• holy heat batman

    UNbelievable how hot my classroom is. it's disgusting. Lucky for me my year 10s are sitting an exam, so that's one less class of stinky teenagers!

    really, though, i think we should not be teaching in the month of July. it's too bloody hot. stagnant, humid, hot, yuck... makes me wish i were a PE teacher or could actually take my students outside. but there's no chance in that!

    I wish we could have all the breaks we get during the year AND july off.

    current music: the rotating of my fan
    current location: my classroom
    current mood: a little tired, it being monday morning.

  • Does anyone have a vent?

    Do you ever have so much on your mind, it almost seems like it’s not there? You live with it in a synergetic (is that the right word?) way as you go on with life… only to have the ‘stuff’ – for lack of a better word – surface every once in a while. And when it does, all it does is annoy you / get in the way of your daily routine / turn your stomach into teeny tiny knots. I like it when it just rests under the surface and doesn’t bother me.

    Today (lately, really) the stuff has not been nice to me and has been bubbling up from time to time.
    Bubble – you have a dog at home
    Bubble – you still don’t have a contract with your school
    Bubble – you still don’t have a flight home
    Bubble – the flights are too expensive
    Bubble – something needs to be done about your dog
    Bubble – what are you doing with your life? (that’s a big one)
    Bubble – are you being silly about the school contract thing? Are you whining too much? Being ungrateful, not realizing that you’re being paid a good salary?
    Bubble – things are going well with the boy but how long will you stay in England for?
    Bubble – how long can the dog stay with mum before she flat-out refuses to have him anymore?

    One of these days one or more of these bubbles with pop and I will have to deal with them. I know I should just live life and see how things go, but when it comes to people and animals being affected by my decisions, I feel that I need to be responsible about what I do.

    Carpe Diem, right?

    But I can’t. When these bubbles come up they don’t like going away. I suppose I’ll have to have wicked amounts of fun this Canada Day weekend to placate them not to rise.

    Just got back from an open mic night in Luton. My small taste of home - all my friends, good music, happy atmosphere. Most of those bubbles were not present.

    current location: room
    current music: echoes of guitars and voices
    current mood: very very tired

  • reading

    do you remember when you were in high school and the teacher would ask, "who wants to read?"

    Which were you - the reader or the listener? Were you shy and felt self-conscious about reading out loud, so you never put up your hand? Or were you super confident and everyone loved it when you read? Or were you the one who sucked ass at reading and always put up your hand anyway?

    In school we were taught that everyone should read - it gives them practice and blah blah blah.

    Over here - not so much.

    As last period loomed over us near the end of lunch, I was musing whether or not I should read TO the kids, or if they should take turns. Richard, our token male teacher in the english dept, commented that most of the crap readers are the ones to read, and then class gets chaotic and things slide from there. "Much better to read yourself, Pipkins," he said. He then made the comment that so many teachers here think but never say...

    "You can't read, put your fookin' hand down."

    I never say that. I always let my stutterers and slurers and i-mix-up-every-other-word readers read. But let me tell you - it gets very very tedious sometimes.

    The thing is, is that most teachers don't let their kids read - they read to them, or the students read along while a CD plays in the background.

    At any rate, I laughed my way down the corridor to my lesson where I allowed them all to read and then wished I hadn't. Chaos ensued.

    8|

    current location: my room
    current mood: exhausted/worn out/tired/ready for a drink
    current music: birds outside my window

  • a whole lot of nothing

    Another boring entry - mainly a catch-up for what i've been up to lately.

    school has been crazy, as the year oh-so-slowly begins to wind down. The thing with this summer term is that the kids have switched off but i still have to teach. Plus it's HOT. I bought a fan, but apparently one is not enough, and my kids complain so much about it not hitting them half the time i turn it off as a punishment.

    I am still getting inadvertently sworn at. Oh well.

    Weekends are lovely. I live for the weekends these days. Either I'm down in London or relaxing here. Most of the time it's London. Although last weekend Craig came up here and we went to Stratford-Upon-Avon to the home of the bard. It was such a nice drive (lovely) and a cute little town (lovely) and a great (lovely) way to spend the day. Lovely was my word of the day - can you tell? Everything was just so nice and pictureque. We crested a hill at one point as we drove into Warwickshire and could see the entire valley stretched out below us. Stunning. The fields were all different colours of green and the trees popped up all over the place like green cotten puffs.

    Anyway. I seem to have a problem with my blog lately. I always think of things to write about at random times of the day - fun things to read/write - but then later on I never get around to actually writing them.

    I have also lost the drive to write more tonight so I am going to stop. My catch-up for everyone seems to be a short and disjointed description of Shakespeare's hometown. Sorry.

    I counted up my next few weekends... Seems like I will be going in to London a lot in the next while. This weekend, next weekend (canada day), the next (tragically hip) and most likely other ones after that! Plus there is Wimbledon. Apparently that involves a lot of waiting around a gate for 4 hours to see if you can get in. Not sure if that's going to be fun or not, but worth a shot.

    time for sleep.

    mood: tired
    music: football fans cheering on the telly
    location: dining room

  • spamalot

    for those of you who know me...

    I love king arthur. the legends, the stories, the countless books... i eat it all up.

    so - kyla told me that there is a show on soon - Spamalot - in london. Obviously I jumped at that and bam! me, craig and kyla are going to the show on the 6th october - a friday.

