Monday 4th week

It's mid-morning. Just settling down to Social Stratification revision. Not really feeling too much in the zone, but am hoping to cover the income inequality topic.

Mostly been spending my mornings campaigning for the war in Sri Lanka to end. Writing to MPs and MEPs, newspapers, commenting on articles, signing virtual petitions, feeling sad for the Tamil people there. They say the war is over now and that the LTTE have been destroyed. But the Eelam dream is still alive, the Tamil people want their freedom and their own land, and they will keep fighting for it.

There are thousands of people (some reports say upwards of 250,000) in displacement camps in Vanni at the moment, where there isn't enough food or water or medicine. People live in cramped conditions and don't have freedom of movement. Once you're in the camp, you can't get out, and while visitors are allowed, it's a bureaucratic nightmare to dissuade visits. Further there is still no independent media access or access to the war zone by NGOs. All so the government can continue their dirty work without having anyone question them. It's a terrible situation, poor Tamil people in Sri Lanka...it's like the Jews except here the Tamil people were caught between the LTTE and GoSL - a rock and a hard place it seems. I only hope it gets better.

Aside from Sri Lanka my time has been occupied with revision and cricket - played my first game last week and while my batting was terrible (1 run!), I managed to bowl someone out in one of my five overs, and also bowled a maiden over (where no runs are scored), which is cool for me! I'm enjoying that a lot.

Ok I will get back to work now. Exams in 5 weeks!

1st week

No classes this term! This should be a good thing. And indeed it is. Except it means that all structure to my life has gone. Well, as much as it can go for a semi-serious Virgo like me.

So I have revision for my 9th week exams to do. And I have my thesis to do. And both of them seem due so far away, and both of them are such big tasks (in my head) to even start, that I am failing to do anything properly productive. I know that once I am in the zone of things it'll be sweet, but just getting started is so tedious.

I think it's error working at my desk in the flat. I need to be somewhere where other people are working. That said though, I am loving having this kinda free time. It all feels like I'll get it done someday, so in the meantime I'm just gonna enjoy things.

Finished The Knife of Never Letting Go, which was so awesome. Am very glad that X can get me the sequel before it's released (good stuff those bookshop proofs). We're going to see X-Men Origins:Wolverine tonight, which am pretty psyched about, I love X-Men and Wolverine and Beast are my faves. Sometimes I wonder what I'd like to have as a super power, and I reckon it would still be Prof X's and Jean Grey's ESP-style powers, I mean, they seem really useful in whatever situation.

Was listening to Asher Roth's Asleep in the Bread Aisle - really funny album, would totally recommend it. Now listening to his mixtape The Greenhouse Effect, which I reckon is even better than the full on album! So we will see how the work goes today then.

GCSE Results; Spain Fun; Stephen Fry + Bipolar Disorder

It's GCSE results day. Our kids reached 27% 5 A*-Cs, including English and Maths, which is really pretty great for us! Am even more psyched by the 41% A*-Cs in maths, and the 85% in statistics! Go maths department!

I guess from that last sentence you've figured I'm back in the UK. Spain was heavy. I love JIj, and not just cos of her house in Spain, but also because she is an awesome cook and all round wicked host. We all had an excellent time - sun, pool, drinking, eating, scrabble, all my favourites! Finally, what a holiday's meant to be about. There were 8 of us over there in total: Jij, Sprouse, Mouche, two of Sprouse's chemistry buddies from my college, and two Furies from this year's team. A really stellar bunch, with enough opportunities for drama to keep it interesting :) I particularly liked getting to know the people there that I didn't really know too well before. Heard some stories that you wouldn't believe, although out of respect for the tellers I won't repeat them on here. And when I say respect for the tellers, I mean respect - that's some hardcore stuff some of these people are chatting about. But aside from the stories and all that, we really did have a great time...am gutted my camera batteries ran out, else I could show you the photos from the fun. When will I actually use this camera properly?

Am also gutted to be back in England with all the rain and wind and autumn-ness...what's going on eh? Good thing I'll be away again this weekend :) Busy times ahead...have a wedding tomorrow afternoon, then my cousin and uncle fly in Saturday morning, it's Puja's birthday dinner on Sat night, and then we fly out to Greece before 7am on Sunday morning. Nicey nicey. Will be back the Sunday before school starts...I'm very grateful for the two days of inset!

So, before I pack up for the night, I want to ramble a bit about this excellent documentary we were watching on BBC4 after dinner. It was called Stephen Fry: The Secret Life of a Manic Depressive. Unfortunately we'd missed the first episode of this two-parter, but nevertheless it made very good viewing. The whole thing was extremely insightful, featuring many famous and not-so famous manic depressives, of all ages and places, talking about how they'd been diagnosed, what bipolar disorder had done for their lives, how they'd learnt to cope etc. I didn't even know that Stephen Fry was bipolar, but clearly from the programme, which featured his both manic and depressive episodes, he's not really what you could call a "mild" sufferer. Still, he refuses to take medication, feeling that chemical changes would dull his mental state. It was interesting that when those interviewed were asked whether they'd get rid of their bipolarity entirely if they could, they all said no. I guess the buzz of the mania is just too good. I also found it interesting about the importance of diet, and how one woman claimed she could control her episodes by eating enough oily fish. I wonder if this is true?

