roller-coaster ride

The school day on Friday was a rollercoaster one. My EL h.o.d. was scheduled to come in for a single period observation, and I had planned for a revision game with the class. Alas, the lesson did not go as planned. First, there was a problem with the projector - and my laptop could not be connected nor screened. Never mind - technical glitches happen - and I switched to writing the quiz questions on the board instead, asking the students to write their answers on the A3 paper I had given them.

BUT. The class was in a horrible state that day. They were noisy, restless, uncooperative, to the extent that I had to keep trying to keep them on-task. But they pushed my limits. And my limit snapped. I told them all to stand up, in a quiet tone. The tone that meant that they were going to get it from me. Mind you, the h.o.d. was there, and yet they were still behaving in such a manner.

And the students all got a piece of my mind. I wouldn't say I "lectured" them, rather, I scolded them in a logical manner. The bell rang. And the h.o.d. spoke up. She was going to continue the scolding, simply because she couldn't tolerate the students' behavior any longer as well. I left for my next class.

Post-observation debrief. I was worried tt the lesson was a disaster, but what my h.o.d. told me, I'll never forget:

"Don't worry that your lesson was a disaster, it's not. In fact, it was from this lesson that I truly saw what kind of a teacher you are. And I must say, I am very impressed. Things like pedagogy can be learnt on the job, but it is the fundamentals of being a teacher that is important. And to me, you already possess those fundamentals. Good job! I'm very pleased with what I saw."

And that speech... simply made my day (=