...and learning in other lessons can be unhealthy!

During the course of this past week, health has been on my mind a lot...as one gets older, one (using the royal term 'one') gets more aches and pains, has more operations, and some parts of the body disappear never to be seen again...

However, much as I was encouraged by a student telling me of her headache being cured in my lesson, I also heard a couple of other disturbing stories...

Apparently, one young girl broke her leg in a PE lesson. I'm certain that such an incident has happened before, but even so, PE is a risky business. Interestingly, in the same class, another girl apparently broke her leg, or ankle, by slipping on some ice this last week...dropping like flies! :-O

But the more dramatic incidents concern lungs. One young man, a very tall dancer, experienced what seems to be a collapsed lung, though I don't think it was at school...BUT, there WAS one at school!

The other young man was in a Social Sciences lesson (ZSV) and his friend told him something funny. He laughed SO hard that his lung collapsed!!

Wow! Funny as some of my lessons can be, I have never had that happen to a student. Indeed, my lessons are quite healthy, I think :-)

Learning English is healthy!! :-)

Yesterday, I was teaching a seminar on health. During the course of conversation, it was clear that 3 students were suffering from a headache...and the cause of the headache was probably stress.

I am amazed at how knowingly mean some teachers can be to students... :-( And that they seem oblivious to the stress that they put some students under...however, we enjoyed a good seminar, inter-active, and some good stories...
At the end of the seminar, I was on my way back to the kabinet and I felt a tap on my shoulder. One of the girls from the seminar stopped me and said, "Mr Everill, my headache is gone! I really enjoyed the seminar, it was fun, and now my headache has gone and I feel much better."
Wow! I thanked her for her encouragement and reflected on the fact that as teachers, we CAN make a difference to a student's mood, even their health.
I guess that makes it official - English lessons (well, some of them :-)) are healthy for you!!

Back again... ;-)

Well, seems I've been quiet for a while now. A long time has passed since the 'knee incident' ;-) My physio finished last week - I sometimes feel a little grinding in my knee as I go up or downstairs, but nothing painful. In the end I was off for 6 weeks, and was very glad to go back to work! My crutches, Leonard (L for left) & Reginald (R for right) have been retired to the komora and are enjoying a well-earned rest, though they still enjoy falling over when I go in there for something...seems like crutches like to fall over a lot when one puts them down!

The week before Christmas was fun - in nearly every lesson we sang songs, seminars had a Pop Quiz, and everyone had a game of Musical Chairs.
The Pop Quiz showed me that some young people have a great musical education - they have a broad knowledge going back to the 60's etc...whereas some have an extreme lack of knowledge...and one or two had never heard of Jimi Hendrix!! :-O Scary...!!

(Jim Hendrix...just in case you don't know!) 

I came to realise that music MUST be an important part of my teaching here...
Musical Chairs showed me just how competitive some students can be...I mean, downright aggresive, in your face, push-you-offa-that-chair-aggressive!! It's always the quiet, little ones that you have to watch ;-)

The Christmas holidays were great, and I really enjoyed the break, and being able to move around without crutches...and a fun trip to England to see my Mom ;-)

And this year began very busily...marking, marking, and more marking...!!! All of this came to an end yesterday as the marks were closed - though 4 people will have to do komisionalkas... :-( No matter how much you warn some people about attendance, it seems that deafness must be the cause of their 'illness'...?

And being back at work means that stories are being told :-) Over the last 2 weeks, I have discovered the following information:

• the record for the most number of socks received at Christmas is....20 - this was a record set 2 years ago, and it still stands!
• the record for the most consecutive number of hours in bed during the holidays was - 24!! A young girl claimed this one
• and one young man claimed to have eaten 22 schnitzels (fish & meat) over the course of 3 days!! Most times with potato salad!! He had them for breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, supper, snack...you get the picture... ;-) 
  

(the mystery student having his delivery of schnitzels....)

So, here's to another year of adventure & fun at SGO, and I'll keep the stories coming... ;-)