So again a post which is a little temporally late...yet...required and perhaps interesting.
So I got my bridgework done on Friday, according to schedule and I include an "after picture" here for comparison... notice the slightly different colour of teeth there?
That's the ceramic implant.
There's something weird and foreign in my mouth!
Well... at least that's how it felt for the first couple of days... Now...three days later, I have at last stopped running my tongue over the new teeth now... I had to stop myself from trying to experiment with it as well... you know? suck on it and see whether it would come off... see if I can push it off with my tongue...
Thankfully...none of that work... perhaps more because I was too scared about it actually working and as such... didn't try hard enough... oh well...
I'm told though... that while the cement holding it in place has a certain amount of bonding force, I'm forbidden(!) or rather... strongly discouraged from indulging in sticky foods forever! Lest it come off....
Well... I managed to drink some cool water by tilting my head to the left (you had to see it to understand) and I suppose I can tilt eat sticky stuff as well... but then... the most I was worried about was not being able to eat Mars or Snickers (omg!) but that shouldn't be an issue...
Oh well...
The visit to the dentist this time was less uncomfortable than the last one.
No smelly teeth shaving... though he did arbitrarily lop off a bit of one of my top right molars... so that the implant would fit properly and my bite would not be affected...(unfortunately...at least for the time being...some food seems fond of getting stuff into that little space but on the up side... it keeps me brushing every night... maybe that was his intention! (o_O )
The tartar cleaning was a bit stressful though...and I felt myself dissipating my stress through my feet...I'd get all tense and then shake my feet a little, imagining that I'm siphoning it off from there...relax my hands and it seemed to work...
How do YOU "dissipate" such stress? Share!
-x-
Well, after the implant and cleaning, and after receiving a nice cheque for a tooth and a half, the dentist was feeling chatty and seemed to have some free time (well, he's actually a nice guy...I'm just being randomly snarky...) and so he asked me a question.
Having discussed what I had done and what I intend to do now... he was interested in my opinion about teaching, the schooling system and the students.
He asked me: What did you find was the most difficult thing about teaching (children)?
My initial answer was very simple.
Practically nothing... my stint at SPM has been sort of a fairy tale. Every thing worked out really well and with it being my own school, I could use that as a talking point and introduction with the kids. With my own teachers still being around, I got a good deal of support from them in my work... so either my life is charmed in this sense or I have been blessed with a bubble...
I told him, however, that from my discussion with my fellow teachers... it seems that we're heading towards a trend now where knowledge and expertise on the subject matter might take secondary importance to class control. Teachers who have more class control might be more valuable than good educators.
The dentist seemed to agree. He's on the panel of various schools and organizations that leads him to various schools for checkups (that's how we discovered him in the first place) and he seems to be a little wary of the little terrors which are going through the system at the moment.
While I agree that quite a few kids are/can get terrorific, I didn't face a problem with them... perhaps due to my age... perhaps due to my style... not a problem problem... but perhaps a few difficulties... but then what job/task is without difficulties?
However, as I got home and thought about it a little... I realised that I had had a slight problem when I initially began teaching...
This is especially apparent when teaching the lower grades...
My difficulty lay in bringing myself down to a more elementary level of understanding and making sure that the children understood what I was teaching them. My challenge was to refrain from using language and terms which were too difficult for them and also... to ascertain whether they had actually understood what had been taught - the kids have a tendency to say that they d understood when they actually hadn't... but in the long run... this tendency wasn't a big deal... I did get a few kids come to me later (I asked them to meet me after class, rather than prolong the in-room teaching) to get their doubts clarified and the personalised approach seemed to make sense to them. For the most part, they did seem to understand me... so let's say I learned how to tone things down... one does that when one sees constantly confounded expressions on the faces of the students... believe me... :P
At the same time...I've also realised that one of the difficulties of teaching lies in not giving the children enough credit for their ability to understand, learn and cope.
