Last week was almost like the week before 'lockdown' began in many ways - those days in which I dithered about whether I should just stop going into all the schools, and whether that was being over-cautious and making a fuss (heavend forfend that anyone should make a fuss!).
In the end I did stop, a week later than I would have liked, and only a few days before the magnitude of the effect of Covid19 began to dawn on people.
Now we are in the reverse scenario - should people be going back to work and should schools be re-opening? Again, I'm in the over-cautious camp - it is clear from the briefings that the 'politicians-in-charge' have absolutely no idea of what a modern infant class looks like - the days when 5-year-olds each sat at their own desk (like I did) and copied stuff off the blackboard (like I did) and sat on benches in the dining hall in rows, supervised by the staff, eating their school dinner off proper plates with a knife and fork (like I did) are long gone. Like many of the People-in-Power, I went to an old-fashioned prep school where the children were mostly constrained by middle class backgrounds and expectations of behaviour. The roughest rough-ness I ever experienced was maybe a bit of a shove at play time, or someone borrowing a pencil and 'breaking the nib'.
Time will tell - we will watch the statistics. My main aim at the moment is not to be on the wrong side of the statistics. There's nothing heroic about dying of stupidity.
So, what of my news?
In the immortal words of my daughter in reply to 'what have you been doing?' - it's 'same old same old' most of the time.
Are you interested to hear about the zoom piano lesson disruption for this week? Not the cat and rat scenario of last week - this time it was a Large Spider. The student requested permission to get a tissue (she's Very polite), disappeared out of view, reappeared as a blur as she ran towards the door and disappeared again. I could hear several loud 'bang crash blam' noises, then the toilet flushing. I'm hoping that neither spider nor tissue will have blocked their loo.
It reminded me of the time when Oti, our maid when we lived in Indonesia when I was much younger, was asked to get rid of some humungous cockroaches in the bathroom. She entered, armed with a broom, and then re-enacted one of the many chase scenes from the 'Tom and Jerry' cartoons, shrieks, bangs, shouts, until she ermerged five minutes later looking triumphant.
We've finally sorted out zoom for my father - the solution was to just buy another chrome book, same as the one he bought last year, but this time with camera and microphone. He has a significant problem with the quality of his internet connection. Normally we would go round, and Himself would deal with BT and the various boxes and wires with dogged determination until it was all resolved. I'm still reeling in amazement that my father has managed to firstly install a new BT hub, get it working enough to discover that he could no longer get to the internet, and the next day re-instate the old equipment and get back online again. The thought of him being without internet drove me to prayer, all day and all night until it was working. (Well, lots of times during the day and the night). The problem is still there, but at least he can get online.
I've 'zoomed' 23 times since the last blog post. Mostly teaching. Looking back, that does explain why I've tended to spend Saturday morning having a lie-in! Actually I have a bit of a lie-in every day; a Husband who brings breakfast in bed every day is a treasure beyond price.
Deliveries tend to be our main source of excitement, we had a real treat over the weekend. Himself managed to book a delivery with Tescos on Friday night; our first, and after weeks of failed attempts. You should have seen us, poring over the pictures on the screen. We get vegetables, fruit, milk, eggs, meat and cat food delivered and then ask friends and neighbours to buy other stuff like breakfast cereal, tea, etc. I don't like asking them to go searching for specific brands of pickled gherkins, cold meats, cheese etc so this was our chance to restock with life's little luxuries. Although we forgot garlic and croissants. Another time.
Oh well - that's my 'same old, same old' for this week in respect to news. I'm about to post on books next...
Showing posts with label school. Show all posts
Showing posts with label school. Show all posts
Monday, 18 May 2020
Sunday, 4 November 2018
Sunday 4th November -Time Travel
Today's Year of Wonder piece of music is the slow movement of Grieg's Piano Concerto. This is Rubenstein playing.
Whenever I hear this concerto, or the Rachmaninov Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, or the Rachmaninov C# minor prelude, I am straight back in the study bedroom at boarding school, up in the attic. A funny little garret room of straight angles, high above the dilapidated old-fashioned conservatory, overlooking a magnificent horse chestnut tree.
I had a cassette tape of these three pieces, played by - oh dear, maybe the name will come to me in the next few days - and I used to listen to it over, and over again.
