Ever have one of those days where your arms and legs feel just ... heavy? Not like 'bingo wings' or 'thunder thighs' style heavy, but kind of like dead weights you can't be bothered to lift ( Read more... )

Not been online much lately. Reasons are manifold; unfortunately I'm not allowed to talk about some of them. I know a couple of my colleagues are aware of this journal, so the parts I can talk about boil down to this: after an exam several students announced they didn't know the material because we hadn't covered it in class. We did, but I am now ( Read more... )

Thank you to everyone who replied to my post about the performance management meeting. As it was, the meeting was postponed thanks to FRIKKIN' OFSTED TURNING UP! To anyone who doesn't know, mentioning OfSted in education is like putting the cartoon mouse in the elephant enclosure, while also making sure at least one elephant is lame, sickly and in ( Read more... )

So, I'm bricking it. I have a meeting tomorrow with my headmistress and several members of the local education authority about my performance. Not a good meeting, either. Apparently having a bit of a weep the day you find out your mum's proposed heart operation might kill her, your dad has broken his hip and your grandmother is 'just waiting to die ( Read more... )

Life is far, far too crazy-busy. 6am starts, 1am ends and MANICMANICMANICPANIC in between.

Also? Senior management can kiss my (very tired and rarely sat upon since I'm on my feet all freaking day) patoot. Satisfactory teacher, eh? Yeah, that's why my GCSE class had the highest scores last year and the A-Level componant I taught dragged up the ( Read more... )

So today was the last day of term and we, the staff, said adios to the pupils at lunchtime, having sat through a painful asembly in which prizes were given, carols were murdered, chewing gum was spat into handy Chritmas card envelopes and I collected a trolley-load of hateful glares for doing trundling along the rows with this same envelope. Bring ( Read more... )

... and here's why:

That really nice kid I teach, the one who was hit by a bus? He died last night after nearly a week in a coma.

Social Services keep after me about the girls in my form and their peodophilia case, but the girls themselves are more interested in knock-down-drag-out fights in the corridor than proescuting their 'honeys'.

Two horrible ( Read more... )

Maybe it's because I've been reading a lot of Something Positive recently, or maybe it's some kind of special pheramone that causes indifference and vague dissatisfaction and depression in those who inhale it, but this evening I feel really, really down. Seriously, I was just listening to an .mp3 file of the Coca Cola Christmas theme tune that my ( Read more... )

Okay, so, a lot of people are already aware that back in March I survived a pretty horrific car wreck. Well, now that event has come back to bite me in the rump - literally. You see, when the car was flipping over as it flew through the air and rolled down the embankment, I was ricocheted off the roof and into the back of my chair. My skull left a ( Read more... )

Monday:

6a.m. - Pre-empt alarm. Wish bed would turn into giant black hole and transport self to oxygen-lite corner of universe.

8:30a.m. - Greet little darlings who can't wait until form time to invade non-locking classroom. Fight losing battle to make them take off their coats and put on their blazers in school. First 'Fuck off' of the week ( Read more... )