Mega-Tidying!

Sunday afternoon. I have procrastinated enough, time to lesson plan. Ok, in five minutes.

This morning I woke up at 8am and couldn't go back to sleep. This was very annoying since I only got about 4 hours sleep last night, and have a rather shocking sleep debt from the week to pay off. But, despite trying hard to stay in bed, I couldn't. I decided it was time to tidy up my room. Ruthless. Lots of things got thrown away/"demoted" from having a presence in my room. I tidied up both my wardrobes too and sorted out all my tops into categories (Puja, you would be proud!). Then I worked on the the hundreds of books around the room. They are now in neat piles, but on the floor. I contemplated whether to get a bookshelf or not, but then decided it would be tricky to order a bookshelf when a) there is no space for one without ripping out the fitted sections of the room and b) my credit card is blocked out after repeated attempts to guess the pin (it was one of those nights when I was sure to get it right the next time, but alas they only gave me three chances).

Moving from here, I wandered downstairs. I think my mother may have been cross with me for my poor show last night, since there were a gaggle of aunties already in the living room (it was only 10am). Usually turning up in boxers all bleary-eyed for breakfast would be a no-no, but part of the family dynamic is that shame is a good punishment, so to repent for the night before I did my duty and sat with the aunties and did the chatter. What with having tidied up after the party last night and doing the chatter in the morning, well, I think I am back in the good books.

What else? Had a nice piano lesson and completed a full pelt work-out, mainly to neutralise the last two days of wickedness and also to stop myself getting too wired. Sweated out all the alcohol in the sauna (hopefully!) and am now contemplating the lesson planning. If only my enthusiasm for tidying could be replicated for this task. Again, try as I might, I can't push myself to do this. Cup of tea time :)

Saturday night update

It's pretty late, I should be in bed. I need the sleep for all the work I have to do tomorrow. Work doesn't always mean bad things. For example, I think of piano lessons and gym sessions as work, and I have to do both of those tomorrow, but I like them. However, there is some work that I definitely don't like that I also have to do tomorrow. Lesson planning, yuck. GS Leadership Log, double yuck. Education - Business presentation, triple yuck. If I didn't have to do all the extra work that is associated with the whole TF experience, I'd only be on one yuck, instead of six. Some nice algebra there.

Still, mustn't complain, currently I feel like I can battle all this work, complete it all, tick it off the list, and then spend time gloating and being satisfied that my "to do" list is done. I like this feeling.

In other news then, the inspection, well, terrible. Was 10 mins late for the lesson with my mad Y7s. The groups hadn't been set yet and so it was entirely mixed ability, except by mixed I mean on the one hand kids that can add 7 to a number, and on the other, kids that can barely count or spell the word number. Inspector went to hell and back with his post-lesson chatter. Essentially I think I flopped because I just don't know the kids yet, I don't know where to pitch the level, I don't know who is capable of what, or where to provide extra support. I'd only taught that class four times previously, there were 31 kids in the group anyway, and as a final excuse, well, I had no information on them and we hadn't had a formal maths lesson yet, so of course it wasn't going to be perfect. Still, it felt bad not to have a good opportunity to show off my potential.

Crazy H in my tutor group is being excluded for 3 days next week. His latest offences include kicking other students, threatening to burgle the house of an LSA, and bringing hardcore pornography into lessons. Bless him. I just want to hug him since he's an angel with me and cares about how Spurs are doing. He's really messed up and there's no-one really there to help him. Sad as it sounds, I can't see him lasting to Y11 at this rate.

This morning I woke up with a cracking hangover. The older I get the worse they are. Even if I don't drink that much. Last night was great, lots of good times with various TFers over the night, plus bumped into two old friends too, what are the chances? Obviously today was written off, except I did manage to get some tat for the kids as prizes for next week. Scented highlighters, glitter pens, and lollipops...surely that is incentive enough to try and stay off report all week?