    SO EXCITED.

    Just a note.

    continue with posting comments that you read my blog. The count is at 1, so far. thanks, daniel.

    stratford-upon-avon tomorrow. keep you posted.

    current location: living room
    current mood: sleepy but happy
    current music: background to big brother

  • online poll

    It's odd... I always have things on my mind that I can write about, but never at the time that I'm sitting in front of my computer. So that's one of the reasons I don't write as much - by the time I get to my computer I have forgotten.

    So here is an online poll I am conducting. I am very curious to see who actually reads this thing. So far in my head I can count 3 of my friends. That's not very many!!! I feel so unloved. :(

    In actuality, however, I am really enjoying writing just for the fun of writing - it doesn't matter if no one reads it. But it would be nice!

    So here it is:

    You write a comment to this entry.
    Say something, nothing, whatever. I just want to see who actually reads this. Ok? Good.

    Thanks everyone. :)

    current location: my room
    current mood: chilled out
    current music: Down At the Khyber - Joel Plaskett

  • gloop revisited

    on second thought - spam and mac and cheese from a can IS NOT GOOD!!!

    Ate half of the m&c, then tossed the rest. so mushy and really, not all that good. stomach not happy.

    i am now drinking buckets of mint tea to appease the belly. so far it's not working.

    so, a word to the wise - do not ever eat mac and cheese from a can. if you want the 'real thing' - eat KD

    :|

    current location: classroom
    current music: still children playing
    current mood: not so good now...

  • gloop in a can

    rummaging through our pantry at work, i came across a can of mac and cheese. mmm, think i, this looks good.

    zap it for 3 minutes, out it comes, and hey - not bad! Sort of like cheese whiz but not as cheesy.

    good things do, sometimes, come out of cans. (spam not being one of them.)

    :)

    current mood: ok
    current music: children playing
    current location: my classroom

  • the blahs

    So today. First day back after the holiday. I was only teaching 4 classes, but still...

    class one was crap. All they had to do was draw a comic strip and fill in the blanks for the words. A total of 8 words and 6 boxes to fill in! And over half of them couldn't do it.

    class two came in acting crazy. this is normal for them, but still - they were more off-the-wall than usual. they're excuse? "it's monday, miss, that's why"

    class three had a spelling test and a comprehension test. they would not stop talking the entire time. so i was a good girl like nirmal taught me and i waited. and some of them got frustrated. and then i got told that they act up because i can't control them, and that if i can't control my class then i'm not doing my job. i know that some get frustrated, but i don't think it's fair for them to get at me like that. the group that said that - they're one of the main reasons why that class is so difficult. and yet they have to audacity to tell their parents that i'm a bad teacher. i just stand there and wrack my brain as to what to do... and i can't think of anything. i never thought i would dislike a group of people so much...

    class four was easier - we were in the computer lab. I ended up helping students, made one girl cry, and walked around stopping the boys from playing games. don't they care about their education?

    for those of you who either have easy classes in canada or have not taught before - the feelings that go through my mind while i teach are numerous. sometimes i am so happy and proud of my kids, and then other times i want to just open the door and walk away. i was never good at mind games, and i am finding this to be the ultimate test. i'm not saying that i am teaching in the worst conditions, because i'm not, but what i am saying is that there are days when my mind just snaps. today was one of those.

    I'm so tired of fighting them all... 200+ vs me - will it ever get any easier?

    no mood
    no location
    no music

  • catch up

    First and foremost - for those of you wondering where I ended up going on a trip to.... nowhere!!! I actually ended up spending almost every day in London for the half-term. We all know about the passport fiasco, so I won't re-tell that.

    I returned to the city on the Wednesday with Joss for some spring clothes shopping, then went back again Thursday for a nice walk down the South Bank. Then a 3 hour stint in Starbucks in Leicester Square lesson planning (amid lots of smokers and kids chasing pigeons) and on to All Bar One for lots of drinks with my eastern friends!! Me being the lazy, lazy girl that I am, then decided not to go home on the train and crashed in the city yet again. I really like London.

    Then Saturday, I had plans to go to Brighton, but instead I hung out in the backyard gardening in the jungle. It was a beautiful day. Just gorgeous. Craig came up and chilled while I played in the yard, and then I found some gardeners!! Seriously, this place was wild. Blackberry all over the place and totally overgrown bushes. Not to mention the 2 foot long grass that was growing on old dead grass. Yuck. The gardeners (the guys who live next door) cleaned it all up so now our yard looks like there has been a fire that wiped everything out. But it'll grow back and I can tame it.

    I'm getting distracted. My break. Right. So Saturday night a bunch of the Luton Canadians came over and we all sat in the yard drinking (too much) beer and wine. I had put out candles all over the place, and we had blankets... plus 3 guys playing guitar and singing - can't get much better than that!!! :>>

    So all in all, my week was great. I had a blast, a bit of an adventure, and am very happy. Too bad today sucked ass. But, c'est la vie, no?

    Big plans for the rest of the year... I'll keep you all posted. For those of you who actually read this.

    current location: living room
    current mood: tired
    current music: soundtrack to 2nd ever friends episode

    :wave:

Recent posts

more posts…

Recent comments
Tags

There are no tags yet.

Footer:

The content of this website belongs to a private person, blog.co.uk is not responsible for the content of this website.