| Thursday, March 29, 2007 |
| I got the playground duty blues |
Hmmm...
I think I hate my new job.
It's just so boring! Every shift so far I've been on "playground duty", which pretty much means I:
- wear a very attractive 'sunsafe' hat
- stand around watching kids chase each other and collect rocks
- listen to kids who follow me around talk about soccer and dragonflies
- Tie shoelaces
- repeat cranky teacher-esque phrases like "Put the stick down!", "Stop eating sand!" and "Apologise to Timmy for giving him a wedgie, please"
I really hate having to diffuse arguements and discipline children. It's just not in my nature! And I have pretty much no concept of how to deal with those sort of situations. I guess that comes with experience, but... right now it's driving me crazy. When a kid comes up to me and says "Jack hit me with his bag and didn't apologise", all I want to say is "Who gives a frick??"
"Study Duty", however, I love... I totally enjoy helping kids colour in, string beads, write their names, build with leggo. I spent a full 10 mins in the study this afternoon and had the time of my life!
But playground duty sucks balls. And I have a feeling I'll be stuck on it for a long time.
*le sigh* |
posted by Jac @ 6:52 PM  |
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| 7 Comments: |
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I hear you, Jac! I was a teacher in a past existence, and playground duty sucked bigtime. Especially when it was windy and the kids all went completely ratty. But, usually, I just used to play a bit of footy, a bit of skippy, a bit of basketball and comfort kids that fell over.
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Sounds like my job. Only they are children in their early to mid twenties.
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It sounds like my old one, it was a rite of passage thing, there was one playground which was WAYYYYY down the back of the school, so the newbie always got that one because all the other staff hated it because there was no where to sit down.
One you get to know the kids, they will start playing with you and it's less boring. I used to play catch or skipping alot with the Year One/Two girls.
My Primary Prac teacher used to ask her kids "Are you going to tell me something lovely about yourself?" and if they just wanted to dob, they got all confused and walked away. I thought it was a good idea because the kids learned quickly that unless it was important to just deal with it.
I have too much to say in comments, but I have done so many pracs now I think I might actually have useful advice for you :D Ask me next time I see you.
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Eek! If you're doing ed and like you said don't like to deal with discipline and diffusing arguments, then it sounds like the perfect job for you 'cos it's something you're just going to have to learn to do anyway. I'm the same, the kids say, "Misssssssssss she's poking me with her pen" and I wanna go "Who gives a shit?" but that's not really an option! I'm still crap at dealing with those little things but it's definitely a skill you gotta have and I imagine in primary it's even more so.
Hopefully if you stick this job out you'll get some more responsibility (and fun!) soon
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gosh, i dont know how you do it. Kids scare the shit out of me. I just dont know how to deal with them or talk to them. I swear, kids are like dogs... they can smell the fear on me!
I hope they give you more fun duties from now on. It always sucks to be the newbie!!
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I'm banned from my nephews playground because I called a little kid who tripped him a "smart arsed little shit". He dobbed on me!
If i have to pick them up for my brother i have to wait OUTSIDE the school grounds. Haaaaaaaa!!
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I take my hat off to all you teacher people! Something I could never, ever do!
amanda@vox
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I hear you, Jac! I was a teacher in a past existence, and playground duty sucked bigtime. Especially when it was windy and the kids all went completely ratty. But, usually, I just used to play a bit of footy, a bit of skippy, a bit of basketball and comfort kids that fell over.