The Weeks That Were

Well thanks to the unbelievable shittiness of blogger I just lost the entry I've been typing for the last half hour. I hate this site I really do.

Anyway. I haven't put entries on here because I've been working on my enviro blog. It's on the right hand side there. Effortless Environmentalism. Check it out. You can also join my facebook group of the same name.

After not going to Genoa I spent most of the week developing that blog. I also lazed around, watched movies, read books, watched TV and hung out. I managed to unwind for the first time since I started at school really. What with moving, living in another house half the week for the first month, setting up, changing all kinds of accounts, figuring out transport and settling into the new school and all. Unfortunately I didn't get the organizing done that I'd wanted.


When I returned to school I was on the back foot all week. I'd been out of the routine for 2 weeks and I kept forgetting when classes were, where I was supposed to be and finally that I was supposed to supervise the year 8s in library on Friday. Oops. I thought it was kinda funny but my head of department and head of school strenuously disagreed. Apparently it's a safety issue...you know...leaving kids unsupervised. Oops. Sheepish sheepish sheepish.

I also hit a surprising amount of discipline problems upon my return. Students were pretty wild and actually taking the piss (as they say here). They were intentionally undermining and being subtly disrespectful. I was quite surprised. I've spent most of my time back in a real battle with them. The school expects kids to sit silently, do their work, speak only when spoken to and be doing copious amounts of book work. I had to be much harder on kids then I had originally been. I finished the week determined to get super organized over the weekend.

Well...that didn't happen to the degree I'd wanted so I was a bit off kilter again. I really hammered the students on Tuesday after having the worst Monday I'd had so far. It made a big difference though as they fell in line and things went better the rest of the week. Things looked easier on the surface as it's revision week and I didn't have as much planning to do as much of what I was doing was based on writing practice exams. Unfotunately it turns out you have to MARK that stuff so I was marking until 11:00 at night on Wed. and Thurs.

On the upside the kids started rugby on Friday. Rugby is actually a great game but it's basically managed by the referee throughout the game. I won't be refereeing any time soon.

I loved this conversation I had with a kid after the game - remember my year 4s are about 7-8 years old. Read the kid lines with your best upper class posh English accent.

Me: Did you enjoy the game?
Kid: Yes sir. Do you know what I enjoyed the most?
Me: What.
Kid: I enjoyed the fact that it was rufty tufty.

Had to stifle a laugh on that one.