When in doubt – go on an INSET day!
The normal state of panic was maintained in school as it was discovered that two of our colleagues were off on a day of in-service training. This meant that normal teaching was (again) disrupted, but this time it was disrupted during a period of high tension when the marking and writing in of marks was at fever pitch and any heightening of the normal state of suppressed hysteria was not a good thing.
The school is gradually being surrounded by a metal grid of portable crash barriers. This is not unexpected because, in a gesture towards good relationships with the people who elected them, the local government has put up notices stating that work is going to take place on the approach roads and that parking will be restricted. Very well done
Except.
The date on the notices is some five days in the future and the installation of crash barriers is taking place today.
This will mean total and absolute chaos.
Parking is restricted anyway and the mornings are maelstroms of parental selfishness. ‘A Parking Space’ at around 8.00 am is defined on the main street in front of the school as ‘any area in which a car can fit.’ This means that double and even triple parking are the norm, while parking around and on pedestrian crossings are more than acceptable. I once saw a car not merely parked on but along the crossing. Corners, because they have curbs and pavements are legitimate parking areas. Indication is a luxury not afforded to mere fellow travellers who are not parents, so you have to double guess in which school the parents might be depositing their offspring and then guess again which ‘space’ they may decide (suddenly) to occupy or (just as suddenly) not to occupy.
The main street is one-way but that does not limit the directional choice of parents and, on one notable occasion, I was angrily beeped by one motorist who was annoyed that I had not noticed that he was travelling the wrong way down the road; silly me!
And now there is a restriction on the space, just to make the school experience that little bit more exciting!
The sun is making a brave effort to work itself up for a major effulgence for the holiday period: at least that is what I am telling myself. I need sunshine as to my eyes my skin is becoming paler and paler and soon I will be able to audition for a bit part in one of the interminable episode of ‘Twilight’.
I am discovering (ah, how popular culture sometimes passes me by) that the book that I read about good looking North American vampires is incredibly well known and I am now at the cutting edge of knowing what young people are into. It still doesn’t really tempt me to start the next volume – though I might weaken.
I am looking forward to the holiday as an opportunity to read. My book consumption has been sorely restricted and I am getting definite withdrawal symptoms. Having all my books around me (albeit not in any recognized order) and not reading them is akin to a shipwreck survivor on a raft being surrounded by water ‘nor any drop to drink’. Admittedly it could also be said that time spent lounging about watching football could be more profitably spent turning the pages of the many books which I possess but have not yet read. ‘War and Peace’ is still waiting for me to do more than glance at the introduction!
I think that I should adopt the stance I used to take when I used to be reading two books at once: one which was intellectually respectable and the other sheer self indulgent enjoyment. Most typically this used to mean struggling through some incomprehensible novel published by Penguin in their Modern Classics Series and then relaxing with an Agatha Christie or P G Wodehouse.
The normal state of panic was maintained in school as it was discovered that two of our colleagues were off on a day of in-service training. This meant that normal teaching was (again) disrupted, but this time it was disrupted during a period of high tension when the marking and writing in of marks was at fever pitch and any heightening of the normal state of suppressed hysteria was not a good thing.
The school is gradually being surrounded by a metal grid of portable crash barriers. This is not unexpected because, in a gesture towards good relationships with the people who elected them, the local government has put up notices stating that work is going to take place on the approach roads and that parking will be restricted. Very well done
Except.
The date on the notices is some five days in the future and the installation of crash barriers is taking place today.
This will mean total and absolute chaos.
Parking is restricted anyway and the mornings are maelstroms of parental selfishness. ‘A Parking Space’ at around 8.00 am is defined on the main street in front of the school as ‘any area in which a car can fit.’ This means that double and even triple parking are the norm, while parking around and on pedestrian crossings are more than acceptable. I once saw a car not merely parked on but along the crossing. Corners, because they have curbs and pavements are legitimate parking areas. Indication is a luxury not afforded to mere fellow travellers who are not parents, so you have to double guess in which school the parents might be depositing their offspring and then guess again which ‘space’ they may decide (suddenly) to occupy or (just as suddenly) not to occupy.
The main street is one-way but that does not limit the directional choice of parents and, on one notable occasion, I was angrily beeped by one motorist who was annoyed that I had not noticed that he was travelling the wrong way down the road; silly me!
And now there is a restriction on the space, just to make the school experience that little bit more exciting!
The sun is making a brave effort to work itself up for a major effulgence for the holiday period: at least that is what I am telling myself. I need sunshine as to my eyes my skin is becoming paler and paler and soon I will be able to audition for a bit part in one of the interminable episode of ‘Twilight’.
I am discovering (ah, how popular culture sometimes passes me by) that the book that I read about good looking North American vampires is incredibly well known and I am now at the cutting edge of knowing what young people are into. It still doesn’t really tempt me to start the next volume – though I might weaken.
I am looking forward to the holiday as an opportunity to read. My book consumption has been sorely restricted and I am getting definite withdrawal symptoms. Having all my books around me (albeit not in any recognized order) and not reading them is akin to a shipwreck survivor on a raft being surrounded by water ‘nor any drop to drink’. Admittedly it could also be said that time spent lounging about watching football could be more profitably spent turning the pages of the many books which I possess but have not yet read. ‘War and Peace’ is still waiting for me to do more than glance at the introduction!
I think that I should adopt the stance I used to take when I used to be reading two books at once: one which was intellectually respectable and the other sheer self indulgent enjoyment. Most typically this used to mean struggling through some incomprehensible novel published by Penguin in their Modern Classics Series and then relaxing with an Agatha Christie or P G Wodehouse.
I still have a liking for these authors in spite of their general reputation being questionable to put it mildly. I know that it is fashionable (and very easy) to dismiss Christie’s characters as cardboard cut-outs and her plots as risible. But I don’t guess them – even the one in which there is a game of bridge and you are told that one of the players is the murderer. I had a choice of three and I got it wrong! Perhaps I was too young and if I read it now it would be transparent in its obviousness. Though I somehow doubt it!
I once bought a book second hand called something like ‘Sixty Second Mysteries’ which consisted of short short-stories with very obvious clues and I thought it would be excellent for school to introduce kids to another genre of writing and perhaps to get them to write their own.
I started reading these things with a slightly insouciant air as befits someone who has read all of Shakespeare and all of the poems of Swift in English. I was stumped by the first one and when I found out the reasoning behind the actual clue I decided that it wasn’t the stuff for young minds. The clues were so obvious that no one could guess them! Another example of hide in the open!
The marking has been done but the calculation of the final marks is a delicate and complicated procedure. And it has to be complete by tomorrow.
Sigh!
I once bought a book second hand called something like ‘Sixty Second Mysteries’ which consisted of short short-stories with very obvious clues and I thought it would be excellent for school to introduce kids to another genre of writing and perhaps to get them to write their own.
I started reading these things with a slightly insouciant air as befits someone who has read all of Shakespeare and all of the poems of Swift in English. I was stumped by the first one and when I found out the reasoning behind the actual clue I decided that it wasn’t the stuff for young minds. The clues were so obvious that no one could guess them! Another example of hide in the open!
The marking has been done but the calculation of the final marks is a delicate and complicated procedure. And it has to be complete by tomorrow.
Sigh!
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