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Monday, September 12, 2011

One down too many to go!


First Day!

What emotions, positive and negative are contained in those two words!  No matter that this was not our actual first day in school (we have been here since the first of September) but this was the first day with the kids.

As I was not a form teacher I did not take part in the first two lessons when those poor benighted souls were stuck with their classes for the first two hours.  I used the time to create, (with the air of desperation which is the keynote of our existence in this place) a set of stories for my first form, as their actual books have not arrived yet.

The booklets for Media Studies and Making Sense of Modern Art are also not completed yet so that is something else which is awaiting my attention.  On might have thought that it would have been ideal to have done such work during the time without the kids, but the Meeting Mania which sweeps over the school when there is a spare moment was in full lunatic force and such practical work was impossible!

The first class was with the equivalent of the second year sixth and I have a smallish class who are going to attempt to pass the Proficiency in English examination which is the highest level of English Use that we prepare the kids for.  This was followed by a second year class which again was of a limited size and reasonably responsive.

Yet again I have a lunch duty.  This is a shameful thing as I spent a long time working together with colleagues in my union to make sure that our lunchtime was our own and now, here in Spain, I weakly give in when I am loaded with a duty on an already overloaded day!  Ah, how times have changed!  An ex-President of Cardiff NUT reduced to selling himself for a lowly salary and at the expense of his long held principles.  Ah well, as the saying goes, if those don’t work I have others!

No one else appears to be as genuinely depressed at the start of a new term as I.  The kids are visibly bubbly and my colleagues are not crying.  Perhaps it’s me – but surely they must feel the primal horror of almost four months ahead without a half term.  Mustn’t they?

My last lesson of the day was with the equivalent of Year 9.  Just what you want on the last period of the day and I have them again on Wednesday for the last period.  Inspired timetabling!

Having to teach last period three times a week means that I do not get away those vital minutes before the parents collecting their precious charges clog the single lane road to escape.  Even though I left a quarter of an hour for the parental congestion to dissipate itself it still took me twelve minutes to travel about 200 yards.  The next twelve minutes on the motorway took me from Barcelona to the turn off for Castelldefels!  Minutes mean misery if you miss the window of opportunity to get away at the right time!

Apart from news about Toni’s wonky knee (none; doctor’s appointment Thursday) the most pressing information I need to find out was about the Ruta.

Toni had managed to hobble his way to the Tourist Office and finally get my completed form accepted by the official and was presented was a ticket for the XXIV Mostra de Cuina Castelldefels to take place this Saturday.  This is like a food fair and the ticket I have been given comprises tokens which can be exchanged for food and drink during the course of the festival.

I am still waiting for the telephone call to tell me that I have won an ipad.  It also turns out that you can leave out 5 tapas and still get the free entry!  I think we should have read the small print a little more carefully!  Toni said that the woman who took my form was surprised and impressed that I had managed to collect all the stamps, but I don’t think that there is a separate draw for we purists who have completed the ruta!

So, the first day is over and there are only 60 odd working days to go before Christmas.

Sigh!

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