And finally, I missed most of a dinner party tonight, naughty naughty. Was out drinking with the Furies, which I loved for the most part. It's not the same though, there's just too many rocks beneath the waves for it all to flow smoothly. I dunno, I don't want to waste too much emotion on it all, it's time to cut lose and leave it to mend itself. It's weird though, I can feel myself actively pulling away, it's sad, these people were my good friends, but now I find it hard to imagine ever having again what we had had.

So, to bed I guess. To ponder. To ponder is to dream, right? Or have I got that wrong...

Lunchtime chaos

It's Saturday. I am lesson planning. Well, technically, I've not started yet, but at some point today I intend to plan some lessons. In case it's not already been mentioned, we're being inspected on Monday and Tuesday. This is causing muchos chaos in the school. Further, I know I say it all the time, but once again for luck...I hate lesson planning. Especially when I have to miss, not just one, but two weddings so that I can work today. Booooo.

On Friday there was a huge fight at lunchtime involving Y8, Y10 and Y11 boys. I don't know exactly what happened or why, but it was pretty scary stuff. I was standing in the playground outside the maths block telling off some weirdo girls from my Y10 maths group. They were pointing bananas in the face of the younger kids, who were fasting for Ramadan. That's pretty cruel and unnecessary in my book. Anyway, as I was reprimanding them, they interrupted and said "Miss, you should probably be more worried about the fight than the bananas." I turned around and saw kids streaming into the canteen. Within seconds, there was a hysteria across the playground as children started shouting and whooping and storming into the school. Literally maybe 200 ran past and rushed the school. It was out of control. It took me about 5 seconds of just standing there as kids ran past before I woke up and thought I'd better try and do something. I stood in front of one door and started yelling at the on-comers to stop what they were doing. Around this time a load of teachers appeared from the staffroom and started evacuating the canteen and blocking the other doors to stop kids going in. So kids started pouring out of the school and instead charged towards the order end of the building. Soon there were about 100 kids coming through the other way, and boys being restrained by the main entrance. The little Y7s just looked stunned and some got knocked about as the kids were ushered back outside again. Luckily the bell rang for lessons and so things settled down a bit, although my Y9 class after lunch were pretty hyped up. My throat is still sore this morning from all the shouting.

I've seen this kind of stuff a few times at school, but really, when they realise their collective power, it's scary, really scary. There are a lot more of them than us, and some students really don't care about hurting other people. For a time (a very short time but still) it was mob rule in school and we were powerless. I wonder what the inspectors would say about that?

The Weekend

Blah. It's Sunday. You know what that means....lesson planning. I figured out what I hate about teaching - all the stuff that isn't actually interacting with the kids in school. By that I mean planning, assessment, recording, reporting...bureaucracy. This probably sounds strange to those of you who know how well I love a good plan. I think lesson plans are different, mainly because I don't like teaching maths and the plans just lead to more plans.

It's almost 6pm. Our lunch guests left a short while ago after a booze fuelled feast. I have managed 7 days now on the detox; it's going well, but my target date is 5th October, which is FAAAAAAAR away. My family are being very weird about this. Last night we were at a family 21st and my mother asked me why I wasn't drinking. I explained the detox. She looked horrified. "Don't do that, you will only have a binge when you can drink again. It's better to drink a little bit each day rather than save it all up". She knows me well. My father's approach is rather different. We don't really do aperitifs in my house, preferring to hit the hard stuff straight. So at 12:50pm when our guests arrived, out came the big guns. "Whisky or brandy?," he asks. When I respond that a coke is fine, I get shocked looks from not just him, but my relatives as well. They proceed to demolish a bottle of whisky and three quarters of brandy. The Baileys and sherry also get a look in. Just after pudding the talk turns to an upcoming wedding between my cousin and her Muslim boyfriend. The concern here is that there will be no alcohol at the reception. My father and uncle put their heads together and decide that they will shoulder the responsibility of setting up a secret car park bar. Problem solved.

