Teachers are legendary (in their own minds) for leaving school on the last day of any term with great intentions of marking, planning, and generally catching up and/or working. It is no legend, only a fact, that many of them return to school with little or nothing to show for all that time. Some believe it is because of the high commitment teachers have during term time, that the balance is exhaustion and no teaching work in the holidays. Others know it is a combination of a lack of self discipline, lazyness and poor organisation. Mostly, it's a combination.
Last holiday, I had nothing to do work wise as I was between jobs. This holiday, I have plenty to do, but the kids are interfereing with outputs. As is the holiday we leave for tomorrow.
But I'm happy to announce that four loads of washing, the housework, the filing, a visit to a garden show and the subsequent insertion of new plants in the garden AND SOME REAL PROGRESS ON THE THESIS have already occurred.
Yay me.
Damn shame about the teaching...
The boy wearing the non-school tie turned up the next day wearing a school tie, but a non-school shirt, with the same logo as the naughty tie.
The next day both items were regulation. I pointed out to said boy the funny-ness of the swapping between regulation tie and shirt and he laughed. This is good as he is know as a bad boy, and I didn't know if he had a sense of humour about his diffing regulations.
Yay, school holidays. And the boss is doing me a huge favour so I can go and finish the thesis, so it looks like I am coming back next year. He is also talking about finding me a management unit. Heh. He knows how to buy loyalty. And the bid was successful...
Going out tomorrow to look at the garden festival. Cool.
There is a boy in my science class that wears a tie, but not a school one. The same class (of kids) is taught by one of the assistant principals, and when I asked him if he had ever talked to this kid about his tie, he said "At least he is wearing one".
So why the hell should I bother about uniform at all? I'm supposed to send kids to this guy so they can be 'disciplined'...
(Oh, and the RSM is a regimental sergeant major, who is the person in the army responsible for checking uniform. They have no tolerance for anything being incorrect!)
it looks like the election was only the first part of getting a government. I need to learn with this MMP stuff that voting is only part of it, and the coalition forming is equally important in government forming. I hope that no-one strings it out like Winston did in the other election.
Wasn't that an interesting result. Labour hasn't lost or gained any votes, but National took a whole heap from the smaller parties and so we have ended up with an essentially hung parliament (for the moment). If National were to maintain that hold on 40% of the electorate, and Labour also held firm, then the 20% that vote for smaller parties get to decide whether we go left or right.
Seems that more people vote for lefter parties (just). Like I/S (No Right Turn), I wonder what made people vote for National - tax cuts, the race issue, an allergy to Clark?
Does anyone know how many people turned out and voted?
On the other front, I have only 4 people in the 6 bio class this week due to outdoor education, and we are getting into some very serious revision. And with a small class, some very top quality revision too.
Just marked the bio section of the fifth form that sat the science exam. Not many did well - about two of them. There were a few that passed, and an awful lot that didn't pass or come anywhere near it.
Was reading the sixth form bio papers, and a student who thinks she would like to be a vet tells me transport is all about how animals get around (in this case it was meant to be about blood circulation), and that fish grow little legs so they can live on the land... and then in case I didn't understand her text, she drew me a picture of fish with little legs, and labelled the legs. I hope she has a plan B if vet school doesn't take her!
Its 11 September...
Fantastic spring day, the sun is shining and the roses apparently have an iron deficientcy. The grass is growing, and the pool is getting warmer, but is a long way off warm enough.
R is home for the week. How wierd is that?
Also, it appears I will have some kind of employment next year, and it can be a choice of what I want. Now I have to actually decide...
R was able to pop in today for a couple of hours, which then morphed into four hours. It was nice to see him!
Went along to the hockey final, but had to leave as H was suddenly exhausted, and Had To Go To Bed. Now.
The weather is fantastic - what with that? Its usually warmer but not nice at this stage in the year?
I came home after photocopying the exams for the kids next week, and went straight to sleep. I feel shattered, and NEED MORE SLEEP.
Thanks to Talula, I have a simple title for this entry...
spending tomorrow on the bus going to Wellington to the zoo with some seventh formers. I think we will have a good day once I have got over the number of them that said they would come and then decided that they wouldn't. It means we will run at a loss, but what can I do? Well, I could cancel the trip, but I think we still have to pay for the bus, so we might as well go.
I've just realised I haven't taken out the money I will need to pay for them to go into the damn zoo. So I might have to pay that myself, and get re-imbursed. Bother.
I don't have anything for the horticulture class to do for their period, and I can't think of anything for them to do either. Damn. At least the real disturbers aren't there, so they could do nothing without destroying anything.
I have to drop both kids off at 7am but I don't have to cook tomorrow, as I have been invited out to tea by friend who know the leader has abandoned me at this point. He is at a course learning about how to be safe with bullets.
Yeah, I laughed too.