Four more days!

There are those who love travelling as an end in itself.  I am not one of those.  In much the same way I enjoy things being tidy and, as Toni quaintly puts it, “everything in his place.”  What I don’t enjoy is the process whereby things get put in his places.  Especially in areas where not only pints but also gallons have to fit in pint pots.

This is where Toni excels.  With a fervour, usually only found in the most devoted fox hunting Tory enthusiasts flogging a hunt saboteur, he can play a game of three-dimensional Tetris and put things in an order which, to the untrained eye appear to be almost magical.  The order is his order and any attempt to suggest alternative spacial solutions is treated as if you have not only spat on the fragment of the True Cross but you have also previously used it as a toothpick.

Toni is also not averse to the throwing away of Things Which Have No Apparent Immediate Use.  I do not understand this approach and have often thanked whatever gods there be for the small container or essential piece of ribbons or length of coloured wire which I have salvaged from the threat of discardation and have then played an active and essential role in the way that I live my life.  And if any words used in that last sentence do not exist they should do.

Toni has an approach that puts me in mind of the worst excesses of Savonarola in his cavalier approach to the sacred quality of permanence of Stuff. 

To me an uncluttered environment and the one in which I prefer to live is akin to the differences found between a Thurber cartoon and one by Giles; they are both ways of presenting something, but the Giles cartoon always has small details to discover that you missed the first time round.  There is always something more to find in the Giles, whereas what you see is what you get in the Thurber.  Not of course that I underrate the Thurber, who was obviously a comic genius.  But I like the detail in a Giles cartoon for the same reason that I like the paintings of Bosch, Van Eyck and Breughel.  Though possibly without their respective visions of Hell and Damnation!

For Toni things out of place is purgatorial if not infernal and, like many naturally and compulsively tidy people he does not understand the inability of mere humans to fail to replace things properly.

The Chaos of the Third Floor was a state of untidiness of Augean proportions that even the question of where to start was something which defeated me.  I was satisfied with carving a narrow path through possessions to a chair and a space on the desk; the wider implications of a theoretically tidy room was a concept one intellectual conceit too sophisticated for me.

Toni, however was not only able to contemplate the mass of things actually having a home but also was able to postulate the appearance of a Tea Room in a space which could not possibly possess one.  Even without having been brought up on the finer points of Doctor Who he seemed to have grasped the concept of the Tardis and transferred its qualities to the Third Floor.

And behold!  These things came to pass.  And the only thing lacking was a sufficiently genteel tablecloth for the tea table!

Actually, that is not strictly true and the room is only 75% complete.

If the sloping room of the Third Floor is like a glorified lumber-room then the cupboard under the eves is the oubliette of our preserve.

This low level, double-door space is the place where you put stuff which you cannot possibly throw away, but which also is not going to be used from one year to another and will probably only see the light of day when you move house and you realise that you actually possess it.  I hate this space as I invariably, however careful I am, forget my height and smash my head against the slope of the roof which seems specifically sloped to case the maximum damage to a six-foot adult.

Fine linen and embroidered tablecloths together with the china garnered in irresistible sales of Wedgewood Aztec with the Christmas tree and space hungry decorations are all waiting to be assessed, weighed in the balance and found wanting. 

And Toni is in sole possession of the space while I languish in school powerlessly watching a group of year 12 students cheat their way through a series of questions that they have to complete during the week when their normal teacher is absent.

The absent teacher has a Year 12 and Y13-heavy timetable so I am reduced to little more than child minding with my intellectual input at less than zero.  This is going to be a difficult week as my knowledge of Chemistry ended in the third form with the advent of the mathematical element assuming more and more importance so I will have to find something to do in front of the class which is not as obvious as reading to while the time away.

Another period of child minding has begun I will be perfect happy when this week ends if it is going to be as mindless as this.  I would prefer to teach rather than be a mere organic entity with a teaching qualification at the front of the class!

However, whenever I feel that I am not gaining very much from this experience I should consider what the eventual end result of this little foray into supply teaching might gain me in terms of my relationship with the employment office of Catalonia!

I am beginning to thank god for the fact that my visit to the UK is an immutable event which demands my attendance at the festivities of Louise.  It means that however attractive the blandishments of the head of secondary are I will have to refuse.

The staff is delighted at my appearance today as they no doubt feel that it means that there is a sea change in the attitude of the school towards the hiring of people to cover absence.  I am not sure that this is strictly true but I am not one to deny people their moments of happiness by injecting reality into their lives!

I am now in an art class where at least I have been able to distinguish a Lucien Freud painting being copied by one of the students.  My mark has been made!  Quite why I am in an art class I do not really know as the class that I took last period has still one lesson to go.  Though a change is as good as a rest.  I suppose.  And any attempt to make the life of a supply teacher more bearable is OK in my book.

