SHALL WE DO THIS AGAIN?
With every year that begins we get to open a fresh chapter. It is as beautiful as a rebirth. Then comes that perennial question ‘Teacher don’t you ever get tired of teaching the same thing(s) every year?’ You taught this class last year and the year before that and did I mention the year before that as well! Tricky, yes without a doubt! Every other time I hear this, I can’t help but smile and eventually burst out laughing. Why?
Just like our students who look forward to seeing a new academic year as something filled with fun and excitement so do we. A new year brings into our classes another Jason, Kynan, Isaac, Maria or even Yasmine. What does this mean? With a different blend of students year after year comes new and better experiences. The students seem to get smarter; the projects get more exciting; the lessons and class presentations get more interactive; the trips just get better and better. Then there are the school events such as the theatre production, sports events, African Day and Night, quizzes and many more! Even more awesome are the Literature classes where you get to study a different text yearly which affords you the unique opportunity to get transposed to as far back as the Shakespearean and Renaissance times. Ha! Then there are the romance novels which literally sweep many away from reality just for a while.
But even more exciting in our locality is the thrill of a new Peer group. Being a Peer Tutor of a Year 12 class, this year has afforded me the distinct opportunity of welcoming a whole new brand of students. Week one was a learning experience; getting to learn their names, working side by side with them on their subject combinations, orienting them on everything to do with their highly esteemed school, getting as many fun facts about them as I could master, but above all else integrating them into our school culture and central to this is our pastoral curriculum. They start off as our students, then the peer group becomes family and we have friends for life. The moment of dread comes in when you have to say good bye at the end of a cycle like Year 13. This is without a doubt every Tutor’s nightmare!
Henceforth the question still remains: ‘Shall we do this again’? Most definitely yes, yes and yes. We look even more forward to a new school year than our students not because we get to teach everything all over again, but our target audience differs from year to year and did I mention how no class can be the same year in and year out! I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait to do it over and over again. This begs the question: ‘Will you be apart of this thrilling experience’? I surely hope so!
Teacher Stuart
Peer Tutor Year 12 Alphas
Head of Subject English – Cambridge School
