German teachers, as a profession, have the reputation for being whiners who complain all day. This is not untrue.
I do enjoy the occasional whingeing myself and teacher humour can be bleak and sarcastic, but my colleague S overdoes it and it is starting to get on my nerves. He's got a beautiful wife and baby-daughter, last year he got the promotion he so desired, he's teaching a form together with the colleague of his choice, but every single one of his comments is negative.
Yes, there are unreasonable parents, annoying pupils, ridiculous demands by higher authorities and there is not a single teacher I know who enjoys marking.
But there are moments when it's definitely worth the hassle (and I don't mean the pay-checks).
Like when you realize that the creative writing task you set your students for their exam is in effect a Much Ado/Romeo & Juliet crossover. Reading a dialogue in which a love-struck Romeo is criticized by a disdainful Benedick is just fun.
If only my students knew that most of their 'production-oriented' tasks could be classified as fanfiction...
And it's all part of the curriculum.
I do enjoy the occasional whingeing myself and teacher humour can be bleak and sarcastic, but my colleague S overdoes it and it is starting to get on my nerves. He's got a beautiful wife and baby-daughter, last year he got the promotion he so desired, he's teaching a form together with the colleague of his choice, but every single one of his comments is negative.
Yes, there are unreasonable parents, annoying pupils, ridiculous demands by higher authorities and there is not a single teacher I know who enjoys marking.
But there are moments when it's definitely worth the hassle (and I don't mean the pay-checks).
Like when you realize that the creative writing task you set your students for their exam is in effect a Much Ado/Romeo & Juliet crossover. Reading a dialogue in which a love-struck Romeo is criticized by a disdainful Benedick is just fun.
If only my students knew that most of their 'production-oriented' tasks could be classified as fanfiction...
And it's all part of the curriculum.
no subject
Date: 2008-11-30 12:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-11-30 12:58 pm (UTC)Well, they don't call it fanfic, but it's definitely on there!
As a response to texts, students are supposed to write fill-in-the-blank-scenes, write diary entries or letters from the perspective of various characters, re-write or finish stories and so on.
On the other hand, few of the students are actually fans, so maybe it should be called chore-fiction?