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"Keep your hair down and don't wear bright makeup": the problems of a young teacher at school
NGS55.RU correspondent Ekaterina Shreiner is still a student. Just four years ago she sat at a desk, and recently... she returned to school. I worked there for a month as a Russian language teacher. Read about the results in Ekaterina's column below.
To be honest, I wasn't really interested in this event at first. My teaching experience included working one shift as a camp counselor. Then, after three weeks, I felt more tired than I had ever been in my life and decided that working with children was definitely not for me.
But the task was not so simple. I did everything I could. But neither the jacket, nor the ponytail, nor the serious look saved me. My hopes of at least a little bit resembling my teacher were dashed when a senior in the hallway asked me what grade I was in.
I don't feel bad about it. I think you have to be at least 5 years older to not hang out with students. If so, you can be sure. After that incident, I stopped worrying too much about choosing school clothes.
The most interesting and scary thing about school is the children. I have a 6th grade. I met them as soon as I started studying, and since then almost every day for hours I turned from Katya into Ekaterina Andreyevna.
Communicating with thirteen year olds is certainly an interesting experience. You have to be prepared for everything. For example, there is a difficult question in class. Another quest. When I hear the words "Why...", my heart starts pounding. You never know how complex a secret can be hidden behind this "why". This is not a test for which you can prepare everything in advance. I had to improvise and remember everything I knew on the fly.
At some point, it seemed to me that these little people were smarter than me. You teach them how to draft a text, they ask you what you will be doing in 10 years, and suddenly you find yourself thinking about the meaning of your life.
Checking a notebook is a separate kind of art. Of course, the most interesting thing to check is an essay. Some experienced teachers even keep special notebooks with funny quotes written by children. I didn’t have time to start such notes in a month, but I still remembered several funny expressions. For example, “The pose for the exercise is interesting”, “The writer can dryly mention age and attractiveness when describing a girl”. But with the help of epithets, he makes the description much more interesting: “Lena stands in a very free pose”.
There is a saying: only those who do nothing make no mistakes. So let's forgive the shortcomings of the letter to the sixth-graders. Moreover, they really raised my spirits. If you don't want to spend money on tickets to a stand-up comedy concert, read the school essay. Laughter or at least a smile are guaranteed.
Of course, children are different, but I was definitely lucky. I really enjoyed working with sixth-graders, although they sometimes forgot how many threes there are in the word "reasoning."
I was also touched by the children's attitude towards their class teacher. They love her very much. I see. On Teacher's Day, one girl even gave me a nice card. In general, it is very nice to receive feedback from children. When your child comes up to you to say goodbye, you involuntarily start smiling.