quick catch up

I haven't posted for a while. It has been quite busy in my world.

Work stuff - lots of it. Highlights - 2 year 12 performance nights. Junior concert. Attending the drama night. Chant off (which one of my form groups won!) Lowlights - dealing with an inept person or two, picking up the pieces of people who go on leave without outlining what they need to do.

Family - seeing my sister off to an overseas adventure. Catching up with other family through lots of calls etc.

Socially - out and about for fun.

Frogdancer mentioned in one of her posts that I had a birthday and it came for free for all my guests.........I'm still sorting that one out.

My birthday was a couple of Thursdays ago and I had a lovely dinner cooked for me. Fabulous!

Friday night I went out with some lovely women, including the Dancer, to a Korean restaurant. Food is always lovely there. We ordered way too much food - as you do. I was enjoying bbq beef and suddenly heard a crack and felt a crunch in my mouth. I tentatively put my finger in my mouth to discover one very large bone shard. One of the women saw my distressed face and asked me if I was ok. I said I thought I had cracked a tooth. A moment later I took the piece of tooth out my mouth.

Frogdancer called a waitress over and I outlined the story. She got the manager. He has offered to pay for the tooth work through his business insurance. I'm seeing the dentist on Tuesday and then follow it up with him after that. I will keep you all posted on what is going on with that.

I have taken very strong actions towards fixing my core muscles after that ridiculous trip I had last school holidays. I am having one-on-one pilates classes with a physiotherapist. Amazing how much better it is to do this rather than attending a class with a group of people. I have been taught how to do so much so quickly.

We set some goals last week - interesting. My goal is to be able to stand from sitting/lying down without compensating. I also would like to turn in bed without having to wake up to do so. Simple things really.

Her goals were a little more technical than mine.

I also have another goal - to stand comfortably on one leg - especially my right leg. It's amazing how quickly you can lose control over things like this. It's also very scary.

Not an exciting post I know but I am tired from the end of term. I am stoked to be on holidays for the next two weeks.

YAY!

rantinesssssssss

Gees - look at the time!  It's 6pm and I'm still here at work.........mad, I tell you.  Mad!

More children performing for me and I can hardly wait.  

I had my dinner - a famous chicken company supplied me with my dinner.  Something to do with peri-peri sauce.  Yummy!  Probably TOO high in salt and fat but Meh!  

I have been trying very hard to get some work corrected for the year 12 classes but that hasn't happened at all!  What is going on?  Since I have finished my reports I can't be bothered with ANY OTHER CORRECTION!

I have realised that I am using this post for a complete whinge so I think I might really have a go!

what has annoyed me in the past little while.....

• people who don't stop talking about themselves......(oh, that could be me at the moment!)
• people who text, talk or anything with their mobiles WHILE they are in charge of a motor vehicle.
• people who can't cover their nose or mouth when they sneeze.  Gees there is a piggy disease out there and we have government ads here people telling us to cover the nose and mouth!
• people complaining about the number of reports they had to do (again - this is me I am talking about....amongst others)
• the media totally hyping up the news.  
• children who don't work.
• people who can't tell the truth!
• those that have NO sense of humour.  Lighten up!
• Year 8 chant-off!  Well actually I don't mind parts of it.  I have 2 groups that are good, one that is ok and 1 that is totally NON-existent.  Proves interesting.
• anal-retentiveness.
• having no time for a real social life (this really shits me! I didn't work this many hours at other schools but I worked hard and did well.....)
• laziness amongst others that you would expect more from.
• long nights at school (back to the same point two above)
• nothing decent on tv when I want to watch- must get myself a time shifter for the tv.

That's it at the moment.  I have more to come I am sure!  But now the children are here and I must engage.

tuesday......

So I finally handed in those 230+ reports. I have to say that I wasn't really stressed about doing so many reports as I know that I am quite organised this year. If you look at my desk you might disagree with that....

I was more stressed about reading so many other reports by other teachers. It's hard working with two relatively new teachers. One teacher - this is her first lot of reports, and the other it was her third.

The teacher who has done reports before is incredibly thorough but has such a full schedule that it is hard for her to get through all in time - but she does. Her schedule includes a private studio as well as her own performance area..

The first year out really struggled to begin with and then worked slowly to get the reports to a higher level.

Reports are hard to get the hang of. I think many teachers don't remember that at same stage they will have to report back to the parents. I work with the idea that I will have to make some sort of comment about kids right from the beginning. It took me a good 7 years to get that sorted out in my mind. I have been much better since I made that discovery.

