Week one of school is over.

I collapsed into my chair after my last period today. I felt physically exhausted yet intensely satisfied. I have to admit as hard work it is teaching with so much to do, so much to prepare, I really love my job. Sometimes when I think about my job, I get butterfly’s in my stomach, like nervous but excited.

This week I’ve been pulling some long hours, the longest being a 13 hour day. I’ve even been waking up at 4am so I can fit all my lesson planning in. Crazy times, but I love it. I guess thats what happens when you enjoy your job. But I have learnt some boundaries since last year and my rule is that once I leave the office, I don’t take any work home. Home is home and work stays at work… I don’t want my home to become another extension of the office. Last year first term, work just consumed me because I didn’t know where to draw the boundary. I would often work till 1am and then wake up early. There soon became no place for any ‘Anna’ time. So this year I’ve definately built those boundaries in my life!

But its been so good to get back into it. Seeing all the students again and catching up with all their holiday news. I love being around the students and I think thats the biggest reason why I love this job. They make this all worthwhile. I love bouncing ideas off them, discussing things with them and finding out more about their lives. What makes them tick and why they think what they think… All their individualities are so fascinating. They make me laugh, they are cute, sometimes they are weird and random and sometimes they just make me frustrated. But above all they make me want to reach out and engage with them.

I have the best year 10 form class this year! Just a really nice dynamic of kids. I love all their personalities and I’m growing to be quite protective of them. There are a few in there who I really have a heart for, the ones I call the ‘non responsives’. These are the ones who look totally unengaged, bored or just don’t really say much at all. They are the ones who look at you like you are the most boring-est person in the world or make you feel like you have food stuck between your teeth. But these are also the ones who usually have something going on at home or they have been told they have depression or some other disorder.

These are the ones I try to subliminally encourage during our morning devotions, make an intentional effort to say ‘hi’ to in the hallway or praise something they have done. Just something to let them know I notice and I care. Sometimes it gets thrown back in your face (actually most of the time!), but who said loving the unlovely was easy? I’ve grown a thicker skin because of it, but I think, if you persist and do something long enough, something will eventually get through.

I am feeling pretty blessed this year. I get to teach Media Studies to years 9 through to 12 and only teach year 11 and 12 Applied Info Tech (which is computing). I’m not the hugest fan of teaching computing but I love teaching media. I am passionate about media literacy and I enjoy teaching the kids to open up their eyes to their world, to the digital landscape they are living in. Its so much a part of our lives. Kids are immersed in it, often chatting on MSN, surfing their favourite website, doing research for an assignment, whilst they are also listening to music with the TV on in the background.

We basically learn about communication in media. It learning how to communicate an idea, an opinion, an emotion or a value through the media forms of film, television, photography, radio, print and computer based media. Its also about learning not only how to produce our own media but how to critically analyse and evaluate the media around us. That we are not absorbing those media messages at face value, that we can look at an advertisement and understand critically what they are trying to show us, why and how. Its also about studying how the media contributes and affects us as a society at an economic, local and personal level.

I find it really fascinating. To me, media is powerful. It pursuades us, informs us and entertains us. But I love how it also is an art form. The way its constructed and put together, the way the film director captures the intricate strands of smoke as it leaves the lips of an unknown character as the strains of ‘One Crowded Hour‘ by Augie March plays in the background. These images and sounds symbolise and invoke emotions in us. Sometimes they are things that words can’t simply express. Have you every watched a film that left you feeling so moved? So impacted?

I remember the first time I cried in a movie was ‘A walk to remember‘ with Mandy Moore. So I’m sitting there balling my eyes out wondering why I am even crying… The characters weren’t even real! Or watching ‘Hotel Rwanda‘ and feeling deeply impacted, shocked and sore for the people of Rwanda. The emotions it invoked through the telling of the story are so real. Or have you ever looked at a landscape photograph of a sunset and thought “Wow” at its beauty and shades of colours? The image moves you. Something in your spirit stirs.

I love it. This semester my 12′s are studying polemic documentaries; we are watching Fahrenheit 9/11 and looking at Michael Moore as a director. My year 11′s are studying what popular culture is then looking at and producing their own music videos. With my lower school kids the theme for this semester is ‘Superheros’ and we are producing comic books and filming a narrative film about their own superheros.

Ah, its going to be a fun year