Carpe Diem

I have to admit that I am very happy to see all you ex-2E3/2E4 people again in my classes. I really hope we will have a good time this year. I think we had a pretty good time last year. I think.

Well, this blog homework thing was supposed to be an experiment of sorts. I enjoyed reading your posts and I apologise if I didn’t manage to comment on every one of them. I also realised the huge temptation for you all to slip into netspeak when writing. I do hope that you did manage to learn a little more about the world around you, if not about writing in English.

If you are still reading this, leave me a comment on what you thought of holiday homework like this. Perhaps you still prefer the pen and paper tasks instead? Let me know.

Lastly, what should we do with all the blogs that have littered the blogosphere at the moment? Should I delete this blog? Should you all delete your blogs? Should we figure out a way to continue this?

Feedback would be good.

To those wonderful students who ask for less EL homework next year, I hate to burst your bubble.

But I am. You are ALL going to have to work harder and smarter next year.

Edited to add:

I wasn’t planning to post anything else on this blog but I thought I would say something about your wishes for EL lessons next year.

I understand where a lot of you are coming from when you ask for less homework, more interesting lessons etc. When I was a student, these are the exact same things I would have asked for. At the same time, we have to weigh this against the fact that we need to produce results and against the fact that teachers are humans too.

Exciting lessons, EL games and interesting work all involve an insane amount of preparation on the teachers’ part. I don’t mind doing it but sometimes, I have no inspiration, I have no idea what gets you all excited and I don’t always have the time. I also want exciting lesson. Nothing is better than seeing your students having a good time in your lessons, but reality isn’t always like this. Seriously, I feel really bad when I see you all bored and slogging on dry, tedious worksheets. Yet these are very necessary.

So for those of you who will be in my EL class next year (and I cannot speak for the other teachers), it would help greatly if you temper your expectations. That means, try to be realistic. Also, tell me what interests you or gets you excited, because what gets me excited isn’t always what excites you. I suppose if I could, I’ll talk about Superman all the time.

Secondary 3 life is both a lot of hard work and a lot of fun. Let’s hope we all can balance this well.

How sad are you that school is starting on Friday? Where did all the time go? So here’s our last task. We started with a compulsory task, and we’ll end with a compulsory one. Don’t worry though, this is pretty simple and really should not take you more than 10 minutes to do.

Task 6:

1. List 3 things you are looking forward to in 2009

2. List 3 goals you wish to achieve in 2009

3. List 3 goals you achieved in 2008

4. List 3 wishes you have for EL lessons in 2009 (hint: it seems likely that I’m going to teach most of you next year – hmm, wonder if that is good news or bad)

In the spirit of modelling, here are mine.

Looking forward to in 2009

1. Meeting my new form class
2. C’est La Vie (mixed feelings)
3. Travelling to Japan or Europe (if I can save up enough)

Wish to achieve in 2009

1. My EL classes achieving distinctions and not just passes
2. Successfully complete a piece of research
3. More efficient marking!!

Goals achieved in 2008

1. 100% passes for 2E3 / 2E4 (of which I should thank all of you for your hard work)
2. 4T2 graduated successfully
3. Racial Harmony Day went off without too many problems

Wishes for EL lessons in 2009

1. Enthusiastic students who are willing to work hard
2. More interesting lessons (if I am able to be creative enough)
3. Less chasing for homework

So enjoy the last bits of the holidays, happy new year and I’ll see all of you in school on Friday!

Ahem. After receiving feedback about the previous two tasks being too dry, I offer this to you instead. While I appreciate that you might find this task more interesting (read: more gossipy), I trust you to demonstrate good judgement, not to name names and not to post anything that might cause harm to anyone.

So this task was inspired by this particular blog post which in turn was in response to the following newspaper article. Read the two of them before attempting this task.

Task [R, U]

1. What is the blog post trying to get across to its audience? Does the author think what the teacher did is wrong or does he think society is over-reacting? How do you know?

2. Are there lines that teachers cannot cross? Do you think that being a teacher means that a person has to be a role model 24/7? Why or why not? Give your thesis sentence and provide support as to why you think that way. Write at least 100 words.