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lokifanBleurgh. Mondays are usually my blissful day off after a hardcore weekend: no teaching, and no worrying yet about doing all my lesson planning and making materials. But I have a stomach bug. I’ve spent eighteen of the last twenty-four hours asleep, and much of the other six throwing up.
And I woke up blissfully expecting it to have been a twenty-four hour thing. NOT SO MUCH.
FUCKING CHILDREN. I bet I know which kid it was, too. He came in on Saturday saying he was sick - “my stomach ow” - and then gave me a snack (which was super-sweet though I didn’t eat it) and rushed to hold my hand when we played games. I washed my hands after the class but clearly that was not enough to fight off his adorable need to share his bacteria.
Ah well. This weekend was a pretty good one. I had an unpleasant moment: I fucked up and lost one of my classes’ mid-course reading and writing tests. Explaining this to Boss A was not fun. Particularly since he didn’t slam me about it but he has this MO of being ‘nice’ to the exclusion of being clear.
But whatevs. Cute boy at work actually responded to my flirting for a brief, beautiful moment: I told him I apologised but I might have to keep looking at his chest and smirking (he had a royal-purple Homer Simpson tie on) and he said he wouldn’t mind that. In a sort of shy but specific tone.
I am going to use my words any day now, but still. I got this impression he might have something going on that he hadn’t mentioned, but... he hasn’t mentioned it and he turns out to be INTO COMICS, we had this whole conversation about the hilarity of Iron Man vs Magneto. <3 And he has lovely green eyes.
Although if I get anywhere with him it will be classic girls marrying their fathers material, although maybe we just have a type in our family: he, like Youngest Sister’s first boyfriend and my dad, is tall, dark and handsome, and a nice boy from the Home Counties with a Welsh name who studied history at Oxbridge. (Well, in Youngest Sister’s ex’s case, it’s more ‘wants to study PPE at Oxbridge’. Close enough.) Don’t know where Middle Sister’s blond biology student fits in with this, but maybe he’s the exception that proves the rule: her previous boyfriends have played much more to the family type.
ANYWAY. I did have another great moment this weekend. I teach five classes in a week, each of whom have two two-hour lessons with me. My oldest and most advanced are mostly fourteen-ish, although they vary a lot. There’s this one girl, L, who clearly doesn’t want to be there at ALL. She sits in the back looking pissed off and doesn’t do any of the work if she can resist it - like, she’ll literally sit and make squiggles during the rare writing exercises so it looks like she’s working. She is bored and annoyed to be there.
On Saturday, I got them all to write monster stories of a minimum of four sentences. And she got REALLY INTO IT. Like, she wrote two different quite long ones and kept writing even when we’d moved on and seemed really pleased to be doing it. She even let me read one out. FUCK YEAH I GOT MY STUDENT TO ENGAGE.
Also I was so completely charmed by her story, omgosh. The other stories I saw were a comedy with a demon butler (!), a ghost story, and a zombie-killing story. Hers was about a vampire and an angel who were best friends even though their races were at war. They wanted to become human, so they needed this crystal that could transform them. They went through the woods of death and the river of despair and the mountain of pain and at least one more such distressing geographical feature before their quest was complete, they became human, and lived happily ever after.
<333 L YOU ARE A NEW FAVOURITE.
I totally do have favourites, although in a way where almost all of them are favourites. I try very hard to make sure that my classes can’t tell, though; students tend to become favourites because they try hard and ask questions, so I answer questions and then do more group/class work so it’s not all about those kids. I think I’m succeeding, because the cleverest girl in my J1 class - they’re all about six or seven - is also super-cuddly and adorable, but has begun to get a bit annoyed with me because hugging me a lot is not translating into me picking her for activities especially often.
Got to say, much as I am not going to be a primary school teacher ever, I fucking love my J1s. They are sweet and enthusiastic and adorable, and they all like me and want to hold my hand all the time. When feeling insecure re: cute boy or your fuck-up with some tests, there’s nothing like eighteen kids rushing to play with you to improve your day.
And I woke up blissfully expecting it to have been a twenty-four hour thing. NOT SO MUCH.
FUCKING CHILDREN. I bet I know which kid it was, too. He came in on Saturday saying he was sick - “my stomach ow” - and then gave me a snack (which was super-sweet though I didn’t eat it) and rushed to hold my hand when we played games. I washed my hands after the class but clearly that was not enough to fight off his adorable need to share his bacteria.
