tired again

Parent teacher interviews started again last night. We had the senior kids come in with their parents.

Most of mine were really good except for the following situations:

1)

First parent I chatted to, makes me nervous. Has happened every year. I thought she was scrutinizing everything I did. She isn't. I am imaging it. As a result of my nervousness around this parent, my conversation is quite hard to follow. I stumble over words, I look as though I have no coherent examples of the work and generally feel like an idiot. Last night was the first night in 3 years where I registered my emotional connection to the situation.

2)

Had 4 hard interviews with the kids doing group performance. Why? They are getting a little up themselves and are becoming really hard to manage as a group. Individually each kid is fabulous. Together they behave like a bunch of idiots. The reason for this is quite simple. They get together each Saturday to 'rehearse' for 6 hours. What they actually do is muck around for 3-4 hours and then play for a few hours.

They are not sure what questions they should be asking - and they do need to ask them - and then get frustrated as they are not getting answers. This makes them whiny and aggressive. Being together for so many hours they feed of the energy of others in the group. There are many private jokes and it is frustrating as a teacher to get past their jokes and teach.

In amongst this, one kid picked up the subject this year. He hasn't completed the first two units of music, so he is starting from a lower point. He HAS done a fair amount - he began the year quite well - but his behaviour, which is very silly, has changed and he is slipping into his well practiced form. I pointed this out in no uncertain terms to him last night. Trouble is, I like the kid. He is funny and he is keen in my subject. I am just not certain about his dedication to the subject. I am also not sure if he can complete a year of great behaviour.....he is so well versed in behaving like an idiot.

ON OTHER things - there is a week to go until the holidays. I am SO grateful!