Even though I have been able to do some of my OU work it does not compensate for being stuck in front of a class and not being able to be a real teacher.  But there again, they are paying me!

The Third Floor tearoom is almost up and running and the work desk part has now also been used for the first time.

Now that the OU course is up and running I have sent in a dummy tutor marked assignment to demonstrate that I can use the system and that the system can work with my computer. 

The emphasis on the computer is very different from the environment that I worked with when I first studied with the Open University.  I am not sure that it is entirely congenial for me, but I am sure that I will get used to the system.  And at least I have a proper working space to get to terms with the intellectual challenges that the OU in all its right-on fervour can throw at me!

Working to learn

A rugged determination to continue my swimming saw me get up at a reasonable time, in spite of the “holiday” at the end of my three-day week.  By the time I had come back, done a little light studying of my new unit in the OU it was time for lunch.

Our first choice of restaurant was closed so we tried a restaurant that we had been in only once before.  And the result was good and bad.

Firstly the bad.  When I see a sign outside a restaurant advertising a menu del dia for twelve euros I expect it to be on sale and not, because the day was a holiday, to be given the choice of a meal more than twice the price!

However, I was inclined to get taken by the trick and go with the Halloween Menu that they were selling.  It was exceptional!

The meal was a series of tapas-like courses (including a rather nice soup) with a bottle of wine and a couple of cocktails all included in the price.  Admittedly we paid over sixty euros for a meal that we thought was going to cost us twenty-five – but it was a real experience.  We spent a very enjoyable time trying to work out just how much the whole meal would have cost in the UK.  I think that the element which got to us was the fact that the meal that we had was in an unexceptional little restaurant, but the quality of the food was haute cuisine.  And the sun was shining!

Friday too saw me making my early way to the swimming pool where, as usual, I was the only one actually swimming.

The torrential rain we have had recently has flooded areas in the grounds of the swimming pool that I use and I made the vast mistake of parking under the trees and in sticky, slippery mud.  My laziness in wanting to park near the pool meant that I was cleaning mud from my sandals all day and the carpet in the car is now disgusting!  Still, I do have the little high-powered car vacuum cleaner for just such occasions.  But I will have wait until the mud is dry before it takes more effort to get it off the carpet than I am prepared to make for short-term cleanliness.

This Friday will go down in history as the day when a determined attempt was made to bring order to the chaos which characterises the Third Floor.  With Toni at his most totalitarian we have made the sort of effort which means that the place is in an even greater mess than it was before we started, but it is the sort of mess which can be sorted out in the bright light of tomorrow morning.  Probably.

But tomorrow is to be given over to the name day of all the variants of Charles in Terrassa, so the “final” sorting out will have to be delayed some.

Toni has had the idea of incorporating my grandmother’s octagonal inlaid table into some tearoom concept so that we can sit around the table sipping Earl Grey tea when we have become satiated with our realms of respective study.  He is even talking of buying some sort of tasteful tablecloth to make his concept more convincing.

I remain sceptical, as I do not believe that we can put back in the space of the Third Floor what we have taken out and not put back into any sort of order that I understand!

I am also trying to come to terms with my agreement to do an extra week of supply teaching in our local English speaking school.  I am doing someone a favour and I might well, quite apart from the money involved, be doing something which is intelligently self-interested.  We shall see.

In a shamefaced capitulation to the forces of nature, I have worn jeans and a coat for some time during the day.  In bed I have sought the comfort of the duvet!  I, even I, am having to admit that it is not the summer.

However, today has been fine and we decided to go to our “local” for lunch where we had a superb view of the kite surfers who seem to have descended on Castelldefels in force for some sort of international competition.  They looked picturesque and compensate in some way for the poor service that we uncharacteristically had in our local haunt.

Tomorrow might be the public airing of our new gadgets.  As an iPad owner I rather think that I spurn the new mini-iPads which have been launched on a punch-drunk public reeling from the plethora of electrical stuff by which they are surrounded.  The mini seems absurdly overpriced, but that is not going to stop the dyed in the wool macophiles!  And even I feel pulled in that direction!  Still as a multiple Kindle owner I think I have nailed my colours to the mast!

Tomorrow I must try and remember to make sure that I have a sufficient number of clean, white shirts for my next week of work.

The end of the next part of the beginning of the end

On my (early) arrival at school I met Frank (from the School on the Hill) and had a chat which meant that the morning meeting hit me in the middle of my photocopying and caused a set of Year 7 material to go missing.

The thrust of the morning meeting was an announcement of, or rather encouragement about “Teaching Excellence Awards” which the company which runs the school has decided to institute.  This is a belated initiative following their introduction in England and Wales.  The headteacher emphasised that nominations could be self-nomination or for another person.

