Quite a Creative Week...

Last week was a very typical one for me when it came to teaching. I’ve actually had many days throughout the last seven weeks that have been very similar. It’s been really nice having a lot of consistency within the classroom by having the same classes of students every week. The students really seem to like it as well and they’re (seemingly) happy to have me there. I do get asked quite consistently if I’m going to be teaching them for the rest of the year, not because they would be disappointed but because they want that apparently. One Year 12 student in Drama called me “Mr. Wonderful” to another Drama teacher and when asked why she apparently replied “I don’t know, he’s just wonderful!” Obviously it’s nice to feel wanted like that but I don’t want to take away from the teacher whom I’m covering. They are her classes and she deserves to come back and be able to re-establish those relationships she forged earlier in the year. At the same time though, it’s kind of interesting to note that I’ve been teaching these students almost as long as she has this year and for the Year 7’s that’s quite a big deal. The Year 7 students are attending their first year at Cheam so having me for such a long period of time is not a big change because they aren’t used to who is around in the department and who is not just yet. I’ve actually been having a lot of fun teaching the Year 7’s in particular. They’re still so young but they can be very funny and we have a wonderful time together. I finished up a Year 7 Life class today and told them I needed one more thing from them before they left the classroom and proceeded to demand high fives as they walked out the door. The kids ate it up! They beamed with smiles that were nice to see because I’m pretty sure they were expecting me to assign homework.

I have been having the expected problems with some students in certain classes however. These problems arise from students who have been at the school for more than a year and are a little more resistant to change when a different teacher is standing at the front of the room. I’ve been working with a lot of the other teachers in the department to quell these issues and it hasn’t been so bad within the last couple of weeks. As a supply it can be difficult to come into classrooms when students have a strongly forged relationship with their regular teacher, or are simply resistant to change. Either way, I keep trucking through and I’m learning just as much as they are along the way. I have good days with some students and bad days but the important thing is to not let it get to me, keep putting on a smile, treating them equally, praising their good behaviour to reinforce it, and continuing to work with them for consistency. As I’ve been extended at Cheam until the end of this term (April 8^th) hopefully my continued presence in the school will help.

I had a wonderful week-end just passed and I was actually very productive, from an artistic point of view. I’ve had a lot of ideas and projects that I’ve been putting off for a little while now and recently had an explosive desire to start working on a lot of them. I think beginning work on my script for Dog in the Manger has fueled this fire. I’ve had the kick in the pants to start using my creative side a lot more now that I don’t have to worry about whether or not I’ll be working on a day to day basis.

On Friday evening I decided to take a trip into the city in the evening after finishing work and stopped at Oxford Circus first. I’ve been frequenting Topman a lot recently because I’m really trying to flesh out a new kind of style. I know it sounds a bit weird but part of my experience here in the UK is to do a bit of wardrobe overhaul to kill off the university sense of style (track pants and a jersey) for a more professional looking style. Obviously working in schools has a lot to do with this overhaul but my week-end look is still a combination of professionalism with laid back elements. Topman has been a crazy good foundation for building this with. After stopping in there I tried to get into a couple of my favourite pubs in the West End but on a Friday evening at Happy Hour it’s too much like a sardine tin for my liking. I decided to head to a little tucked away (literally) pub off of Trafalgar Square that was not very busy at all called “The Two Chairmen”. Jeremy and I ended up going there on New Year’s Eve for a pint and it wasn’t busy at all. I settled in for a couple pints of London Pride and started to do some long put off writing.

I have thinking, planning, and putting off writing a play since the summer and finally got inspiration to start. It’s a play about waiting…not the restaurant style mind you but what you do on Christmas Eve in anticipation for the morning. Waiting is something that we do at some point every day for some reason or another. The idea of it first popped into my head over the summer as I was eagerly anticipating my arrival in the UK. It was still months away and I wanted it to be so much sooner. I kept thinking about it more and more and realized just how much of my day I was devoting to waiting for something that would come in due time. From this point I really just started thinking of all different situations in which waiting becomes relevant and jotted them down. The most recent embarrassments of “Frozen Britain” over November and December of this past year in which so many people were stranded in airports across London waiting to get flights out of the country was really the last bit of inspiration I needed. The Times has also just kicked off their annual playwriting contest and submissions are due in about 4 months. My goal is to try and finish the play in order to submit it to this contest. It’s a goal I’ve given myself and I’m not concerned at all with winning anything (there’s a lot of talented writers in England and who participate in this) but I would be very proud to finish and say that I actually entered it into a contest. That’s satisfaction enough for me.

