Public service announcement

GCSE papers are not easier to mark than A Level papers. GCSE papers are not quicker to mark than A Level papers. GCSE papers are not funnier than A Level papers.

Just in case anyone thought that, I can set them straight. Now.

Yes, it's marking season again. I know, I know, I promised myself I wouldn't do it, but for all the reasons above (well maybe not the funny one) I thought I'd change it up and drop to GCSE. As Julia Roberts would say, big mistake. Huge.

Excuse me, I need to go cry into my box of marking.

Comedy hats

Last month I ordered some hats for my classes to use when explaining things like Alliances and what not. But when they came I knew I had to try them on first of all!

Rarr! This is one of my favourites! Not sure Norman soldiers had glasses though.

This is the German hat, and what pose do Germans do? That's right, they ponder!

Bonjour!

I'm a knight!!

The Royal wave.

Ok, this one's use is a bit more difficult to shoe horn in as I don't think Mexico is on any syllabus this side of the Atlantic. But I just thought it was fun!

I'm looking forward to tomorrow's classes on the Feudal System! I may be the only one though.

I need to mark

It's been a while and there's been a fair amount I have been up to but I am in the middle of marking Christmas tests which is particularly dull, uninspiring and makes me wonder what I have been teaching the last number of weeks because most seem to have forgotten it all.

At a later date I will detail here:

-my new living arrangements

-my day as a tour guide

-my exciting night last night

But for right now it's back to read about how Martin Luther was an English priest who went round different churches in England and put up a big poster to say what was wrong with them.

Close but it's not right.

All quiet on the Princess front

It's been a while hasn't it? The past weeks have been particularly busy for me, getting courses finished, and revision classes set up. And you know, dossing and what not.

But I must be more careful in agreeing to Revision classes in future; they're much easier to do if:

1. You taught it first time round.

2. You learnt the stuff yourself in the, oh say, last five years or so.

But I made it through. May Day was a bit of a wash out though, which is a shame because it looks like that might constitute a large part of the 'NI summer'.

Speaking of which I have rediscovered the glory of Fabs, the ice lolly. Every layer is a treat.

What else? 

I hit the cat today with a bit coal. Right square in the face too. Before you report me to the RSPCA let me just explain. Firstly he was eating grass, cats eating grass never turns out well in my experience. Secondly, shouting at him wouldn't stop him. Thirdly, I'm a crap shot. It was meant to land just beside him. I honestly, truly didn't mean to hit him with it. Fourthly, I swear he moved in to the missile so as to generate more love and hugs from my mum. All the same I did feel terrible. I think he is slowly forgiving me and now doesn't seem quite so keen to run away from Scary Coal Lady, which understandably, in the aftermath he did.

I've been listening to Radio 1 a lot recently, as always. My classes in school were surprised, I think were expecting Radio 4. I put this down to my political and analytical mind. Ha! I love Chris Moyles and Dom more and more every day. Quite often I'll look round in the traffic queue to see if anyone else is laughing as much me. Last week I thought I was going to have to pull over when Chris was going on about kids with pierced ears. Funny stuff.

Coming home I hear altogether too much of Edith Bowmen. Back in the day of Colin and Edith, I used to think Edith was the one I liked. Now I realise I did my fellow country...person(is that a term?) a disservice. He was the good one. I count the links (get me and my radio terminology) she does mentioning films. Shut up already and play a song! Even if there's a guest in not remotely related to the movie industry she asks them about films. Honestly, if she's not angling to get the Film 2000andwhatever spot from Jonathan Ross I'll eat my hat.

So that's the round up from me. Hopefully it won't be so long next time round.

Oh one more thing. Chris B. showed us these fake trailers which completely change the genre of the film the other day. Look what they have done to Mary Poppins.

But they'll have to try harder than that to ruin the magic in it for me!

And to think I used to want to do this

I have just been even more affirmed in my decision to teach in secondary school. Primary schools could do that to anyone I think.

'She said that CBeebies was babyish and I watch it.'

'He knocked into me and I hurt my hand.'

