On Tuesday mornings I teach two classes of year 3 recorders - back-to-back - watch the clock, pace the lesson just right, dislodge my memory stick from the teacher's laptop (not forgetting that she uses a left-handed mouse) pick up my bags and move to the room next door, get the memory stick going as quickly as possible and repeat the whole thing.
On Tuesday afternoons I teach THREE classes of year 3 ukuleles - back-to-back again. At least I'm in the same room for them. But it's not without its own little wrinkles - like
Where did the chairs get to? Where can I raid for replacements?
How quickly can I tune 16 ukuleles (you'd be surprised)
Why is the interactive whiteboard not working - oh, ah, where has the computer gone that's supposed to drive it? That could be a reason for lack of success with the whiteboard...
It's now quarter past four, and I am back home. I am the better for a slice of toast-and-marmalade and a gallon of tea, and I'm about to teach three piano lessons. Back-to-back.
However all the chairs are where I left them, I've de-cluttered the piano stool, and there are no computers involved.
Arrange these words in the right order;
like felt had backwards a I dragged hedge through I been....
at least until the tea and toast took effect!
Tuesday, 23 September 2014
Sunday, 14 September 2014
Saturday 13th September - Autumn (spider alert)
I wanted to have a bath yesterday morning but changed my mind as a humungous spider was lurking in a fine mesh of cobwebs dangling from the ceiling.
So I stayed dirty.
I haven't really recovered from that day, ooh, fifteen or more years ago, when I did my best to disappear a mighty monster down the plughole before having a bath. Success!? No. It crawled out of the overflow about five minutes into my relaxing soak. The tidal wave as I performed yogic flying (I had always thought that was a myth) and abandoned the tub washed it into the bath and I'm afraid that was that.
This evening, another "all creatures GREAT rather than small" was lying on wait on the stairs. I'm slightly braver now, and trapped it in the plastic box we keep at the ready.
Look away now if you don't want to see what I was dealing with... oh. too late. Well, I did warn you at the top of this post.
I flung it out of the font door and slammed the door shut as it galloped back towards me.
And the spider over the bath? Turned out it was dead. I expect one of the other monsters ate it.
So I am clean again ('cos it's Sunday today).
So I stayed dirty.
I haven't really recovered from that day, ooh, fifteen or more years ago, when I did my best to disappear a mighty monster down the plughole before having a bath. Success!? No. It crawled out of the overflow about five minutes into my relaxing soak. The tidal wave as I performed yogic flying (I had always thought that was a myth) and abandoned the tub washed it into the bath and I'm afraid that was that.
This evening, another "all creatures GREAT rather than small" was lying on wait on the stairs. I'm slightly braver now, and trapped it in the plastic box we keep at the ready.
Look away now if you don't want to see what I was dealing with... oh. too late. Well, I did warn you at the top of this post.
I flung it out of the font door and slammed the door shut as it galloped back towards me.
And the spider over the bath? Turned out it was dead. I expect one of the other monsters ate it.
So I am clean again ('cos it's Sunday today).
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.
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