Happiness Journal 29/9/25

The bane of an English teacher’s life is teaching writing. To combat that feeling of helplessness, I wrote an essay tailored to my 11-year-olds’ needs. This means punchy sentences and simple words because my English teacher used to say, “Keep It Simple, Stupid” and I should listen to his advice.

My stroke of genius was getting five students who are relatively better readers to read each stage of my Story Mountain. Kudos to them for reading loudly and expressively. Hence, even if my students weren’t paying full attention, they were still aurally bombarded by the important bits. Just the way I had planned it!

It’s examination season, but ironically, I was in a conducive headspace to ask the five of them to take a photograph with me after their ‘performance’. First photo I have ever initiated with this class.