Tonight I listened to half of my year 12 students......they were great. I am looking forward to tomorrow night......

Actually I am looking forward to the end of next week when I can have a few days (weeks) off.

Night.

two weeks

Two weeks - or as I prefer to think of it as, 10 working days - until I have a happy holiday.

In that time I have to go to an intern meeting as I have two interns to supervise (with another teacher) next term. I also have two nights of Year 12 performances and I have a a junior concert.

I also have to prepare 4 classes for a chant off day. I am not looking forward to preparing two classes......but two I am stoked about.

Busy time ahead - but when isn't it?

dancing lady here

I'm a bit exhausted as I have been completing the victory dance having finished my 230 reports.

I'm dancing, I'm singing etc.

OK. So I might have to go in and adjust a few comments and marks based on recitals (or lack of them due to Swine Flu -hey Ms Dancer?....and other kidlets who don't actually read here.....) or some of the marks on exams BUT it's done.

Now I am working out my movements for the weekend. Yay!

I went to my initial physiotherapist run pilates class today. This is an initial session where they do a ultrasound to see if you are doing pelvic floor exercises correctly. Apparently I am not - as are 50% of all women. Most women push down but in actual fact you need to lift. I have learnt much today.

Piano is tuned - although it will need some string work at some stage. It sounds lovely.

strange but true

So yesterday I wrote 156 reports - that's 6 classes of 26 kidlets. That leaves me about 80 to go. I have 3 classes at year 12 that are less than half the regular number. I am stoked to have broken the back of my reports.........I have a report writing day tomorrow and unlike Frogdancer I will have to work my way through tomorrow BUT I will have my weekend. Yay.

I realised yesterday that I needed to stop and jumped onto my Facebook page. One of my nieces had completed two quizzes that I thought looked interesting. "When will you get married?" and "When will you get knocked up?"

My results were rather intriguing. Actually the results were bloody hilarious thinking about what questions were in this very serious quiz. eg "on a scale of 1-5, how do you rate happiness" I looked at that and wondered what was the weighting of 5 and what was the weighting of 1. I took the middle ground.

According to these delightful authorities I will be knocked up by July 24th 2012......not a problem really except that puts pressure on me to find a bloke. (and the house and prepare it etc) Yes I know it is 3 years away BUT I am an incredibly shy petal. ha ha ha.......

Married August 23rd 2015. Now can you all book that into your diaries. I know that it will happen....Facebook told me so...My sister has offered her services as the wedding planner. The baby from 3 years earlier WILL be part of the bridal party. It's all planned really.

Well - enough of these frivolities. I'm off to work now and I will be Chanting with my year 8 classes for the most part......hopefully they will work the way I commented about on their reports....

computer generated music

So I went back to work and boy did I work my but off today.

I can tell you this - I am SO OVER music assignments that use loop programs where the little blighters haven't lined up the beats......there is nothing like hearing a beat ricochet around your headphones while you are listening intently!

Then there is something that kids love about combining a heavy 2-thump bass with lilting Irish ditty and a string line that is in a totally different key. My ear-drums have never had such a beating. I listened to four classes worth.....that's 104 of the interesting concoctions.

I have 3 year 7 classes to listen yet......but they're not so bad. Something to do with the tighter control on the assignment. Year 7's - pick a style and show the basic processes involved in the computer program. There is some editing but not a great deal. It is more about an understanding of textural changes and demonstrating basic computer techniques.

When you get to year 8 you end up with a much more open-ended task. The kids need to show a greater deal of editing - as you would expect on recording programs - and have to show some development of their understanding of the elements of music......texture, pitch, rhythm, volume and tempo. These are the main ones we study at year 7 and 8 and develop them further as we move through the school.

I have listened to too many of these ill-defined soundtracks and need to concentrate on standard tracks now.

sick #2

Day two of being home sick. I am mightily relaxed - probably for the first time in ages.

There is nothing I can do but sit and ponder the world. My mark books are at work until later today when one of my colleagues will drop them off. I contemplated going into work tomorrow to mark my students composition assignments on the school network but realise that I can probably break the back of my reports without having to mark them in such a rush.

If I get the bulk of my reports done - comments and 3/4 of the marks in - this weekend, then I can mark the rest of the work next week and pop those extras in.

Sitting here I realise how lucky I am. I am in a warm house, I can afford to see the doctor if needed and I have sick leave to call upon. I have been listening to world news and sometimes it pulls you back in from feeling sorry for yourself.

Yes, there are moments when I cough like there is no tomorrow and I have never known my sinuses to be so willing to off load their innards..........but this is nothing really.

