in Period 4.

I was teaching another Year 10 class. I repeated the lesson from period 1 and saw that one of the kids had her head on the desk. I chose to ignore this. Then, another one went down...and another. Damn, they were dropping like flies. So I made the mistake of asking the first if she was feeling alright and did she want to see the nurse?

"I'm bored" came the cutting reply and then I heard the monotonous, droning, monosyllabic sound that I'd heard many times before. I was in a boring lesson, except this time, I was the bore.

I changed tack and got onto the kinasthetic bit. These kids didn't want to hear any more of me - they wanted to do something. Activity underway and not a head on the desk. I have learned a bitter lesson.

This evening, we hosted the sheva brachot and it was lovely. Dana and the Cleaner had gone to great lengths to totally transform our living room and enable over 20 people to sit comfortably therein. It's nearly 1 am and there's still a mess, but I don't care.

Now, I'm the one who's going to put my head down.

Comments

BarbaraFromCalifornia said…
Mazel Tov on making it through your first day of class!

Boredem is the silent killer of us all.
Tuesday, 06 September, 2005
The Scribbler said…
Thanks for your support!
Tuesday, 06 September, 2005
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ten Jewberry Muds

To get the full effect, this message should be read out loud. You will understand what 'tenjewberrymuds' means by the end of the conversation. This has been nominated for the best email of 2005. The following is a telephone exchange between a hotel guest and room-service at a hotel in Asia, which was recorded and published in the FarEast Economic Review: Room Service (RS): "Morrin. Roon sirbees." Guest (G): "Sorry, I thought I dialed room-service." RS: "Rye..Roon sirbees..morrin! Jewish to oddor sunteen??" G: "Uh..yes..I'd like some bacon and eggs." RS: "Ow July den?" G: "What??" RS: "Ow July den?...pryed, boyud, poochd?" G: "Oh, the eggs! How do I like them? Sorry, scrambled please." RS: "Ow July dee baykem? Crease?" G: "Crisp will be fine." RS: "Hokay. An Sahn toes?" G: "What?" RS: "An toes. July Sahn toes?" G: "I don't think so."...
3 comments
Read more

Magic Moments

At the end of a sunny day, Dana decided to start a water fight. She sprinkled a bit of tap water in my direction. Then her eyes lit up and she ran out of the room. I of course thought nothing of it, until she returned with a filled water pistol! That was it - The race was on to remember where I'd hidden the other three unopened packets. With pistols at the ready, the kids got in on the act and what could have been a ginormous water fight was almost immediately curtailed as Shira did not appreciate being spritzed in the face. The sheer impulsiveness of the moment was Dana all over and it's one of the things that I love so much about her. The pistols have been seized and are ready, waiting for another day when I predict we are all seriously going to have the most amazing and floodworthy water-fight. I can't wait (and neither can the kids).
Post a Comment
Read more

Our City

Tomorrow night, we will be celebrating the thirty-ninth anniversary of the return of Jerusalem into Jewish hands. Many people around the world continue to deny the Jewish people the right to claim the city as our eternal capital. On the Temple Mount, the Arabs do what they can to destroy any evidence of our ancient presence, yet, despite their efforts, they cannot erase the basic fact that Jerusalem has, is and will always be - ours. This is not to say that the city is less important to persons of another faith. What I am stating and categorically so, is that Jerusalem is accessible to anyone who wants to worship therein, but never it let be forgotten that, at the end of the day, we, the Jewish Nation are the only people who, since time immemorial have chosen this very special place as a destination for all our prayers - she belongs to us. Every time we pray to G-d, we face towards Jerusalem. Every single Ark in every single Synagogue faces towards the city. It’s presence in our psyche...
2 comments
Read more