Nice walk

Walked home from church and shopping by the canal. Beautiful sunny day, the sky bright blue, the clouds white and fluffy. The water was high but calm. Listened to the chirping and calling of the moorhens. The slightly fishy sea smell reminded me of Scottish holidays by the beach. A cricketing chirrup drew my attention to the wildflowers and the grasshoppers. A very pleasant walk.

Harry Potter - no spoilers!

I decided I didn't want to accidentally find out what happened - who died, if Harry died, what would happen to Voldemorte, what the Deathly Hallows were etc - before having read the book, and in this multimedia age it's very easy to do that by accident. So H and I made our way to the supermarket just after midnight (I had wanted to be there for midnight, but H had been out with a friend who phoned when he had arrived home while H was booking tickets for the England v Germany game, so in the end we left just after midnight), and there was a longish queue of people waiting to buy the book, which was being sold as quickly as the assistants could get the copies out of the boxes. We also got given a magic wand, which was great, and which I have been waving around as I've been reading it.

I read for about an hour or two after arriving home, reaching page 92 before giving in to sleep. Woke up around 8.30am, and I finished the book at 5pm, with only about half an hour or so off for washing my hair and eating lunch.

So now I know what happened!

Well, now I need to get on with the rest of things that need doing! But at least now I know!

Holidays!

The rest of the week has passed well, with some boys' "etiquette" and some more dance. We had an assembly today - and now I'm on holiday!!!!!

I'm going to have a snooze now, then I have some editing to do for H, then I may take a walk up to our local supermarket to purchase a book just after midnight ... Will let you know if I manage that or not!

Etiquette and Martial Arts

Today I learnt what a teacher should do if a pupil slaps another pupil in my class. Ignore it, and ignore the return slap that will follow. Mothers tell daughters to slap someone back if they are slapped first, and my sending someone to the referral room will make no difference. If the person who was slapped first does not retaliate in kind, then they may be thought of as weak, so they will lose face. Not good. As teachers, we are paid to teach, so we should ignore any of this kind of behaviour.

If a pupil who has been ignoring us all year comes to us a week or two before the exams asking for extra help in our own time, we should help them, rather than telling them that they should have concentrated all year then they'd understand - after all, that is what we are paid to do. If a pupil decides not to focus all year, they should still get our help. We don't have free time. We don't need time to mark, prepare or assess - we should be at every students' beck and call for whenever they need us.

If someone asks me which area I'm from, it's probably safe to tell them if I'm in my own area - otherwise tell them that I'm visiting my grandmother in that area, or say I'm from outside London (still best to be visiting my aunt or someone).

If my little brother or sister "borrows" my new shoes and returns them in an appalling state, then I should beat them.

Overall, the Etiquette session was an eye-opener. Very interesting ... it ended up being about conflict and assertiveness rather than etiquette, and would probably have benefitted from another session on the difference between agressiveness and assertiveness.

After the break, I decided to try out Ka-Zimba, an African form of martial arts. It was very interesting to watch the instructor demonstrate what this martial art can look like. One of the boys, whom I think does boxing, tried to fight with him, while the instructor glided around, avoiding any hits and showing how he could have got some fatal blows in, but doing this all fairly slowly and not hurting the pupil in any way. It was dance-like, and even funny at times, and you could see how effective it could be. We learnt some key moves - ngoma, stepping in and out, and another called spear and shield. Then we "freestyled" against each other in the ring. Fun!

More etiquette tomorrow, although I think I'll have a look and see if there is something else active that I could swap to do in the second session!

Dance and Drama

My thighs, legs and bottom are all a bit sore after the African dance session today - lots of stamping and jumping. I even tried to wiggle a bit, but I'm not so good at that! Then we had drama, which was fun to watch - it was great to see such huge smiles across the faces of the Year 8 girls who can often look quite sullen in their attempts to be cool. We played "Port, Starboard", which I haven't played for years (probably since Guides), and it was much enjoyed by all - including me, who eventually joined in! I managed to stay in to the last four. Tomorrow I'm down to assist with etiquette ... I'm not sure what that will involve, but as I headed towards the canteen, a Year 7 boy took off his baseball cap and clutched it to his chest - it was only after we greeted him and walked on that the AHT and I realised that he must have been at etiquette classes! Perhaps we should have curtsied in reply!

La Dolce Vita

We watched La Dolce Vita on DVD last night. Bizarre. Can't really understand why Anita Ekberg's name on the front in such big letters ... she was only in the film for about 5 minutes. And as for the famous scene in the Trevi Fountain ... ahem, blink and you'll miss it and nothing much happened! Very strange, a bit surreal, film. H says it was just about the empty decadence of life (or something). Very strange.

Breakfast

Two course breakfast.

Asparagus tips with fried egg, followed by half a papaya filled with fresh Perthshire raspberries.

Delicious and healthy!