On the bus

I am sitting on the Oxford Tube on my way back to college. The tube (underground) journey was pretty rubbish, what with my losing of an Oyster last week (meaning that to transfer the lost balance I had to tap in at a certain tube station) and then part closures on the central and jubilee lines, and then the silly oyster machines debiting too much money due to rail replacement confusions. I finally made it to Victoria but the journey took more than twice the usual time, yuck. Still, I am half an hour away from Oxford proper so nearly there now.

I must say technology has advanced a lot since the last time I was at uni, doing this same occasional commute between Oxford and London. The coach has wireless on it (which is how comes I get to do this on the road) and also plug sockets. I have a new laptop that actually works, so whilst updating this blog I can also play on facebook and check my emails. My phone is plugged in and charging too, so really despite being on the bus, I am as contactable as in Oxford (not including actual face-to-face communication. But then, who does that any more??)

I started doing some work earlier in the journey but then fell asleep. I have my first essay due on Thursday. Interestingly it is about sociological analysis i.e the research and analysis and evidence itself rather than what the theories say. We were told how to write an essay (something that never happened during three years of undergraduate work!) and I've been able to download lots of the articles from the reading list on to my laptop meaning I don't have to sit in the library as much. Despite these advancements, I am still not quite putting work at the top of my list. It's closer to the top though.

Apart from impending academic work, I went to a brilliant day of seminars on Football in the Social Sciences, which consisted of all kinds of junior-ish academics presenting their various economic and sociological theories regarding phenomena in football. For example I saw some really interesting work on match-fixing and the Italian football scandals. I also enjoyed the talk on the decline in the home advantage in premiership football (they attributed it to the televisation of football, but I'm not so sure). In any case, it was cool to see people putting theory and evidence together when it comes to football - it was inspiring to see academics combining their passions.

Last night X and I went to see Zorro at the Garrick Theatre in Leicester Square. It was awesome! Lots of the music was by the Gypsy Kings so we were loving the songs and dancing, especially the Spanish guitar. The cast was excellent, particularly the Gypsy Queen, and the script was funny and serious at the same time. I loved all the stunts such as the fire juggling and the rope swinging (from all over the theatre, including over the heads of the audience), but my favourite scenes had sword-fighting in them, which had been wonderfully choreographed but with real swords so you could hear them clinking and see the sparks fly, wow! We had great seats right near the front courtesy of lastminute.com's half price ticket deals (making the tickets practically two for the price of one when you ignore the booking fee!) It was lovely to have an evening like that too, with dinner and the theatre and then drinks afterwards, it was a proper date.

Ok, my battery is low so best sign off. Have a good week!

Barriers to actually working

Grrrrr. Trying to get anything at all done at school today was near impossible. The sodding server was still down so you couldn't print anything or save to the server. Emails were really temperamental, as was internet access. One of the photocopiers was broken. There was exams in the maths block, which disrupted lessons. The online registration system and the reporting system were both still playing up. Nothing was working, and so it was near impossible for the teachers to be working. Plus, it was raining.

See how dependent on technology we are? But really, it's so annoying when you're trying to do the most straightforward task, but everything just holds you back. Grrr. Another source of workplace stress.

In other news, I was sent on an errand by two of the members of my department last Friday, to buy chocolates for the Y11s. This errand cost me precisely £32.80. Now, I don't want to seem tight, but I'm not a Y11 tutor and had no real desire to spend what is essentially a week's worth of teaching Y8 on a sugar-fest for some right clowns. The question is, how do I get my money back now? I hate owing people money, but even worse, I hate being owed money. But I don't wanna be hassling them for the cash, but then again, if I leave it too long, it'll be too hard to ask for it back. Ho-hum, what an exciting dilemma. Not.

Oooh and a quick update on my wild mane of hair. I think it's almost 3 months since I last washed it with shampoo, and it feels pretty good. Washing with just water seems to work, even with horrid smokey hair or sweaty gym hair. It has a kinda natural oil feel to it, which isn't too bad, plus I swear it's stronger and thicker. So yes, going strong on that front.

Nothing else of note to say except that I have so much paperwork to generate for my "portfolio" for OFSTED that I'm just not gonna do any of it. Mwahahaahaha.

Autograph training

Oh my gosh, check out my Metro horoscope today:

You may be consumed by the need to fix someone at some point today. But if your knight-on-a-white-charger act is un-called for, if they don’t want your advice or help, it could well blow up in your face. Just ask beforehand whether they want some support.

How crazy is that? And yes indeed I am thinking about meddling, although haven't got round to anything yet since I'm outta text messages, and everyone knows all the best meddling is done by text. So yes, person who requested meddling, who will also remain unnamed for legal purposes, I am contemplating getting my spoon out and stirring that pot right up, heehee.

In other news, went to a training course (Continual Professional Development - CPD) at the Institute of Education on Autograph today. Was a revelation - it's so powerful! All I could do before was just about join two points with a line, but now I've learnt to do sooooo many things such as drawing histograms, using it to solve equations, and teaching transformations (reflections, rotations etc.) just to name a few! Am very excited about practising this in class tomorrow, where obviously my whiteboard will crash and I will have to go back to my old ways. But until that moment, well, there's lots of potential there.

I love training courses too because it reminds you why teaching is really exciting, especially when you get to meet lots of inspiring teachers and share good practice etc. I am now gonna do my best to get on as many courses as possible so that I can become a super-teacher, like the hilarious e-card Ladun sent me (thank you Ladun!)

And finally, both my mother and father mocked my accent/dialect in separate incidents today. This morning, on the way out of the house, I said something (I can't remember what) and my father replied "because of the refridgerator". Now, this made no sense since I hadn't been talking about fridges, but this is what he had heard. I explained that he was talking nonsense but to no avail since the original conversation point was over. Instead my father began a glorious lament on the decline of my accent all the way to the station. I blame school. He blames school too. We are united on this front. I guess this is what happens when you set-up shop in East London/Essex - I'm sure I warned him about this when we moved here (yes I was 7, but already a finely tuned sociological machine). Later, at dinner time, I sat down next to my mother and jokingly said something that ended with the words "safe innit bruv". My mother started laughing and then looked at me with the same face she uses when I have sworn in her presence. No more "innit bruvs" from me then.

Woo it's almost the weekend! Just gotta get through my first of maaaaany observations tomorrow.