Apparently smoking as a teenager leads to a life of crime!

This morning was darker and colder and it was harder to get out of bed on time. My furry alarm clock Missy didn't fail me though and nudged me out from under the duvet. I did, however, dash out and forgot to pick up an additional pile of marking - my mental maths books. Realised soon after getting to school but it just wasn't going to work going all the way home again. We did spelling instead and will do double mental tomorrow. I am pleased to report my hastily revised seating plan after the initial failure is seeming to have worked for now. I do tell three of my grade sevens though that they may find themselves seated next to me.

So we tackled argumentative writing and I gave the topic of why teenagers shouldn't smoke (well I didn't actually give them the counter argument option - I'm mean). My one boy made me laugh. He is the same student that last week passionately said parents shouldn't buy school uniforms in a debate because they need to retire and live in cluster houses. Today he said that teenagers who smoke are going to end up living a life of crime. They don't have money of their own, so of course they are going to steal and this is the beginning of it all going downhill. I wish he would get as enthusiastic as he does in his debates for other things. At break another teacher said one of her students is going to Kariba tomorrow to scatter his grandmother's ashes. She told the class he was going away for something important and special. When his classmates then asked him why he was going he promptly replied it was to go fishing!

Had personal training and did a very mild cardio session with skipping, shuttles and different types of press ups. My trainer said she'll see me on Sunday at Wild Geese - hahaha I might be hiding behind my easels. Met up briefly after training with my friend Lucy that I will be sharing a stand with. We've decided to head over for 8 o'clock Sunday morning to set up. I had forgotten I have to submit one piece for the art competition - hmmmm, will have to think about that. Had a bit of special bonding time with my godson Philippe whilst visiting Lucy. He's chatting away now and we had fun in the garden with a pine cone.

OK to work. I have a pile of marking in front of me and need to prepare a lesson on African countries for social studies tomorrow as decided on that since last week was Africa Day. Tomorrow we are having "funky shoe day" at school. I had thought about possibly dashing home and getting a pair of ballet shoes but I am leaning towards wearing my slipper socks again - any excuse to wear my slippers :P

It's been one of those days ... but am in a happy place

Am in a very happy place right now. Things are going well and I have a lot to be thankful for. I think having a structured job every day is really doing me good. Today my class were a little trying collectively though. I reshuffled the seating arrangement to move in particular the two boys guilty of the vulgar note passing. I had thought it would work but I very quickly discovered my switch made things even worse. The head said at break time she must have heard me say the one boy's name at least 15 times in one lesson, telling him to stop talking and focus - arrrrrrgh. I have decided if he is still at it tomorrow I will move his desk right next to mine on the side and he can learn from there. For more than one student it would be ideal to just have them in the classroom on their own to deal with their learning difficulties one on one. Trying to cater for each of the 15 AND get them to concentrate is definitely challenging. One parent has my phone number and is now whatsapping me regularly. The grade one teacher has a whatsapp group for her parents. While this would help with passing on messages, I don't know that I want every parent messaging me individually daily about their child as I just don't have time to answer each of them and do everything else.

The one student whose name I said repeatedly for the first part of the morning seems to like riddles. When I was doing gate duty at lunchtime he was asking some. I asked him two we had in quiz last night. I said he can ask the class a riddle each day. He seemed quite pleased with this idea. I like him individually, just need to talk him into cooperating more in class. I got to break time and my restorative cup of tea was much appreciated. One of the other teachers said the election date had just been announced for the 30th July. Guess we know now. I personally don't see another party winning and ZANU PF staying in power, but we will see. Need to think about how I will vote strategically.

Met up briefly with friends at Vanilla Moon this afternoon and then went and booked an optician appointment (I had trouble seeing if it was a dog or a cow in the road ahead in Nyanga - think I may need new lenses). Popped home quickly to get my artwork holder. I think I may just have enough stuff for Wild Geese from what I have done with Sarah Fynn and at La Rochelle last year. Might not need to print photos as a backup. Will see.

Glory, glory, hallelujah!

