Day one Sex-Ed (Jackie)

I got my teaching schedule today! The head of the science department is being incredibly nice and giving me mostly honors classes and British Curriculum classes that are specially designed for kids with advanced English skills. But what do I have to do in return for this exceptional schedule? DRUM ROLL PLEASE....In return I also have to teach the dept heads senior sex ed class of 16-17 year olds. Yippee! Every teachers dream I’m sure. Did I mention that this will also be the first class I’ll ever teach? Unbelievable. Gotta admit that never in my life did I ever imagine that someday I’d be teaching ‘Dangers of Sexual Behavior’ to a class full of teenagers in a culture where I know absolutely nothing about sexual behaviors, norms, taboo’s, customs, etc. The only saving grace is that since it’ll be my first day teaching I’ll have to introduce myself to the students. Perhaps in a very lengthy fashion. Perhaps with lots of time for questions about myself. Perhaps it’ll be fun! ahahahahaha.

Anyway, aside from that I’ll be teaching biology, chemistry, and physics at all high school levels. I’ve spent the last 2 days shadowing various science teachers and while initially I was worried about being horribly unprepared, I think that even without any teaching experience I’ll be fine. Most of the teachers seem more focused on seeming cool to the students or getting through the material as fast as possible rather than actually trying to educate them or make the subject remotely interesting. Granted it’s the end of the term, the days are 9 hrs long, and there are 2,200 kids all taking lunch and recess breaks at different times so the decibel level in the school is deafening at all times. Some of the teachers I followed though didn’t even make it into the class until the last 10 minutes of the lesson while other classes were lucky if the teacher got past the lesson title. One class just involved the teacher talking about her various pets instead of covering basic chemistry. Another teacher just laughed when a kid pelted her with paper while she was writing on the board. When she asked why the girl threw paper at her another kid threw a wadded up paper ball at her and she laughed again and went back to her lesson. The entire class gasped, giggled, and when nothing happened, the class exploded in a paper fight and utter disorder, paper balls flying everywhere. Very unimpressive. I was surprised to find myself much more irritated with the teachers than with the students. It seems as if I’ll have to be a bit more of a disciplinarian in the beginning than I would like,  just to regain control of a class that apparently has had no rules and is never told to behave or be respectful. I don’t think it’ll be hard though. I’ve met some of the kids and they seem great, just pushing their boundaries because they can. I think the culture here has ensured that respectful behavior is deeply ingrained in every child  and reverting back to better behavior with a little guidance should be easy.  Fingers crossed.