Happy New Year everybody and I assume most of you in the northern hemisphere are back at work now and in the swing of things.

Well, my question today, which is the same as I’ve asked all my adult classes, is, “Have you got any New Year’s Resolutions?”

I have one : to stop using facebook so much when I should be planning.  Day One didn’t start too well.  An ex-colleague posted on her wall,

Back to work for me. Back to school for Joe.
Time to get inspired!!! (I think I´ll start right away with a cup of tea!)

to which my response was…

This will be the last Wordy Wednesday of 2010 and it’s a request for help!  I curently have two students in different classes who are thinking of leaving because they don’t get on well with classmates.  I am very willing to accept that a fair amount of personality clashes can be solved and that it is the teacher’s responsibility to organize students so they are working comfortably and feel happy in the class environment.

But what can you do when students are just a bit fed up of each other?

The first is a class held at lunchtime in a school.  Students (from 3 years to 18) are in school until 5pm and have a two-hour lunch break.  I have a class of 6-year-olds, who come to me before they go to the canteen.  This means that it’s the end of the morning and  they’re tired and hungry.  Also, although we try to separate students so they are with different people, there is bound to be some overlap as there are four school classes and three English classes.  I was told that one student was going to leave and when I asked her why she told me that two of the other students annoy her.  It’s not a case of bullying, there’s no malicious words being exchanged and there’s certainly no physical abuse – she’s just bored of being with the same people.

The second situation is in an after-school class, where I have two boys in late Primary who just don’t see eye to eye.  They go to the same school and although they are in different classes, and different years, they just don’t get on.  Also, they both have very strong personalities, so once they start bickering, they don’t stop.

Any advice?  It would be the perfect Christmas present for me 🙂

Well, it’s the last day of a LONG weekend here 🙂  6th and 8th December are both national holidays in Spain and most schools in Cádiz decided to take Tuesday off as well…lucky us!

So, what do you enjoy doing when you have days off (not weekends, but proper working days off)?

Well, it’s the 1st of December and the festive season is fast approaching.  This year I’ve bought a copy of “Now That’s What I Call Xmas” well in advance, whereas in the past years it’s gotten to the last week of term and I’ve been frantically scrabbling around and trying to find Christmas music!

So, a festive question to start this new month off…what Christmas songs (if any) will you be teaching your students?