Fantastic Friday

[redsnake05]

So... this week. Fab or Drab? What happened that was a ray of sunshine in the middle of the overcast?

Comments

[redsnake05]

School is kicking my arse, generally, but I did have a ray of sunshine when I was given coffee-iced, coffee-flavoured biscuits by a student as a thank you for my help and giving up my lunchtime to tutor her (and her ungrateful, not baking classmates).

[used_songs]

Mostly drab. We had standardized testing for most of the week so it was boring and yet also stressful. I'm just glad this week is over. Now we just have to wait for the all-important test results. Ugh.

[used_songs]

Mmmmm! That was nice (and I'm sure very welcome).

[redsnake05]

So many ughs and sympathetic cups of tea. I don't think that people realise just how stressful testing is on teachers, and most people forget how stressful it was on them. So you have all my love and wishes of happiness.

[redsnake05]

Fortunately, she's a good cook *winks* it did make me feel better about a week that seemed to be full of putting out fires and dealing with arseholes.

[ettegoom]

Mostly drab, and *headwall* material for most of the week (possibly because I didn't get enough sleep all week).

But on Thursday, one of my girls who tends to struggle with pretty much everything we do managed to construct the most superb paper cube ever (we are learning about 2D and 3D shapes)! At least now I know that she is really good at crafty stuff, and maybe I can find a way to use this rather exceptional ability to hook her into other aspects of thinking.

[redsnake05]

Discovering a talent like that is always awesome, especially if you can find ways to build on it. Yay for her and you.

[ettegoom]

It was a relief really, because I really was having trouble finding things that resulted in any kind of response from her. So yeah, I am really happy about it! :-)

[kaptainvon]

Started out fairly drab.

Continued through the drabness into active "WHERE THE HELL ARE HALF THE CAST?" on Wednesday (the BTEC Drama class I teach are rehearsing their final performance at the moment and about six of the fifteen just didn't show up for that rehearsal at all).

And then, in shafts of golden light, my brilliant, lovely evening class saved the week by being ON FIRE and demonstrating exactly how much attention they pay when we teach them about media texts and deconstruction technique (which is to say 'quite a lot actually'). It's been pretty good since then. The Drama students turned up and, for the first time in these rehearsals, started to produce a genuinely moving performance across the board. The A-level groups I've been parachuted in to help lead through revision activities were much the same as they've always been (bright and, with a bit of poking in the right parts of the brain, insightful, and they remembered much more than I'd expected them to about a text they last looked at four months ago) and my observed session (last one of the week, Middle English, recipe for gloom and disaster) went... pretty well, actually.

So yeah. On balance, a good week - drab to fab in the course of three days.

[kaptainvon]

I love those moments where someone suddenly shows what they can do, and how that can help them do other things. Something very similar happened to me when a Literature student with reading issues discovered books on tape: he's had a lot more to say for himself (well, he always had a lot to say for himself, but he's saying it better and striking gold more often) since then.

[kaptainvon]

Those biscuits sound lovely - and it is lovely when a student does that for you.

[redsnake05]

Gah, sometimes teaching is just like that. It can change so quickly and in the most unexpected directions. I'm glad to hear that it changed in a happy and positive direction.

[redsnake05]

It's nice to be appreciated, especially when you go above and beyond for someone.

[ettegoom]

Yes... those moments really make the whole thing bearable at times... Am very glad that your student has found something that can fire his thinking! Taped books are awesome for dyslexic kids! I LOVE my reading post at times :-)