I was entered into a vague "Young Teacher Competition" against two of the other teachers under 30 years old. None of us were told directly that we were now competing, which was odd until I read this, so it wasn't until I arrived at one of my classes to find an observer hiding at the back that I got my game-face on. I think that went well, although he clearly struggled to finish with the sports crossword that my students did with ease.
Three further observations and a secret (well, clearly not very secret) survey of my students later, all talk of the competition has passed, other than the ominous warning that the 'prize' is to be observed again by the head professor of the school. An honour, sure, but a headache when the students turn up physically but not mentally at 8am on a grey morning.
The students, knowing that the observations were over, decided this would be the ideal time to start behaving like brats and started cutting class, arriving late, fighting, making phone calls and pulling all the oldest tricks to avoid speaking English. They thought they were so clever.
So, I threw a couple out, set and reset homework and confiscated enough phones to start my own Nokia shop. Then the student councillors came to class to double-check attendance, and anyone skipping was reported. Teachers 1 - 0 students.
Classes are, roughly, back on track and behaviour's back to normal although attendance is still really flaky - I had 4 out of 22 turn up today, because this weekend's a national holiday.
All in all, not terribly newsworthy (well done for sticking out this post, if you did) as I've just been working a lot lately. I'll make up something for the next few days... you can play 'spot the red herring'.
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