Saturday was another really big and productive day. I began the day quite early and managed to grab a copy of The Times to read while eating breakfast before heading out. The destination was obviously into London but this time to Carnaby Street. I really love being in the central city when I’m writing. It almost becomes a muse for me; I can really feel the energy of the many different kinds of people walking around. You hear so many different conversations, see so many different looks, and get many ideas for characters and situations just by observing. Plus, it’s London! This is the city of Shakespeare, Dickens, and Wilde. It has been the home for many a great writer and I try to channel that when I’m doing it myself.

In a Starbucks I got myself a nice bit Americano and pulled out my laptop to begin working. I had recently decided to start a new blog to go alongside this blog (as mentioned in my previous post) dedicated solely to sports. As most of you know I am a dedicated and hardcore sports fan. Although I go crazy for my teams, I also read a lot about sports including histories, I know a lot of stats, and I have an opinion about different elements of the games. After having many a rant to my family and friends about sports I figured it would be a lot more productive to put it in writing and post it for people to read and comment on at their leisure. I wrote my first piece on the issue of money in sports and how out of control payrolls are getting. You can read it here if you’re interested. I spent more of the day working on this piece combined with a bit of play writing and script work. I managed to squeeze in a couple of pints while watching the Manchester derby in a pub too. Later on in the evening I met up with friends at a pub in Borough to watch a folk band that never materialized so we had some pints there as well as at a pub right on the Thames. It was a nice way to end the day.

On Sunday I went with Nate to meet up with a few others friends to play football in Streatham Common. Yes, you read that last sentence correctly, I PLAYED football. I watch and talk about it enough I figured it would be nice to actually participate in it. There were only six of us and we just played three on three with breaks and switching up the teams. A couple of the guys are pretty good but the talent distribution was good so that I wasn’t just getting the run around by them. It was just a good kick-about and a definite good two hours of running around. Afterwards we grabbed a bit of food and beers to head back to one of the guys’ places to watch the 4:00pm match on Sky Sports. We’re actually going to make it a regular Sunday thing every week, getting together to play and then grabbing beers to watch the afternoon match. I’m really glad about this because I was hoping to get involved in actually playing football and finding a great group of guys who share the passion in the sport to play and watch with has been great!

This week has been going really well so far and I’m really looking forward to the end of Friday because next week is half term! A week off after seven weeks in the classroom in which I’ll be having my first rehearsals and attending a couple of FA Cup matches. It should be great and I’ll make sure to update as the week goes on. Until then…

Cheers and love!

Erik

Chinese New Year and Two Types of Football...

Last week-end myself, Nate, Meg, Kati, Dave and their new flat mate decided to head into the main city to partake in the Chinese New Year celebrations. I had never really done anything to celebrate Chinese New Year before and since London has a large Chinatown area I thought it would a very vibrant and fun experience, at least to check off the list of things I’ve done since I’ve lived here. The six of us met at the tube station in Colliers Wood and headed up the Northern Line towards Charing Cross Station. The opening festivities were occurring in Trafalgar Square (a pretty go to place for any sort of festival or celebration) and by the time we got there it was PACKED! There were seemingly people from all different walks of life converging on the famous square to be a part of this celebration, not just the Chinese community (which was still largely represented I might add). There were many kiosks set up along the perimeter of the square selling different souvenirs including: paper dragons, firecrackers (the kind you throw onto the ground….I bought some), fans, and hats. Meg and Kati bought a headband each that made them look like Geishas in a sense (I realize that Geishas are Japanese but I can’t think of an equivalent word from China to define how they looked) which prompted to awe of many a member of the Chinese community and they had to pose for a lot of photos. Once we had finished our small shopping excursion we headed down into the base of the square and pushed our through the crowd to find a good vantage point to the stage.

