One day down

Inspection day 1. I escaped, hurrah!

Turns out planning and being prepared and creating exciting lessons and putting some effort in actually leads to better teaching. Who knew eh? If only I had the time to do this kinda work all year, well, my kids would surely benefit. This patently explains why I was such a better teacher last year - I just had more time to do it in.

Figured I will get seen tomorrow, am already a bit scared. One of the inspectors is a maths specialist, and I am the most junior in the department, and the only NQT, hence it's guaranteed. Really hope it's not with my Y10s. Also am teaching lessons 1 to 4 back-to-back, so it's a STRESS anyway. Hmm. Don't forget Y9 parents' evening tomorrow night too, and then it's Friday week A all over again, great!

What else? It's my mother's birthday today, we're having a dinner party, guests have just got here (or so it sounds) so will pop a look in, but then scramble off to bed, my throat is still sore.

Looked up some words from Atonement:

garrulous - full of chatter
equanimity - composure; steadiness of mind under stress
lariat - a cord tied as a necklace that ends like a necktie

Also love this bit from p90, it got to me:

"The anticipation and dread he felt at seeing her was also a kind of sensual pleasure, and surrounding it, like an embrace, was a general elation - it might hurt, it was horribly inconvenient, no good might come of it, but he had found out for himself what it was to be in love, and it thrilled him".

Bertie, high fives :)

Inspection Time

Inspection time. Tomorrow and Thursday. Drama.

Am prepared. I think. Hope they don't see my Y10 lessons, they are distinctly average. My Y9 and Y8 classes should be good though. Haven't planned the PSHE lesson yet, not quite sure what we're doing for it. Hmmm.

Off school today, there goes my attendance target. Have a shocking sore throat + a cold, hope it doesn't become the flu, although I am quite achy. Think I may be a bit exhausted too, half-term was hardcore and kept going till Monday morning, so haven't had much rest. Totally worth it though.

Spurs are Carling Cup winners! Yay! Can't believe the Spurs turn around over the last few seasons, we are really getting somewhere, or so it feels.

What else? Told my friends a secret today and they were good about it. I like that.

Wish me luck, time for an early bed.

Back and Happy and Grizzly Too

I am back from Dubai and still a bit dazed from it all. Had a fantastic and awesome time, it went so quickly but was great, I wish I was still on holiday.

Have lots of work to do but am ignoring it all. We're being HMI-ed (inspected) when we get back after half-term (STRESS!) so all the books have to be marked up to date and we need to make proper loooong detailed lesson plans for the inspection days. Lame. Can't be bothered, think I will have a panic on Sunday night instead. That will be the official end of half-term for me, and hopefully after Spurs beat Chelski in the Carling Cup Final on Sunday, well, I will be a bit drunk, so the lesson planning will be fun!

I had a knee appointment today and it was sad because my ACL graft is ruptured so I need to have ANOTHER knee reconstruction, which is obviously crap news. I dealt with it better this time, I am not as devastated, mainly because I expected it to be coming, and also because I am less into contact sports and stuff now, I can deal with a busted up knee better than I could when I was at Oxford, when everything I did required a super duper knee. Still, it's not great news, and buying lots of random stuff afterwards was perhaps not the best idea (although I DO now own a lovely pair of brown leather boots and also lots and lots of socks and blusher, excellent).

A busy weekend planned and next week too is super busy, I don't think I have a complete day of unplanned stuff until the following Sunday, BUSY! And Puja, the capitals are for you :)

Finally, just so you know, an emirate designates a political territory that is ruled by a dynastic Arab Monarch styled emir (thanks for that Wikipedia!). The seven dwarves are Sneezy, Sleepy, Happy, Grumpy, Dopey, Bashful and Doc. And it's totally worth watching Severance, a silly British comedy horror film, gorey and goofy at the same time.

That's all for now.

Staying or Going?

Hmm. I am confused today. And generally. I think I may have made some tactical errors.

Before all of that ramble, thank you Jade for such a lovely dinner party, you are a proper grown-up in a seriously fancy house, congrats! And the food was awesome, was full all day today, yay!

Also, check out this TUNE by Estelle again, it's properly bouncy and fun, I want my own American boy now.