So ... after more than six weeks ... I got to school today to be told I could use the big photocopier and printer as ZESA finally installed the new transformer for Piers Road at the weekend and we have electricity - queue happy interpretive dance. But ... I then had to fight with the big printer's paper tray as it kept saying it didn't have paper, when it jolly well did. This is minor though. The point is I can now print and do so when I wish, not just when a generator is on and I am not limited. Which means my really slow students can get printouts instead of taking FOREVER to write things down. YAY!

My voice lasted until just after break time. I think my students seem to think that my having no voice means they should make more noise. I particularly had to speak to my grade sevens and tell them to please apply themselves as they jolly well had work to do. My one delightful grade seven who is one of the boys guilty of the note passing decided he would tipex out a whole lot of comments I had written in his book. I don't know if he thought that in this way he could just ignore them. Am afraid I gave him a lecture that this was just not on. I don't sit and write comments in his book for fun - it takes me a lot of time to mark all of these books. Other than that assembly went fairly well, although I got some of the grade ones putting up their hands and asking me questions that had nothing to do with plastic. I guess grade ones can do this at the best of times. My grade 7s did try to get me to digress mid-lesson with questions on the Avengers. When I said I hadn't watched the latest two and had only seen Justice League there was a small uproar.

I came dashing back to teach my Chinese student online but his mum came on looking flustered and said he has a high fever and is unwell. Shame, I don't know if it is still his reaction to the pollution in X'ian. I promised to send him a photo of the fish my friends caught in Nyanga this weekend as my five year old was keen to see a photo as he went fishing at Troutbeck before he left Zimbabwe. I was asked to go help my form four this afternoon with his literature. We had to analyse a piece of prose, looking at the creation of tension and suspense. My student's parents have just closed their restaurant in Highlands which is a pity as it was one of my favourites. While I was teaching a whole lot of the restaurant's garden furniture was being brought into their yard at home. I have sat on those benches and had many a deep conversation with friends over a cup of coffee. I hope they can reopen somewhere else. My student told my mum he made the mozzarella and grew herbs for the restaurant.

Yesterday after getting back from Nyanga, I went home via Selborne Routledge to check my details were correct on the voters' roll which is up for inspection until tomorrow (you can still also register to vote by tomorrow). The back of the hall at the school was being used and seemed to be the ECD classroom with paper cut outs stuck up and toys stacked in the corner. I think the ladies doing the inspection were teachers. Took less than five minutes and all was in order. I had tried using the number on Econet that Rusty Markham, one of the city counsellors had given that you could text to check your registration by mobile. I tried on there but wanted to go in and double check.

Balm to the soul

Nyanga was just what the doctor ordered. Think it was one of the best breaks I have had in a while, with time to wander in far stretching landscapes, read a good book and chill with good friends. Took my water colours but I am a bit rusty, I won't lie. Painting plein air is a lot harder than doing it from a photograph as the light keeps changing and you have to keep looking at your view point - I guess that's what makes you do a good more 3D picture, but it's hard!! I don't think my sketches in water colour will make it to Wild Geese next week but maybe I'll print a couple of photos, we'll see. I was sketching some fungal rusty protea leaves at the Nyamuziwa Falls when a car load of Chinese people came past. The one Chinese man came and looked at what I was doing and then took a photo of me and then went and took a photo of the leaf I was drawing - I thought this was rather random but funny. We were mainly based in and around Mare Dam in Nyanga National Park but did venture to the Nyamoro Dairy for scones and tea while the boys carried on fishing.

So Monday looms. Looks like the two boys I caught drawing dodgy notes when they were supposed to be getting on with their grade 7 paper are going to have their parents notified as the head feels the parents need to know this is what their kids are doing when we are trying to get them ready. Sigh. My voice is a teeny bit stronger but hoping a day back at teaching and giving assembly in the morning aren't going to zap it again. Have been drinking honey and lemon religiously all weekend.

Will break the mould a bit tomorrow doing an environmental assembly instead of a more moral/bible based one (environmental is moral consciousness though!!) Will see how it goes and what sort of feedback I get from the kids.

Apparently soup has a gender!

