Beautiful skies

Some of the nicest times of the day are spent driving. Not so much when there are queues of traffic, those are times that are hard work, but early in the morning and at dusk, when the light is low and beautiful.

This morning I was met with candy pink cream and frosty white blue skies, heavy mist lying low over the frosted green leaves as I drove past ponds and roadside verges. Then in the evening, the blue to navy sky had a thin white crescent moon shining out as a beacon on the way home, hovering above the white, red and blue lights of the Canary Wharf buildings that I was driving towards. At times like these I wish I could paint, or record in some way the peacefulness, the beauty of these sights. At least if I can sketch them in words, then when I read back over my blog I might remember the images.

Half my lessons were taken up with invigilation. One of those periods should have been a Geography cover - I asked another teacher if she wanted to swap, and to my astonishment, she agreed! So that was nice and relaxing. I also had two Year 9 lessons. They had to write poems reflecting on issues of evil and suffering, and Christian responses to those issues. A couple of pupils were adamant that they couldn't write poetry, but then one boy revealed that he was a lyricist - not a rapper, more of an MC. I asked him to recite to me one of his lyrics - it was excellent. But he still said he couldn't write about the sort of suffering we had been reflecting on, so we discussed in a bit more detail. I explained that there was a lot of suffering in school, for example loneliness or bullying. He revealed a bit about his life, but didn't want to write about that, so then put some lyrics together. They were great. Students do have hidden talents some times! (Quite often in fact!)

Some of our Sixth Formers are on retreat this week. Sort of wish I were with them! It will be nice and relaxing and they'll get to do some fun outdoors stuff. However, I wanted to be at home - H is still not too great, he's obviously a lot better but I'm still worried about his chesty cough. Being here won't really help him, but I feel happier!

My year 7s did some display work on the Jesse Tree. I do like this as an idea, an alternative to the Nativity Advent Calendar, which gradually tells the story of God and his people, using symbols to remind us of key people, like Noah, Abraham, Joseph, Moses, Ruth, Isaiah, John the Baptist and Mary. We'll finish it tomorrow. It's a shame though that a few pupils spoil the atmosphere for the others by throwing pencils at each other.

H has a photo shoot tomorrow, so he's tidying up the place. Better and go and finish helping! (I've done the dishes, so that's one chore out the way!)

The end of the week ... the start of a new one

Well, it's been quite an eventful week. Some of the problems that we read and hear about in the news occasionally find their way into school, and today was one of those weeks. A bit close for comfort, but other nice things make up for the bad ones.

A couple of colleagues were off on Monday, so I was trying to hold the fort as well as stop fighting from beaking out in my own class too. Fortunately the supply teacher is excellent and settling in well, building up a good reputation for taking no nonsense and teaching good lessons, so that's one less thing to worry about.

Had Open Evening this weekend. Always fun - the room looks nice filled with candles and with sacred music playing in the background. We leave the lights off and it's very calming. Had some sixth formers there this year to help out - they were great!

There's a friendly little girl in one of my Year 7 classes that stays behind at the end of the lesson and tidies up the class for me. On Thursday, as I wrote her a thank you card to take home for her helpfulness, she said she was going to sing one song. So that was my surreal moment of the week, me sitting on the desk, her standing at the end of it, singing "You've got a friend" - a song she learnt at primary school. Very sweet! There's another little boy in my other year 7 class who is always so friendly and polite. He says thank you, Miss, at the end of each lesson and gives me a beaming smile when I tell him he has done well. These sort of moments are the moments that make teaching very worthwhile and enjoyable.

I have almost finished my third set of books that I brought home to mark this weekend. Spent the whole of yesterday marking and planning for the upcoming week. Didn't manage to do any of my literature review though. Oh dear. I have to give a presentation in just over a week ...