Once the opening festivities began it became apparent that we were in for a bit of a debacle. The MC’s were reeeeeeeeeeally bad at their job and seemed very unsure of what they were talking about. If it was scripted…it didn’t sound like it, or they just got their lines 10 minutes prior to arriving on stage. It was painful to say the least. Next, the organizers decided to have approximately 12 different guests of honour for this celebration and also made the executive decision to allow all 12 of them to speak before starting any New Year’s traditions. Guests included: representatives from Chinatown, the Chinese Ambassador, the MP for Westminster, the Lord Mayor of Westminster, people from overseas Chinese people’s associations…the list goes on. Again, needless to say it got quite tedious by the time they were finally finished. Afterwards they all participated in a ceremony known as “dotting the Lion’s eye” before the traditional Lion Dance could begin. This also took quite some time and they clearly hadn’t rehearsed this part either. This unfortunately forced the MC’s to stall. It got so desperate that at one point the male MC explained the meaning of the red envelopes that children receive that this time of year containing money. He literally said “They call them ‘Red Envelopes’ because they’re red…and envelopes”…thanks Captain Obvious. Finally they finished the dotting and the Lions got up and did their thing.

This was much more of what I was expecting from a Chinese New Year celebration. The dancing combined with the music created a real authentic atmosphere in the square and was much more entertaining than the previous speakers. Combine this with the 150 db firecrackers and the Dragon dance following and we finally had the celebration we were looking for. By this point we were hankering to move onwards towards Chinatown to grab some grub and take in the atmosphere there.

We probably should have predicted the crowds that were rampant throughout the Chinatown area. Streets were closed around the Leicester Square area so more people could cram in. The pavement and walkways were packed and it took us a long time just to get a couple blocks North of where we started. Although we weren’t really fond of being sardines I have to say that the many decorations, street performers, and vendors made a really good impression. I really like walking through Chinatown, even on days that these sorts of festivals are not celebrated, because of the colour and vibrancy. To see it all on full display was really a sight to behold. Check out my photos on Facebook here. Once we squeezed our way up to Shaftsbury Ave (which was also closed from Piccadilly Circus to Charing Cross Road) we split up; the girls headed to a café to get some cheesecake and the boys descended on the pub next door for a pint.

It was a somewhat small pub known as “The Coach and Horses” right off of Shaftsbury Ave. They had quite a good selection of real ales on tap including my personal favourite, Sharp’s Doom Bar (Dad, brothers, and friends make note prior to visiting me). We glugged a couple pints each, engaged in some conversation with a couple locals about the upcoming football of the day and the previous day’s matches and I ordered a wicked huge egg and cress sandwich with a lovely salad for only a fiver which was a great deal. The girls eventually joined back with us and we sat inside the pub for a little while longer in conversation. Finally it came to the point where we had to get going because Nate, Dave, and I were planning on heading down to The Sports Café on Haymarket to watch the Liverpool-Chelsea match at 4:00pm. Meg and Kati decided to head back to our flat to get a head start on dinner (gotta love those ladies J) and the guys headed to the bar.

The match itself was Ah-mazing! Now, most (if not all) of you know that I am a big Liverpool fan. The team has unfortunately not been playing too well recently and they had just lost their prize striker, Fernando Torres, to rivals Chelsea the week before. This made the match even more interesting because Torres was picked to start by Carlos Ancelotti (the Chelsea skipper) against his former team at Stamford Bridge. As a Liverpool fan I was in a minority at the bar because Chelsea are based in West London and we were in a bar in Central London…needless to say it was dominated by Chelsea blue. The match was actually very close (a lot closer than I would have expected) and Liverpool ended up battling for the win! I went absolutely crazy when they scored their go-ahead goal and hugged a random other guy who was celebrating…well technically he hugged me but why get into details…it was a serious sports-loving man moment…don’t judge me. Nate, Dave, and I split a couple pitchers (I almost forgot what it was like to pour one of those!) throughout the match and more friends showed up at around halftime. It was quite the epic time and definitely worth the somewhat crowded space and standing room to watch it.