Sunday was always a weird day at school - church (in school uniform including 'Sunday coats and berets', and then hours of boredom. No music to be played before 4pm, letters home to be on the hall table by 3pm, and everyone had to go and lie down on their beds and rest after lunch. I assume the last rule was to allow the housemistress an hour's peace, but we resented it. My friend and I used to escape the stifling atmosphere by visiting an old lady in the almshouses. She used to give us tea and cake (resurrected from her freezer every week, and re-interred when we left) and we would chat and watch her budgerigar flying around the room. I can remember his name - Banjo.
Best to concentrate on memories like the horse chestnut tree and the distant view across the city to the Downs, and discovering authors like Jane Austen and Charlotte Bronte on my own, rather than as 'set books' in English lessons!
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| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fjord Geirangerfjord, Norway |
Whenever I hear this concerto, or the Rachmaninov Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, or the Rachmaninov C# minor prelude, I am straight back in the study bedroom at boarding school, up in the attic. A funny little garret room of straight angles, high above the dilapidated old-fashioned conservatory, overlooking a magnificent horse chestnut tree.
I had a cassette tape of these three pieces, played by - oh dear, maybe the name will come to me in the next few days - and I used to listen to it over, and over again.
Sunday was always a weird day at school - church (in school uniform including 'Sunday coats and berets', and then hours of boredom. No music to be played before 4pm, letters home to be on the hall table by 3pm, and everyone had to go and lie down on their beds and rest after lunch. I assume the last rule was to allow the housemistress an hour's peace, but we resented it. My friend and I used to escape the stifling atmosphere by visiting an old lady in the almshouses. She used to give us tea and cake (resurrected from her freezer every week, and re-interred when we left) and we would chat and watch her budgerigar flying around the room. I can remember his name - Banjo.
Best to concentrate on memories like the horse chestnut tree and the distant view across the city to the Downs, and discovering authors like Jane Austen and Charlotte Bronte on my own, rather than as 'set books' in English lessons!
Friday, 12 September 2014
12th September - Ker-boom - Term has started!
Where did the last couple of weeks of August go? Who stole them?
Term officially started last week, on Wednesday, but I only went into one school on the Friday as the previous days were staff training days.
So my term started this week. Sort of; the first two Monday schools didn't want me to start straight away, so I had a gentle first day. Just as well.
And just as well that we spent the last Friday of the holidays checking out the route to some of new schools I will be working in, 20 miles away, as the road I would have chosen is closed until the middle of October, and the diversions go all around the place. I would have been very late indeed had I not known about this in advance.
So; here's a complete week of blogging in one go.
Monday; turn up at a nearby school in the afternoon and teach djembe to 25 year 3 children (where is my support staff? Apparently they are not going to provide anyone! That's not in the contract!). Slight delay as I fail to remember the magic number to get into the cupboard where the djembes are stored, but otherwise all went well.
Tuesday: leave at 7:25 travel 20 miles eastwards along roads which are new to me, all solid with rush hour traffic, and eventually arrive at 8:30 - in good time for an 8:45 start. However, the school starts at 8:30 so I arrived at time of maximum chaos, especially as the next-door secondary school also starts at 8:30. Discover that I am teaching in cramped classrooms, not the hall as I had hoped (no music-and-movement, then!). And the teacher uses a left-handed mouse with her keyboard...
Next week I shall be leaving at 7am. At least the traffic might be easier. Especially the bit where I try and join the motorway!
Hack through the back roads to see if there is a better route past the diversions. If there is a better way, this isn't it. The back roads are a total nightmare of blind junctions, narrow pot-holed lanes and other horrors. After one "incident" along the way I'm really glad to find a cafe for a cup of tea and a sit-down.
Arrive at the next school back home to teach three back-to-back classes of ukulele; but, no ukes. They haven't been delivered yet. Um. Re-plan the lesson to use chime bars. Slightly hampered by the fact that my computer login for the school has mysteriously stopped working, and the interactive whiteboard is no longer interactive.
Wednesday: leave at 8:15 to travel 15 miles west to teach piano and keyboard. Leave slightly later than I hoped, sprint 20 miles west to teach samba. Two tractors en route means I arrive with only minutes to spare. But no-one knows who I am meant to be teaching! I was expecting the young children, who I haven't taught before, but end up with a class of year 5 and 6 children who have covered all the material in my plans already. I quickly re-plan the lesson as we go along.