I totally reject such messy industry-driven initiatives.  These are out of place in a professional environment and are viciously divisive.  They cheapen the teaching profession and make it tawdry. 

The prize-giving ceremonies are pale imitations of the Oscar shenanigans, and the fact that there are various awards for films and filmmakers does not mean that they are a justification for teachers.  There are “good” commercial reasons for having a whole series of publicity heavy festivals in the film industry.  Education is not an industry.  The commercial incentive is not there and the teaching awards tend to accentuate (vide “Teach as though your hair is on fire”) the “dedicated” individual whose entire life is given over to education.

The link to recognition of pupils’ achievements not only academically but also in sporting achievements as a justification for teaching excellence awards is spurious because teachers are providing a professional service.  To my mind it is akin to instituting best patient awards for those individuals who get better more quickly than others!  And just as useful.  Teachers deal with living, sentient beings where there is a reciprocity of effort and the quantification of that relative effort is difficult.

Do we really want payment by results?  With the sophistication of statistics we are now given a series of predictions at Year 7 level which indicate the probably performance at Year 11.  With the use of “Value Added” assessment we can tell if a school is performing according to the outline direction and make adjustments – awards in this context seem at best irrelevant and at worst positively destructive.

Superlative individual teachers are wonderful human beings and their reward, surely, is the reaction of their pupils and in the way that they learn.  I am much, much more concerned about the sturdy professionalism of the majority of the profession who do a good job and also have a life outside education as well.

The presence of teaching “saints” in a school whose hallowed status is recognized by an award automatically turn the rest of the staff into a bunch of second class citizens and create conflict where a collegiate should exist.

And, to the question about what would happen if no member of staff nominated any other member of staff for an award, the headteacher said that he would nominate teachers himself.  A more certain way to sow discord I cannot imagine!

As one person perceptively pointed out in the meeting, she was more concerned about a general pay rise rather than the recognition of a single person or small group of persons.  Too bloody right!

My OU teaching materials have finally arrived and I have started the annotation.  The web sites are up and running and there is some communication between members of the incredibly disparate tutor group that my tutor, Roza, has to cope with.  So far, apart from residents of the North of England, I note that there are people in Malta and Italy as well as my good self in Spain.  I do not think that the tutor’s hope that we will meet soon is likely to be realized!

Today, Halloween is one of those depressing days when the rain and overcast nature of the weather make you think that the sun will never again shine.  However, I have faith in the way that the Spanish climate works and this cold snap must have its end soon – even if it is winter!

I have been told by the school that my presence will be needed next week so I will probably be here for another four days.  Not five.

Today, to add to the jollity of nations, there is a bus, underground and taxi strike.  Next week on Wednesday there will be a General Strike - hence my four-day week.

This school, like the School on the Hill will probably be open in spite of the horrendous conditions that will probably prevail.  In my view the school should be closed purely for Health & Safety concerns but, as David always took great delight in reminding me, “Remember Stephen, this is not Britain!”

Many of the kids have dressed up in various versions of what might pass as costumes for Halloween with some inventive and effective attempts – especially in the area of face painting.

My single student for my lesson second period is now ensconced in the IT room doing first hand material gathering from the web for a case study on cyclones and I with, I have to say an uncharacteristic selflessness have released a colleague from the durance vile of supervising the study area for the sixth form.  Her expression of astonished delight was something to witness when I actually had to encourage her to leave!

The only two other classes that I have to take today are, as far as I can work out, are during the parade of Halloween which should see me sitting pretty and doing very little.  I feel I deserve a little space after giving of myself so generously!

I did not, of course, have that little space.  I was dragooned into being a judge of the Halloween Parade which took over two of my teaching periods and was, I have to admit, very enjoyable.

The key factor in the whole enterprise was the control and restraint of the kids – high as kites at one moment and then brought back to reasonableness the next.  I shudder to think what the whole experience would have been like in an inner city secondary school in Britain!

My three-day week is now over and I am as exhausted as if I had been there since September!  Today has been one of those complex days when various things happen any one of which might have been sufficient to make the day interesting.

Firstly I have agreed to go back on Monday for a full week of supply.  This was certainly not my intention when I went there this week, but the request was made and it would have been churlish to have refused.  I think.

I also made the acquaintance of a part-time teacher was is a published authority on Art History and who has publishing links with David Hockney and who could talk about art and did.  She latched on to the fact that I could string together a few sentences on major artists with the sort of avidity that I would have shown if someone had said that they had been a fan of Nielsen’s orchestral music!  It was a delight to talk about art with someone who had worked in the National Gallery and who had also seen that precious jewel in exhibition terms, “The Post Impressionist Exhibition” in the Royal Academy.

