Mixed bag ... Or: What a drag

Och, it's not too bad. An excellent first lesson, with a really nice class, then a very motivational assembly about attitude and focus. Then a really unfocused Year 7 group ("I'll cut off your cornrows and feed them to you" was one of the repeatable epithets banded around), and finally a Year 8 group with about 8 boys who had no intention of even pretending to work.

Tomorrow I'm on patrol for one period, then I'm teaching again for the final three. Looking forward to it being finished!

But I made banana bread last night, and it tastes good!

Doing drugs

Morphine, steroids, cannabis.

The main drugs that we discussed today. Obviously not exciting enough for one boy who decided to go straight to some porn the moment my back was turned. Have decided I will layout the classroom differently tomorrow morning so it's easier for me to move around while facing the board and the pupils.

Had one session with the army, but they said they didn't really need us, so we sat on the bench and watched, then wandered around a bit.

The first two sessions were pretty bad, the final one was quite good (a small year 7 group), but then the bell went 10 mins earlier by accident and they all ran out before I could find out if they were supposed to go or not, leaving all their good work behind them. Annoying!

Really nice to finish early, though, and be home about 4pm. Slept for a couple of hours again - it's tiring work, teaching all day!! H is making dinner, and it smells good!

Drugs and Sport

It's been a very busy day ... we've been talking about glue, marker pens, coke, tea, morphine and magic mushrooms ... Not exactly thrilling, but interesting and informative, I suppose! Then a couple of assemblies - it took one group half an hour to sit satisfactorily quiet and in the right seats before the assembly could start. Watched Coach Carter. Apparently it took another group almost an hour to be sufficiently well behaved to watch the video. Hopefully they'll co-operate more quickly next time ...

Busy week!

Can't believe that's the weekend almost over! I've been at a Christian festival with some students that has been fun. Met the Abbot from "The Monastery" (which I never saw, but he was very interesting and friendly), and heard Cardinal Cormac Murphy O'Conner, who was quite funny. He had his little red cap on. Norman Kember was also there, so it was very interesting and insightful to hear about his kidnapping from him. I would have appreciated hearing more about how he felt about being rescued by the SAS though ... he did speak about it briefly, but it seemed to raise a few more questions that it might have been interesting to hear more about. I did have the opportunity to go to another seminar with him later, but instead I chose to go to a different seminar about justice.

The worship was great - a real variety of services, prayer times and music. There were lots of very interesting people, and I had some insightful and engaging conversations. Also loved the ropes course - I only fell off about three times, and I impressed myself by the fact that I managed to drag myself over the top of the tyre wall!

We went to see Die Hard 4.0 on Friday night. I enjoyed it, H wasn't so keen - it was completely implausible, but I was willing to suspend my disbelief more than H, I think!

Next week - plans

I now know the plans for next week. And I will be teaching non-stop. We all will be. Teaching every lesson. Drugs and Sport. Teaching about the connection, that is. Not taking them and doing some. Although by the looks of the timetable, that could be an interesting option.

Am annoyed with Sky and Virgin Media. Trying to change broadband providers. Very complicated, when I'm sure it shouldn't be. Will try again tomorrow.

Think I'm teaching all day tomorrow as well. Have offered to do lots of cover for a colleague who is out on subject business.

It's the little things that make teaching worthwhile. The Year 11 student, whom I only taught about once during a revision session in the holidays, who came to say thank you and that the session was really helpful. The Year 8 tutee, who looked really pleased when I agreed that I hoped to continue being his form tutor while he is at school. The Year 9 girl who had been a bit awkward during the lesson, and when I was still nice to her at the end of the lesson, got up, while I was outside shouting at pupils who had gone running outside, cleaned my board for me, which made my end of school routine much easier. The Year 10 boy who smiled in recognition of the fact that H and I went to see him play basketball at the weekend. The three Sixth Formers who are so happy at going away for a few days to a Youth Festival, and asked if there would be an iron there. The Year 7 girl who realises that the class isn't going to leave while the room is still untidy and goes around picking up the papers even though she had already tidied up her area.

The good pupils, the trying hard pupils, the grateful pupils, the wanting to learn pupils, the thoughtful pupils, the humorous pupils, the dedicated pupils, the polite pupils, the hardworking pupils ... I salute you!

Lightning

A thin thread of silver wire, spun across the grey black blanket of the upper sky, resting on the brighter blue duvet.

Amazing to watch the lightning on the drive home, so stark, so clear, long lines of silver white, sparkly, yet sharp. Beautiful.

We are allowed to go on our school trip tomorrow ... as long as the member of staff who is booked out to go is in.

Rainy Monday!

It's been a strange sort of day. Sort of made up my lessons on the hoof - okay, no worse than normal, and the Year 7 was better. However, I've had a strange sort of feeling hanging over me, since I handed in the risk assessment form - it should have been handed in a while ago, but there have been so many changes to who is going etc that I've held off until now, and I wouldn't have expected that to be a problem before, but there seems to be a new, more responsible feeling around (perhaps also because of today's letter to schools re the security issue in the UK), and I'm concerned that I might be told that we can't go. Which would be very disappointing for the pupils. We'll see. Fingers crossed, etc.

Other than that, it's nice to be coming towards the end of "normal school". We have activities fortnight coming up. Or something. We're not really sure ...

Watched "Perfume" at the weekend. Very good film ... I wasn't sure how they would get across the aroma of the book, but they did it visually instead, very well. Highly recommended!