Monday 1st March
I cannot believe the stupidity of the British public. What are they THINKING?! Is it not enough that we had to put up with Peter Andre's silicone abs twitching at us eight years ago? Who on earth thought it would be a good idea to buy his single and put him at the top of the charts? If I have to hear "Woah oh oh woah oh oh ohhhhh" once more I'm just going to have to punch my stereo in. And then I'll be really annoyed. It's just so wrong. Sick and wrong. I've lost count of the number of teenaged girls with his picture glued into their planners. Last week, when one of the boys scribbled on the picture, I could only punish him half-heartedly, because secretly I was pleased that not everybody has gone totally insane. Or, indeed, insania.
Play up Pompey! Beating Liverpool 1-0 the other week was class, although it probably would have been better for us to beat them in the premiership game and lose out on the FA cup. But at least we beat them. And drew this weekend...maybe we'll escape relegation this year after all.
School's been back a week, but the edge has been taken off by a lackey, in the form of Claire, a student from the same course I did last year. She seems scarily capable and is taking over two of my classes so I'll have 6 extra frees a fortnight, and, best of all, I never have to teach another horrible-Friday-week-one again, because she takes one of my year eight groups on that day, and after she's gone year 11 will also have gone so I'll have an extra free then too. Claire looks and speaks a lot like Kez but is taller and has tamer hair and doesn't talk as much as Kez (love 'er). It's quite a novelty to see someone less experienced than me teach.
The first day back I had to make my presentation to members of staff on engaging pupils through ICT. After having a string of nightmares about it I put in hours of preparation and then went into school and mooched around in the staffroom so I had to bunk off the morning briefing to get myself set up, and even then I had no speakers and had to belt all the way to learning support to klept a pair and then hoof it all the way back again. Hence, my first session was conducted in a breathless and sweaty way and I was a bit wobbly all the way through, but everyone was lovely anyway, especially Nigel, ye olde Head. He wasn't down on my rota but I knew he'd turn up, since it was his idea I do it in the first place. He listened with interest, and at the end tried to discuss with me what Geraldine, the website lady, had asked him to do. "Geraldine has asked me to purchase some extra....now let me see if I can get this right," looking at Ian over my shoulder, "GIGABYTES. Is that right? Is it gigabytes?" Ian shrugged technophobically. "Yes, that's right," I replied. "Good! I'm getting the hang of this lingo now aren't I! Anyway, she said she wanted some more gigabytes, and I said, Oooh that sounds expensive, but then she said it was only going to be £95! Will that help?" he twinkled, obviously pleased with himself. I was obviously pleased with him too. I can put the winning video clip on the site now. More sure of himself, he wandered off to another group, saying, "You'll be able to do all this stuff now because we're going to get some extra gigabytes..."
Aw, bless.
So, the first session went well, and the second one was even better, even though the scary deputy head was there and the French French teacher turned up saying, "I 'ope thees ees going to be more 'elpful than ze last session." (Except not quite that French). She was impressed, as was everyone else, naturally. Everyone was heaping praise on me all day, and Ian said my teaching career was over and I should go out and be a consultant, and then offered to help me whip my presentation into shape as an article for Teaching History. I've already agreed to do that with Ben though, so it'll never get done. I was very flattered, although I feel like maybe they were just going over the top because I'm new and they were trying to give me a boost. But who cares? It'll look great when I go for threshold.