My conversations with other teachers were valuable and refreshing and I feel as if I could have a place in the school – but an extra week will be more than enough.  And, in any case, I am off to the UK a day or so after the General Strike which is now in about a fortnight.

I even managed to get a scrap of learning done by making a few brief annotations in my first course book!

A day well spent.

Now to gird myself up to luxuriate in a four-day weekend!

School! Why?

So, here we are again!  Sitting at the front of a class – albeit an empty one – hearing the sound of chattering children echoing down the corridors.

The timing of the school day is a little more civilized than that which I had to endure in the School on the Hill, here it is nine-to-four with an hour for lunch and a mid-morning break with eight forty minute lessons.

As a total luxury I have the first period in the day as a chance to orientate myself and get any photocopying done that I might need during the day.  Everything looks to have been set out for me to take the Geography classes that are the timetable of the lady whom I am replacing for the next three days.  Everything looks in place and I am waiting for the first thing to go wrong.  “Events, dear boy, events” is the normal way of life of any school so it is not “if” but “when” that makes life exciting!

I have decided, in a half-hearted, backward-looking homage to what used to be, to go for a swim after school.  I have rather let my determination to swim every day become an aspiration rather than a reality so this is one way to get back on track and feel virtuous again!

It is an odd feeling to be back in harness, because there is nothing in this particular school environment which seems out of place.  As the language of the school is English I am looking at walls that have posters entirely in that language.  Yes, there is a section on Barcelona, but next to that is a section on the London Dockland development and next to that Manchester and The Salford Quays!  A home from home in academic terms.  It feels the same as a British school, it looks the same and it even smells the same!

I am confidently expecting my OU teaching material to arrive when I am here in school: it would seem like a poetic realization of my frustration in not getting my hands on them until now.  Especially as I have been informed that the official start of the course is November the first, which is in four days time - and counting!

My first class are now with me and they total five pupils!  I have done what every competent teacher should do with a new class and given them the opportunity to cut and stick paper.  They should be mine for life now!  Oh, and in lesson one things did start to go wrong.  The kids had done the work set for the first periods and when I went to photocopy the next set of work the photocopier decided to start eating paper.  Situation normal!

I think that the real problem with these three days is going to be one of boredom and finding something to do without obviously appearing to read!  Typing, however and whenever you do it always looks business-like and worthy – whatever rubbish you are actually typing.

I now have twenty minutes before the next class and I have to consider that I take this miniscule class another twice during today.

I am not convinced that I am going to be allowed to follow the timetable of the lady whose classes I am taking, as her timetable for these three days is somewhat sparse in places.

The second class is now in front of me and they are a year 11.  The numbers are still encouragingly small but these are a little more feisty than the previous class.  These I have after break as well and they look as though they might be something of a problem.  Well, a problem in terms of this school which is not the same as being a problem in the UK in most of the locations in which I have taught!  They have now settled down and are working with only a few of them attempting to whisper their way to insubordination.

Again, there are twenty minutes until the break when I can get a much-needed cup of tea!

The cup of tea was a problem; I should have gone with my gut attitude and brought my own mug in together with a tea bag.  As luck would have it, however, the tea-machine man was there and he kindly went into the insides of the machine and made it give me a cup of hot water, someone else gave me a tea bag and I stole some milk.  This must be better done tomorrow.

I should imagine that I am going to experience a whole range of teaching in different classes as it is perfectly acceptable to expect a supply teacher to fill-in the timetable with other classes rather than have the luxury of a free period or periods.

I am now with my last class which has been bought with the loss of a free period – and that is the sort of bargain that I expect to be subjected to for the rest of the week.  Tomorrow should be especially interesting as I have a supposed afternoon of nothing.  I did notice one of my colleagues in the staffroom today moaning about a bad stomach and I confidently expect her to be absent tomorrow – so that’s my afternoon seen to!

As I have only twenty minutes left of my first day I suppose that I should attempt some sort of evaluation of the school.

There is a generally positive atmosphere and the pupils are polite, or at least interested in what you have to say.  In the penultimate lesson of the day I reverted to type and managed to whip up a class of Year 7 into a sort of frenzy when I went into overdrive about The Big Bang Theory and attempted explanation of Einstein’s theories.  Not, I might add what we were supposed to be talking about but, what the hell; the teacher isn’t coming back and who is going to check over my approach to geography!

I was visited in one class by two kids that I had taught in the school on the hill and, after their greetings, they demanded that I stay.  A pleasant incident to brighten the day!

As the time gets nearer I am beginning to strengthen in my resolve to go for a swim: it replaces one form of tiredness with another and is an altogether satisfactory end to the day.