The inexorable horror of the cold realization that another term has started has its basis in the Pathetic Fallacy in our staff room where the heating has make no appreciable dent in the tomb like quality of the room.
I passed a girl student on the stairs who, crouched in the semi gloom of a dull morning whimpered, “Stephen, I want to sleep!” This at least gave me the opportunity to snap back, “There will be none of that until Easter!” Start, I always say, as you mean (and that is such an appropriate word) to go on!
In Spanish schools there is the additional terror that there is no half term, so the next holiday is Easter. In the depths of January (which officially start on the first of the month) desolate despair is the only phrase which can descry be the relentless vista of teaching which seems to stretch into futurity. Thank god for weekends!
Now the first lesson is over and, as a visible and tangible sign of my bitterness of being returned unto the fray, I made the class learn the passive tense and do exercises. This was a risky strategy as there are some forms of active sentences which only take the passive with that form of extreme effort that I am rarely encouraged to make in the boggy field of grammar!
I now have a free period in which to have a weak cup of tea and strengthen myself for the solid slog of the rest of the day in which I see all of my other classes. O joy!
The lunch provided by the school was less than enticing and my classes in the afternoon were bloody. Nothing changes!
The examination system which is a Cruel God in our school is about to start waving its many arms seeking victims Kali-like to fill its insatiable maw with the innocents who have to sit the evil things and the PBI teachers who have to mark the damned scripts. Our season commences at the end of this week and then staggers its bloody way through the rest of the year like a demented paper juggernaut.
I prefer to rest my tattered self esteem on a project more tractable than educating over-privileged pupils – I therefore begun to plan strategies for getting my books into something approaching order.
As anyone who has had too many book to fit on available shelf space will know, the desire to get the books in century, theme, subject, height or whatever system is satisfactory for the book owner is a continuing urge. Which is usually frustrated by purely practical problems. To sort books you need space and when space is something which you have not got then the urge to sort remains at the irritating level rather than the practical.
What I intend to do (ah! fond hope!) is to map my books so that I know book case by bookcase what is where – and how many centimetres there are of what there is. Then I can try and ‘bring it all together’. I have made a partial start and the centuries jostle each other on confused shelves. I’m not sure that I’m getting very far very quickly but it’s fun and I’m finding a whole slew of interesting volumes!
Meanwhile tomorrow beckons!
I passed a girl student on the stairs who, crouched in the semi gloom of a dull morning whimpered, “Stephen, I want to sleep!” This at least gave me the opportunity to snap back, “There will be none of that until Easter!” Start, I always say, as you mean (and that is such an appropriate word) to go on!
In Spanish schools there is the additional terror that there is no half term, so the next holiday is Easter. In the depths of January (which officially start on the first of the month) desolate despair is the only phrase which can descry be the relentless vista of teaching which seems to stretch into futurity. Thank god for weekends!
Now the first lesson is over and, as a visible and tangible sign of my bitterness of being returned unto the fray, I made the class learn the passive tense and do exercises. This was a risky strategy as there are some forms of active sentences which only take the passive with that form of extreme effort that I am rarely encouraged to make in the boggy field of grammar!
I now have a free period in which to have a weak cup of tea and strengthen myself for the solid slog of the rest of the day in which I see all of my other classes. O joy!
The lunch provided by the school was less than enticing and my classes in the afternoon were bloody. Nothing changes!
The examination system which is a Cruel God in our school is about to start waving its many arms seeking victims Kali-like to fill its insatiable maw with the innocents who have to sit the evil things and the PBI teachers who have to mark the damned scripts. Our season commences at the end of this week and then staggers its bloody way through the rest of the year like a demented paper juggernaut.
I prefer to rest my tattered self esteem on a project more tractable than educating over-privileged pupils – I therefore begun to plan strategies for getting my books into something approaching order.
As anyone who has had too many book to fit on available shelf space will know, the desire to get the books in century, theme, subject, height or whatever system is satisfactory for the book owner is a continuing urge. Which is usually frustrated by purely practical problems. To sort books you need space and when space is something which you have not got then the urge to sort remains at the irritating level rather than the practical.
What I intend to do (ah! fond hope!) is to map my books so that I know book case by bookcase what is where – and how many centimetres there are of what there is. Then I can try and ‘bring it all together’. I have made a partial start and the centuries jostle each other on confused shelves. I’m not sure that I’m getting very far very quickly but it’s fun and I’m finding a whole slew of interesting volumes!
Meanwhile tomorrow beckons!
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