Came home on Friday feeling very ill and went to bed just after 8pm. Was woken up by H with a big plate of delicious Lebanese food. He'd gone out to get some, and the lamb and okra stew was just what I needed (I hadn't eaten - or cooked - any dinner because I felt so horrible). Woke up around 8am on Saturday, did the washing and shopping, then worked all day - in between blowing my nose, drinking lemsips and vit V juice and generally feeling yucky - and went to bed at around 10pm. Didn't go to church this morning - used that time to rest in bed and to try and get better. Don't want to spread my germs too much. Trying to get better for tomorrow. Have eaten grapefruit, and bought kiwi fruits.

Disappointment of the weekend? Biught some of those strawberry iced buns from childhood as a treat. Very dry. Won't make that mistake again.

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!

What's happening?

Have you ever, every felt like this? When strange things happen, are you going round the twist? (Emmm ... with apologies to the "Going Round the Twist" theme tune people).

Emmm ... the strange thing is ... lots of pupils seem to have been a bit more on task over the last couple of days! I feel a bit befuzzled by it all. My year 9s ... well, there are still too many with jackets on, listening to music and reading newspapers, but most actually took part in the lesson, and again, most wrote quite a bit down (copying, yes, but they should now have the answers to at least two if not three exam questions in their books). My year 7s were able to watch most of the St Francis of Assisi video in relative quiet, even silence at points, with only four having to be taking outside for questioning and threatened with the referral room and phone calls home. And my year 10s answered two evaluation questions today! So all in all not a bad day today, and it was similar yesterday.

Shame it's not like that with all my lessons, or those of my colleagues. I was in one room today talking to a couple of sixth formers about a forthcoming trip, when we heard a terrible noise from next door. We got up to see what was happening, and I saw one pupil about to throw a chair while we heard a table being knocked over. I told the sixth formers to take on the responsibility of being helpful sixth formers, which they did (they are very sensible and nice sixth formers) and they helped sort out the pupils who were fighting whilst I removed one boy who had captured the whole incident on mobile phone. Eventually managed to get him to delete it. Would have been good evidence, but I wasn't confident about actually taking the phone off him before he managed to send it to someone else, so decided best option was to have it removed asap. Got him to show me three times slowly that the video section was empty. Only hope he hadn't already saved it elsewhere - never thought of that. However, apparently he was moaning for the rest of the lesson about how he had had to delete it, so hopefully it's not going to end up on YouTube. Scary, though, that they see no wrong in videoing something like that for further distribution.

Tum ti tum tum, tum ti tum tum, tum ti tum tum - wooo-ooo-oooooooo!

Sixth Formers and Computers

I have discovered Joe Jenkin's book on Ethics. It's very good. Wish I'd found it at the start of the year instead of a couple of weeks before the exams.

Sixth Formers were all over the place today. Couldn't teach them. Shame, it was a lesson on Sectarianism, watching the Panorama documentary. I was looking forward to hearing some Scottish accents.

Year 10s ... well, why do they think they're in school? Surely not to learn ... One or two, maybe, but that's not the way it comes across to me.

One of my Year 7 pupils got very upset when he wasn't allowed to play games on the computers ... being in the computer room is supposed to be fun, supposedly, a reward. Not about learning. Although when he realised that I wanted him to learn about a disciple of Jesus, he suddenly got interested, and thought that it must be okay to do the work then. I think he thought I was trying to make him do ICT. Strange.

And now I'm home ... H comes back tomorrow from Amsterdam (hurrah!) so I'll start eating properly again then.

Come on Chelsea!

Must go and do a bit of marking now. And plan a couple of lessons ...

A Whirlwind Tour of My Day

Arrived at school. Went to staffroom. Started marking. Remembered one member of staff is off school. Went to set up cover. Bell rang for first lesson. Waited in room for supply teacher to arrive. Class arrived. Told them what to do and sat down to try and get some marking done. Teaching Assistant arrived. Went to office to find out if there was any news about the supply teacher. Told that two were late. Went back to class. Helped pupils and marked for about half an hour until supply teacher arrived.