Just finished getting everything ready for teaching on Monday and done all my marking so I can head off to Nyanga first thing in the morning - need to quickly go pack. Today has been interesting. In language one boy decided that according to him soup has a gender. His reason being that if it is, say chicken soup, the chicken would have had a gender ... therefore soup is not neutral! Ah. The other highlight or rather low light of my morning was when I spotted two of my grade sevens who were supposed to be getting on doing a mock high school entrance exam paper, passing a note back and forth. When the one saw I had seen he started trying to rub out what was on it, but I was able to see quite explicit drawings of male anatomy and rude comments about a girl in the class. And the other teachers think these kids are too immature for sex ed?! I guess though I have a range in the class from those who watch Game of Thrones to those who are happily watching Peter Rabbit.

Went home to get together my water colours and sketch pads to take with to Nyanga and saw my dogs. I do feel bad that I don't see them very often whilst house sitting. We had a good romp in the garden and I gave Elsie lots of tummy tickle time. Jasper pretends he's not interested but gives me a look if I spend too much time on just Elsie. Had thought about getting my water-based oil paints but even without turpentine it is still messy. I also went to look at getting a canvas in Borrowdale and the size I usually go for now costs $29! Eeeek. Am not sure if it would be cheaper still at BAMM but I didn't really have time to go look.

Popped by to see the person I will be house sitting for next, this evening and chatted to her son, who is a good friend, who is currently in Sri Lanka. The friend in Nottingham who just got married has also just been to Sri Lanka on honeymoon. Have never really thought about it as a country much before now, but it seems to be the place to go apparently. Did see the video below on the smallest feline in the world that lives there. My friend working there said he helped set up camera traps this week and they spotted some of the rusty spotted cats, as well as leopards.

OK, need to quickly pack and go to bed. Feeling a lot better but my voice is still funny. Teaching all day doesn't help - you don't realise how much you use your voice to teach until you lose it. I have the line the sea witch sings in the Little Mermaid stuck in my head - "It doesn't cost much, just your voice!"

Still lots of lemons

Am still drinking lots of lemon and honey. My Chinese five year old wanted to know what had happened to my voice today when I taught him. He said I sounded like an old person. My class reminded me a couple of times to cough like a vampire - they've caught on after I told them about it on Monday. I have nearly finished prepping for next week, as I am away this weekend. Just will have to get through tomorrow's marking. Have also put together my talk for assembly on Monday on plastic and recycling. The deadline for the Italian Embassy's Ambiente competition using plastic in collage to raise awareness has been extended and the art teacher at my school is keen to do something.

We had a mini debate in class at the end of the morning. They had to argue for or against having a school uniform. One little boy got up and switched sides, deciding to be against even though he was supposed to be for. His argument was too funny - basically he said his parents need to retire soon and school uniforms are too expensive. It would mean his parents can't go live in a cluster housing estate. I wasn't expecting that one!! They seemed to enjoy the debate but one boy got upset when he felt people weren't listening to him and it ended in tears. One of the little girls from the other class who comes to me for maths also landed up in tears when the rest of her class had gone back and she was still copying something down. Her brother at home time had a temper tantrum when he wasn't first in line.

OK I must go to bed.

Lemon, lots of lemon ... and Tinder!

So my students seem to think that they need to instruct me on certain things. Several boys say for homework I need to play a round of Fortnite?! and I will be enlightened. Then, in English this morning we were covering gender and I wanted the female of bachelor - I was told bachelorette - noooo! When they finally got spinster I was honoured with sentences saying Miss Lannas is a spinster (gee thanks!) My one boy then pipes up, "Miss Lannas have you tried Tinder?" I had a good chuckle, but goodness, he's only 12!

Unfortunately by the end of the morning my voice had decided to start going AWOL - not fun when you are trying to hold a P.E. lesson on the tennis court. I did make my students do planks for 30 seconds - they went very quiet after that, well for a short bit. I really could have done with a whistle.

