Tomorrow is the first day of the last term of our school year.
10 GOOD things about going back to school tomorrow:
- it is the last term of our school year!
- it is spring (although someone in the weather-dispatch department doesn't seem to have got his/her head around that yet)
- at the end of the term comes Christmas
- and our long summer vacation
- sometime in the next few weeks our new house will be handed over to us and we shall move in (theoretically, November 3rd. Watch this space)
- it will be great to leave the rented house we have been in since we sold our old house in March
- for Christmas, my daughter, her husband and their 2 children will be home from Adelaide, Australia
- and my son and his lovely Italian partner will be here from Barcelona
- once the seniors go on exam leave (on November 7th) I shall have time to do all of the Head of Department stuff which has been piling up, and piling up....
- it is the shortest term of the four
10 BAD things about going back to school tomorrow:
- it's Monday
- AND I'll have to get up at 5.50 am
- these holidays have only been two weeks long - not long enough
- I feel as if I haven't done enough preparation
- the weather has been rubbish for most of the two weeks
- I haven't done all of the things on my "to-do" list
- I haven't even done half of them!
- until the seniors leave (see above) it will be full-on, hard-core revision, revision, revision. Hard work and generally unexciting for the teacher :(
- moving house, again. Stress, marital dissension, exhaustion, expense...
- my most senior class (18-yr-olds) will be leaving school to start their adult lives. This particular class contains a number of students whom I have taught in an extension group for 4 or 5 years. They are lovely kids, very bright and focussed. I shall miss them greatly.
Pictures from a visit to The Sculpture Park about this time last year
Ah, yes, always tough to say goodbye to certain groups. On the bright side, I have a group of former students -- now in their mid-thirties -- who stay in touch with me regularly. Sometimes the ones you're close to will come back to see you. I hope this group contains a few of those for you.
ReplyDeleteThanks Lisa :) Yes there are many of my past students who stay in touch, and come back to see me - it's one of the best things about being a teacher, I think - the connections don't stop when they leave school!
Deletei say stick to your list of good things...and look forward to your time off...with family...and in your NEW house. in the meantime just sail through the bad list...know that you did your best for the students who are graduating & moving on with their lives!! (i bet they will remember you forever!)
ReplyDeleteI am usually a pretty optimistic person, laura - so I will concentrate on my good list. I must admit I had trouble getting the bad list up to 10!
DeleteSoon you will have more time to take pictures!
ReplyDelete~
Yay!! Hope so, anyway.
DeleteLovely photos- Alexia you are the teacher all children dream of having and parents are so darn happy their child has you-- Plus dear friend you are entering my most favorite time of the year SUMMER!!! Lucky you, I can't wait for you sun filled rock on summer photos greet me on a cold and snowy winter day. Enjoy today- and every other day after- Karen
ReplyDeleteAww thank you Karen - your comments are always so positive, and make me feel happy!
DeleteLovely photos indeed. I loved your lists, and never get through my to-do lists either. It is wonderful that you will have all the long vacation to settle in to your new home. You know we want pictures don't you? Lots of them.
ReplyDeleteWhile I remember. If you ever come across a book called 'The Freedom Writers Diary' by the Freedom Writers and Erin Gruwell, grab it. I have never read a more inspirational teaching story. I think it has been made into a movie as well.
ReplyDeleteI have used the movie with classes, EC - it's a fabulous story, and very well acted. I haven't read the book, though - shall look out for it!
DeleteThank you :)