rules of the trade

3 days into my first teaching stint, all still looks rosy and healthy. i must admit that the sense of excitement that each day brings is enough to keep you going so far. how will those pesky people respond to you? how can you make them get interested? how to make them like and fear you at the same time?
it makes you miss school and ponder how much has changed in the past 3 years of absence. the canteen food, the lecture theatres, the way to school, the most irritating bus to school are all coming back again. its not exactly detestable, there is some tinge of melancholy, nuances of an imaginary bond to a place that helped me get so far.
but there are new things to take away this time. the banter in the staff room makes you feel no longer a student but someone who is transiting to an adult. the content itself is amazing, though the fodder for gossip is still at a minimal by any of my accounts. there's personal space now, in school where you can haf your food stuff, mugs, books arranged in your own fashion making you feel more comfortable in school than, even, at home. walking down the corridors, you can get to see many people freeze in absolutely awkward fashion before finding the right words to greet your presence. they seldom get it right though and the way they get so flustered is quite joyous in an evil sense. next, you will sit in the lecture a totally different person. its such a different feeling that cannot be exactly described. you are an adult now, a governor of discipline, a proprietor of information, a figure of authority and example.
im beginning to figure the kind of students i like best. those who are shameless and talk too much for their own good but never stop questioning concepts and sorting it out. a tutorial class of 4 is so much easier to conduct and is more effective because i can get all 4 of them to speak up and go through their written work in good depth so that all pick up the correct stuff in the time. i am wondering how best to do it for bigger classes. they are not only big, their result disparity is terrible too. that's a good challenge, tomorrow's tutorials i will haf to work on it. i must get everyone interested and learning! yup.
i guess this stint is still in its early budding stages, as to its objective to help me realise whether ornot i can come to terms with long term teaching it is still too early to say. i am still a student alright. a teacher in the rest's eyes. as for now, i can only say that its still an interesting an explorable path that contains passion. i hope it never runs out because i like the interaction with students. and meanwhile i hope that in 1-2weeks time, my email will contain good news.