Tuesday - arrived at school promptly at 8:40 a.m as we were running late this morning due to Micaela not feeling quite 100% and she was moving a bit slower than usual...add a few lorry's which keep the speed down, a very large lorry inching its way down the road up to the school, causing people to reverse direction and students to wait on the corner of the road before attempting to navigate the narrow lane, and you can't help but arrive a few minutes behind schedule.
BUT, when one is apparently confused between a staff briefing, which I thought only was on slate for the first week of school, and a staff meeting, which bad just been held on Monday afternoon, a certain American exchange teacher doesn't know she is even really late for anything, until...she notices through the window of the staff room, as she makes her way to the front door, that the place is packed with bodies, and upon entering the main hallway, the door is securely shut. Oh well, not about to announce my late presence, so I did the sensible thing and went directly to my classroom. Now I know... every Tuesday...staff briefing...8:40 a.m. No problem.
Apparently Monday afternoon meetings only include actual teaching staff, and the Tuesday morning staff briefing includes everyone; add the Thursday afternoon English department meeting and there are three required meetings a week. Vastly different from the once every two week meeting at home, and the occasional department meeting that may impinge upon your free block to attend...otherwise known affectionately as "common planning time"...a bit of a misnomer back at NHS if you ask me.
Tuesday - preparation period first thing in the morning, however, due to the "under construction" status of the new ICT area, the classroom is used to instruct the ICT classes during the first two lessons of the day. Needing to relocate myself for my prep period I sought out the work room on the third floor and made myself at home, getting myself ready for the week, since this was my first planning block alloted of the week. The second lesson of the day I relocated to Mel's room to teach the Year 8 students. I really don't mind having to "relocate"...the ICT guys are nice and pleasant and have been very helpful in solving my issues regarding the use of united streaming, and it has been fun getting to know them and talk about some sport with them. It is different from home though, in that I never have to relocate myself, unless it is to cover duty once in a while.
As indicated, it is only temporary until their new area is completed and then I will have the space as needed. Until then, it is nice to see other people from around the building in our area of the campus. Much like home, each academic area is housed in specific areas of the campus, by building clusters, as NHS has the academic core subjects somewhat divided by floor, and alternate ends of floors, so it is not often that you see colleagues from other departments. The good thing is that at least everyone at Fairfield has the same time for lunch, so there is more of an opportunity to see others, unlike at home where even lunches are divided by floor for the most part.
However, my day once again got away from me with lesson planning, clerical issues, nps email catch up, etc...that despite having two planning periods, a 15 minute break and a one hour lunch, I never left my room, nor did I even eat my lunch! Where does the day go??? I have no idea, but I was very, very busy!
Year 8's responded well to their "building character" lesson with Holes and their literature circle groups.
Year 10's, despite losing five minutes of their lunch for being a bit too talkative during powerpoint presentations, successfully completed their background building tasks and are ready to move on to a bit of Reader's Theater as Dicken's himself would have done with his own works. This will take us through the first two chapters with a fine tooth comb as they prepare to write their coursework essay.
TUESDAY - ended with the Year 7's, finishing up family trees...and yes, we are finished with this lesson, even if they have not quite finished with the actual tree, it is DONE. All students have a paper version suitable for "best work" to put into their actual "autobiography" project and now we move on to the day they were born! The saving grace is having Ruth to banter back and forth with over lessons that work, and lessons that don't, and the acknowledgement of the amount of variation that takes place in those Year 7 instructional groups. Today we were both acknowledging the amount of energy it takes to keep up with these little ones; it can exhaust you after 60 minutes.
Micaela was originally scheduled to take an Animal Care class, which would normally release at 5 p.m., but she really wants to play football (soccer) on Wednesday afternoons, which will also keep us at school late, so in my zeal to have at least one day per week when we can leave campus before 3:45 p.m. we decided to forego that class.
I was hoping to make it back to Gilwern in order to have my nails done, but alas we did not, and once again all the shops were closing by the time we arrived in the area... I shall never fit this treat into my schedule on a weekday afternoon it seems. This is not a popular indulgence in the area, and a place such as California Nails does not exist. Most hair salons may have one or two girls who give manicures and there are a few places dedicated to doing nails, with two or three people at the most, other than that, in this immediate vicinity, it is not something easy to come by at conveneint weekday hours for working women. (Many of my lady friends at home will empathize with this dilemma!)
Ways to make a million in the UK that we brainstormed today...
Open a drive through coffee shop somewhere on the A465, which probably would only be approved where there is an existing structure or petrol station...but still you would make a million pounds!
Open an ESPN Zone bar featuring UK & American Sport - or any kind of pub dedicated solely to watching of sport that is open all day serving Buffalo wings, margaritas, cold Budweiser and some curly fries with skinny onion rings... and you will make a million pounds! Someone tell Phil the next time you are at the Hawks Nest that he should look into this.
Open a California Nail Salson with full services for manicures and pedicures...give discounts for the first three visits and remain open until 8 p.m. each week night, and after that you will have an entire population of women hooked on having their nails and toes done and you will make a million pounds!
Open an Outback, Longhorns or some really awesome steak restaurant and stay open for lunch and all evening; even on weekdays, but be located somewhere within one mile of the roundabouts between Hereford and Abergavenny and you will make a million dollars!
*On a side note - my Facebook status today consisted of a list of all my favorite cravings - Outback ribeye, loaded potato, caesar salad, margaritas, etc... My dad, in an effort to be helpful, sent me an FB message telling me that he would gladly send me a "2 for 1" meal card for Ruby Tuesdays - an American chain restuarant... to which end I did a UK location search and, no surprise, there are none anywhere in 4 countries! Funny thing is, he sent this AFTER I had already titled today's post with the above... how odd is that?????
"yesterday don't matter when its gone...."
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment