Its Been A While

The time does fly while working here in Hastings. The pace at which the classes go is very fast and I never know what classes I will be teaching from day to day. The school is on a two week rotating schedule and during that time I see the year 7 - year 9 kids six times while only three times for the year 10. (For those that don't know year 7 would be our grade 6and so on) The classes are each an hour and are grouped according to ability. There are the classes with all the high ability and so on down the line to the classes filled with those that seem like they could care less about the work done. The students are also aware of where they are placed in this system and seem to act accordingly. The largest of the classes I teach is 30 but there are others that teach up to 34. Theses are the higher ability classes and it is only the lower performing students that the class sizes are around 14 to 19. The lowest academic class I have is about 10 students. There are teaching assistant in the some but not all of the smaller classes which is a help. The school is organized in an interesting manner - each department has a head or chair who would be the equivalent of an assistant principal and above them is a deputy headmaster and then the final authority is the Headmaster. The place seems to run on a corporate style system. I am still learning what is and is not the way to teach students here. Strangely they seem not to understand that the US is very different and while we both speak English there are many differences - there are some students who think I am "kinda stupid". The school is an all boy school and it seems to me that there is a distinct lag in the maturity level of those here and those I have taught in the US. My experience here so far has led me to believe that if I can make it here there is nothing I would find daunting at any US school.
Enough on teaching - the apartment I have is quite large, the door has been fixed and the back garden area has been renovated. I am beginning to learn to cook on a gas stove but have burned several of my attempts. Just this weekend I was able to put up some curtains - which have helped to keep the place a little warmer. There are two huge bay windows that heat seeps out of at an alarming rate. I shudder to thing what the heating bills will look like in the winter. There hasn't been a day over 72 since I arrived and the days are rapidly getting shorter, darker and colder. I was thinking of getting a car to drive over here but the cost of most items as well as the rent are significantly higher then in the states so that might not be able to happen. The desire to have a car and the freedom it gives has been one of the hardest adjustments.
I continue to slowly acclimatize myself to the way of life here and am looking forward to the October break - (family is coming to visit!) This break I plan to stay in town and get myself ahead of the game for the rest of the year - the other breaks I hope to find somewhere exciting to travel to.

Until next time...