Finally after heading back home we mowed down on delicious nachos that the girls had prepared while watching “Liar Liar” on television (right?) Most peeps packed it in but I had another reason to keep trucking on this particular evening…the Superest of all Bowls. My family is a BIG Pittsburgh Steelers family so we were obviously quite excited by the prospect of our team beating the team we hate the most…those damn Packers. Unfortunately due to the time difference the kick-off didn’t start here until 11:30pm…which is brutal for a Sunday night. I had to stay up and watch it though. After a nice Skype conversation with Julie followed up by one with the family I hunkered down to watch some American football this time (or as Jeremy would say “FOOTBALL!!!!”) I reeeeeally don’t want to get into any more details about how the game went…let’s just say I decided to go to bed at halftime and save myself falling asleep in the middle of teaching a class the next day. Fair play to the Pack though, they played a great game and capitalized on some Pitt mistakes, well done to them.

That pretty much sums up a really epic day on my week-end last. I’ve got another day at Cheam tomorrow before the week is out, and then only one more week before half term! Cheam also extended my stay until at least the end of this term, so right at the beginning of April before we get out 3 week holiday (thanks Wills and Kate!) I’ll update on the state of my teaching this week tomorrow after the week is through. I’m also going to be firing up a brand new blog this week-end that will solely be used for posting articles about sports…don’t feel like you have to hit it up if that’s not your slice of awesome. Until that time…

Cheers and love!

Erik

January Finished Off...

Well, now that I’ve gotten through what I have been up to recently on the school side of things I thought I would take the time to let everyone know what I’ve been up to in my own time. I’ll tell you one thing, when you only have week-ends off it makes them a lot more special than usual. I try to take the time to seize every minute of them because I rarely get the time to do a lot of personally constructive endeavours throughout the week.

First and foremost, I’ve been having a great time with my flatmates. Every week-end since the end of the break I’ve spent some time with any combination of them. A couple moments of going out to the city and checking in at pubs or clubs in Leicester Square and beyond. There’s one pub in particular in the area, Waxy O’Conner’s, that’s become quite the favourite recently. It’s a really nice Irish pub off Leicester Square in Chinatown that goes underground into an old church. It twists and turns in different rooms and even climbs up at the back where there’s a tree growing out of the floor. It’s quite the bizarre unique place and they serve a lot of different pints that I have not seen at a lot of different pubs. It does become quite crowded and has a club feel to it on the week-ends but it’s a definite must if you’re in the city.

I’ve also introduced my flatmates to the wonderful game of Beer Pong ha ha ha. Some of them already knew what it was but I’ve got a couple of them hooked. Mainly Nate and his friends who already had a pretty good handle on the game. It’s been fun over the last couple of week-ends to have the opportunity to chill on a Friday night and play a bit of Beer Pong before going out. It feels a lot like I never left Queen’s. A nice little nostalgic boost.

I have also been attending a lot of football over the recent days. This time of the year is filled with many different league matches as well as cup competitions in full swing. Fulham are currently in the FA Cup and I attended the Third Round match against Peterborough United with Meg and Laura. It was a complete blow-out with Fulham winning 6-2. I’ve never seen that many goals in one game live before and a Fulham player even got a hat trick! Combine that with the penalty shot that a Peterborough player was given and the two ladies pretty much got the full experience at their first match. The fourth round saw Fulham pitted up against Tottenham Hotspur from North London. A big rivalry and the atmosphere at the match was amazing. I went with Nate, Dani, and her friend Jocelyn (also their first match minus Nate) and we sat in the Home End a couple rows up from the pitch. Fulham took a big 2-0 lead early after two straight penalties were called and ended up embarrassing a very good team 4-0 to move on in the competition. Craven Cottage was absolutely filled with excitement and the chants that the home fans were singing were absolutely hilarious. This was definitely the best match I’ve been to since arriving in September. Jeremy also made a quick trip down at the end of January to attend the Crystal Palace match that I got tickets for as a Christmas gift. The pre-match was really fun as we met up with Richard from Protocol at a local Palace pub. The atmosphere there was great and we headed over to Selhurst Park for the match. Palace is doing very poorly at the moment so it was not a sell-out at all but we had really great seats. It was cold unfortunately and Crystal Palace drew 0-0 so Jeremy didn’t even get to see a goal! It’s the risk you have to take when attending a match though.

