all the cats come out to play

This morning I got up late. Loved it!

Took some time to over cover the chocolate cake with icing sugar.....I mean it was nuts!

Realised I was running late - so I showered, changed and pampered on speed time. Packed my lunch - very, very small.....then went to lock up the house.

My cat was in on my bed looking a little stressed. I gave her a quick pat and went into the lounge, locked up and put on my boots. Looking at me over the top of my coffee table - Trevor the terrorist cat from next door. He looked very perplexed as I had cut of his escape route by locking the back door.

He went out the front door with a thud.

Why do I call him the terrorist? Well - He terrorises all the cats in the neighbourhood. My cat wont play with him at all.......and now his mates come here to play......He really is a bugger!

(I still laugh at his owners calling his name though - they have very thick Russian accents and Trevor with that accent is hilarious......)

colour your thoughts

It has been an interesting few days or so in my world.

The most fascinating thing that has happened is discovering, without full diagnosis, that one of my students uses the thinking process Synesthesia.

I just love the idea that sound presents itself as colour......It is really amazing. This particular student thought everyone thought the same way and that because she had trouble developing a language to describe sound, she was 'dumb'. I explained to her that most people can see colour with sound - but it is not the first thing that appears........

For this girl it is the only thing that happens....

I asked her to describe how she saw the colour. Her description has me thinking a great deal.

Think about your vision.

Now think about your peripheral vision.

On the boundaries of that there is an explosion of colour which appears with sound. As the instruments change, so does the colour. If the instruments are played in a different way, so does the colour. Again, the colour changes according to the style of music.

But this is not a major colour change but rather a subtle change if the instruments are related, or the pitch range changes. Higher sounds gets a whiter input........

I am so amazed.

Now the challenge for us is to develop the word mix that goes with those changes. We are starting with the primary colours. As we create a vocab list for each of the elements then we will move to the next level of colour.

This girl is so excited. It is amazing.

I love my job as there are so many different things that occurs.

ramble, ramble, ramble

• massed singing rehearsal........600 kids. a number of teachers looking on at the entertainment. Me waving my hands in the air and actually getting a response from the 600 kids. 40 minutes at the beginning of the day and I am so tired now.....dead voice and tired arms!

• making jackets for the choir - overlocker doesn't want to play with one tension! Now I am tense at the stupid loops that shouldn't be in some places.......gr gr gr!

• had a rehearsal set up by kidlets for 8am today. Buggers didn't show! apparently it was a misunderstanding. Misunderstanding my derriere!

• speaking of bottoms, my pilates for a stuffed back has led to me doing bottom squeezes whilst lying on the floor holding my pelvic floor in place. probably the funniest exercise I've done for a while. cat thinks it's good and promptly sits on my tummy.

• been to movies twice in the last fortnight. my sisters keeper - GOD I HATE IT WHEN THEY CHANGE STORY LINES FROM THE BOOK! Other than that an ok movie. the ugly truth - laughed and laughed at very cheap jokes. Just what i needed on a friday night.

• actually went to movies that night with a male (woo hoo! but not a date) who talked a lot about himself and asked no questions about me. Fair enough but I know I am much more interesting than an ant!

• stopped reading "Salvation Creek" as found the story a little heavy for where I am right now.......moved onto the other book club book "44 Scotland Street". Laugh and laugh, then sleep!

• cat got the sniffles - sneezes so might have to get her to the vet soon.

• cleaner came today so house is so clean - except for that bit over there where I was sewing...

• must admit I love rambling dot point format.......

whinge

I have lots to think about at the moment - and not enough time to really process those thoughts.

I really hate this time of year.......Huge concert, Year 12s becoming a little more persnickety, dealing with overwrought people........it's too much.

I have spent the last couple of hours preparing work, correcting work and generally getting ready for the week ahead. For goodness sake - it's Sunday morning and I would've liked to have had a sleep in! Maybe not this week then.

Enjoy your day whatever you are up to.

This is fantastic!

What bored Welsh sheep farmers get up to.....and it's not rude.

short and sweet on a saturday

Interns much better. Well one is sick but she is still improving. The other didn't cry this week. This is awesome!

I am very tired - still. So I am getting my bloods checked. Will see how we go.

Almost up to date with my correction. Very impressive if you ask me!

I'm off to see My sisters keeper tomorrow.

interns

Where to begin.

I am thinking a great deal at the moment. Nothing unusual there really. I have so little time at work and find that my time at home is spent being stupidly busy doing my correction which I would prefer to do at work.

Why has this occurred? Two interns of course. One of my colleagues in my department went on holidays and they got two interns to cover her. An intern is somewhere between a student teacher and a beginning teacher. A student teacher you have to sit in the classroom with. A beginning teacher can be in the classroom on their own but do need a fair amount of support. They get the gist of most things fairly quickly - if they are worth their metal.......

My two interns are an interesting pair. A is fantastic. She is bright, vivacious and a self starter. The kids think that she is ok - they're not big fans, but she is replacing someone who has an amazing reputation. The thing I like about intern A is the fact that she thinks BUT she also acts. This is a huge thing. She sees something that needs to be done and she does it. If she has an issue - she comes and asks me from the point of view, I have done this in reaction/relation to this. What else can I do?

B is so different. She is lovely but she is tiring. I mean really tiring. She is emotionally all over the place. She thinks way too much about this job that she is doing. We have had many a conversation that includes her telling me that she has this/that to improve. She has thought an amazing amount of time about the theory of classroom behaviour, student thinking, teaching directions, and even subject philosophy........but she hasn't really put a lot of this into practice.

I watched her teach last week and she is not that bad. She is lacking somewhat in personality, but then a lot of beginning teachers do as they are frightened to make a mistake. She also has a standard of behaviour that I don't think anyone can live up to. As a result the kids are never behaving for her........ It came to a focal point last Friday when she left the teacher she was working with during her 4th period class because her 3rd period class were awful. She came and sat beside me and started crying. This has happened a few times. Tears, not the leaving of the classroom.......

I asked her to unpack what had happened and she gave me a broad brush stroke response that the kids were naughty. I asked her to clarify and eventually she told me something had happened which essentially was that a couple of the boys had not done as she had asked. My reaction was probably not as supportive as it could've been. I was blown away that she had walked out of a class.......

I was quite blunt, as I know I can be! I asked her what would happen if this had happened and she wasn't team teaching? Would she have walked out of the class? We chatted about the idea of having to approach things from a number of different angles.

The crunch came when she told me she had 'stuff' happening in her world that was exhausting her. That was, at the time, the final straw. I told her about my family - which I had not planned on doing so - and where we are at at the moment. I agreed that teaching is hard when you are not altogether there BUT a professional, whether it be good or bad, needs to step aside from the personal and focus on the end game. The end game are the kids!

I told to get a grip and get back into the classroom. Not the best conversation that I have had but it was one that I had to have with her.

By the end of the day I explained, as nicely as I could, that I would need to see a definite improvement in the way she attacked her teaching - especially her emotional response. If I didn't see this improvement then I would have to talk to her university.

Monday I was absent, Tuesday she left early. Today was a sports day. I will see her tomorrow.....