From the busy trap to procrastination… I had the tendency of
associating procrastination with life as a student because it is probably the
most overused word you hear (or read on Facebook), especially during those
dreary thesis-writing days. But there’s nothing like the pressure of time running
out to give you that kick up the ass that you need. I was hoping those days
were gone but procrastination has a strange gift of creeping up on you while
you waste endless hours on the Internet that you simply don’t notice, until you
realize that it’s probably time you should go to bed.
Despite being a person who instinctively makes plans all the
time while trying to adapt to a spontaneous kind of lifestyle, I still find
that I put off the planning that I should
be doing. Sometimes it seems to make more sense to just wing it when there
is a lack of stability surrounding you. This completely defies my original goal
when I started down this career path. I thought I had it all figured out. I
would do my A-levels; get into the “best” teaching college I know; spend four
years training; et voilà, I would
have a permanent, stable job as a teacher. It didn’t quite work out that way
and I’m glad it didn’t.
However, nowadays I can’t seem to fathom the possibility of
thinking more than a few months ahead because permanency no longer seems to
exist. The temporary nature of life these days breeds short attentions spans
and hence, procrastination. If I’m honest, I believe working as a primary
school teacher (this may apply to all kinds of teaching but I can only share my
experience of one) shouldn’t be a permanent job. Teaching always requires
regular evaluation, improvement, creativity and energy, and permanency poses a
serious danger of becoming stuck in one’s ways and lacking all of these
ingredients.
Not forgetting that teaching seems more like 80% acting, and
sometimes it really feels that way. There are many mornings when I’m walking into
school and I feel like I’m not quite awake yet. That immediately changes, as
soon as a sprightly, young schoolchild delightfully beams at me and says, “Good
morning, Andrea!” This is of course in the public school; in the private school
I will be called Miss Magee by the children. When I receive such an
enthusiastic greeting, I can’t help but return the smile and force myself to be
as energetic as possible to encourage these kids to learn. It doesn’t come so
easily every day though and many lessons are like putting on a show, but it’s
worth it when you reap the rewards from that unique sense of fulfilment when a
student makes progress.
Another increasingly important aspect of teaching is
discipline. While a teacher may hope that this a shared responsibility with
parents, the reality of it is evident enough to show that different parents
have very different ideas of how to discipline their children. Needless-to-say,
I must admit that I’m a fan of positive reinforcement as I personally like to
spare my throat from the strain of shouting all day, every day. It helps a lot
if the school has a unified policy in place and I’m very happy to learn that the
private school, where I will start officially working in March, runs a
whole-school discipline system involving star reward charts and house
points. They also have a procedure for bad behaviour that involves removing
privileges from the children, such as 5-minutes off their break time and after
three of these, they then miss the next class field trip. The school is very
active in terms of organising many extra activities, such as field trips,
culture days and talent shows. They are now in the process of organising a
Russian culture day whereby every class will perform or produce something from
Russia.
Speaking of culture, today I celebrated with my Comenius
school the tradition of Fasching.
This can only be described as a kind of carnival that allows the normal rules
and routines to be subverted. Everybody dressed up in a costume of their choice
(I was a witch, spot me in the picture!) and instead of regular lessons, we played party games and ate
party food. This was followed by a whole-school parade through the surrounding
streets, making as much noise as possible. It really is a lot of fun and some
of the kids were impressively creative with their outfits!
Last weekend I returned to Paris for Thomas’s final weekend
there. We had an amazing time exploring the Menagerie du Jardin des Plantes – a
zoo with exotic, endangered species, such as the snow leopard and the red
panda. We were lucky enough to see the super cute, fluffy red
pandas wake up
from their slumber and clumsily find some bamboo to munch on. This was Thomas’s
favourite part as he crooned that he wished to take one home with him. I,
however, was more fascinated by the dining etiquette of a huge tortoise. I felt
so sorry for them trying to eat because it seemed they lacked vision and
coordination. It probably takes them just as long to eat a healthy meal as it
does for them to dander over to the other side of their enclosure. Another highlight
was the sleeping sloth (see picture). Though of course it didn’t do much at all and never
really does, I was just fascinated to see one for real and watch it live the
dream in its little hammock between the trees. 
As well as that,
we also enjoyed a lovely double date in a Chilean restaurant recommended
by a local, where we tried tapas and then chose our favourite as a
main, before relishing in a yummy dessert. Afterwards, we
took a romantic stroll across one of the bridges on the edge of the city to
enjoy a spectacular view of the Eiffel Tower sparkling. It sparkles every hour,
on the hour and we caught it just on time at 11pm. The next day, Thomas and I
decided to spend the rainy day at a photography exhibition, with the main
display from David Lynch. I wasn’t that impressed by his ‘Short Stories’ art
collection, but rather the Spanish artist Joan Fontcuberta with an exhibition entitled, ‘Camouflages’
really captured my imagination and challenged the deceiving nature of reality
vs unreality in photography. We do quite often accept photographs as evidence
of something factual and Joan Fontcuberta succeeds in exploiting this
phenomenon. I was also interested to learn about Arno Rafael Minkkinen, a
Finnish photographer who uses his naked body in a tasteful, sophisticated way
to create photographic art. Credit where credit is due, he possesses a fair
amount of ‘sisu’. 
I returned to Vienna on Monday, just to prepare myself to
leave again on Friday. This time, to Finland. I’m really looking forward to
catching up with my good friends there and embracing some proper winter
weather. I did have a little prequel yesterday though when I went ice skating
with my tandems. The Vienna Ice Dream 2014 is a temporary, outdoor ice skating
world in front of the beautiful Vienna Town Hall, with weaving, uphill and
downhill lanes leading to two magnificent ice rinks. It can be quite a workout I
have to say and once I got over my fear of falling (luckily I didn’t at all!) I
managed to relax a bit and find my pace on the ice.
So now I’m ready for Finland!!
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