Yee haah!

Have just finished my last assignment for university: a portfolio showcasing the culmination of a year’s work. Done-diddley-un! My prac finished last Friday, another A!

Uni is over.

Haven’t been writing much on here the past few weeks – most of my “reflecting” has been on the back of lesson plans trying to figure out how to engage and captivate my holy terror of a year seven class. Some lessons I spend at least 80% of the time trying to get the darling little cherubs to shut up and listen. have come to the conclusion that there are two basic ingredients in classroom management: relationships and consistency. On a four week prac it’s nigh impossible to build the former when said cherubs are trying every way possible to rile you and know their real teacher will be back soon, and in my attempts to try varying methods of behaviour control, consistency has gone out of the window. On a similar vein, the school seems to be lacking consistency across classes; some teachers are strict, others are lax, and supposed school policies of no phones in class, no hats on in class etc. are enforced with vastly different degrees of adherence. Half of the executive positions at the school are filled by acting head teachers and deputies and the chain of command is blurry to say the least.

Looking back at my Japan blog, I’m appalled by how much my desire to write has gone out the window this year. Enforced reflection doesn’t really work and these pages are as staid as my head has become.

I’ve found a really really cool juggling site and I plan to spend the coming summer learning to juggle, learning to draw and reading stuff for fun, not assignments.

Hopefully I will start writing again by choice by next year, but this is the last for a while.