January 4, 2011: New Year at Ujpest High School

January 4, 2011: Yesterday, it was hard for me to get used to teaching once again after such a long holiday. Unfortunately, it was even harder for the students to get in the mood to study again; it wasn't just me because all of the teachers had the same comment as I. Classes where the students are pretty conscientious turned out to be almost impossible to teach. Today's classes were a bit closer to the norm, but it's clear that the students are still feeling the holiday spirit.

After all classes have ended for the day, we teachers have been meeting in the school gym for dancing lessons. We're putting on a synchronized dance number for a program next week. The dance is quite complex and requires learning all sorts of dance steps including jumps, twists, turns, hand movements, etc. I thought Hungarian was a hard language to learn -- well, try learning how to do the Waka Waka dance to someone giving instructions in Hungarian. I've managed to learn the steps fairly well just be observing the dancing lead, but I wonder how many of the other teachers are near my age -- most, if not all, are younger than I and are obviously used to the type of dance steps involved in the dance we're learning. Fortunately I've been placed in the back row and can blend in with the others. I hear that we'll be required to wear some sort of costume for our dance number. I just hope it isn't too tacky -- nothing that I'd want to be placed on a Youtube video. At any rate, it's been fun learning to dance with the other teachers. It gives me an opportunity to socialize with them in a different setting.

This week and next, the English teachers of 9B, 9C, 9D, and 9E will be meeting to discuss what English grade each student should get for the first semester. Each student will be assigned one grade for English so it must be the grade of consensus of all the English teachers  of each student. I've already assigned what grades I think are appropriate for the students, but I think (and it's only natural) that the other teachers will have their own thoughts.

One interesting thing to report: one of my students today asked if I had traveled to Salzburg during the vacation. I told him that I had and he said that he saw me in Salzburg! He had told his father that he thought he saw someone who looked just like his English teacher when he was walking down Getreidegasse, but little did he know that it really was his English teacher! Small world.
And so ends the first two school days of 2011. Only two weeks left for the first semester!