Went to staffroom. Had some computer stuff to do, as well as exam papers to mark, and was then going to phone the Chaplain of another to school to see if he might be able to find us some priests to come to the school for Reconciliation later this week. Five minutes into lesson, the TA found me and told me that five minutes before the end of the last lesson, a couple of the boys had started play fighting, and when they wouldn't stop, the supply teacher gathered up all her things, including all the cover work I'd set for the day's lessons, and had left, in a distressed state. I phoned over to the office, and was told that she was in tears in the office and was going home, and that there was no-one free with non contact lessons to cover. I said that I would go and sit with the class, but I had already spent half of a lesson covering already, and had lots to do, and wanted someone to come and take over from me. She said she'd see, but there was no one available. Since there were other teachers sitting in the classroom, I knew she meant no one who had a period marked as available for cover. Which included both those free periods on my timetable.

Anyway, off I went to the class. About ten pupils were sitting around already, playing cards. I told them to put the cards away, and they ignored me. One girl started muttering comments. No one was remotely bothered. I went out and called the office, asking them to send the on-call person round. I went back to the room. Still playing cards. I handed out the books, and told them to put their cards away, sit on their chairs, get rid of the sweets, and put the mobile phones and iPods away. Would have been as effective if I'd been sitting in the staffroom. Remembered I had a video camera in my bag. Took a video - they hid the cards away and at that point the on-call arrived. He immediatelty took about seven of them away. The others settled a bit, and opened the books. Still didn't do any work.

Break. Off I went to my office, and almost immediately got a call from the on-call asking me to write up the incident, which I duly did, and delivered to the office before the end of break. I then had to stay there for about fifteen minutes, going over the incident with the on-call, who had already arranged for some pupils to be excluded for refusing to follow instructions and playing cards in class. This then meant I was late for my Sixth Form lesson; by the time I arrived back, most had left, so I taught the six or so that were there.

Period four, I had arranged to show a colleague how to access a certain website; just as we started, the office phoned to tell me that someone I had expected to see during lunch had arrived early. Off I went to collect him and bring him back to the office, where we spent the rest of the lesson planning a revision lesson for during the holidays. Walked him back to the office and caught up with my other colleague as the bell rang - managed to show her quickly how to access the website, then we went to the staffroom for lunch.

I was trying to complete some more marking, then suddenly remembered we had a meeting at 1pm. Saw a couple of other colleagues to remind them, then went back to my room at 1pm for the meeting. Discussed quite a bit, including how to make revision cards.

Just before the end of lunch, someone brought the new supply teacher over. I took her back over to the room she was teaching in, at the other side of the school ... she needed a board marker and rubber, so I then had to find that for her, by which time the bell had gone. I rushed over to the other side of the school, where I discovered that the head was in my room with the class. Since I hadn't finished marking the answers (all three of my free periods, during which I planned to mark them, had gone), I then had to quickly plan what to do, so I started going over the questions. They were too chatty, and since I hadn't let them in, I felt not quite in control!

Most eventually did something, though, and we got to the end of the lesson. I then had to rush over to the computer rooms, where I had told my year 7s to meet me. But the room was being used, and the year 7s were getting loud and restless. Fortunately some of the teachers over there helped me out and we found another room, and the pupils then got on with the work I wanted them to do quite well.

Tidied up the computer room at the end of the day, and went straight to the Extended Leadership Team meeting which ended at 5pm.

Whew! A busy day.

Great to be home!

Monday Monday ...

Parents' Day yesterday ... an opportunity to meet the parents of the pupils in my tutor group, and to hand over their most recent results and to set targets to help them improve.

Of course, a longish gap in the middle, then everyone arrives at the end and I'm there until after 5pm. Exhausted.

Then another tiring day today ... one member of the department had to go home, so I ended up with covering that lesson, and my other non contact was used up observing another colleague. Great lesson, though! Once again, some of the Year 7s ended up in detention at the end of the day ... I wish they would learn that it's better to be quiet. Leadership meeting after school, once again a tiring day. Came home and slept for an hour! Dinner is on the go now, so I'll be off to look at that. (Rice and beans.)

Another wish ... I wish the Sixth Formers would leave their phones at home, or at least leave them switched off in their bags. Really annoying.

Let's hope I'm a bit brighter tomorrow!