Wobble out of the school to go back home for another afternoon of back-to-back ukulele teaching. Hurray! They have been delivered - well, enough for one-between-two anyway. Boo! they are all still in their packaging. Spend the lunch break unpacking, tuning and re-tuning 21 ukuleles. The strings keep stretching, so they go out of tune within seconds. Now for the computer - oh, it has disappeared entirely. That solves the computer login issue anyway.
Thursday: Bliss - I'm at the school I was in last Friday, where I have taught class music for about 8 years. Everything goes like clockwork. My lesson plans work, the children are well-behaved and interested. Everything works beautifully. I spy the head-teacher watching from the corridor, apparently mesmerized by the video clip (Beethoven's fifth symphony presented as a graphic score -worth a look)
Friday: That's today. I won't start until the lunchtime recorder club (note to self; get music photocopied in time). The afternoon has been changed from what I usually do - three lessons of recorders and one of samba - to three back-to-back samba lessons. There won;'t be enough instruments for each class, so they will have to share. half the instruments means half the noise, which seems like a Good Thing at the moment. I will hopefully be able to to the lesson that I did on Wednesday...
The first week of term is always a bit shambolic, but this year it has been off the scale for glitches and hiccups and alarums. I'll be glad when it all settles down. I'm teaching around 500 children (that's a lot of names to learn!) in eight schools (I go to one school on three different afternoons) and travelling roughly 100 miles on high roads, back lanes and motorways each week.
Right. Things to do. Collect my samba kit, shop for birthday cake, bank a couple of cheques... all before midday. Gotta go.
Term officially started last week, on Wednesday, but I only went into one school on the Friday as the previous days were staff training days.
So my term started this week. Sort of; the first two Monday schools didn't want me to start straight away, so I had a gentle first day. Just as well.
And just as well that we spent the last Friday of the holidays checking out the route to some of new schools I will be working in, 20 miles away, as the road I would have chosen is closed until the middle of October, and the diversions go all around the place. I would have been very late indeed had I not known about this in advance.
So; here's a complete week of blogging in one go.
Monday; turn up at a nearby school in the afternoon and teach djembe to 25 year 3 children (where is my support staff? Apparently they are not going to provide anyone! That's not in the contract!). Slight delay as I fail to remember the magic number to get into the cupboard where the djembes are stored, but otherwise all went well.
Tuesday: leave at 7:25 travel 20 miles eastwards along roads which are new to me, all solid with rush hour traffic, and eventually arrive at 8:30 - in good time for an 8:45 start. However, the school starts at 8:30 so I arrived at time of maximum chaos, especially as the next-door secondary school also starts at 8:30. Discover that I am teaching in cramped classrooms, not the hall as I had hoped (no music-and-movement, then!). And the teacher uses a left-handed mouse with her keyboard...
Next week I shall be leaving at 7am. At least the traffic might be easier. Especially the bit where I try and join the motorway!
Hack through the back roads to see if there is a better route past the diversions. If there is a better way, this isn't it. The back roads are a total nightmare of blind junctions, narrow pot-holed lanes and other horrors. After one "incident" along the way I'm really glad to find a cafe for a cup of tea and a sit-down.
Arrive at the next school back home to teach three back-to-back classes of ukulele; but, no ukes. They haven't been delivered yet. Um. Re-plan the lesson to use chime bars. Slightly hampered by the fact that my computer login for the school has mysteriously stopped working, and the interactive whiteboard is no longer interactive.
Wednesday: leave at 8:15 to travel 15 miles west to teach piano and keyboard. Leave slightly later than I hoped, sprint 20 miles west to teach samba. Two tractors en route means I arrive with only minutes to spare. But no-one knows who I am meant to be teaching! I was expecting the young children, who I haven't taught before, but end up with a class of year 5 and 6 children who have covered all the material in my plans already. I quickly re-plan the lesson as we go along.
Wobble out of the school to go back home for another afternoon of back-to-back ukulele teaching. Hurray! They have been delivered - well, enough for one-between-two anyway. Boo! they are all still in their packaging. Spend the lunch break unpacking, tuning and re-tuning 21 ukuleles. The strings keep stretching, so they go out of tune within seconds. Now for the computer - oh, it has disappeared entirely. That solves the computer login issue anyway.
