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 8th) 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
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