Back to School...

Since the 14th of this month, I've been no longer at University dredging my way through the text-books, rather I've been at Pacific Palms public school on my teaching prac. So here I am finally in my second week here. My supervising teacher is awesome, I admire him hugely and he's probably the first teacher who I've actually seen put into practise the things we're told to do at Uni, I've observed a number of teachers, and he's the first that I'm sincerely impressed with.

I'm struggling quite a bit at the moment. The class I've been placed with is incredibly difficult. Many of the children come from troubled homes, their worlds are built in a way which often requires them to become 'little adults' because their parents are so caught up in their own situations, it's a sad reality.
For this reason my teaching strategies are absolutely being torn to bits, and I'm being forced to change in order to survive. Real change is never easy, and I'm finding it painful and frustrating.

Over my last 2 pracs, the classes haven't had any behaviour problems, and I've been able to go in there and be that happy, kind, smiley teacher, I haven't had to prove myself to them, and I haven't had to work hard in order to gain their respect.
That's all changed this prac, I went in the same way I have with every other prac, and learnt that in order to keep the class under control I've had to change my entire persona.
There have been many times when it's been necessary to become quite harsh, quite stern in order to have the students take me seriously and know that I mean business.

Thats the part that I've found difficult, having to be the meanie when neccessary, if I had a choice I would be the 'nice teacher', but I now realize that it is neccessary for me to play both roles.

I've been chatting to my supervising teacher Tony, quite a bit about it, and the more I talk about it with him, the more I am convinced that I have to either step-up, or step-off.
Tony has noticed my hesitation to be the heavy when I need to be, during our chat today he said,
"Jess, I can see that you honestly care about these kids, and you enjoy their company. I can see that the kids like having you around incredibly, because your friendly and caring, you make them feel important, Which is fantastic! But you need to be careful, because if you don't stop the cruddy behaviour early on, then you'll find over half the class will follow instruction and respect you, but the other half will think that they can walk all over you, and they'll have there best go...being the kind teacher doesn't grant you respect, you have to remind them, often with harsh reality, that you are the teacher, they are the students, which means that what you say goes..."

I respect Tony alot, and I know that everything he's saying is right, I want to be the best teacher that I can be, and I know that I'm no where close right now, but I'm willing to learn, and I'll take Tony's advice and keep working at it...being the meanie, now surely I can do that!!