On Friday night we had a maths department curry, which was tasty tasty. Staying away from the Cobra meant that I could actually finish off my meal. However, I am concerned that I have just swapped drinking for food, a new addiction for me. My HoD remarked that he was thought I was a nice responsible girl until the Christmas drinks, where I went a little bit wild. It's a strange idea we all seem to have about drink...I can't figure out if people want me to drink or not.

During that dinner I heard two awesome stories from colleagues. One teacher told us all about how he'd ran a "bring a granny to the opera" programme when he was in charge of a youth centre. Each hoodie had to dress up nicely and invite a senior citizen to the opera. On the night 50 kids and seniors turned up at the ROH, everyone acting the perfect lady/gentleman. Woulda loved to have seen that! Another teacher told us about how she and three other teachers had been on a camping trip with some kids and had got so hammered during the night that they'd decided to hurl the kids' breakfasts at their tents! Imagine it, 30 eggs and sausages lobbed at sleeping children! In the morning one child was convinced that someone had been throwing eggs at him in the night. "Don't be so silly; it was probably a bad dream, " was the response. Shocking.

Aarrrgh I hate planning so much. Why am I doing this again?

T minus one

Tomorrow is final assessment day, exciting stuff!

For once I have actually planned the lesson more than 24 hours in advance. Good stuff. Wow, I remember back in the day when I used to be able to plan almost a whole week on a Sunday. Hahaha, nowadays I am still planning as the lesson is going on.

In other news, I can now hobble pretty well sans crutches, but have real problems with stairs and also sitting down/standing up for longer than about 5 minutes. The stairs thing is particularly funny in that I have regressed to an ascending and descending technique very similar to that of a toddler. I look forward to having to address lots of "equal opportunities issues" with the kids tomorrow when they take the mick out of my limp.

My portfolio is done, yay! But I am out of ibuprofen, which means the big guns aka codeine will have to come out tomorrow. Those of you who know about painkillers and I...well, you can join me in the chorus...altogether now, "oh dearie me...."

Very Inefficient Lesson Planning

By lesson planning, I mean procrastination. I hate lesson planning. I think I've said this before. Woo hoo, only two more Sundays of planning and then it's Easter break. Let's woo hoo one more time...something to aim for!

So during my procrastination I have:

1. More or less read the entire Sunday Times Online.
2. Messed about on Facebook
3. Eaten half the Rococo plain chocolate bar we got for free (yum yum, although now I feel a bit sick)
4. Chewed 3 pieces of gum
5. Drank 2 glasses of water

On the plus side, I have now managed to plan two lessons. Well done me.

Anyway, I'm going to have lunch now, but I will probably be back later. In the meantime, here and here are some good short posts by other teachers, with whom I can most definitely sympathise. Seems like teaching is tough for everyone, just gotta focus on the old light at the end of the tunnel. And by that I mean the Easter break!

Happy birthday Mouchio! Another year older, another year wiser, another year sillier :)

Update 17:00
Lessons for Y7 and Y8 planned, including one super-duper group work lesson on birthday parties and making formulae to figure out how many balloons, pizzas, cups etc. we need. Got the idea mymaths and am risking the old group work since am being observed with Y8 on Thurs. Have decided not to plan too enthusiastically or look forward to this lesson since this could jinx it.

Y11 lessons still to be planned - covering probability for the last time before GCSEs this week. Am being observed on Tues with Y11 so this will require some work. Two observations in one week, bang.

In other news, am still obsessed with Extreme's "More Than Words", have sung along to it approx 11 times already this afternoon. Time for a tea break.