'I can't find my pencil.'

'She hurt my feelings.'

Neither are there any emergency blue trousers with secondary students (thankfully the others were just ripped and not weed on). But why are the emergency trousers always really obvious looking?

On the plus side however:

-they are quite cute

-the marking is gifted

-you don't get Gerrard the Tortoise coming in for show and tell in GCSE History classes. 

Genius.

Mixed

Tomorrow is my 30th June. It's the last day of term and I am totally mixed up and all over the place. On one hand I'm excited about the trip and I'm excited about coming home but on the other I can't believe that tomorrow is the last time I will see my students. I'm very very tired. Lynsey and Caroline have arrived and I have oodles to do before I leave. And everyone knows what happens when I'm tired and emotional...I cry.

So tomorrow is my last day. I think there will be tears. In fact they may have already started.

Making an effort

I'm tired. I have already fallen asleep twice since I got home but have things to do so I am still awake.

Anyway I know it's been a while, and I have a shedload of things to tell you and photos to show you but I'm tired (see above) so I will keep this short.

Quite in contrast to last week, I have had a good week. Today it was all capped off with two of my students getting two, count them, two of the three Year 1 prizes for the end of the year. One of them wasn't that much of a surprise (although I am pleased for him obviously). But the other one? The other one nearly made me cry.

I might have told you this story, not on here, in an email or face to face but if not I'll give you the highlights. A bad wee rip of a boy got transferred from another class to my class back in March. I wasn't impressed. Actually I made a pretty strong case as to why he shouldn't be moved to my class. He threatened to upset the carefully crafted balance.

But just like a cheesey Hollywood movie, he has turned himself around, improved his grades and as a result is the proud winner of most improved effort prize. I don't claim to be the difference (aside from anything else, sometimes he can still be far from the perfect student!) He is the difference. He did it, they are his grades.

But sometimes I love my job.

On the other side of exam stress

Exams are all great until you have to mark the %$&!*@ things.

I reckon I still have about 6 hours ahead of me (still!) and classes and reports and (kill me now) a Geography Field Trip to go on.

I don't want to close my eyes (although Carly says I can)

I'm just watching 'Armageddon' on TV. Of everything I ever achieved throughout my schooling, I consider the feat of watching it on my U6th Biology field trip and not crying one of my finest moments. Yes, it's far fetched and ridiculous. But Bruce pushes Ben back into the elevator thing and tells him 'I always thought of you as a son. I'd be damn proud to have you marry Grace.'

Ok, so perhaps if you imagine yourself to be 18 years old and surrounded by people crying you'd think it was more amazing.

I like the Aerosmith song on it. If you listen to the very end you'll hear a super arrangement of strings on it, which I don't imagine you hear very often on Aeromith songs.

So with that, here's October 07's playlist:

Biffy Clyro - Machines
I really like this. If you ask me the guy singing sounds Northern Irish and I'd bet you all the money in your pockets 'Grey's Anatomy' will use it sometime.

Newton Faulkner - Dream Catch Me
Newton is funny name to have isn't it? But what's funnier is his middle name is Battenberg. Maybe it's a double barrelled thing? [Which reminds me, I was doing the Nazi-Soviet Pact a few weeks ago with my Year 3s and came across officially the worst name ever. Reginald Ranfurly Plunkett-Ernle-Erle-Drax (he was a low level British official sent to negotiate with the USSR. The Russians weren't interested. No wonder). Anyway, we have a winner, sorry Newton.]

Annie Lennox - Why
I just took a notion for this. I love the line is 'these are the contents of my head'.

Climie Fisher - Love Changes (Everything)
Not that dreadful Michael Ball Love Changes Everything song. No, no this is classic 80s pop. I don't remember the song from the time but from my Music class at school. We used to do GCSE past papers as practice but there weren't very many for us to do so we'd repeat them. A lot. In one paper (which we did again and again) they used a snippet of this song and we'd all have a sing song in the middle of the paper. Exam conditions? I think not. We then had to say whether it was classical, baroque, pop or country. Hard stuff eh? Anyway, Chris Moyles played it during the 40 Years of Radio One so in it goes.

