Well, I say nothing. I still spent 5 hours today marking baseline assessments for Years 7 and 8, during which I was thinking, 'Exactly how more baseline are these going to get?' and, 'Have you never heard of full stops/ capital letters/ dictionaries?'
Other than that, and having a massive house clean yesterday morning in preparation for house viewings that aren't occurring, I have done very little. Still, a tidy house always cheers me up so it was worth the elbow grease for that reason alone. I had planned to do some writing. I had planned to do some sewing. But the truth is that I have a non-functioning brain at the moment regarding anything creative. I am still fretting about work, and every time I try to distract myself with activities other than cleaning and staring at the TV, my mind drifts back to school. It is not good.
In contrast, Andy has been enormously productive. He has been cooking and baking. He has made some spectacular loaves of bread, and some delicious soup and cheesey onion soda bread, and a very scrummy quiche. He also made a moussaka for dinner. I am almost forgetting how to cook.
And Heather went out this morning to buy her first car! She passed her driving test about six or seven years ago, and she is now, finally, the owner of a black Ford Ka. She also starts a new job tomorrow, having been poached by a department within the company for which she currently works. And she has also taken to walking around the house dressed in a hoodie. This causes Andy and I a huge amount of amusement as we get to shout, 'Hoodie in da house!' every time we see her. She is being very patient with us at the moment, but I suspect the patience may run out soon because basically we don't know when to stop. I am suspecting that very soon we shall be treated to a withering stare and told 'for goodness sake, grow up.'
And that's about it. Not so much a Much Malarkey Weekend; more a Not Much Malarkey Weekend. First day of October tomorrow. It's getting cold. Pandora Kitten has started demanding lap space in the mornings which is a sure fire indicator that Winter is on the way. The willow arch has dropped most of its leaves. Andy has requested I construct my birthday list for 2012. I've struggled with that because all I want is a couple of books. I toyed with requesting a couple of bantam hens, but we're supposed to be waiting until the house move until we chicken-up again.
Back to work tomorrow. Not looking forward to it, but I'm taking it one day at a time and there were Christmas cards in Sainsbugs on Friday, so the end of the year and my teaching career can't be that far away.
Whatever you do this week, make it a happy do!
Really sorry you're having such a hard time at work, you are clearly a dedicated and inspirational teacher but if you're not appreciated where you are, perhaps it's time to look elsewhere. What about teaching adults instead? (I know it's not that easy to just switch from one to the other, but you've got the teaching skills). Ah, our joint birthday - I can't think of anything to ask for this year!
ReplyDeleteMe neither, Olly. I've asked for a few books - Paul Torday's, Rose Tremain's and Philippa Gregory's latest, and the last one by Sue Townsend purely because at this moment in time spending a year refusing to get out of bed sounds very appealing.
ReplyDeleteAnd my faithful watch is on its last legs - keeps stopping and starting ( a bit like me aha!) so have requested a modest one from the Pia catalogue as a replacement.
Other than that, well, what I'd really like this year is peace and quiet and time to write.
Thank you for your kind words. I am sad to be leaving teaching, and yes, adult ed is on my list of possibilities as is teaching English as a foreign language. And tutoring.
Something right will come along. It usually does.
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