There are different examples of this...
Just last week, a fifth grade class told me that they were OK with being dictated an answer, as opposed to getting the answer written on the board - which is a matter of policy (of sorts) in the fifth year classes...
Also... early on in my tenure... immediately after I'd began... I was a little uncomfortable with the fifth year classes... they'd just come in to the secondary section and I didn't know how to "control" them. I was loathe to shout at them but they would make noise and I would have to do it anyway... So I kept away from those classes. In reality, I was just being fanciful and those kids are capable of understanding what they are told... as long as you're fair and firm, as well as consistent. Indulge them and then you've had it....
I am really amused sometimes at the different ways different situations make you act though.
Just the other day, I was thinking about how a "cousin" of mine is still a baby in my eyes and well, as I see him in his natural environment, I seem him acting childish... however he is in the seventh grade and the seventh graders I teach are far from childish... well... at least in school.
I have a heard time imagining them as children and having a natural environment, other than school...in a reversal of positions...where once I saw my teachers as two dimensional people... some of my (most of them?) students have become two dimensional in their own turn...as I go to the other side of the classroom (however previous experiences have shown that just a little effort can remove these blinders and they need to be removed to be an effective teacher...)
Children are capable of a fair amount of complex thought (and it does evolve as they grow - as it is, we already know that the generations are getting smarter with each new one born...) but as teachers, sometimes we act along the lines of Father/Mother knows best...
Heaven knows they get enough of that at home... without needing another dose of that at school.
Make no mistake... I'm not saying the attitude of teachers should be laissez faire... it can't be... but where parents can be disciplinarian models, teachers could/should/ought to(?) be guiding and mentoring models...
Just a thought... I don't know whether it's because it's the way I personally think that I'm saying this...
My goals as a teacher and an effective one are two - they are actually two questions that guide my conduct in the room and with the instruction:
1. What could my teachers have done better?
2. What ought they not have done at all?
With this, I mix my memories and experiences and do my best to act like a guide in what is expected at school. However, as a result of this (slightly laidback or more easy going?) style, I had to point out to someone recently that while I might be friendly in my dealings with them, I'm not necessarily their friend.
For the most part, the kids understand that... most kids do... for others perhaps, they become mixed signals and boundaries need to be drawn.
However, it's all been a learning process for me...
There's no proper real or definitive answer.
With fifty kids in one room... some will understand some things better, others will need more help. You've got to believe in the kids and their abilities and sometimes just let them get burnt before they understand what you're trying to say. It might sound harsh but it's true... how many people would touch a hot utensil after being burnt by it once, eh?
However, the bottom line lies in the fact that as you teach and you are (in a way) demanding respect...you need to hand out the same sort of respect.
So many times teachers quote: "As you sow, so shall you reap" and they seem to lose sight of it as they go and teach...weird...
Finally, as I go through some of my notes from earlier in the year (notes for blog posts - yes I keep them but many might never materialise) I also see that I had certain difficulties coping with some of my "co-workers" - there was some gossip/griping about me at one point of time (those of you who don't know what this is already, buzz me) and more than trouble with the actual gossip/griping (that was more amusing than annoying), I had trouble in wrapping my head around the motivations of the source of all this inane chatter. I understood what they were worried about but I couldn't see what I had to gain by acting in a certain way...especially given that my time at school was always going to be limited. I really had a difficulty in accepting that grown up women, wise and experienced as they are, could act such childishly...
Honestly, I've learned a lot at school these last two years and as I write this, I'm led to the amusing conclusion that while we train the kids to be adult and responsible and fail to recognise or acknowledge it when they do... the people in charge, who are supposedly adult and responsible could use some training or some uncommon sense themselves...
Well... this post took a life of its own.
It's nearly 2am and I'm not sure how much sense it made... but hopefully some...
Clarifications on post fuzziness will be entertained in comments and/or email/phone calls.
Ciao!