Avril Lavigne - How Does It Feel?
I used a video on You Tube for a class recently about a girl called Maria Hertogh who was born to Dutch Catholic parents in 1937. Somehow (views differ) during the war she ended up in the care of a Muslim woman and was raised Muslim. There was a custody battle for her in 1950 and it led to riots here. Really interesting story. Anyway the song got in my head.

Carly Simon - You Can Close Your Eyes
She was on Oprah and sang this song. Beautiful piano. A-maz-ing.

Big news day

I watch Sky News in the morning when I get up. As I may have mentioned before, I'm not a morning person and the encouragement of knowing I just need to stumble to the sofa and lie down again helps me enormously with actually getting out of bed in the first place. At 6.30am in Singapore, it's 11.30pm back at home and they are reviewing the next day's papers. Today there were reports from the Independent about intelligence and race and lots about Sir Menzies Campbell. (Just by the way, I think he got screwed every which way.)

Then when I go into school, I read what's online on the BBC News website. I'll give you the highlights:

Christmas trees in Ballymena - it's going up on November 1st which one would have to say is a more than a little premature. Mind you, I saw my first one in a shop here at the weekend. And people say all meaning has gone out of Christmas! Pah!

Digital switch over - the first town in England has had its analogue signal turned off. Turns out it's only the BBC2 one but still. Back in the 'head we're all still eagerly awaiting the arrival of Channel 5 to the analogue signal.

The great storm - it's twenty years since the hurricane, although this report pardons Michael Fish who was actually referring to another hurricane. He said, she said, I don't care. I think the real issue here is that it has been twenty years! How did that happen?! I remember that? Things that happen twenty years ago are things that I should not remember!

Good school lie - 14% of parents lie to get their children into good schools. The only surprise to me is that it's only 14%. Of course you'd lie. 'Education is potential, bad schools rob children of that potential, ergo I must lie to get my child into a better school.' Nevermind the child's, or for that matter the parent's, responsibility in it all.

Teens take over - another school story. Teenagers ran a school for three weeks for a TV programme. They started out with all sorts of grandiose liberal ideas but then went all traditional and conservative. But they did learn from teaching others.

I had my own news to share with my classes, as I decided that today should be the day I tell my classes that I won't be back next year. I had put it off long enough and if I didn't tell them today then there wouldn't be another chance for a couple of weeks because of exams.

I told my form class first during tutor time. I said 'and the last thing I have is the sad news that I won't be back in school next year, I'm going home'. Then braced myself for the reaction...and nothing. Silence. Absolute silence. I like to think it was the shock. (It should be noted that my other classes were much more vocal in their reaction. My Year 3s went through the whole gamut of emotions. Shock, surprise, disbelief, despair. I tried to focus on the positives - no more Moodle discussions and no more video worksheets.)

But with my form class, after an age of silence this little voice came from the front and said 'but Miss you teach here now.'

Break my heart, why don't you.

The return of the parentals

They arrived yesterday!

Once again I say, while their under my roof they'll live by my rules! No doubt there'll be more from the visit in the coming days (assuming my computer still works, it's dying a death which is nearly painful to watch).

In other news, my class did their assembly this morning and nailed it! And dare I say they actually may have enjoyed it. I was like a proud mother! So much so I made them Fifteens to celebrate with! I may be pushy but they get the world's nice traybake out of it so, you know, it was worth it!

Doubley smug

I felt very satifisied tonight. Not only did I finish setting all my exams today (deadline tomorrow), I went to the gym (first time since April).

What else is new?

My form class officially hate me for making them do something serious in their assembly devotion next week. I can take it though. It's a three line whip, only kidney operations are excusable. Let's see how many dare incur the wrath of Miss B. by not showing up!

