There's always a reason....

Well, have now got two weeks work in this school. Have discovered why the room was as it was - an open day was meant to have happened on Thursday and the plan for the start of the week was to sort everything out and get it into place - kids helping as it's their project and the diary was going to be ad hoc to accommodate this! Fab idea and one I can accept quite wholeheartedly, knowing that plans can change in a school from hour to hour, never mind day to day, but, nonetheless we must all be very aware of Murphy and his Law, which categorically states that anythng that can got wrong will go wrong! And even if it's all going to be 'as it happens', a draft or outline plan of the intended events would keep things sweet!
This is going to be a funny old weekend - Alistair is away to Blackpool for the Accordion Championships and won't be back till Sunday night and I've got tons to get on with and yet I know there's a clearing of the dunny happening in the theatre later today (Yeah - Look at the time posted! This is when I get the computer without interruption!) Not sure I can really spend my time clearing out the theatre when I have such a midden at home to contend with. Still trying to get my school stuff sorted and put away, and it's all very well saying well just chuck it out - I will (hopefully) get a job soon and will need it all again! So I'm thinking I'll maybe phone and see who all turns up at the theatre and if they have enough bods will forgo the pleasure of raking the dunny out! Then will get some more of my stuff sorted and filed.
Need to go to bed now as feeling very, very tired and must close my eyes soon. Before I do so I will wish you all a peaceful and refreshing night and see you in the morning!
Till next time!

What a day!

Crikey Mikey! has it been a day? Yes it has and it will continue to do so until later this evening! Got a supply job this morning at a less than scintillating school (won't name names - never know who's reading!) to take a P5/6 class. First impression? My God! They've been burgled! No timetable, forward plan or weekly diary evident. Couldn't find jotters, textbooks, paper. Kids did not know which groups they were in (some didn't even know there were groups!) Some jotters were missing, there was no note of where the homework spelling was generated from, how the reading groups operated, the room was a tip and the kids were not exactly setting the heather alight with intelligence! Or enthusiasm! Sick teacher had taken the class laptop home and so I couldn't access the smartboard, couldn't access the internet, couldn't sign on as a teacher to the system, so it was all systems hang on a wee minute there, maybe you'll just have to do it the old fashioned way! Had to give the whiteboard a thorough clean tonite before I came home as it was nearly as black as the chalk boards! and I'm going in again tomorrow (with a vague chance of a few more days - it's all money!)
When you walk into another teacher's classroom and find this level of mess - nothing labelled clearly, subject books in one place , tidy shelves etc. it makes you look at your own classroom ethos. I always felt my class was not as tidy as it could have been and spent a long time trying to get it sorted. However in comparison to what I spent today in, mine was just fine. At least I had all my language and maths textboks and jotters together in labelled areas. My Forward plan was always on my desk and the diary page for the week on my desk. There is a chance I might get a few more days work in this school, if so I will have to get a large box and put all her stuff in for her to sort out when she comes back - I know I'm not the tidiest person on the planet, but I really cannot work in this kind of mess! In the meantime I must go and get a diary page photocopied up so I can leave a note of what I've done this week for her. Sorry to use this space to pour out my woes, but the teaching community is such that one really can't trash another teachers' rep. or one disnae get any other offers of work!
That said, I'm off to get something to eat and to get ready to have all the hair ripped off my legs and from under my eyebrows. Who says I don't know how to enjoy myself?
Till next time...

Mental free fall......

This has to be the busiest two weeks holiday I've spent for many a year! Dr Who exhibition and the Zoo one week, Cinema and Nandos, room clearing, furniture shifting, shopping and trip to Edinburgh (hello again Fopp!) the next. How does one cope? Still trying to fit the quart of stuff I brought home into the pint pot that is the wee room. Making headway but only just. I can see it's going to be a fairly long process and not one that can be rushed. Trying to decide which box a folder should be put in is becoming tricky; I'm all for A Curriculum for Excellence and Cross Curricular links in teaching but it makes it really hard to know where to file things. Have more large grey crates up in loft and the plan is to put all my old Uni stuff up there where it can be accessed if needed, leaving the shelf space in the den for my current stuff. All topic specific stuff will also go up there in properly labelled boxes - I feel a trip to Ikea coming on! again, easily got at if and when needed.
Still no sign of a job or even any supply yet, mind you, the schools are still off and perhaps I shouldn't expect to hear of anything till Monday at least. Come to think of it I'll probably have to get up and be all ready to roll at the drop of a hankie if anything does come through. Can't think what I'd have to take with me apart from a packed lunch, my coffee and my mug, a notebook and my pendrives - I have a lot of stuff in them that I could use if I needed them. I've been putting wordsearches and pattern sheets into a lever arch file, maybe I should take it in the boot along with other possibly useful things in a crate, then I would have a few photocopiable resources up my sleeve to assist me. Even so, still living in hope of a permanent post coming my way sooner rather than later.
Victoria is now 15 and didn't have the best birthday she could have. The plans we had made were kind of changed when Papa decided he wanted to take her (and us) out for lunch and to the cinema. Unfortunately this didn't take place till the Monday, so, only a day late. Then he decided he didn't like Nando's, nor her choice of film, so it was a bit of a burst balloon. Anyhoo, she liked her drum mutes and made out like a bandit in the cash stakes so has plenty of dosh for buying more stuff for her drums! (Remind me - why am I encouraging this!?) There was some talk of a new camera but I think the drum kit kitting out will come first!
We are officially a 'Twilight' family; well the female contingent anyway! I've read all of the books, Jen is on the third and Vic is on the second!!! We've seen the film (yes I know, now try the stew) and enjoyed it. I know we are possibly not the target demograph but it's nice to read what I would call an 'old-fashioned' style of book. None of the usual graphic descriptions of stirring hormones getting into the swing of things with blow by blow accounts of who did what to whom and for how long. Yes it's all a bit slow and soft focus but, as I said, it makes a wee change from the in your face stuff churned out under the heading of suitable literature for pre and pubescent girls. Jaqueline Wilson books are in schools but I find them a bit overpowering and cringemaking especially for the more innocent souls who have to read them and then try to analyse and comment on them - not all children have alcoholic, tattooed Mothers or dead sisters and fathers who are absent. Real life scenarios? Not really. Oooh! A rant! That's unusual!
Ho hum, look at the time! I've been on here for ages and I'm getting aggro from the big 'un who wants to go online for yet more music! I'd better go and let her on.
Till next time!

Thank you and good night!

Well that's me finished up at school! My maternity cover has ended and I have had to empty the cupboards and bring home all my guff. I am in awe of just exactly how much guff I had actually taken in to school and will be on the ball for my next job - certainly won't be taking as much in again! (that probably comes under the heading of famous last words) It was a sad time too 'cos I really liked my class and am sad to be leaving them - the lack of wages for the rest of the year is a mere side issue. Have had 'the letter' from the council telling me that I will be "considered for a permanent post" once all the compulsory transfers and everything else have been dealt with - which probably means that I'll still be huckling round for supply work this time next year! I have the next two weeks to get the house straightened out and hopefully cleaned before the better weather! Then I am praying I get another long term supply to take me up to the summer and with a bit of luck I may have heard about a job by then. In the interim I'm hoping that if any supply comes up in BQPS I'll get a phone call to go in. I'm planning to go back for the centenary celebration in May/June and see the gang again, but would really like to get some paid work in the meantime!
Never mind - there's always the Co op, or M & S might need staff.....
Till next time.