Sjá nánar

29.12.2006

TEACHER-TRAINING

TEACHER-TRAINING

http://www.netsaga.is/media/files/Glow320kbps.mp3

During the spring-semester of my first year in college I had my first training as a teacher.

I didn't worry for it, because I had already experienced standing before pupils as a teacher in Keflavik of happy memory.

The school had been picked for me, and that school was one of the best in the country;

The Training and Experiment Grammar School that is a part of the Teachers' Training College and it was stationed very close to the mother-building, only the large and elegant Gymnasium comes between.

My training-teacher was a lovely elderly woman who happened to be a tried good teacher of children in the younger section of grammarschool.

In one of our conversations I discovered that her father who had been a hairdresser used to teach my mum when she became one of the first Icelandic women to learn the craftmanship of hairdressing.

It was a genuine delight to watch how she enchanted the curious young souls who were her pupils, but there wasn't much more that I tried.

I had anticipated for these lessons, when I supposedly would be able to practise and train myself in new teaching-methods in this Mecca of Icelandic grammarschool-teaching, where all innovations usually get tested, before they're dispelled into other schools in the country.

But that wasn't the case.

Most of the time I used to sit on my butt, just as any other pupil watching the tried teacher.

At that moment I wasn't very disappointed with how little real teacher-training I was getting, but felt it convenient to be able to skip any hard work, as it was in my opinion;
distressed by a good old way of thinking from my junior-college years:

To work as lightly and little as one was able to, but I hadn't had the last bite from this thinking.

The teacher-training that I received or didn't receive which way one looks at it didn't get any better.

I never really got the chance to show whether I had any talent for teaching or not.

I remained an ineffective bystander most of the time, or had the privilege to walk between the pupils to observe them working.

Now when I look back on how I was wrongly treated during my school-years I find it a disgrace and condemnable by the school's administration for not intervening and finding me some special resource, like more teaching.

My teachers must have noticed, that I wasn't a normal student, because everybody was aware of the fact that I had been in a serious accident, where I'd received grave injury on head and body.

The results in exams must have given a reason to speculate whether there was something bother-ing this student. But nobody seemed to hear my cry for help.

After three years of struggling to get a diploma, great expence and debtrunning, I get the happy news that I'd accomplished everthing to become a teacher, but...
the subject that had the most momentum:

THE TEACHER-TRAINING!!!!!

Despite this shock;
not being a legimate teacher and not having the honour of taking part in a formal gratuation with my fellow-students I didn't lose heart, and being supported by good people I got a job as a teacher in the south-east of Iceland in the village Hofn at Hornafjordur, where I believed I'd be able to show 'em that I really was a great teacher, anyway just as good as the next man.

But it didn't lie before me, despite my high intentions, everything went down the drain my first winter as a teacher.

In the earlier part of the winter the going was quite good in my own opinion.

The kids seemed to like their new teacher.

I took them on field-trips, both to a fishing-factory and elsewhere.

But...as time went by in my first year it was apparent that I wasn't able to hold good discipline amongst my young pupils.

I didn't know how to prepare myself before lessons so my pupils could be busy throughout the forty minutes.

I tried to change my methods, sought guidance from my fellow teachers, but it was all in vain.

The damage was already too overwhelming!

One way I tried was to assist each pupil at a time, e.g. in arithmetic, but then I lost track of others who also needed assistance.

Before I knew it there was total chaos in the classroom, and I had to seek assistance myself, the principal's again and again to pacify the class.

Despite my determination and will to remain at Hofn (harbor) for another winter, having gained the experience, the will wasn't mutual and thus with the tail between my legs I had to return to Keflavik along with my fianceé, Anna and our four year old son Sveinn Sigurdur, whom she had given birth to back in November '76 after only a seven month pregnancy.

One thing I would like to mention is that whilst I struggled along in my hopeless teaching on the outskirts of the world as most Icelanders know it I received a letter from The Teachers' College:

-After a reviewal of your teacher training the school's administration has determined, that the right thing to do in my case is to give you full rights as a teacher.

This came as a nice surprise of course, but peculiar at the same time.

I've asked my parents whether they knew or had anything to do with this decision, but they've denied.

Probably against better knowledge.

Despite all my speculation about the altering determination it can't be denied, that my family was quite happy having more money to spend.

History repeated itself, when I was a teacher at Gagnfraedaskolinn (senior-elementary) in Keflavik two years later.

Again I failed keeping appropriate discipline amongst my pupils, despite many attempts.

Looking back speculating what the reason was for me failing again I often come to the conclusion, that it might have been because that my main branch of teaching was mathematics that I'd never seen before and was learning at the same time as my pupils.

If I'd had a choice which branches to teach I'd
liked to teach either English or History which were my elective subjects in college.

Perhaps that was the reason for my failure?

It makes me sad to think, that after my three years of education and great debts I've only been a teacher for two winters, despite the fact that I'd decided as early as 1976, when I was teaching in the Barnaskoli in Keflavik, that more than anything I wanted to make TEACHING my profession.

