Sometimes easier isn’t actually

(I wrote this a week ago, and failed to post- apologies for the double bill.) My kids don't beat the living daylights out of each other, they don't just pay attention a lot of the time. Or if they do pay attention, they don't do what I ask. And because they are quite well behaved,…

A new beginning

I woke up late yesterday morning. The extra sleep felt good, but I did not. Nerves wracked my brains in a way that I cannot remember happening before. Not on my first day of school as a child, not at any interview, not during finals, and not even on my first day at Jafari. Or…

Invisible impact

I realised that I would have to shift from Jafari within a week of starting there. And from that time onwards, I made a concerted effort not to connect with my students. I did not want them to like me, I did not want them to have any attachment to me. I chose not to…

One month…

So, it has been just over a month since I first set foot in Jafari English High School. And it feels like one of the longest months of my life. But not in a bad way, to be fair. It's just that a lot has happened, some things have changed, and some things haven't. My…

Sometimes, it’s hard to keep a straight face…

So I have just been marking our beginning of year assessments, which is a gruelling set of exams all children in TFI classrooms have to sit at the start of the year. Two maths exams, one writing paper, one reading comprehension paper appropriate to their age groups, and then reading comprehension papers to find their…