The results of the clumsiest person in the world came in and I won!
-Today I walked into a doorframe. This is a fairly common occurance actually.
-Yesterday I walked into a desk in my room. Actually come to mention it, this is fairly common occurance too judging by the bruises on my thighs.
-On Saturday, I turned on the oven and put some tortillas in, burning my hand on the way.
-On Sunday, I lifted half the nail off my second toe moving a chair. Thankfully it's still attached.
-All this is in addition to the finger I nearly sliced off the morning of the cruise whilst cutting a bagel.

But I think what really clinched it for me was this. On Monday, I somehow, and please don't ask me how, managed to stand on my own toe while sitting down. It was perhaps more painful than all the others put together. So painful in fact that I wanted to swear but couldn't even speak.

Actually I should make that tripley smug because I didn't fall off the tread mill tonight. Given the current form it was a distinct possibility.

I feel old

Today I talked about how when I was at school we only had one computer in the library with the internet and how you had to book in it advance.

Then when I told them this was only during my last two years at school, I don't know who was more shocked. Them because I lived through pre-internet days. Or me because they couldn't imagine a world without it.

[I still owe you Ruth and Mark visit photos. I'll get right on it. Although not tomorrow because I'm out. But soon.

And one last 'this time last year'; this time last year I missed my flight home to the motherland and spent the night in New York City.]

Quote, unquote

I promised this a while ago, and I know you are gutted that I haven't come through on it yet, so here it is - my 'new' classroom display!


History acronyms with Year 1s and Germany with IGCSE. It's still up, even though Raffles has now well and truly founded Singapore with Year 1 and we're so far into Russia we're about to cover the NEP (that's the New Economic Policy, although I'm sure you all remembered that).

On the back wall are quotes to inspire and entertain. And in Mrs. Gregory styley I have put up the quotes that made me laugh a couple of weeks ago, although they are not laminated.


Along with the not so subtle 'You always have choice'. I have one boy in particular that needs constant reminding of the fact he has a choice in what he does. Yet he consistently will choose the wrong option so...


there is this handy reminder at the front. So help me, if my form class learn anything this year it will be this. (You might also notice I no longer have rows. When I came back in late June I acquired square desks enabling a horse shoe formation, the way I wanted my classroom from when I started!).

So with the photos up, here are the quotes I have up (perhaps you can read them at your leisure, there's a lot!):

'We need history, not to tell us what happened or to explain the past, but to make the past alive so that it can explain us and make a future possible.'
Alan Bloom, American philosopher

'Whatever is good to know is difficult to learn.'
Greek Proverb

'Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out.'
Robert Collier, English writer

'Happiness is not a goal; it is a by-product.'
Eleanor Roosevelt, American humanitarian and political leader

'You don’t need eyes to see, you need vision.'
Maxi Jazz, lead singer of Faithless in ‘Reverence’

'Luck is a matter of preparation meeting opportunity.'
Oprah Winfrey, American media queen

'The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.'
Eleanor Roosevelt, American humanitarian and political leader

'Am I not destroying my enemies when I make friends of them?'
Abraham Lincoln, 16th President of the United States of America

'Ninety percent of what you’re saying isn’t coming out of your mouth.'
Alex Hitchens, in ‘Hitch’

'The death of one man is a tragedy;the death of a million men is a statistic.'
Josef Stalin, leader of the USSR

'Whatever you are, be a good one.'
Abraham Lincoln, 16th President of the United States of America

'Ah ha ha ha ha!'
Mary Poppins, in ‘Mary Poppins’

'Not failure, but low aim, is crime.'
James Russell Lowell, American poet, writer and diplomat

'I have five lessons to teach. What lessons they learn is entirely up to them.'
Nanny McPhee, in ‘Nanny McPhee’

'Why are you trying so hard to fit in when you are born to stand out?'
Ian Wallace, in ‘What a Girl Wants’

'You know the Greeks didn't write obituaries, they only asked one question after a man died, "Did he have passion?"'
Dean Kansky, in ‘Serendipity’

'You are what you choose to be.'
Dean McCoppin, in ‘The Iron Giant’

'To infinity and beyond!'
Buzz Lightyear, in ‘Toy Story’

'A brilliant man will find a way not to fight a war.'
Admiral Yamamoto, in ‘Pearl Harbor’