Was supposed to have done personal training but I did forewarn my trainer that I am getting sick. She listened to my croaky voice and decided we would have cups of lemon and honey tea and a catch up instead - I had been craving honey and lemon all morning. On my way home I stopped by the Dandaro Pharmacy as I get me meds there and they know me and they suggested Benylin. Really hope I can hit this on the head and be better by Friday. The students who have been off sick for a day have come back better, so here's hoping. My headmistress suggested I should use hand sanitiser to ward off germs. I am not really a fan of hand sanitiser but am very aware of all the things I am holding everyday especially with students who are sick.

In the board meeting last night the issue of the current reform in data protection came up. It's not a big thing here in Zimbabwe but for people in the UK, you have until Friday to address it. I guess I need to think about it when I send out my group emails (not that I do that much now). Is quite a thing if you have had people do surveys or fill out forms for you.

Hooray for four day weeks!

It's Africa Day on Friday, one school day down today, three to go. My class numbers are dropping like flies though, as a whole lot were off sick today and of those left, three wanted to go home before break time today. A friend told me about the vampire sneeze/cough and I introduced it. I do feel myself edging away from students with colds when they are reading to me in the morning. Need to eat lots of naartjies and keep my vitamins up. My one student this morning said to me, "Miss Lannas, I think you can't be that old as you do know what dubbing is right?" I hope that what he is referring to is what I thought it was, as have just looked it up and there are two options. I was trying to explain about building up suspense in a story for their creative writing and asked them to think about tv series they watch that do this. One of my boys said Game of Thrones and found myself saying weren't they a bit young to be watching that. One of my more innocent younger students said Peter Rabbit.

Missy, the tortoiseshell cat I am looking after is definitely my saving grace at the moment in getting me out of bed. Right on queue at 5.45 she starts tapping me and if I don't surface she becomes more and more persistent. She came in just now meowing while I was teaching my Chinese 5 year old online and I told him about her and showed him Simon's Cat. He thought this hilarious. I was trying to explain to him what a library is and he called it a "book hotel". His mum thought he was trying to say that you book to stay at a hotel but he was adamant that a library is a hotel for books where they go stay on the shelf. Showed him a video of a new library in China in Tianjin.

I have been given permission to do an assembly with an environmental theme, so am going to put something together on plastic and recycling. There's a competition being run by the Italian Embassy here to use plastic in collage to raise awareness but unfortunately I've just seen the competition closes today - bummer! May see if our students can still do something with the theme. Possibly see if as a school we can do more recycling too.

Did you know? WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY ON 5 JUNE 2018 will have as its theme Beat Plastic Pollution and to coincide with this the Italian Embassy has decided to use its annual "AMBIENTE" - Art and the Environment - project to raise awareness of this vitally important issue, especially amongst children. This awareness and educational campaign will highlight the effects of micro and , the food chain and human health. initiatives begun in 2014 by His Excellency Enrico De Agostini, Ambassador of Italy to Zimbabwe, to raise awareness about the protection of the environment through art. Previous themes have included the protection of Zimbabwe's wetlands ("Matoro Anoyera" - 2014), the importance of recycling ("Waste no Waste, Trash is Treasure" - 2015), the protection of birds' habitats ("Your Nest is My Nest" - 2016) and sustainable water management ("Wet-Land-Dry" - 2017). 

•  Enough plastic is thrown away each year to circle the Earth four times?! 
• There is more micro plastic in the ocean than there are stars in the milky way?! 
• More than one million plastic bags are used every minute of every day?! 
• All the plastic that has ever been made in the world still exists in one way or another?! 
•  Over the last ten years we have produced more plastic than during the whole of the previous century?!

Italian Ambassador Enrico De Agostini who is spearheading the Death By Plastic campaign

Yesterday morning I went to see one of my best friends and spent a lovely morning with she, her husband and little girl. It was really sweet that her little girl wanted me to read to her and I got lots of hugs. Definitely a good way to end the weekend.

Teaching my French student at 5 and then I have an online board meeting at 7.30 for my friend Xenoula's dance project XenArts that does therapy through dance in the UK and then in developing countries. In Zimbabwe Xenoula has worked with Oasis and women who have been abused. She also has worked with school children. In the UK she has done workshops using movement and art and also twinned up old people with children which had great outcomes.

