When I began teaching Middle School ELA in the United States, I began a second career in teaching, that was totally different to my first career as a high school teacher in Australia. Education, it seems, is yet another one of the many facets of culture that differ vastly between Australia and the US (not simply our pronounciation and spelling of aluminium).
Now, I was no longer a teacher of various subjects to various grade levels, but a teacher of one subjects, to one grade level, simply performing what was essential the same lesson, six times in a row. Variety is truly the spice of life. 7th Grade ELA can become mind-numbingly boring after the third year. So mind-numbing, in fact, that one starts to ask questions one has never asked before.