Ah well. This weekend was a pretty good one. I had an unpleasant moment: I fucked up and lost one of my classes’ mid-course reading and writing tests. Explaining this to Boss A was not fun. Particularly since he didn’t slam me about it but he has this MO of being ‘nice’ to the exclusion of being clear.
But whatevs. Cute boy at work actually responded to my flirting for a brief, beautiful moment: I told him I apologised but I might have to keep looking at his chest and smirking (he had a royal-purple Homer Simpson tie on) and he said he wouldn’t mind that. In a sort of shy but specific tone.
I am going to use my words any day now, but still. I got this impression he might have something going on that he hadn’t mentioned, but... he hasn’t mentioned it and he turns out to be INTO COMICS, we had this whole conversation about the hilarity of Iron Man vs Magneto. <3 And he has lovely green eyes.
Although if I get anywhere with him it will be classic girls marrying their fathers material, although maybe we just have a type in our family: he, like Youngest Sister’s first boyfriend and my dad, is tall, dark and handsome, and a nice boy from the Home Counties with a Welsh name who studied history at Oxbridge. (Well, in Youngest Sister’s ex’s case, it’s more ‘wants to study PPE at Oxbridge’. Close enough.) Don’t know where Middle Sister’s blond biology student fits in with this, but maybe he’s the exception that proves the rule: her previous boyfriends have played much more to the family type.
ANYWAY. I did have another great moment this weekend. I teach five classes in a week, each of whom have two two-hour lessons with me. My oldest and most advanced are mostly fourteen-ish, although they vary a lot. There’s this one girl, L, who clearly doesn’t want to be there at ALL. She sits in the back looking pissed off and doesn’t do any of the work if she can resist it - like, she’ll literally sit and make squiggles during the rare writing exercises so it looks like she’s working. She is bored and annoyed to be there.
On Saturday, I got them all to write monster stories of a minimum of four sentences. And she got REALLY INTO IT. Like, she wrote two different quite long ones and kept writing even when we’d moved on and seemed really pleased to be doing it. She even let me read one out. FUCK YEAH I GOT MY STUDENT TO ENGAGE.
Also I was so completely charmed by her story, omgosh. The other stories I saw were a comedy with a demon butler (!), a ghost story, and a zombie-killing story. Hers was about a vampire and an angel who were best friends even though their races were at war. They wanted to become human, so they needed this crystal that could transform them. They went through the woods of death and the river of despair and the mountain of pain and at least one more such distressing geographical feature before their quest was complete, they became human, and lived happily ever after.
<333 L YOU ARE A NEW FAVOURITE.
I totally do have favourites, although in a way where almost all of them are favourites. I try very hard to make sure that my classes can’t tell, though; students tend to become favourites because they try hard and ask questions, so I answer questions and then do more group/class work so it’s not all about those kids. I think I’m succeeding, because the cleverest girl in my J1 class - they’re all about six or seven - is also super-cuddly and adorable, but has begun to get a bit annoyed with me because hugging me a lot is not translating into me picking her for activities especially often.
Got to say, much as I am not going to be a primary school teacher ever, I fucking love my J1s. They are sweet and enthusiastic and adorable, and they all like me and want to hold my hand all the time. When feeling insecure re: cute boy or your fuck-up with some tests, there’s nothing like eighteen kids rushing to play with you to improve your day.
no subject
Date: 2013-01-15 04:13 pm (UTC)Your kids sound great. OMG, that girl with the monster story: awesome! Reminds me of some of my high-school level teacher friends using fanfic to get their students to engage. You all rock so much for teaching.
Aw, cute guy into comics. I haz envy. I want one of those, please.
no subject
Date: 2013-01-16 01:27 am (UTC)So awesome, right? And d'awww.
I want this one for me ;) I'll keep fingers crossed for you!
no subject
Date: 2013-01-16 09:50 pm (UTC)Hehe! Thanks. I'll keep mine crossed for you!
no subject
Date: 2013-01-16 09:27 pm (UTC)And I had to giggle at the Kuroshitsuji thing.;)
no subject
Date: 2013-01-20 03:48 pm (UTC)SERIOUSLY. I LOLed so hard. My students are really into anime and manga, actually, but I didn't want to ask about Kuro what with the sexing and the chan vibe :)