September

September was a bit of an adjustment period for me. I got right back into everything right away but I still noticed that there’s an adjustment. Going back to school was like riding a bike. The first couple of weeks were particularly great. I felt very much rejuvenated and full of enthusiasm. Students were excited to see me and welcomed me back and asked my about my trip. I valiantly took on the challenge of teaching gym. I got over my fear of kindergarteners. And then all of a sudden, one day, the honeymoon was over. It coincided with the one class being particularly difficult with a couple of behaviourally challenged boys leading the circus and it just burst the little bubble I was in. Now I don’t feel so rejuvenated anymore. I’m tired a lot. Sometimes I fall asleep quite early in the evening. I’m going through a little spell of being unmotivated. I’m hoping that’s a phase that I’ll snap out of soon.

I love teaching music. The little kids are very cute and some get so excited. Teaching gym is actually fun too. I’ve had a lot of support and resources thrown at me which has been so helpful and going in with the right attitude makes it fun. It’s nice to see students interacting in a different way. Different from the regular classroom setting. The grade 8 teacher calls me Sporty Schemeit now. I still enjoy teaching French…especially because I’m not teaching the intermediates and the two classes that I am teaching are just lovely. One of the things I’m really loving is sharing my stories from the past year. I gave a slide show presentation of the animals that I saw around the world for the grade 1s and 2s because they happen to be studying them now. They loved it. The one class could hardly contain themselves. Adam was so excited he couldn’t even get the “Thank you” out he was trying to say. Emma exclaimed part way through “I want to be you!” Today I gave a presentation about the school in Uganda to the grade 7/8 class. They received letters yesterday from the school and I was able to whip up and present something today. They were silent for a whole 40 minutes. I’ve never heard a 7/8 class that silent for that long. The grade 5/6 class for whom I do a period of Character Education is most captivated by my stories of Africa I tell about the fact that by showing them respect I received high respect in return. Now I just need to get over my poor motivation lately so that when I come home from school I can still do some productive work, whether it’s for school or for working toward other projects.

Maybe getting my blog up to date is a good start.