Friday on my mind!

I'm always far more reflective on Tuesdays! Usually it is on Tuesdays that I am ready to quit teaching and become a check-out chic. Tuesdays I have six on. Which really isn't so bad. The problem is that I see the same "troubled" year 8 class three times, have my Year 9 animation class (25 boys) in a room with 6 computers (and only five that have working mice!) preceeded by morning yard duty and topped with a double serving of Staff meeting after school! By the end of it all, with all the minor irriatations that go on in ones day, I am totally and completely over it by the time I get home. And then I blog! Aaah, the numbness lifts, the furrowed brow relaxes and I start thinking of hot baths, chicken and sweet corn soup, (brown paper kittens tied up with string) and all things nice. Today I was particularly reflective- I even turned off the radio in my car so that I didn't have so much noise crowding my mind.

The things that I have been thinking about today are (this needs to be orderly so that the full therapeutic benefit can be felt!):
1. Yay- our school has been inluded in the budget so we will get our Stage 1 masterplan! But boo because I am still undecided whether I will be here to enjoy it. Perhaps I could leave CSC and then come back once all the nice facilities are built, the 54-11 staff have retired and the innovative curriculum is in place. (That's if I'm still teaching in 3012!!!)

2. CS telling me her family are in hiding from her Dad AFTER her photo had been published in the local paper- damn lying nuisance!! and new girl JS telling me she left her old school because she was sexually assaulted. Poor thing :(

3. Office ladies making an announcement for you to collect replacement stationery and then being too busy to help you and telling you to wait once you get there...THEN DON'T MAKE THE ANNOUNCEMENT!!! (Better to shout at my Blog then at them!)

4. Being so indecisive about leaving CSC. At times I feel that I should just put up and shut up, the grass is greener etc etc. and at other times I am certain that I need to go because I want to be in a school where the kids want to be there. I never signed up to babysit, and despite the great rates I'm getting to do that, I am very unfulfilled as a teacher.

5. Not knowing what the standards/expectations are for writing articles about English and teaching. I have read a few but feel that they in many ways do not appeal to me because they are entrenched in ideas and theories and not just the common mans nuts and bolts about getting the job done. Perhaps that is the type of thing I could write. It's like the person who developed the "Idiot's Guide to...." series. It makes people who feel like "little fish" (simple folk!) connected rather than isolated. And I know for a fact that I will more often put down literary articles and try and find time to get back to them than practical articles that I can take stuff from immediately. I think this is what Scott has been thinking of for the working group- something along the lines of practical handouts that can be used in the classroom the next day. This seems to be a new trend- for example Our Place- new HI series is using this catchphrase as a way of making themselves more appealing then BH&G or RR etc.

Well I certainly feel better now. I must tell RM about Blogs. She would be a number one candidate for needing one. Perhaps I could email my link to her. I haven't solved my problems yet, but at least I have some thinking space back now that I can use to do that :)

Bye for now,
M x