And I want to read this book by Sudhir Venkatesh, and be a sociologist again, rather than a teacher.

And I want my Y10s to be good tomorrow, they were bad and naughty and made me cross today.

So why am I confused you ask? Well, today I had a meeting with the principal of my school to talk about contracts etc. next year. On the one hand she was positive about offering me more sociology teaching and definitely keeping me on next year. On the other hand, she said she couldn't match my city offer (fair enough) and then was really vague about what she could give me and when. I guess it didn't help that I didn't know what I wanted to be in the future, just that I didn't want to be a second in department or progress along the subject route. Hmm. So essentially, I told her I'd think about whether I wanted to stay or not, but then an hour later I told my head of department that I'd be leaving after the summer term. And he was sad. And then I was sad. So now I have been mulling it over and thinking about whether I really want to leave school, and whether I really want to work in the city.

Leaving: won't have to deal with irrational, rude, mad kids.
Going to city: may have to deal with irrational, rude, mad adults.
Leaving: won't be stressed about school
Going to city: will be stressed about something else
Leaving: no more early early starts and loooong marking sessions in the evening
Going to city: instead late evenings in the office
Leaving: getting to read on the tube to work
Going to city: having to take the tube in the first place, aaaargh commuting
Leaving: no more feeling resentful about not getting paid enough
Going to city: getting on the treadmill and becoming really materialistic
Leaving: no more serious leftiness
Going to city: serious right-wingness
Leaving: my life will be about more than just education and kids
Going to city: my life will become about completely pointless things like making money and merging companies.

I guess the thing that gets me is that I am just leaving because they won't pay me enough (for how hard it is) and that I feel like I'm copping out and letting my department and my kids down. My school and department have been really good to me, and despite all the drama, at least I actually feel something about school you know. I remember someone saying that school is the only place where people will notice and care if you are not there. Plus there are the holidays, and the fact that I got to have a nap today at 4pm because I decided to bring my marking home. I get to be in charge of my own time and own work. But then my teaching has become mediocre because I am bored of teaching maths again and again. Primary school?

Anyway, I guess I will have to hand in my resignation now. I just wish they'd pay me more, and then it'd be fine and I could stay and be happier. I can't afford to stay in school, not when other things are factored in, and when she showed me the pay scale and it would take me six years on the normal scale to even be close to what my starting offer is now, my heart just sunk.

Humph. I shall go to bed to contemplate.

A lovely weekend

It's dusk outside, the sun's half-way setting, and the sky is a beautiful beautiful pink. It makes me feel awesome. Not that I didn't feel awesome already.

I've had a lovely lovely weekend. Dashed out of the dramas of school on Friday, and to be honest, until just now I had completely forgotten about school, such is the power of my feel-good. I helped X move some stuff into the new place, lots of fun driving, it was pretty cool to be in London in the traffic. No, really. We went to the cinema to watch Juno - was really good, well worth watching, although she seemed to find it a bit too easy to give away her baby, but anyway.

Saturday morning drove back home, and then did my "errands", hahaha, mostly buying random stuff. In the afternoon headed up to Oxford for a school reunion dinner at LMH, excellent fun. Managed not to drink (for the second night in a row, oh yeah! Driving makes me responsible) and had X-related cravings so was lucky enough to be able to leg it back to X's after dinner. I love being around X, it's just awesome, and when I finally left and went outside, it was like proper spring, beautiful, birds and flowers and sun and everything. Driving back home along the river with a big smile on my face, I felt really content.

Got home today 3ish, and since then have been in a daze. I think I am all loved up, that would probably explain my dreamy state. I am mildly worried for my health - being so day dreamy got me rather lost on the way home, and now I just want to sit around and think about X and the weekend we have just had, rather do my lesson plans. It's ok though, my FB horoscope states that "the work will still be there later on. Take the time now do something with someone you care about". Mmmm.

One more week to half-term. I hope it's a good one. Well, how can it not be? Big smile. With teeth.

I wonder if any of this happened to you today?

I love not teaching in the afternoon, it's so the best thing!

My form were so good in silent reading this afternoon. Back last term this was completely impossible and wouldn't happen, but today we had the whole class super quiet, was awesome!

