Blogs from Bedfordshire, England, United Kingdom, Europe - page 4

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Europe » United Kingdom » England » Bedfordshire » Luton January 29th 2009

When I switched from teaching science to humanities, I also inherited four business classes. Actually, the course is called "enterprise", which is a combination of citizenship and business. Upon completing the coursework, the students will receive two GCSE's, which are basically qualifications in a certain field. I've seen job ads in the paper that say, "Applicant must have a GCSE in maths and science" or "Must have GCSE in food technology." Anyway, I'm completely unqualified to teach this class. You might as well ask me to be the new CEO for Microsoft or a senator. I don't even know where to start! I've never taken a business class in my life--not in high school or college. Furthermore, I don't fully understand "coursework". We don't have that in America. I know I'm supposed to teach them some ... read more

Europe » United Kingdom » England » Bedfordshire » Luton January 27th 2009

I've never seen so much bullying in my life. The kids at this school literally have no regard for each other. They are heartless and cruel. It makes me sick. We have a situation where these four obnoxious girls are bullying a quiet, introverted boy. He's about fed up with it, so he's starting to lash out at them in retaliation. At the end of my class, last period of the day on Fridays, I have the students put their chairs on their desks so the floor can be cleaned. While the chairs were up, one of the girls acted like she was going to push the chair into the little boy's face, just to watch him flinch so they could all laugh at him. She accidentally hit him in the face with it. He was ... read more

Europe » United Kingdom » England » Bedfordshire » Luton January 23rd 2009

One of the ladies who works in the front office at school has cancer from asbestos. It's all over the school and in practically every building in England. At home, schools are condemned, torn down and rebuilt if they have asbestos. Here, they'd have to tear down the whole country to get rid of it. It's just everywhere. So we've been planning a fundraiser ball for Nicky to raise money for asbestos cancer awareness. I had assumed the fundraiser was for her and her family, because cancer treatment is expensive. Then I remembered, Oh, yeah! Universal health care. They don't have to pay for her cancer treatment. So the money is going to charity. Megan, the beautiful music teacher, has been assigned the task of recruiting teachers to sing a couple of songs for the ball. ... read more

Europe » United Kingdom » England » Bedfordshire » Luton January 19th 2009

FOUR business classes, and I am completely unqualified to teach it! I have no idea what I'm doing, and my students can tell. I've asked for assistance, but those higher up keep putting it off to a later date. As always, this class of Year 10's (9th graders) is wild. They won't sit where I tell them to sit. A couple of girls sit in the back and laugh and laugh. They blatantly make fun of me--my clothes, my accent, my mannerisms, commenting on the way I walk, etc. It doesn't offend me, just pisses me off that they're disrupting my lesson. They're going on and on about my shoes. I'll admit, they aren't the cutest things in the world--brown loafers with a high, chunky heel--but they're comfortable to wear when I'm standing all day, which ... read more

Europe » United Kingdom » England » Bedfordshire » Luton January 9th 2009

I don't think I can take this school for another seven months. I hate this job so much, it's like destroying my soul. I've never been treated with such disrespect in all my life. I've never felt so powerless. I feel like a loser, but I have to get out of here. And I don't ever want to teach again. I just want to curl up in a ball in my mommy's bed, completely hidden under the covers, and stay there for like three months. I call my mother and tell her I'm coming home. "Oh, thank God!" she says. "I thought, what's it gonna take!" Problem is that I have no money to buy a plane ticket home. I used it all up during my Christmas break, plus I didn't get paid for that two ... read more

Europe » United Kingdom » England » Bedfordshire » Luton January 6th 2009

Back in October, one of my co-workers suddenly quit. Although he returned for about ten minutes to collect his belongings, he basically just stopped showing up for work. He said, "This is the worst school I've ever seen." I've felt slightly envious of him ever since. Anyway, that left an opening in the humanities department. Since I'm qualified in both science and history/geography, I asked the vice principal if I could switch departments. I like humanities better, and I don't like working under Manir. The VP said he'd see what he could do. He wanted to talk to Manir about it and probably wait until they can find someone to replace me in science. That said, I wasn't holding my breath on getting the humanities position. However, the last day of last term (the same day ... read more

Europe » United Kingdom » England » Bedfordshire » Luton December 19th 2008

I emailed the airlines last night to see if I could change my ticket so I can fly home sooner. I haven't heard back from them, so I call. No answer. I leave a message on the machine. Slipping my cell phone into my pocket, I take a deep breath, trying to clear my mind. Stay calm, Alicia. Stop stressing about this. It's in God's hands. BUT I HAVE TO GO HOME!! You'll get there. Stop worrying and enjoy the day. I spend the next hours trying to stay focused on the world around me, taking deep breaths, striving to stay in the present moment. One thing is for sure: for the past few months, God has been giving me lessons in surrender. I have a hard time letting go. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The students and faculty are ... read more

Europe » United Kingdom » England » Bedfordshire » Luton December 10th 2008

This room is CHAOS. It's the same year 9, bottom-set class where the fight broke out a few days ago. Everyday, I have something semi-fun planned during class. I say "semi-fun" because it's still work, but it's always an activity, group work, and experiment, etc. I hold it over their heads, telling them that if they don't behave, we won't get to do our activity. At my school in Tennessee where I taught last year, this always worked. Kids like to do experiments, so they behaved themselves so they wouldn't have to work out of their boring textbook. But these kids don't care. They don't want to do my activities anyway, so it's no incentive to behave. We've hardly done anything fun in this class. I've been thinking that maybe they're misbehaving because they're bored. Maybe ... read more

Europe » United Kingdom » England » Bedfordshire » Luton December 8th 2008

In this school, every student is grouped into "sets" based on ability-level for every subject. Science has three different groups, or "sets". The "top set" is the highest-performing group, and the "bottom set" is the lowest. Right now, I'm in the midst of a nightmare-ish lesson with my bottom set year 9 class (8th graders). They won't shut the hell up long enough for me to say ANYTHING! If you're sitting there thinking, "Well, you should just tell them blah blah blah..", I can assure you that telling them anything is just as impossible to me as trying to tell the mosh pit at a Limp Bizkit concert something. You can't tell them anything, because they aren't listening to you. They're busy. And they're loud. So I'm struggling with my options: do I move on with ... read more

Europe » United Kingdom » England » Bedfordshire » Bedford December 1st 2008

The reason that I am able to live and work in Britain is because my grandmother was born here and that has entitled me to have an "Ancestory Visa". Yesterday I set out in search of the birth place of my grandmother Mabel Haultain nee Dean (mother of my beautiful and inspirational mother). Nana was born in the small working class village of Bedford (about 100km) north of London in 1896. Well a little under three hours after leaving home (Finchley Central), on a cold (3 degrees), drizzly Sunday morning and with only one wrong turn, I found the tiny two bedroom house that housed my great grandparents and their three daughters. At 27 Bower Street, Off Castle Street, about 1 mile out of Bedford and a mere 50 metres from the Gordon Arms stands the ... read more
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