Right, I better do some marking and lesson prep before I head out again.

Royal Wedding and Weekending

My week ended well yesterday. In the last period I got my class to play Kim's game and the Minister's Cat as memory games. Going to try do this every week or other fun maths games. We also had staff tea again and the deputy head had gone all out, ordering things from The Plot coffee shop. Golly, there was a cheesecake with feathering on it, beautifully decorated muffins, millionaire shortbread and mini spinach and then bacon quiches. It was quite funny though as in the middle of tea a muslim man, who is the uncle of one of the students and is exterminating the rats we have, arrived. He said maybe it was because of the teachers' tea there is a rat problem and did we do this every day? No, we would all be huge if we did and it wasn't possible to eat everything. He had a slice of cheesecake too. I really am going to have to think about what I'm going to bake when it is my turn to do tea - the bar is being set very high and Friday tea is a big deal.

I taught my Chinese French student. We digressed slightly when I was getting him to do a description as we somehow got onto the topic of Hitler's moustache. I told him Charlie Chaplin had had a similar one. My student wanted to draw the moustache but decided to add his own adjustment to it with twirls like Salvador Dali's! I thought this was very funny. I tried to explain to him why Hitler was a bad person. He had never heard of the Jews so I did my best in French to explain who they are. I learnt a new word - les tsiganes (gypsies) from the passage below. My student wanted to know if Hitler would have also not liked the Chinese and I said probably not.

Went to the Romanian film at the EU Film Festival in the park. They had done a great job making it festive and I had litchi craft cider which was yummy. I'm glad I had my friend Ioana from Romania next to me to explain the context of the film as it would otherwise not have made as much sense to me. She told me that at the end of the communist era many people had to go to court to try get their homes back, as many of the wealthier families had their houses taken by the state during communism. Interesting.

This morning I took Ginger the cat to the vet as he has a pulmonary infection. Managed to get him into the cat box with the help of Evermore the housekeeper, but he still scratched me. Shame, he had an antibiotic shot and I have to now try keep him in at night as it's getting colder (and wet). A friend invited me to join their family to watch the Royal Wedding which was fun, particularly as his brother is anti royalty and made funny remarks throughout. Found the American Reverend Michael Curry quite amusing as it was in such contrast to the pomp and solemnity of the monarchy. I did notice the Queen shifting her shoulders at one point, possibly unsure of all of this and the Duchess of Cambridge trying not to smile. My mum went to a memorial this afternoon, so she missed watching the wedding and is now watching a replay on E! News, of all channels (it's the only one showing the ceremony) as I do my marking. The commentary is just too much!

All the best reactions to Reverend Curry's royal sermon

But to work I must return after an enjoyable pause today. My headmistress did tell me to relax a bit this weekend. She will be pleased to know that I did.

Cupcakes, giggles and a fuel shortage?

One of my naughtier grade 7's had his birthday today. As is the school tradition, he brought in a box of cupcakes for the class. I made sure all the students got, although one of my autistic boys isn't allowed sugar. There were some left over, so I told him to take them to the other teachers and assistants. There weren't any left after this for him or me. I thought this was probably good for me but felt he should have had one. One of my other boys then came and said he didn't want his, so I offered it to the birthday boy but he declined so I had one in the end. After break they were supposed to be getting on with their English comprehension on the Daintree Rainforest in Australia. I suddenly heard someone making silly mouse noises. At first I thought it was one of the other grade 7s but it turned out to be the birthday boy. I simply said I thought he had turned 12 today. Well, the class erupted at this and one of the boys said, "Miss Lannas, wow, you really dissed the birthday boy!" I didn't know kids still say you diss someone, we said that when I was at school. Their reaction  was just too funny and I'm afraid I got the giggles and then they all did. Luckily the boy in question also found it funny and laughed too. If he hadn't found it funny it could have been awkward as I really did get the giggles.

