I told myself that I had to get all my work done by 9pm. Lo and behold, I did. Clearly when it comes to setting myself mini-deadlines, I can stick to them. Why is that the case? Well, because this is the very last opportunity I have to plan my full day of lessons tomorrow, so procrastination was down to a minimum and my time was well used.
More generally though, why can't I use my time well all the time...or, more leadingly, why am I often late? The answer can be found in this article in yesterday's Sunday Times. I was surprised at how many psychological traits I share with the chronically late (anxiety, being messy and easily distracted, perfectionist habits, low levels of self-control or a penchant for thrill-seeking...I have all of those to a degree, with thrill-seeking and perfectionism right up there). So that's my excuse then, I was meant to be late.
This is seemingly at odds with being a Virgo, and true, I'm not late all the time - mostly when it involves going somewhere different from my routine. I'd say the best explanation from the list is that I underestimate how long it takes to do something, or even just how short a minute is. This is clearly evidenced in my early lesson plans, where I'd plan impossible amounts of material for a lesson and then feel like I'd failed when we couldn't cover it all. I know that I'd patently be one of those people still reading two minutes later in the test where you're supposed to stop reading after 60 secs. This is actually quite hard though - I did something similar with my Y11s where they had to shut their eyes and put their hands up when they thought a minute was done - the range of time during which hands were put up was hilarious, with one boy putting up his hand after about 20 seconds and another girl waiting for almost 2 minutes!
In other news, it was a training day today so fun and games. All about the new building and our move into it. Cue lots of drama about equipment and classrooms and planning and who gets what etc. Fun.
And finally, it turns out that OFSTED are only coming to see me, not everyone, thus I am the only one who has to prepare all the paperwork. Further, I figure it's quite a big deal. My professional mentor, who consistently ignored my emails last term, failed to pass on details of observations, didn't hold our IRB meeting or tell us our IRB gradings, hasn't got us an SSE, and barely checked in at all, came right up to me first thing this morning to talk about the visit. My subject mentor did the same thing, so it must be important.
More generally though, why can't I use my time well all the time...or, more leadingly, why am I often late? The answer can be found in this article in yesterday's Sunday Times. I was surprised at how many psychological traits I share with the chronically late (anxiety, being messy and easily distracted, perfectionist habits, low levels of self-control or a penchant for thrill-seeking...I have all of those to a degree, with thrill-seeking and perfectionism right up there). So that's my excuse then, I was meant to be late.
This is seemingly at odds with being a Virgo, and true, I'm not late all the time - mostly when it involves going somewhere different from my routine. I'd say the best explanation from the list is that I underestimate how long it takes to do something, or even just how short a minute is. This is clearly evidenced in my early lesson plans, where I'd plan impossible amounts of material for a lesson and then feel like I'd failed when we couldn't cover it all. I know that I'd patently be one of those people still reading two minutes later in the test where you're supposed to stop reading after 60 secs. This is actually quite hard though - I did something similar with my Y11s where they had to shut their eyes and put their hands up when they thought a minute was done - the range of time during which hands were put up was hilarious, with one boy putting up his hand after about 20 seconds and another girl waiting for almost 2 minutes!
In other news, it was a training day today so fun and games. All about the new building and our move into it. Cue lots of drama about equipment and classrooms and planning and who gets what etc. Fun.
And finally, it turns out that OFSTED are only coming to see me, not everyone, thus I am the only one who has to prepare all the paperwork. Further, I figure it's quite a big deal. My professional mentor, who consistently ignored my emails last term, failed to pass on details of observations, didn't hold our IRB meeting or tell us our IRB gradings, hasn't got us an SSE, and barely checked in at all, came right up to me first thing this morning to talk about the visit. My subject mentor did the same thing, so it must be important.
Sometime this week I will make a little OFSTED list of things to bring up, that way I won't forget.
Oh and finally, yes, I know, he's totally instantly fit, and has a magnetic personality too. Sadly he is of the others. Boo. Puja, use the comments! I love getting comments, it makes me feel like I'm not rambling away to myself. Even though I mostly am. Right, bed time, it's a school night!
PS Crumbs, I accidentally posted this to the OUWAFC blog, whoops! Sorry MT!