'Every man who wages war believes God is on his side. I'll warrant God should often wonder who is on his.'
Oliver Cromwell, in ‘Cromwell’

'Only the dead have seen the end of war.'
Plato, Greek philosopher

'War is young men dying and old men talking.'
Odysseus, in ‘Troy’

'Failure is never quite so frightening as regret.'
Cliff Buxton, in ‘The Dish’

'It’s what you do right now that makes a difference.'
Jeff Struecker, in ‘Black Hawk Down’

'It is not our abilities that show what we truly are, it is our choices.'
Albus Dumbledore, in ‘Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets’

'I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."

'I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

'I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

'I have a dream today.'
Martin Luther King, American Civil Rights leader

'What we do in life echoes in eternity.'
Maximus, in ‘Gladiator’

'An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind.'
Mohandas Gandhi, political leader in the Indian independence movement

'From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic an iron curtain has descended across the Continent.'
Winston Churchill, war time Prime Minister of Great Britain

'An ounce of practice is worth more than tons of preaching.'
Mohandas Gandhi, political leader in the Indian independence movement

'Where does the power come from to see the race to its end? From within.'
Eric Liddell in ‘Chariots of Fire’

'Ich bin ein Berliner.'
John F. Kennedy, 35th President of the United States of America

'My good friends this is the second time in our history that there has come back from Germany to Downing Street peace with honour. I believe it is peace in our time.'
Neville Chamberlain, British Prime Minister, after meeting Hitler in 1938

'In Germany they first came for the Communists and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me - and by that time no one was left to speak up.'
Martin Niemoller, German Lutheran Pastor

'Better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.'
Chinese Proverb

'Once the toothpaste is out of the tube, it is awfully hard to get it back in.'
H.R. Haldeman, political aide to President Nixon

'Those who stand for nothing, fall for anything.'
Alexander Hamilton, US Founding Father

'No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less...any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind...'
John Donne, English poet and preacher

'Why is there a piano on my cake?
King Xerxes, in ‘Esther, the Girl Who Became Queen’

So now we're on holiday! National Day is a really big to-do, with a huge parade (NDP if you please, I'm sure you can work it out!) that they start practising for in February. From the clips I have seen it looks akin to an Olympic Opening Ceremony. So I'll be looking forward to the fireworks at the end as I doubt they'll have a Barry Davies not totally understanding what is going on.

I will be having my own NDP tomorrow, although mine stands for National Day at the Pool! Happy 42nd birthday Singapore!

My, my

It’s nearly been a week since I posted a blog. I’ve been busy, don’t know with what now that I come on here. But here are some highlights:

- Evidently I wasn’t spending my time reading Harry Potter as I only up to P340 or something (rule no. 94 If you are going to talk about ‘where you are up to’ in Harry Potter, a page number is the only reference you can give).

- Met Nicky and Heidi on their way back to the motherland on Thursday. I laughed til it hurt hearing tales of their holiday.

- This was the second time last week I laughed til it hurt. The first was quoting lines from ‘Airplane’. ‘What kind of plane is it? Oh, it's a big pretty white plane with red stripes, curtains in the windows and wheels and it looks like a big Tylenol.’

- Actually, it was the third time. The first time was when I was teaching my GCSE class. I had tried to write ‘disastrous’ on the board (in reference to Russia’s 1904 war with Japan). I said ‘I don’t think I spelt that right’, to which they replied ‘yeah we think you spelt ‘illiterate’ wrong as well.’

- No, excuse me, it was the fourth. The actual second time was with my Year 1s. We’re looking at the History of Singapore and I was doing a recap of what we’d done and this boy kept on chipping in getting clarification on things. And he said ‘so the Dutch had control of the Malay archipelago and Raffles took over that Malay island…what’s it called again?’ To which another boy, with all the 'd’uh' in his voice he could muster said ‘Singapore’... I blame his Geography teacher.

- So for those of you keeping track, it was ‘illiterate’, ‘Singapore’, ‘Airplane’ and stories from Nicky and Heidi in chronological order of laughing til it hurts. Laughing til it hurts is great.

