The First Day of School!

I survived day 1 as a teacher!

Surprisingly, I was not overcome with nerves, or worry, or panic. I'll spare any very specific details for now, mostly because it's so beautiful outside and I want to get out while I can.

So, at our school each class group has two (or in our case three) mentor teachers. As the students arrived, myself and the other two mentor teachers welcomed our students to IES. We went over the pamphlet of rules every student has to sign, both in English and Swedish (guess which one I did!)

Some of the rules include: no cell phones EVER; no gum, soda, or other junk food (I will personally break this rule in private, no question - it's a sickness); the students must line up before any class begins, and they may only enter once the teacher allows it; they cannot leave school grounds; they may not speak out of turn in class or run in the halls, among many, many more.

From my understanding, most Swedish schools do not enforce rules strictly, so I definitely saw a few shocked or suprised faces in the class. As a school, we are going to all work together to enforce these rules. Now, anyone who knows me surely knows that I am not "traditional" in any sense of the word. Sure, I agree with rules, and think that respect should be a big part of everyone's day. But if you had the strich and tough-as-nails teacher, and the anything goes, whatever teacher. . . well, I suppose my personality tends to located a little more in the middle, but let's be honest, a little closer to the easy going end of the scale. I tend to think that if students understand that I respect them, they show the same kind of respect in turn. It's always worked for me, and I do think our school rules are basic respect rules, so I can definitely be "me" while enforcing the code of conduct.
I am doing and will continue to do my best to uphold the school values. I can seperate the easy-going me of my personal life with the stricter teacher side of myself.

Anyways, back to the school day. So after the mentor meeting, I had Year 7 French. There were eleven students in the class. Eleven students. . . kind of felt like being handed some cake on a plate. Now, the level of French is essentially non-existant, so we will have to work together and learn as a nice little class.

Next we had lunch. Lunch here is NOTHING like lunch in Canada. Students all serve themselves from a buffet-style lunch, and find a spot in one of the cafeteria rooms. Teachers disperse and eat with students. Not at the the table, with them. Literally. It's not punishment. In any Canadian school I've been to or taught at, the presence of a teacher constitutes some kind of punishment, or "behaviour warning." Lunch is not the same "relax time" it was at other schools. It will take some getting used to, but for the most part, students really did seem to want the teachers there.

I had an English class. Had to do a bit of disciplining. I spoke about Canada, hockey, and poutine.

Had a great, relaxing weekend, and now I am going to open my books and start to return to school mode!

oh, I bought a skipping rope. I hope the neighbours below me aren't afternoon nappers!

p.s, I also got the sweetest sweater at a thrift store. I will let it speak for itself below.





Thug life.