Update 20:38
Lesson planning complete for the day! Whoop! Hilariously inefficient though. Oh well.
In other news, my Mum is very pleased with her mini-roses pot plant and Belgian chocolate egg, which makes me pleased. Also listened in on an interesting discussion my parents were having with a doctor friend of theirs about the best car to buy right now (best car = the nicest car that won't actually get nicked by the various criminals who come to our road just to rob stuff). Realised I wouldn't be able to buy aaaaaany of these cars for about 50 years with this crummy pay, and even then only if I am willing to live in said car because I sure as heck won't be able to afford any kinda house independently. Decided that tomorrow I will find out how long it will take me to earn £30k a year, before allowing the shocking answer to lead me to once again contemplate my "coulda been" life in the City, and to drive me to ginger bread men.

Other Blogs

If you're reading this at work and looking for more distractions, these blogs were nominated for some kinda Metro award and so should technically be quite good.

Random Acts of Reality - about an ambulance worker in London. Pretty deep stuff sometimes, and other times just the life of a normal bloke.

ScaryDuck - this looks like funny ramblings to me, excellent. In particular, read Friday 23rd's post on advice for school kids...essentially "don't puke in your shoes". Good advice for all I think.

And for the common-or-garden political economists out there

Evanomics - a BBC blog by economist Evan Davis, who attempts to make sense of the world using economics. Good luck with that one.

I HATE LESSON PLANNING.

The To-Do List

Despite calling it a To-Do list, it's actually probably more accurately a To-Think-About list. Sure I have loads of things to do, but before I can do most of them, I have to think about them. It's the effort of thinking about them that makes me put off actually doing them. This is because it's against my nature to do things without thinking them through first. My life history shows that efforts at spontaneity have seldom had positive outcomes.

Basically I'm a very keen planner. Keen is an understatement...I love being prepared. Well, I used to love it, but slowly I am finding it harder and harder to make and stick to plans. So now it's all about being plan-free and just taking things as they come.

Today I didn't have a single lesson plan for what we did, and things worked alright (miraculously!) This new found confidence in free-styling is obviously reckless. As my Canterbury professional tutor tells me "if you fail to prepare, prepare to fail." Wise words.

So yes, this weekend I will aim to get back on the planning (both school and otherwise). Basically, I should add "do my to-do list" to my to-do list.

In other news, it took me 75 mins to do the usual 15 minute journey home. It was due to some major hold-up on the A406. Loooooads of cars at a stand-still, mostly with only one person in each of them. Car-pooling anyone? On the plus side, some smart people co-ordinated us driving the wrong way back up the slip road to escape the traffic. There were too many people doing illegal manoeuvres for the onlooking law-enforcers to do anything about it. Excellent, the power of the majority!


On the even more plus side we feasted on nutella and banana pancakes, yum!

How good do these look?

Intimacy

This is the title of the book I'm reading now. It's written by Hanif Kureishi, which sounds like something you could order off a menu:

Waiter: Are you ready to order, Madam?
Customer: Why yes, I am. May I have kohlapuri chicken with peshwari naan, some aloo gobi and some raita? Oh and some hanif kureishi too please.

I guess you could do that with any ethnic sounding name, but Kureishi just sounds so tasty. I'm only a few pages into it, but it's already quite deep stuff. The best lines so far are: "because words are actions and they make things happen. Once they are out you cannot put them back". Very true.

I also like this book because the font is nice and it is well spaced. Yes, I am getting old. Sadly though, there hasn't been any mention of fruit yet, which was a definite strong point of Oranges. By the way Mouche, this book is even more about you than you realise...quite the shocker in fact. I take it you have read it? And no, hurting veins isn't a good thing. I might add some orange Sainsbury's carrier bags to the pile of stuff (henceforth known as PoS) because they are so pretty.

I should be lesson planning, but I think this term I am going to take a more "relaxed" approach to lessons. Blagging is very common in the teaching profession so I think it's time I gave it a go. Besides, blagging is only one letter away from blogging, and I can do that pretty well :)

Puja, I will not be writing in sky blue again until you publicly declare your love for the colour on my blog. Also, I put the chicken stuff in the fridge after you guys dropped me off, but when I woke up on Sunday, it had already gone! I told you food moves quick in my house!