Except...

Three kids decided to draw pornographic images instead of reading! Shocker. These were seriously explicit pictures as well, I couldn't believe it. So trying to be smart, I confiscated the pics and told the kids I'd be sending copies to their parents. And I kept them back in detention after school. So far so good. But then I slipped out of the classroom for 2 minutes to photocopy some homework sheets for my Y10s, and when I came back, lo and behold the confiscated drawings had "disappeared". Little monsters. DId some futile ranting and raving, then had to send them home. Called up their parents - luckily they were good and supportive, so hopefully the culprit will step up tomorrow.

In other news, I'm teaching expanding brackets to my Y10 set 4, and my Y8 set 1. This meant that today I taught two hours worth of brackets, back to back lessons and everything. Aaaargh brackets, I don't want to see them again.
(((((((((((())))))))))))))))))))((((((((((((()))))))))))))))))))))

And finally, I was back at my old school today to watch the Y11 girls' borough basketball final. We have lost to the same school for the past 4 years, and this year we were so close to winning, and then lost by a point in the final minute. Such a dramatic game, and I felt really awful for the girls afterwards. Sport is too serious for me I think.

Back to the Learning Log. Yay, good times!

A good 5th week so far

This is the latest I've been up since Sat night! Sunday and Monday was in bed by 9pm; yesterday by 8pm! It's glorious, I love getting enough sleep...the whole "being awake before my alarm" thing is totally cool.

The week is going well, mainly because I am operating like a normal person. Except for having a cold. I don't have hours and hours of marking to do, which means in my free lessons I can plan stuff, which means I don't have to do loads of work outside of school. Sadly this is a one-off, but since it is the 5th week equivalent of term, I think I will do this whole "no marking no planning" thing again.

What else is good? I am teaching well, school-drama is minimal. I found out my old school is looking for a maths teacher, which is exciting. I checked out the TES Jobs section properly today - there are loads of maths appointments for September 2008 - 6 in my borough alone! I have a meeting next week to talk about plans for next year, so fingers crossed. For the most part if I stay in teaching I'd like to stay at my school, but it's good to check out the options. Life in school could be so much better potentially - maybe I've just not realised it yet. Interestingly, I didn't check out job appointments in Liverpool, hahaha.

Enjoy the rest of the week, let's hope it goes as well as Capello's first game tonight!

Back From The Fun

I am back from the fun of the weekend and about to start marking books. This will be interesting because I haven't got a copy of the questions that I set, only the kids' answers, and surprise surprise, they are all different, so now I don't know what to mark right or wrong. The only good thing about this enterprise is that I get to use my green marking pen.

I have decided to have a half-term style week this week. No planning of lessons or real marking of books. The former will be dramatic and entertaining and slightly panicky. The latter will be easy to accomplish since being a genius I didn't set any homework last week apart from for Y10 and Y12, thus giving me back HOURS of my life. What shall I do with these hours? Well, I have lots of other stuff to sort out, but I think instead I will ignore it all and get into bed at 9pm every day. Oooh only 90 mins away, I can't wait.

On Friday I had that TF education sector training day - a big info day about staying on in school. It was really good and interesting, although my inability to sit and listen to people talking was disturbing, particularly because some of the speakers were actually quite good. Spent all weekend in Oxford - the first proper weekend without doing any work/productive things for aaages. Was awesome, even though I didn't get to play footy, was lovely to see everyone and just be back in Oxford and mess about like a student. All the frivolity was good for my soul, despite me trying to be a grown-up and stay out of trouble. Only minor dramas really, I can fix them, it was definitely a good weekend. Reality hit me hard today - I have a cold and something that feels like a hangover. Many caffeinated drinks and opportunities to shout at children didn't help - in fact, I have almost lost my voice, useful.

So 9 days of school to go, and I shall try really hard to get through them, even if we have to sit through boring assemblies (how can someone manage to make Chinese New Year into a boring assembly?!) and rude kids e.g. A from my tutor group who has been off-sick all last week (yay!) but when I asked her how she felt this morning she said really ill, but that that was ok because she hoped I would catch it from her and then have to stay at home. Bless.