INCREDIBLE STRESS!

“Okay. Gotta talk.

I'm in the library right now and I'm on TT in a vain effort to chill a bit.

As most of you know, I teach English as a second language to senior students in a small, rural, French language high school in southwestern Quebec, just north of the New York State border.

The area is essentialy equally divided between English and French and about a third of our students are fluently bilingual, as well as those in the English language high school in the neighbouring village about ten miles away.

Five years ago we decided to offer an experimental Language Arts programme to one class of bilingual students and I taught it to the junior year last year.

The programme was dropped in favour of putting our efforts into the International Baccalaureat run from Geneva and New York. This is because quite a few of our graduates choose an English language college and succeed quite well. Parents know that French Language Arts and the English equivalent are sufficient alone for their post secondary success, while the competition with other schools in the region forced us into the International programme that the parents want.

The sixteen students who completed the option and received a bonus six credits were bored out of their minds in the second language class and to keep them busy, I offered to tutor them for the government high school leaving Language Arts exam and we're doing the first six hours to-day.

This morning they read the Literature Booklet. This consists of a short story, a poem and a personal essay. There is a group discussion and the students choose the piece of writing on which they will write a response (one girl chose the poem). The response must state the theme or epiphany in the case of the short story and how it is developed or arrived at through the stucture. It must discuss the language and imagery and how it relates to the theme.

Further, each student must explain his personal reaction to his choice and then how it relates to the society around him. He then must relate it to a piece of literature that he learned through the programme. The formal written part of 400 words will be done this afternoon.

On June 10, there will be a three-hour session of creative writing, either a personal essay, an argumentative or formal essay or a short story based on the theme of the piece they chose to-day.

Ten out of the original 16 chose to write the exam and here we are.

They cannot fail. This has been the finest class of bright, motivated and hard working students in my 26 year career. If you are lucky, you get one class like this per career. If one doesn't pass, I have failed.

Sorry, I just had to vent.”

“Grem, I don't know what to say to help your stress, but your dedication to your profession and your students speaks volumes. Just take deep breaths and chill out. It sounds like they will do fine, and they have you to thank for it.”

“Sounds to me like a challenging program for the kids. Anything that challenges kids, no matter how stressful for the teacher, is worth its weight in gold. While you are stressing over whether the kids do well or not, consider the alternative. What would those same kids have to show for their schooling without being challenged? At some point, you have done your job and it is up to the kids to grasp it. That is their challenge, which just happens to relate to your challenge. You have led them to this point, and thus, you have done the best you could. I have a sneaky hunch they will do well if their teacher is this concerned over their success.”

“Somehow, just wishing you good luck seems so inadequate right now.


Just have faith that you have prepared them well. I'm sure they won't disappoint you.”

“I'm sure you prepared them kids well, gremlin. Good luck to you and your students with that.”

“Ack! A Canadiack! Run! Run!

hohohehehaha
Q. What smells worse than a Frenchie?
A. A Canadiack


Sorry - couldn't help myself - occassionally I loss my mind :)”

“lose instead of loss (stupid American!)”

“(Ignore that)



Gremlin, It sounds as if you have an exceptional bunch of students. Have confidence in them, and in yourself. I'm sure that you did your very best teaching, and they will do their best also.

It seems that you should be reveling in having such a wonderful group of gifted students to work with. Relax and enjoy them while you can. You need not be stressed. If you give them all you've got you cannot fail, one can only do so much and it has to be good enough. Life is too short to worry about what you can't do.



(This of course coming from a school custodian who hasn't had to teach anything except for wilflowers and edible plants to a bunch of girl scouts, lol) It's so easy to give advice.... ;) Good luck Gremlin. I think you and your class will do splendid!”

“Let me make it clear that I was only being silly in the hopes of getting a cheap laugh out of gremlin...

sheessh!”

“(Twinkle Toes too).”