"So, how's the teaching going?"

We have a couple of night watchmen/ security guards who works around our flat to check for intruders. Well, I like to think it is for our safety but it is probably for the café, news broadcasters, insurance firm and key-makers who also occupy the same building. They are really friendly and always say “Morning,” when you pass them. This morning I made a comment about one of their trainers. This pair of trainers would have looked at home at the start line of a marathon; a nice pair of Asics. The guy went on to explain that he is a runner and that there is a 10km race coming up this Sunday put on by the Guyanese Olympic Committee. Straight after school I signed up.

I’m now past the hump! I find that on Wednesdays, I can de-stress and visualise what is left of the week. This week has been fantastic at school though. Teaching has gone really well. No behaviour issues. More homework handed in. Better understanding of my accent. Less sweat in the classroom. I even felt like I was differentiating this week! It is a real teacher-ish thing to say but I feel really good when I notice that this is happening ad-lib in the middle of a lesson.

I did have two blips in the week though. The first was graph drawing with year 9. I love graphs. I love teaching graphs. I love seeing a good graph done by a student and I love watching students figure out how to graph something. It also happens to be a topic that you need to practice. Some students get it perfect, some get it perfectly wrong and some copy the perfect kids. I had my graph lesson planned for last lesson on Tuesday. The room was hot. The kids were angry. I knew it was going to be a struggle. I didn’t let them give up though. By 3pm, five kids had perfected their graphs and went home. 25 were sat there get angsty. Gradually more and more would get it, draw their graph and trot home. One kid, however, didn’t. She decided to make a rough copy of a perfect kid’s at 3pm. I noticed this and asked her to start again. She then decided to get grumpy and sat for 15 minutes not doing it. Between then and 3.30, she realised that I wasn’t going away, she made the graph, I helped her plot it and finally she left.

I don’t know if they hate me now but I don’t care. I know that all of them can draw a graph and I also know that they know I won’t give up!

The second blip was an AS chemistry test today. I had given them a topic list to revise the day before then made the mistake of giving a different topic of questions. A few of them came up to moan about it afterwards and I blagged some excuse about having to “know the whole syllabus.” I felt bad but then I think it has been a good thing for their knowledge. They revised for a topic as well as getting exam practice on a past topic that they should know anyway. The results were mixed. Half A*-C, half failed. I found out they got the same in biology so I am happy with that. I always found chemistry a lot harder than biology and I still feel that I am improving every day with my A-level teaching.

This is a picture from my favourite class. Form five absolutely love this group points system we have going. Neither me nor them have any idea what the winner gets but holding top place for a lesson is a massive achievement.