- I saved the world on Friday. Well I tried. I finally put those bags for your toilet cistern in (They were another 'birthday present' along with the fabric softener). I got one in on my own (without the assistance of the engineer they offered) but in one toilet the ballcock is wedged in and the bag won't fit. Sadly, for the world, this is on the toilet that I actually use.

-My Year 3s and I came up with a plan which could also help save the world. Now, it might be more of a Sheryl Crow than an Al Gore, but hear us out. What if A5 paper was the norm, not A4? We'd save loads of paper. Around half we'd say. There might need to be some adjustment in the size of handwriting but I think when you consider what is at stake who wouldn't want to write slightly smaller. It's the world we're talking about people!

- It was the school musical (Joseph) on Friday and Saturday night. I was like a proud parent looking at my students who were in it. I mean, it was no ‘My Fair Lady’ xBHSers, but still quite good.

- I went to the National Museum of Singapore on Saturday to see what they had for the proposed school trip. There’s loads of displays and relevant things but I was devastated to learn that there are no, as in zero, zip, nada, worksheets. What sort of national museum has an education department and no worksheets?!

- I found a cat meowing outside my apartment today. Cats seems to gravitate towards people in my family! I’m not too sure if it was stray or not, but the St. Francis of Assisi that I am, I gave it some tuna and helped him on his merry way. I toyed with the idea of keeping him just so as to see my landlady’s face. She has a kitten herself every time the yappy dog starts up because she thinks it’s mine. ‘Yes that’s right, even though it’s against our tenancy agreement , I have a dog and I kick it out every time you come around to next door so as you won’t suspect anything. Oh and I’m also clever enough to clear up any tell tale signs of a dog before you come in, like bowls, leads and hairs. Ha ha, fooled you.’

Right enough, if I owe you an email, and let’s face it, I probably do, you’ll excuse me if I go to bed now and read some more of Mr. Potter. Night night.

They're supposed to be the third easiest

Coconut Kisses
Fifteens
Top Hats


That's the order of easiness for 'baking'. Only not in Singapore. I thought I would have a party for my class. Cake was out because I don't have a mixer so I thought of Top Hats. Couldn't get much more simple right? Wrong. Here's why.


1. The cases seem slightly too small.

2. You can only get American marshmallows in supermarkets which are not the same at all. They're cylindrical for a start. And they have too much air in them. So I had to go down to Orchard Road to get some M&S ones.

3. Chocolate here has way too much fat in it. I think it's to stop it melting in shops but this does not make it easy to get it in tiny bun cases. It kind of gloops in.

4. The condensation from the Smarties being in the fridge made the colours run.


But I bet no other teacher bakes their class Top Hats to celebrate their birthday! So leave it.


PS Birthday card count is still depressing. Nothing, nothing in the mail box today. Not even a junk mail flyer wishing me a good day! Che!

Things I forgot about Singapore

- Which bus numbers I need (only moments of doubt so far).
- How much water I drink and how little I pee (too much information?)
- How beyond hot it is.
- How I have a shower when I come in from school.
- How much I love ‘30 Rock’ (I can’t think of another TV programme that has the ability to make me laugh out loud so often. Tina Fey = comedy genius).
- How much I hate early mornings (so much so I have gotten up an hour after my first alarm).
- How you need to put more money on your EZ Link card for the bus in order for you to be able to get on buses.
- How long seven hours really is.
- How absolutely terrible school lunches are.
- How ‘Oprah’ moved to primetime, meaning I don’t need to skive school or ‘break’ my hand to see it.
- How much I walk.
- How much I love emails and Bebo.
- The Singapore National Anthem and Pledge which gets sung and said every day (not that I say it, still a subject Your Majesty).
- How the humidity wrecks my hair and negates any straightening I do. (Alright already, I concede defeat I will not needlessly straighten my hair.)
- How much I miss home.

So it’s officially an extra long weekend for me. Tomorrow I’m off to the hospital re. 'broken' hand and Monday is Youth Day, therefore a holiday. Ya ho.

