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!)

Invigilation

Very tired! What happened today? Well, Year 11s had exams, so I had a cover - English, write about an unpleasant experience - and an invigilation. Last night I made a photo/music montage for the Year 9s, and that went down fairly well. Will show again tomorrow to inspire them to write poems. One of the Year 11 exams was our one, so lots of marking now! At least my second Year 7 assessments are quite short ...

Pigeon

Took the tube this morning. Arrived on time, but with the photocopying was a few minutes late for my registration ... I think my form are getting a bit annoyed with me! Then the Year 9s seemed a bit subdued - but still some didn't do any of the work. Took it easy with them, went through evil and suffering and wrote notes on the board.

The Year 11s are on mock exams, so it made a nice change to have invigilation rather than teaching. Even then, they still found it hard to concentrate - and were none too pleased when half the group left ten minutes earlier than the other half, and made noise, so the second half were given an extra five minutes in case they had been disturbed. One got up and wanted to walk out! It is boring in mocks when you have finished the exam ... I remember feeling frustrated about it too!

At break a pupil called me over - he had seen what appeared to be an injured pigeon against one of the doors and was trying to protect it in case any of the other pupils came to hurt it. We called for a caretaker to come and deal with it - I didn't want to touch it myself. After a while we realised that there was a teacher in the room behind the door, so I called him over and made signals through the window not to open the door. He looked down and saw the pigeon, and slowly pushed open the door. I was a bit worried about the pigeon, but then it hopped up and walked away! Then the caretaker arrived with a broom and pan, went towards the bird - and it flew away! So we decided that it must have just decided that the door looked like a good place for a rest!

After that I was on a course at the other side of London, so a long tube ride there, then another long one across London in the evening, getting home just before 7pm. So a long day, but we've had tasty salmon, leeks and spinach for dinner and now Blue Velvet is on, so I'm half watching that, half writing this, and half planning tomorrow's lessons ... Maths was never my strong point ... !

Getting there!

Well, last week wasn't so bad! Apart from having no coaches on Monday for the trip, then having to put two groups together at the last moment so that no-one missed out on the half day on Friday, when we had our staff do. Tidied up the place yesterday, and today we've had a neighbour round for lunch. H booked the Mayweather-Hatton fight so we were both up in the middle of the night, and since I had to get up for Church, I've now got a sore head and am very tired. Struggling to plan my lessons. Haven't finished my course report. So ... lots to do.

Bit better today ...

Apart from the fact that the coaches didn't arrive, the Year 11s didn't do much work, the Year 9s were loud and two of them shouted at me in detention, the Year 8s were so noisy another teacher came in to see what was going on, the Year 10s were videoing each other happy slapping each other, and the arrangements for tomorrow have been changed so I'll be the longest teaching teacher in the Sixth Form conference at the end of the day ... apart from all that, it's been a much better day! I think I'm perhaps even more positive under adversity ... Or maybe its the prayers of the sisters at church! Tomorrow is another big day, with the conference, an inspector in school and a Year 7 school trip (of which 19 out of 40 students have so far been given permission to go), so I wonder how that will go ... I think I need my sleep ... I'm sure I've forgotten something!

Back again ...

Well, I'm hoping that normal service can sort of be resumed now we're in December! I managed just over 20,000 words during NaNoWriMo. Not quite 50,000 words, but an interesting experiment nonetheless! Also managed to hand in my dissertation, attend a marking feedback course, give a successful presentation at a conference, entertain Mum and Dad while they were down in London for the weekend, prepare a video for our Sixth Form conference, and prepare and teach a few lessons.

Unfortunately the past week has been one of hardest I've faced for a long time. Not so much in terms of what has happened during the lessons, just in terms of general morale; it's partly because of poor pupil behaviour, but more a sense of feeling that there's not much I can do about it. I've been generally uninspired. In turn, that has made me put less effort into my preparation, which has probably then caused the lessons to be less successful. However, even when I've put in lots of preparation that has been sort of thrown back in my face, which is depressing.

So a tough week ... I hope next week is better! Hope you all have a good week too!

Where have I been?

Well, mostly sitting here at this desk at this computer. But not on my blog ... It is November, and NaNoWriMo is here. National Novel Writing Month ... I have managed to write about 18,000 words so far (I should be on about 34,000 by now if I am going to reach the target of 50,000 words in a month). I also managed to hand in my dissertation - exciting stuff!! - and I was on a course today, so I've been quite busy recently!

Don't worry, the classes have been as normal - ie some great ones, some awful ones, some mediocre ones - and I spent the whole of last weekend trying to get up to date with my marking, but I've still managed to bring loads home this weekend too. Anyway, it's getting late now, so I think I'll head to bed!