It looks like there’s a more football opportunity within the immediate future as well. England is playing a match in March, there’s the Carling Cup final in February, Fulham’s continued FA Cup run, more league matches, and Champion’s League matches too. All of these will of course be well documented by me as I may or may not attend them.

Besides these things I’m also taking the time to develop the artist in me. I’ve recently been cast in an upcoming production of “The Dog in the Manger” at the South London Theatre. The play was written by Lope De Vega in 16^th century Spain. De Vega was a contemporary of Shakespeare and so the language, characters, and situations are very Shakespearian in nature. The script is a modernized version done recently for a production by the RSC so the language is updated from the ‘thees’ and ‘thous’ that characterize a Bard text. I am playing Teodoro, the male lead, who is caught in a love triangle between his love, Marcela, and the Countess of Belfor, Diana, for whom he is a secretary. Diana falls in love with Teodoro but because he is below her stature it is not an appropriate match and thus she will not allow anyone else to love him either. Teodoro becomes infatuated with the idea of becoming Count of Belflor but when it becomes evident this is impossible he attempts to return to Marcela. Lots of other ridiculous moments happen but it’s a very quirky almost dark comedy/love story. I’ve received the script and already begun work on it at this point. Rehearsals don’t start until February 22^nd so I have lots of time to go through my lines and scenes in order to make notes. I don’t have to be off book for the first rehearsal but the director wants everyone to have a good idea of their characters and what they are saying in each scene for the initial read through. I can’t express how excited I am for this. I wanted so much to be a part of theatre while here as it gives me something else to focus on besides just teaching and being home. It also gives me a good outlet and allows me to hone those skills that I’m teaching in the classroom. I’ve also been in talks with the Roundhouse (a flexible space in Camden) over upcoming shows through their “Take Part 11-25” program in which they recruit people from that age range. They have my information anyways and said they would contact me when audition information became available.

Finally, I’m trying to do as much writing and reading as I possibly can. It’s part of my New Year’s Resolutions to try and be more proactive at reading and to start to get ideas and thoughts down on paper more. I have a lot of different ideas for sports related pieces that I’m starting to flesh out on paper at the moment which will make their printed debut on this very blog, so stay tuned for those! I also have an idea for a play that I’ve slowly been hashing out over here. I think I might jumpstart it soon though because there is currently a playwriting competition sponsored by The Times here in the UK that I would like to attempt to enter. I may lack the necessary skill at the moment to win such a competition but hey, why not try right?

I think that just about covers it! That pretty much sums up the entire month of January for you. Things have already gotten off to a great start in February and I’ll try to be a bit more frequent in my posts about the goings on.

Until then…

Cheers and love,

Erik

Life In The Classroom Since The Break...

Well, I have spent the better part of a month regaling you all on the trials and tribulations (and amazingness) that was my winter holidays. Unfortunately, that time of fun and fancy-free is no longer with me and it has been back to the classrooms for going on five weeks now. You may think I have a lot to catch you up on in this regard but I really don’t. One of the wonderful aspects of being in a school for a long period of time is students recognizing you and thereby not giving you such a hard time. As a cover teacher I cannot stress how good this feels. To be able to walk onto the school grounds every morning knowing exactly where I’m going and what classes I’m going to have. Passing students in between lessons and being able to use their names because I remember them! It’s really cool when students say “Hi Sir!” or “Hello Sir!” or “Hi Mr. Smith!” while they walk by too. It’s a real sense of belonging, not only in the classroom but in the school as a whole. I’ve developed great relationships with staff as well, mainly in the Drama department but in other departments as well. Including two male teachers who are really big into NFL football and we’ve been discussing the play-offs and upcoming Super Bowl almost every day. I’ve really found a wonderful niche at Cheam High School and while I know it is going to be a sad day when I have to move on to a different school, that’s just the nature of the job. I know there will be many more experiences out there waiting for me and I have to keep travelling along the road of this incredible journey I’m taking. Maybe at some point while I’m still here I’ll find my way back to Cheam.

