Put away the sunblock and your passports, because the school year has begun. This week was my first week teaching... ever. Granted, I had some tutoring experience before, but never anything quite like this. I teach about 45 12th graders, and 45 11th graders. Already I am getting to know the personalities of the students and the personalities of the classes as a whole. And there are a lot of personalities. Before the year started I was warned about potential behavior problems. And it's true, it's hard to get 17 year olds to be calm and quiet, especially when they're all taller than you. But despite the behavioral challenges, it has been a lot of fun getting to know them. In terms of academics, I started off with a fairly traditional syllabus, but I see now that I may be more effective with some more creative activities and class discussions.
Though I enjoyed my maiden voyage as a teacher, this week was one of the longest on record. We started on Saturday which made for a six day week. Also, I started taking Arabic classes 3x a week for 3 hours each session. The place is great and the teachers are so nice, but again, makes for very long days.
I'm now enjoying a very necessary weekend. Boy do I have a new found respect for teachers. Round two begins Sunday.
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