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.