Tough Tuesday

Boy, are Tuesdays tough or what?

My timetable (which has been changed three times since the start of the academic year) has me teaching three Year 7 classes in succession. Not only that, but I have to teach very same lesson to each of the classes.

Each lesson is seventy minutes long, which means that I am ending up teaching the very same lesson for a period of three hours and thirty minutes.

Every single Tuesday.

Today was no exception, apart from the fact that I ended up throwing four kids out in the first lesson for incessant disruption, lost my temper with kids during the second lesson and taught the third class for a full ninety minutes, because they just couldn’t keep quiet.

The only, and I mean, only, positive outcome from this masochistic exercise is that by the time I’ve reached the third lesson, my teaching strategies (regarding the subject matter) are stronger and more coherent. I could very easily fall into the trap of going into automatic mode, but I have to keep reminding myself that although I’ve heard myself telling the kids the same information twice before...its this poor class’s first time!

So, Tuesday is over for another week and I’m exhausted. Fortunately (or maybe not), tomorrow will see me invigilating (yawn) for most of the day, so that at least my voice will be rested enough for my “challenging” Year 9 classes on Thursday.

The glow I felt after finding out I’ve passed my NQT year  has completely evaporated. Now, it’s sheer bloody-mindedness that is keeping me going until the next break, which is (ahem) a whole eight school days away.