This morning I had a chat with my mum and told her that I had croup. She laughed. How rude! She told me that only little children get that. I promised her that the doctor had said that there are many cases around at the moment and it is moving like nothing else. In amongst all of this she told me about how she and my dad would deal with croup in us when we were kids. I don't like the sound of it.

My father had this remedy he learnt from his grandmother - melted butter, lemon and honey. Lemon and honey - fine. Melted butter -urgh. I told mum that I would probably throw up with the melted butter......apparently that is the point. The lemon and honey cuts through the build up of phlegm and the butter makes you throw up.

Gotta love the old remedies. I'm sure there is a better solution.....inhalations seem to be working a charm.

In amongst this I set the styles exam that Scott mentioned and emailed it to him. I did try to mail the audio but the system didn't like the size of the audio file........

Finished knitting one scarf, another to go. Finish some socks and might make headway onto my cardigan from last year. All up quite relaxing. Wonder what shocking movie will be on today.......

sick

Home sick today.

Woke up and my head cold had taken a turn to the 'interesting'. Sinus headache.................can't breath properly.

That was at 5.45am and I had a shower to do an inhalation. Worked somewhat. Still couldn't breathe.

Made phone call to the answering machine that miraculously covers your lesson throughout the day. Then emailed my lessons to colleague at work so she could print out.....hope she did.

Went back to bed and slept for 3 hours - on top of my 8 hours the night before. Must be sick if I sleep that long.

Woke up, rang the doctor and struggled to get an appointment for this afternoon. Must be lots of sick people in the area today.

Now sitting on the couch. Thought of doing reports - but left my mark books at work. Hmmmm. I'll be fine for tomorrow - especially if I sleep more today.

Later the same day - been to the doctor. Yes there are lots of sick people in the area. Had to wait 40 minutes from scheduled appointment time. Apparently I have croup........lots of it going around! Off again tomorrow.

chant off and lessons for the teacher

We have embarked on the Chant Off competition preparation with the year 8 music classes.

I'm exhausted from writing that sentence so I have no idea how I am going to cope with the next 3 weeks of silly preparation. I teach 4 year 8 classes. Their groups of islands are Micronesian islands, Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean and Pacific ocean. None of the groupings really resemble what islands are found there......some rogue islands have found their way from the Pacific to Micronesia, and there is a beautiful Caribbean issue of having a Pacific island or two........

So the fun begins with the kidlets. We have, in our family groups - which is a fancy way of stating learning groups but with an individual island name - written our chants. Each family group have had to write 2 verses with 4 lines per verse. Each line has to have 4 beats - all up 16 beats.......I realised that I am teaching numeracy as well as literacy in my subject.

Having the perverse sense of humour that I have, I encouraged the kidlets to write slightly off-beat rhymes. My Atlantic Ocean group were really struggling with rhyming so I suggested to think laterally about Portuguese influences (a few of the islands have Portuguese as their main language) and we came up with Nandos. I'm not sure what the rules are for product placement in school tasks but the kids were outdoing each other with their references to chicken, Nandos and peri-peri sauce. In amongst all of this are a few lovely lines - but as Scott is one of the judges I wont mention it here.

So imagine 25 x 14 years, mostly male, with bored looks on their faces attempting flamenco dancing (Spanish influence......) with badly played Spanish guitar and chanting about Chicken. I think you are getting some idea of the EXCITEMENT I am dealing with here. The Atlantic Ocean group have some of the most bored girls I have EVER encountered. They are ofay with the eye-roll, find music (or anything really) a drag and have no problems in combining these two ideas much to my disdain. There am I doing the best dag impersonation I can muster and the girls look to each other, roll their eyes and turn to have another conversation about their social lives.

I wonder why I love teaching teenagers.

That was last Friday.

Today I discovered the joys of boys with rolled up newspapers. I knew but am not 100% fit at the moment and didn't quite think through the idea of 20 boys holding rolled up newspapers....

Now the question I can hear being asked is why would you want to have 20 boys holding rolled up newspapers? To learn how to do a stick dance of course. It makes total sense to me. The kids saw the video of it and jumped on board. They also reminded me of why you don't give boys these 'toys' and then ask them to hold them waist height. Nor do you ask them to sit down - in which case they lie down and proudly show off their extensions..........

It was a very trying 20 minutes of practice. Their 6th period teacher came and complained to me for having the kids fired up..........

I might just say these are my worst two classes - my favourites are on Thursday and they are firing with ideas.....