Anyway, this programme has got me thinking a bit. I'd like to watch the other part too, just to see what it was all about. Obviously I'm not self-diagnosing myself, that would be too dramatic, heehee, but I think there are parts of this that cut a little close to the bone. Hmmm. I wouldn't really delve into this too much further, except the statistic that one in nine people, when left untreated, commit suicide. Don't worry, that would never happen to me, I'm scared of paper-cuts, let alone slitting my wrists! But on the other hand, I don't really care too much about death, I don't fear it or anything, which perhaps is odd.

Ok, now my rambling is disturbing me, so I will go back to the chatter about Spain and how much fun it was. Oh, except that I discovered that I am capable of jealousy, which was distressing. I wonder now though, can you be jealous of someone when you're not even sure you want what they have?

I'm such a weirdo today. I blame it on the fancy reserve that we had with dinner, it was just too tasty tasty to not be filled with something dodgy. I also think it is weird that I have labeled this post "weird things"...perhaps I too harbour some stigma about mental health and villas in Spain?

A-Level Day

It's A-Level results day. A day of celebrations and commiserations. I remember something about it making or breaking us when I was back at school. Perhaps a little too much emphasis on the significance of it all.

I don't really know what it feels like to collect exam results - I've never done it. They've always been posted to me, and back in the day I was always having too much fun in the summer to worry. Besides, confidence (or naivety) meant any worries I could have had were swiftly neutralised. But no doubt across the country kids today have had that A-Level feeling, sinking or otherwise.

Apparently one in four A-Levels this year was at grade A. I'd hate to join the "dumbing down" crew, but how is this possible? According to the BBC 43.7% of maths A-Level candidates were awarded an A. For the non-mathematicians out there, that's more than two-fifths of all entrants. Not quite the Normal distribution. The biggest gains in performance were in private and grammar schools. No worries though, apparently comprehensives and colleges had the most improved E grades. Nice to see we're all improving on the same level.


I heard a worrying thing today. Edexel are rumoured to be threatening to send the exam performances of teachers to the parents of exam candidates. By that I mean class by class breakdowns of the grades each class achieved through the teaching of their teacher. This is simply awful - how can the entire responsibility of a child's education (by education I mean exam performance...sad that I can equate the two) be pinned upon the teacher? Surely the parents, and, I dunno, maybe even the child himself, should take on some of the liability?

And finally, the other day, when I was a bit hammered, I went and posted bids on eBay for a load of mobile phones. Thankfully I was outbid on all but one of them, for which I duly stumped up the cash. It arrived today but I'm feeling guilty about using it right now because I'm convinced it has been stolen. There are songs and contacts and photos of people and profiles and everything stored on there. Someone's whole "phone" life. I reckon if it was really the seller's phone, he would have deleted all of that stuff himself. In fact, the more I think about it, the more I realise that eBay is the perfect forum for stolen goods. But rather than raising my suspicions with the vendor, or indeed with eBay, I've just deleted all traces of the previous owner. Does that make me a criminal too?

Last day of internship tomorrow, then a bit of viva Espana till Thurs. Will be back with banter then :) See, I can still smile with a guilty conscience.

Good and funny things about school

Finally a good day :) Because:

1. I got enough sleep.
2. I finally got to teach actual "challenging" maths i.e. something above what I did in primary school. My subject mentor has lent me the top 7 kids in her top set Y9 for me to do A/A* material with, and it's great! Yippee! Also I am working with my HoDs top set Y10 group on Mayfield coursework, which is actually quite good fun when you don't have to spend 10 lessons going over what the mean, median, mode and range before you can even start.
3. Y7 parents' evening - this was very tiring but good to speak to parents and tell them how much their kids have achieved over the year. On a slight downer, lots of lovely troublemakers from the top set will be moved down into my group tomorrow, which will obviously cause some nice chaos, excellent.
4. Hitting the gym. Shoulda done this a long time ago. My general fear that I might actually whack a kid has pleasantly subsided (I am convinced I have that IED thing that the Swiss Re banker who whacked his daughter has, bless her soul. Although obviously not as intense as him).
5. My Professional Tutor is returning! Yay Babs! And apparently she sent my professional mentor in school an email full of criticism about my mentor's lack of work, excellent! Aaah, despite all her controversy, I am a big fan of Babs, can't wait to tell her all the drama.

So, to reward you all for putting up with my grumbling etc. here are some funnies my uncle sent me. Yes, they are to do with exams, but this is supposed to be an education blog. Supposedly.