First Graphic Classes

Started teaching basic graphics today, I dont have time to do a lot of lead in work so started off with an isometric shaped block (L Shaped) the idea was to get the kids to draw and understand the 3 main orthographic views Plan (TOP) Elevation (FRONT) and End Elevation (Side). Over all, the 2 classes I ran it with were pretty good considering, Drawing boards, and Set squares were all new to them. Didn't quite get to the light construction lines that obviously lost something in the translatation but even so to have two classes of 2nd years understand a 45 degree turning line and carry it out successfully to a kid did impress me. I expected a lot more difficulty in getting the concept across. However todays exercise was powerpoint driven the next graphics task the kids will have will be without step by step guides so will be interesting to see how they cope then.

I feel drained tonight, the kids are a great in so many ways but at the end of the day they are still just kids. I find I am doing the Respect bit over and over just now (though its a different class each time) but I do find it hard to be a positive teaching influence when I am ignored as if I wasn't there by some. And lets be honest I am pretty hard to ignore, but some of the kids seem to want to try. It gets wearing and I feel a bit run down today so it probably seems worse that it is.
I was in contact with a good friend and mentor from Glasgow University who had commented that there were still many similarities between kids here and kids in Scotland and in truth he is right. The main difference I have come across is the behaviour which is far superior to what we see in most Scottish schools I have been to, but that aside as mentioned earlier the kids are still kids.

Tomorrow as they say is another day but it is a long one with an open/parents evening from 5-7 I am hoping my colleague Hernando who I assist in Mentoring is feeling talkative and I'll just try to look interested and not fall asleep. (Hernando is apparantly reknowned for his ability to talk. Nicer guy you would find hard to meet.) We mentor a class every day for 30 minutes with different tasks from reading English and Spanish books to discussing environmental issues and educational health issues, its nice to be able to talk to the kids instead of teaching them. Fortunately my class are a 4th year class so they are fairly sensible and controlled, and of course Hernando rules the roost with words and actions (all in Spanish of course)