Still marking - the joys!

I surprised myself this morning. I managed to leave at 6.25 -AM - yes! and it took only 15 minutes (usually 25 minutes) to get to school. So I was there at 6.40 and beat all of my students and some of the other teachers. It has been a long day though. I stayed on to mark and sat marking solidly from one til 5 when I had to go back to Greystone Park to two more impacted sections of wetland. I still have 45 scripts to do by 1pm tomorrow - caffeine, I need you. I hope I get quicker at this as it is taking forever and my eyes are having to adjust to some very dyslexic scrawls at times. Am giving the mark for misspellings but sometimes I just can't tell what it says - and that's coming from me and my handwriting that I have to sometimes look twice at.

Break times are interesting observations of various behaviours as some of children sadly can't interact easily or do some very different things. At break today there were three temper tantrums and one child reported for putting stones down the loo. I will have to start intervening as it felt like all the other teachers had to go off to see to something at different points. My older group generally are fairly well behaved but there are a couple who can bully a bit. My class desperately wanted to swim as it was hot today but not everyone had finished doing the assessment test for which they can take as long as they need to and I couldn't be in two places at once. Next week they will be using the last half hour to start practising for the sports day on the last day. The classes will be mixed up into different teams and all the races involve team work and cooperation. They will have an Easter theme, with things like Feed the Rabbit and an Easter egg and spoon relay race. It should be quite fun - well that is unless we have more angry outbursts which is a possibility from some.

Went to my school friend's braai last night which was fun. Haven't seen her since high school and she hasn't been back in 10 years but she's really enjoyed being back. Saw other girls from school and it was nice to catch up. They're planning a girls' night out tomorrow starting at Queen of Hearts and going to Corky's and I'm not sure where else. Will see if I am still alive after finishing marking and teaching. Hopefully will go for a bit of it. Apparently some of them have met some of the cricketers here for the World Cup qualifier and they might join us.

Queen of Hearts

But this might be me tomorrow night ...

Went briefly to the exhibition at The Corridor by Sorella's this evening by Calistas Thabani - like some of his pieces - very different and colourful. I am going back to join Sarah Fynn and the others for art on Wednesday mornings next week until I start full time teaching next term. Looking forward to getting my paintbrushes out again.