And now we wait, but possibly any time now

I took my Chinese five year old this morning and he wanted to know what was wrong with my finger, so I explained about voting yesterday. He then asked if I had chosen "something different" and I said yes. He still wanted to know why I hadn't washed the mark off my finger and I had to explain that too. His final remark was he had thought I was "an England person"? Good questions I thought.

Have been running round town doing errands today and everyone is sitting waiting for results to be announced. At Dandaro the gate guards were tuned in to the local radio station and one of them was telling the others possible results so far. In the Deli in Borrowdale Village the tv was switched to a South African news channel. Everyone is now just waiting, still with a degree of optimism, but waiting to see just what happens next.

I queued for four hours yesterday. In the first part we hardly moved in two hours. There seemed to be confusion over whether people were in section A, B or AB for the ward and there were different stations for these. At one point it was being said that people who weren't on the voters' roll were suddenly being allowed to join the queue - I am still not sure what exactly was happening there. A whole lot of bystanders tried to jump the line and this made the people around me get really angry. I began to think it was not going to end well but eventually the queue jumpers thought better of it. After that the line seemed to move a lot faster and I eventually got to cast my vote. One now just has to hope and pray it is a fair election and the people's choice will be respected.

When Monday was "canceld"

The last week of school was a bit of blur. It's amazing that if I had had to keep going for another two weeks, I probably could have, but my body seemed to decide that since we were closing this week I was well and truly exhausted. On Monday at assembly, one of our autistic boys came up to his teacher and announced he had a letter for the teachers. On it he had written "Monday is canceld". We all got the giggles but thought it was a very good idea. We carried on though.

I had my last parent consultations this week and they went fairly well. The one boy had taken to doing the sign of the cross when I called him to come see me over homework. He claimed it made it go better if he did. Am I really that scary?! We did prehistoric life for the last environmental science lesson of the term and I unthinkingly told the class that the dinosaurs possibly went extinct due to a meteor crashing into earth. Oh dear, this student latched onto this and wanted to know if it could happen again and could occur any time from now. I then made things worse by saying well we were more likely to die in a car crash - the other teachers at break said why oh why did I say that, as this particular student does not let up.

Just finished my last NILD essay before the residency week at the end of August. Can have a bit of break now. We had our staff meeting for next term the day after school finished and planned out next term. It's going to be busy and parent consultations will be straight after exams again but I will have a smaller class and won't be doing NILD at the same time.

Elections are on Monday. A friend just found a link for a list of MP candidates - have been battling to find this. Not sure how long it is all going to take but I will be teaching my Chinese student first and then go to Selbourne Routledge School on Monday to vote.

End of term is in sight

Well I got to school today and there was talk that the Ministry of Education had announced on local tv last night that schools were to close tomorrow as they need more time to prepare government schools as polling stations - ridiculous - they can't tell us the day before! Especially for boarding schools and it totally messes up things for exam classes even further.

It has been a bit of an emotional week seeing parents. Had one mother in tears yesterday. Tomorrow we hear if our grade sevens have got into the high schools they have applied for. The mother in tears is at her wits end with what to do if her son doesn't get accepted. I ended up doing NILD with him at break today as my usual guinea pig was absent. He really enjoyed it and told his classmates about it and now they all want their own individual sessions with me and said if my usual student is absent again please can they go in his place. Wish they were this eager for everything else.

We had one little girl in grade one who is quite bossy pretending to be a teacher to the other students at break. She had a whole lot of the grade ones and twos complying and happily lining up for her and putting their fingers on their lips. They don't necessarily do this for assembly when it's real school. If she could get my grade sevens to do this she should have my job. Today one of the boys with autism was charging past the teachers saying he was Superman and he was "rescuing" other children. Never a dull moment.

I have two more weekends of the NILD online component. Next week I have a big essay but luckily I finish school on Wednesday. My Chinese five year old is back in Zimbabwe. Will see him on Saturday. Looking forward to it. Having a braai Saturday evening where I am house sitting. Think I am going to need to make gluhwein as it is still pretty cold. Off to Nyanga in the middle of the holidays and might go camping. A friend from Germany will be staying with me from Sunday for a week.