All lamenting aside I have been having a positive experience this term. I have not had as many Drama courses this term because the teacher I was covering, Lian Downes, has returned to the department. She was not taking her full class schedule at first in order for her to ease back into all of the movement required (especially with the Key Stage 3 classes) so I was taking about one or two of her Drama classes to begin with. At this point in the term she has taken over her entire schedule so I actually don’t teach any Drama at all...uber sad. Instead I’ve been spending my time covering a long term illness in the Humanities department. I’m actually teaching entirely Religious Studies and Life classes. This has obviously been a huge switch for me (especially in the dynamics of having desks in the classroom) but it has been going really well. Luckily I’m still teaching mainly Key Stage 3 classes so I actually end up having most of the students I was previously teaching in Drama classes. This has made it so much easier to keep the ball rolling because they already know me, they know how I get on in the classroom, and they know my expectations so we’ve been getting a lot of work done together.

The Religious Studies classes have been the more interesting of the two subjects. Year 7 classes have been discussing festivals from a general as well as a specific standpoint. We’ve been talking about what festivals are and how we, as well as different people around the world, celebrate them. We’ve also recently began discussing specific festivals including Ramadan and Easter. In Year 8 they have been studying Islam as an overall topic and we’ve hit on various elements including the Hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca), Mosques, and Jerusalem. I’ve quite enjoyed myself in these lessons because I am learning a lot that I didn’t know about these areas as well as the students. I think this benefits my teaching practice greatly because, not only am I better at delivering material about these topics, but it has peaked my own interest into religions that I did not know much about and I have been researching a lot into the customs and specifics about them. It has been quite an eye-opening experience for me and I’m glad that these classes have sparked that flame. Life is a never-ending opportunity for knowledge and, as a LOT of you know, I enjoying knowing a lot….especially random facts. Coincidently in the newspaper recently there have been excerpts from a new book on the history of Jerusalem and Britain’s involvement there during colonial times. The publishing of the articles coincided directly with my lessons about Jerusalem and I’ve been reading them when I might just have skimmed over  before and thereby gaining more insight into this topic. I love when these sorts of things happen, it was a bit much for 13 year olds but if I had older classes talking about this subject it provides an excellent opportunity to bring in a current story to aid the lesson.

The Life lessons have been going well too. Unfortunately a lot of the older classes don’t care too much about this subject. When they have so much on their plates from GCSE classes something like Life (it’s compulsory but there’s no assessment) it’s easy to cast it aside. Luckily there are a lot of videos watched in this subject which makes it go by a lot faster.

Other than this I’m just trucking along one day at a time. The past weeks have gone by very quickly and each day has been neither extremely good nor really bad. I find that each class may have some problems but I have a lot more faith in my behaviour management abilities that I can cope with issues and move on in the class without too much disruption. I don’t let things get to me too much and, like I said before, the behaviour of the students has improved greatly the more I’ve been around.

Apparently I’ve developed quite the reputation in the Drama department as well. Students tend to ask where I am and why I’m not teaching their classes anymore. I’ve been helping out directing a lot of GCSE and A-Level (Sixth Form) work too which has given me desired experience working with these age groups. It’s really cool working with Year 11, 12, and 13 students in Drama because it is very much approached from a professional theatre standpoint. Their exams are largely performance based and sometimes they have to be teacher directed and other times we just help them put it together with suggestions and notes. It’s funny, but I’m developing theatre and teaching skills at the same time which is something very unique to Drama. The goal is to be able to apply these to my extra-curricular theatre work and vice versa. What a lovely subject don’t you think?

I suppose I’ve rambled on a bit too much and repeated ideas a lot but I’m sure you get the point. I just want you all to know that the bottom line of this post is: I am happy. I am in a good place right now and just trying to enjoy every moment of it while I can. I’m not going to be at Cheam the whole time, and I know that, but I’ll worry about then when it happens. I’m focused entirely on the here and now and cherishing those relationships that I’ve built while continuing to develop and hone my teaching practice and skills. I couldn’t have asked for much more than this and I am so grateful this experience has happened…know that J.

I’m going to stop this post here because I need to go to bed soon but that covers my last few weeks from a work perspective. Obviously I’ve also been having quite the time from a social perspective as well, including being cast in a show recently as most of you know! I’ll save all of those updates for the next one.

I hope everyone is well and I wish you all of the best. I send my love out to each and every one of you.

Cheers

Erik