TEACHER-TRAINING

TEACHER-TRAINING http://www.netsaga.is/media/files/Glow320kbps.mp3

During the spring-semester of my first year in college I had my first training as a teacher.

I didn't worry for it, because I had already experienced standing before pupils as a teacher in Keflavik of happy memory.

The school had been picked for me, and that school was one of the best in the country;

The Training and Experiment Grammar School that is a part of the Teachers' Training College and it was stationed very close to the mother-building, only the large and elegant Gymnasium comes between.

My training-teacher was a lovely elderly woman who happened to be a tried good teacher of children in the younger section of grammarschool.

In one of our conversations I discovered that her father who had been a hairdresser used to teach my mum when she became one of the first Icelandic women to learn the craftmanship of hairdressing.

It was a genuine delight to watch how she enchanted the curious young souls who were her pupils, but there wasn't much more that I tried.

I had anticipated for these lessons, when I supposedly would be able to practise and train myself in new teaching-methods in this Mecca of Icelandic grammarschool-teaching, where all innovations usually get tested, before they're dispelled into other schools in the country.

But that wasn't the case.

Most of the time I used to sit on my butt, just as any other pupil watching the tried teacher.

At that moment I wasn't very disappointed with how little real teacher-training I was getting, but felt it convenient to be able to skip any hard work, as it was in my opinion; distressed by a good old way of thinking from my junior-college years:

To work as lightly and little as one was able to, but I hadn't had the last bite from this thinking.

The teacher-training that I received or didn't receive which way one looks at it didn't get any better.

I never really got the chance to show whether I had any talent for teaching or not.

I remained an ineffective bystander most of the time, or had the privilege to walk between the pupils to observe them working.

Now when I look back on how I was wrongly treated during my school-years I find it a disgrace and condemnable by the school's administration for not intervening and finding me some special resource, like more teaching.

My teachers must have noticed, that I wasn't a normal student, because everybody was aware of the fact that I had been in a serious accident, where I'd received grave injury on head and body.

The results in exams must have given a reason to speculate whether there was something bother-ing this student. But nobody seemed to hear my cry for help.

After three years of struggling to get a diploma, great expence and debtrunning, I get the happy news that I'd accomplished everthing to become a teacher, but... the subject that had the most momentum:

THE TEACHER-TRAINING!!!!!

But it didn't lie before me, despite my high intentions, everything went down the drain my first winter as a teacher.

In the earlier part of the winter the going was quite good in my own opinion.

The kids seemed to like their new teacher.

I took them on field-trips, both to a fishing-factory and elsewhere.

But...as time went by in my first year it was apparent that I wasn't able to hold good discipline amongst my young pupils.

I didn't know how to prepare myself before lessons so my pupils could be busy throughout the forty minutes.

I tried to change my methods, sought guidance from my fellow teachers, but it was all in vain.

The damage was already too overwhelming!

One way I tried was to assist each pupil at a time, e.g. in arithmetic, but then I lost track of others who also needed assistance.

Before I knew it there was total chaos in the classroom, and I had to seek assistance myself, the principal's again and again to pacify the class.

One thing I would like to mention is that whilst I struggled along in my hopeless teaching on the outskirts of the world as most Icelanders know it I received a letter from The Teachers' College:

-After a reviewal of your teacher training the school's administration has determined, that the right thing to do in my case is to give you full rights as a teacher.

This came as a nice surprise of course, but peculiar at the same time.

I've asked my parents whether they knew or had anything to do with this decision, but they've denied.

Probably against better knowledge.

Despite all my speculation about the altering determination it can't be denied, that my family was quite happy having more money to spend.

History repeated itself, when I was a teacher at Gagnfraedaskolinn (senior-elementary) in Keflavik two years later.

Again I failed keeping appropriate discipline amongst my pupils, despite many attempts.

Looking back speculating what the reason was for me failing again I often come to the conclusion, that it might have been because that my main branch of teaching was mathematics that I'd never seen before and was learning at the same time as my pupils.

If I'd had a choice which branches to teach I'dliked to teach either English or History which were my elective subjects in college.

Perhaps that was the reason for my failure?

It makes me sad to think, that after my three years of education and great debts I've only been a teacher for two winters, despite the fact that I'd decided as early as 1976, when I was teaching in the Barnaskoli in Keflavik, that more than anything I wanted to make TEACHING my profession.

TEACHER-TRAINING

http://www.netsaga.is/media/files/Glow320kbps.mp3

At that moment I wasn't very disappointed with how little real teacher-training I was getting, but felt it convenient to be able to skip any hard work, as it was in my opinion;
distressed by a good old way of thinking from my junior-college years:

After three years of struggling to get a diploma, great expence and debtrunning, I get the happy news that I'd accomplished everthing to become a teacher, but...
the subject that had the most momentum:

If I'd had a choice which branches to teach I'd
liked to teach either English or History which were my elective subjects in college.