Halftime: A little annoyed - Halbzeit: Ein bisschen genervt

First week has gone by very quickly and it's time to look back on what's happened so far. 

Usually, I feel very positive and inspired after the first week, which is now a bit different. I guess the topic of this entry could be summarized as follows: It's astonishing what a big impact each and every person has on the dynamics of a group. Either way, positive as well as negative. 

But let me start at the beginning: This year I've decided to take a class with a trainer who I've already met and done a class with. I remember how much I enjoyed the course with Peter last year - how much I've learnt, how much we laughed and how satisfied I was with my choice. He was well-prepared but still flexible enough to adjust exercises to our level so it was never too easy or not challenging enough. Consequently, I wanted to have him as a trainer again. 

My experience this year is slightly different though. I'm not as content and happy with classes. The reason, however, is not because Peter is not as good a trainer as he used to be. It's the group. Generally nice people. Very mixed, which I totally enjoy. There are people from Germany, someone from Estonia, another person from Italy, yet another one from Switzerland. And there's a Croatian guy. Why I stress that? Well ... 

This guy is just unbelievable. I don't know if I'm more furious with him or exhausted from having to deal with his behavior or just not giving a damn anymore at all. He continuously interrupts with what he considers to be 'funny comments or anecdotes'. He rarely pays attention to what Peter, or anyone else for that matter, is saying, which results in Peter having to give instructs multiple times. He tries to modify tasks, causing confusing and leading to the tasks becoming totally irrelevant or nonsensical. In short, this guy is just a terrible student.

I'm not exaggerating. What makes the whole thing worse or, let's say, less understandable for me is the fact that we're all teachers in this group. Not all language teachers, but teachers all the same. I would think that as a teacher you know how important it is to listen to the person standing in front of the class and wait for the instructions. We should know how irritating it is to have this one student sitting in the back, who is always talking, always distracting other students. It's simple very unpleasant and exhausting. 

Everyone is still polite but throughout the week I've constantly noticed a lot of eye-rolling from almost everybody. Other than that, everything is fine. The level is not as high as I would like it to be, but we're still getting a lot of input and materials. I'm already planning on using a lot of it in my classes. 

Trying to see the good in the situation, maybe it's also beneficial to have such a student in class because I can observe Peter and learn from his reactions. He always remains calm and never seems to be bothered by this annoying human being. It's kind of an inspiration. 

To summarize my first week, I would say the most important lesson I've learnt is how one student can ruin the atmosphere in a classroom and totally disrupt the flow of your perfectly planned lesson, and how you as a teacher can stay calm and not give a shit. Very important lesson if you ask me. Also, this one student should not define the teacher's view of the whole group. Sometimes we tend to see a class as difficult because there are two or three students who want to be at the center of attention. There are better ways to deal with such a situation than to simply label the whole class as 'difficult'. Which ways there are, I guess everyone has to find out on their own.   

Source: https://bit.ly/32xIM26

Der Beitrag auf deutsch folgt demnächst.