Teaching

I am now doing my student teaching. I am teaching six subjects, language and reading for grades 1, 2 and 3 pupils at our church school. I have been preparing for this for a long time. One of my mental preparations is to imagine all the worst case scenarios that I can think of that can happen in the class room like pupils stabbing each other in the eyes with a pencil, or a pupil poopooing during class, or a student having seizure attacks, or a grade 1 student carrying a submachine gun spraying the class with water etc.

Another preparation that I do is a mental mantra on how to keep my composure and my patience in times of war. I am reading a book about Buddhism and all that stuff about nirvana and the annihilation of the senses and the overcoming of the self and all that eastern stuffs about being numbed, and I am developing this mantra that I keep repeating to myself over and over again so that I can separate myself from myself and not be overcome by fire (or passion):

Hmmmmmmm-a-hmmmmmm don’t kill your pupils,

Hmmmmmmm-a-hmmmmm don’t hit them with a steel pipe,

Hmmmmmm-a-hmmmmmm don’t kill your pupils

But I was a little disappointed, to tell truth, that all these preparations were unnecessary. Most of my pupils are good natured children with good sense of humor. Some are hyperactive and some are cool. Most are intelligent and some are just late bloomers. They are not that difficult to handle, really. All it takes is a lot of patience and a lot of …hmmmm…preaching (teachers are preachers!).

If there’s one thing I forgot to prepare for, it is my body. Teachers talk a lot and I strained my vocal chords (or whatever organ it is teachers used for teaching, preaching, threatening and pleading) that before my second day was over it already felt like I swallowed a kilo of shoe tacks.

On the third day, I can’t recognize myself speaking; I sound like Fred Panopio with a cough doing the yodel in front of my class.

“Yodelehiiiii-hhooooo-hooooo

“Yodelehiiiii-hhooooo-ubo-ubo-ubo…..

Anyway, I’m beginning to enjoy it, to tell the truth.

I am still adjusting to my new hmmm…what do I call this? I am still adjusting to my new identity and to my new schedules and to my new job so my blogs will be neglected for a while. I am still trying to “settle down.”