[Might I suggest Youth Day Committee that you have Youth Day, a holiday that only affects schools, further into the term than one week after a four week holiday. Not that I am complaining mind you. Keep up the excellent work. Why stop at one holiday a year? Think big, go for two or three. Or an even four. Better yet, how about a 'Youth Week'? Clearly I need to get me on this committee, shake things up a bit.]

Not supposed to be here

I'm supposed to be in Thailand. I'm not.

Last week was a crazy end of term. Last you heard I had exam papers to mark, then it was Sports Day, then Parents' Meetings, then training days, then Thailand.

Exam Papers
Well I got them marked in time for Parents' Meetings but they were crap so I had to go back over them and give everyone some more marks. Don't worry I maintained the integrity of the mark scheme, I only gave them extra marks if they'd written on lined paper and put their name.

Sports Days
Singapore is not renown for its athetic prowess and neither is our school. But it was fun in a school spirit kind of day. I was timing races, lane 6 was my lane so there was plenty of action. Then there was the blue ribbon event of the day, the Teachers' Race. It took the form of an 8, yes 8 leg relay so I decided I could run 50 metres ok. I was the fourth leg on our team and when I got the baton we were in the lead and when I passed the baton we were still in the lead. What happened afterwards was nothing to do with me. The guy on the 5th fell over because he was running round a bend. Well you know that can be tricky, especially at the high speeds he must have been running. And he does have a Jon Regis kind of build about him and not that Brendan Foster ever thought he might fall over, but the 'tight inside lane' was always a concern. So anyway, he picked himself up and carry on like the pro he is. I think we might still have been able to win, we had the PE teacher on the last leg and she was in her spikes so she was bound to be fast. She was. However the dropped baton on her changeover was not so we lost. But just to reiterate, it was not my fault.

Parents Day
I saw around 60 parents in one day. This was over my preferred ratio of none, but it was ok. My trick of having marks on my laptop was clever. Only one interview was less than good but I kept smiling and even said 'thank you' at the end. There was one really nice one that I had to do with a boy who was terrible at the beginning, in terms of behaviour, effort, work, everything. But by the end he was one of the best in the class, he totally turned it around. I got to tell his mum that and best of all she brought him so I got to see his face as I said it.

Training Day
I picked the ADHD training, the woman taking it was brilliant. Then in the afternoon I did Video Editing. Maybe I should do video blogs now? I really wanted to do it to see what was involved so when I set projects I know if students do them on video I know what's involved (which would be not a lot!) but it was kind of fun actually, but very fidily.

Thailand
So with all that last week I hardly had time to get ready for Thailand so I spent Saturday getting stuff, marking those papers again then we heard that night that Thailand maybe isn't the best place to go right now, so safety first, we're not. Sunday was spent, not packing, but calling students, writing emails and I worked on an alternate plan for the 10 days I have before I go home. I will let you know in due course no doubt but if it all comes together, it'll be good!

3rd Home Rule Bill anyone?

Today was a sad day day here. I mourned the loss of Ancient Civilisations.

Ha! Yeah right. It was with a happy heart that I palmed off my last class with a video, 'Alexander'. Dull, dull, dull. Even Hollywood struggles to make it interesting.

Anyway it's now time to switch to a subject I obviously know even less about (if that were possible); the History of Singapore.

Oh except I have 3 classes worth of exam papers first.

My cup? It runneth over.

You're darn tootin'

I really like my GCSE class of course this could just be misplaced gratitude that it's not ancient civilisations. But I like the fact they are a small class and I like the stuff that we do. Like today we were talking about Hitler and how, on so many levels, he wasn't normal. It was a good class with lots of lively discussion.

As the class were leaving, they were talking about where they were headed to next. Without getting into specifics one of them talked about how the next teacher didn't really have control of the class and that they'd hide under desks during the lesson.

Astonished, I said 'Can you imagine if you did that here?!'

The reply? And I quote:

'They wouldn't even try, they'd be too scared!'