Thursday: Bliss - I'm at the school I was in last Friday, where I have taught class music for about 8 years. Everything goes like clockwork. My lesson plans work, the children are well-behaved and interested. Everything works beautifully. I spy the head-teacher watching from the corridor, apparently mesmerized by the video clip (Beethoven's fifth symphony presented as a graphic score -worth a look)
Friday: That's today. I won't start until the lunchtime recorder club (note to self; get music photocopied in time). The afternoon has been changed from what I usually do - three lessons of recorders and one of samba - to three back-to-back samba lessons. There won;'t be enough instruments for each class, so they will have to share. half the instruments means half the noise, which seems like a Good Thing at the moment. I will hopefully be able to to the lesson that I did on Wednesday...
The first week of term is always a bit shambolic, but this year it has been off the scale for glitches and hiccups and alarums. I'll be glad when it all settles down. I'm teaching around 500 children (that's a lot of names to learn!) in eight schools (I go to one school on three different afternoons) and travelling roughly 100 miles on high roads, back lanes and motorways each week.
Right. Things to do. Collect my samba kit, shop for birthday cake, bank a couple of cheques... all before midday. Gotta go.
Saturday, 23 June 2012
Saturday 23rd June - So unreliable
Actually, I mean my posting, on this blog, is so unreliable at the moment.
That's because at this stage of the school term, everything goes haywire.
To start with, there are the end-of-term concerts in the school Wider Opportunities programmes (we try and put on some kind of concert/celebration/open lesson every term to share what the children have learnt with parents and the rest of the school).
When it is the Summer Term, there is the added hassle of sorting out the checking of all the Wider Opportunities instruments before they are returned to the Music Services; this year I will be checking, cleaning, reporting and maybe doing minor repairs on
60 treble recorders, 20 Lyons C clarinets, 30 Bflat clarinets, 60 keyboards, and 100 djembes.
If you allow maybe 5 minutes and 22 seconds for each instrument (ABRSM precision) that comes to an extra I-can't-be-bothered-to-work-out-exactly-how-many hours and minutes and seconds.
We also have to try and liaise with the schools where we will be teaching the Wider Opportunities programmes next year to try and get all the arrangements in place before the end of term.
Then there are the music exams, which entail extra lessons for those uneager beavers who still haven't learnt that awkward bit at the top of page two, or can't face dealing with F major broken cords.
I also get extra work as an accompanist for instrumental exams, which means scheduling rehearsals, and rearranging my normal timetable in order to get to the exam centre; the timings are absurdly precise; 11:17 until 12:19, for example, but they really do try and keep to the timetable. The people who run the trains could do worse than study the administration and logistic skills of the ABRSM Music Exams systems.
Anyway, all the above means that I become unreliable. Normal service will possibly be resumed after 20th July; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQkU6fHP0fM
That's because at this stage of the school term, everything goes haywire.
To start with, there are the end-of-term concerts in the school Wider Opportunities programmes (we try and put on some kind of concert/celebration/open lesson every term to share what the children have learnt with parents and the rest of the school).
When it is the Summer Term, there is the added hassle of sorting out the checking of all the Wider Opportunities instruments before they are returned to the Music Services; this year I will be checking, cleaning, reporting and maybe doing minor repairs on
60 treble recorders, 20 Lyons C clarinets, 30 Bflat clarinets, 60 keyboards, and 100 djembes.
If you allow maybe 5 minutes and 22 seconds for each instrument (ABRSM precision) that comes to an extra I-can't-be-bothered-to-work-out-exactly-how-many hours and minutes and seconds.
We also have to try and liaise with the schools where we will be teaching the Wider Opportunities programmes next year to try and get all the arrangements in place before the end of term.
Then there are the music exams, which entail extra lessons for those uneager beavers who still haven't learnt that awkward bit at the top of page two, or can't face dealing with F major broken cords.
I also get extra work as an accompanist for instrumental exams, which means scheduling rehearsals, and rearranging my normal timetable in order to get to the exam centre; the timings are absurdly precise; 11:17 until 12:19, for example, but they really do try and keep to the timetable. The people who run the trains could do worse than study the administration and logistic skills of the ABRSM Music Exams systems.
Anyway, all the above means that I become unreliable. Normal service will possibly be resumed after 20th July; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQkU6fHP0fM
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