I got the class to do some of the yoga stretches I do in personal training. Some managed, some complained but did it anyway. For their P.E. relays I got them to basket ball dribble the ball to the other side of the tennis court and then do a volleyball serve back to their team. This went down quite well. In my own personal training I did a fair bit of cardio today and then weights (the weights seem fairly light now compared to my box of books for school each day - that seems to just get heavier and heavier, especially going up and down the stairs where I am house sitting).

It looks like there might be a fuel shortage again. I saw two conflicting headlines on the way home. Passed the garage on Churchill/Second Street and they seemed to have petrol - will have to watch it and keep topped up. Don't really want to have to sit in petrol queues and it's not great if there is a fuel shortage as I do have to drive across town to school each day.

There's an EU film festival on in Theatre in the Park. I thought the Romanian film, Octav, that I want to watch was tonight but very relieved it's tomorrow rather. I need to finish doing quite a bit of marking tonight and still prep for tomorrow. Also have to submit my term plan tomorrow. Thinking I might do my assembly in two weeks' time on saying kind things to each other. Have noticed my boys can say some really hurtful things to each other at times (I thought girls were worse, but have been surprised.)

Just been asked to tour guide for another two French travel agents doing a rekkie visit for potential future clients in June. I have to meet and greet them at the airport and then escort them to Armadale Lodge where I am to sit and chat to them in French about things to do in Harare. Going to need to buff up my French more for this (last time was a bit of a shock to the system, I won't lie as you suddenly have words you didn't think about that you have to use 😁 and try think what that is in French). It's good news though that another travel agency in France is interested in setting up a program in Zimbabwe, besides the one we already work with.

To Jupiter and beyond and flossing

Today I managed to do my English lesson with my Chinese five year old online. Finished up at school and got home in time to zoom. Twice we lost connection though and when my student reconnected he first said he'd been to Jupiter and then Mars. I told him Mars was a bit closer and showed him a picture of the solar system. He remembered Saturn with its rings - he is is a bright button. He then brought up black holes and shooting stars. Wednesdays could work out well to fit in an extra lesson. Did have to tell his mum I don't think I'll be able to do his lessons over the Africa Day weekend as I will be in Nyanga and I don't think I will have good reception there (I also wouldn't mind a mini break, can do his Wednesday lesson).

Starting to get into a pattern for teaching, marking and work preparation. I think the routine and structure is doing me good and it definitely gives me a purpose. I do occasionally feel a little swamped when a whole lot of little people are flocking round me at the same time all wanting my help simultaneously. I do have to try get them to sit down and then tackle one at a time. A few are still very dependent and ask you things for almost everything and I find I have to keep repeating myself - A LOT! This does make me feel tired, I won't lie. Two of my grade sevens who sadly are the weakest are getting very anxious about their upcoming entrance exams. They have taken it upon themselves to stay in at break and work. Have told them they need a bit of a break (as I know they won't concentrate after break if they don't have a bit of a break) and we will start doing past papers from next week - they've been doing revision this week and last. I overheard the one today saying he just can't fail his entrance exam as his parents will be so ashamed - I really hope his parents can see he is doing his best. The sad thing is the schools he is applying for may not be able to cater for his needs, even though they are the only schools that take students with major challenges in Harare. I don't know that these two will cope with O Level.

Another student has come back but his parents still haven't finished paying off fees from last term and unless they do and pay this term's he won't be able to continue. I feel desperately sorry for him as he is a very sweet kid and is one of my harder workers.

Managed to teach pollination today without the words "sexual reproduction". I had thought one of my older boys might make wise cracks on some of it but he either didn't make the connection or just luckily kept quiet. For the lesson I stuck up information around the classroom and the students had to look for it and make notes. Seemed to work quite well and kept them busy.

Yesterday in P.E. one boy did a dance move that is currently all the rage apparently called flossing. Luckily I had seen a video on it and knew exactly what he was doing. He seemed fairly impressed by this and I got him to teach the others - it's quite good for coordination.

Had a fun quiz at the Mustard Seed last night. Halfway through it bucketed with rain (unusual for this time of year) and the poor quiz master had to really shout to be heard. It was quite funny though as he has a fairly thick Scottish accent and a lot of the questions were linked to Scotland.