OK I must finish marking and prep for tomorrow and then hit NILD. Looking at reading difficulties this week and using dictation and phonics, along with moving alphabets.

One day down, four to go!

Well it was a bit chaotic trying to get comments from other teachers for reports to send to print at Boss this morning (our school is still without ZESA - we've had more days without electricity than with it this term). It was my one student's 12th birthday and he brought a huge cake which was shared with the entire school and support staff. I welcomed the sugar - got me through to 4.30. Unfortunately it made my class rather hyper after break and it was hard trying to get them to focus on the last bit of phonics. My first set of parents for consultation were there on the dot of one o'clock even though I had said we would start at 1.30. It went fairly well but they objected to me giving homework that required looking things up on the internet as they said it meant they had to switch their computer on (and this was an issue). Am afraid I just said that in the 21st century I think it is an essential skill to be able to research things online and left it at that. My second set of parents cancelled so I got off lightly today. Tomorrow and Wednesday (especially Wednesday) will be heavier going.

It has been freezing today. Might start a fire in the lounge just now and sit and mark and do NILD work. Friday will hopefully be my watershed and after that I'm on the home run to the end of term. Need to start thinking about my final NILD essay as it is a bit of a biggie. I have to also learn the phonics book we have been given for the intensive residency week during the holidays. At least the parents of my student that is doing the NILD rhythmic writing technique with me at break times were not opposed to him doing this, initially I thought they were.

No gas = no coffee = life is hard

Phew, it is finally Friday. I am not getting too excited though, as next week is going to be my toughest one yet, with parent consultations every day, a full day's teaching and marking AND NILD! Eeeeeek. When you see smoke from Highlands, it's me combusting!

We ran out of gas for the gas ring this morning and there was no coffee until break time - NO!!!!!!!!! It was hard, very hard. The one teacher said she might just have to go home - I thought she meant because there was no coffee - didn't think it was quite that bad, but it was close. She meant to go get another gas cylinder. I did laugh!

Got a demo of a technique for NILD at break from one of the other staff and it cleared what I was struggling with. Was so grateful as I just wasn't grasping how to sequence the steps from what was given and what exactly was being referred to. I was feeling very stupid and defeated. Beginning to think I have all the learning difficulties we are covering. Reading is definitely not my strong point.

Staff tea was a success thanks to a friend giving me two really easy recipes. One for a sort of fridge cake made from cornflakes, ginger, chocolate, dates and I added apricots. Then the other for pastry-less quiches. Nothing was left - a good sign.

After break I got my class to have a quiz. They had had to come up with questions this week to ask each other. I was impressed by some of their questions. There were predictably a lot on dinosaurs - given I have 12 boys and 2 girls, not surprising. One boy asked where 20% of the world's oxygen goes. He actually meant where it comes from, which is the Amazon, but was a good question. Two boys wanted to ask WWII questions. I'm afraid I will have to do some history I think. Apparently Hitler was alive in 1843 and was Dutch according to my class and Austria is in Australia (geography too, Kilimanjaro being the highest mountain in Europe!)

This weekend is going to be marking, reports, preparing for next week and NILD. I am selling tickets at the door at Amanzi tomorrow though for Will McNicol and going to listen to that (my mini break, then back to the grind).

Pick My Poison

Just had a rather scary incident driving home. Was turning onto Borrowdale Road when the car next to me stupidly decided to go across the road in the face of a petrol bowser hurtling towards us. They semi changed their mind halfway but as a result the petrol bowser came to a screeching halt and had to swerve across the road to avoid collision. I nearly got side swiped as a result, narrow miss.

We are back to another two days without electricity where I am house sitting. There is a solar system set up for half the house but currently it doesn't have enough power stored. Hoping it is charged up for when I get home tonight as I have work to do. I also need to bake for tea on Friday tomorrow. If all fails I can use the gas oven, but a little nervous of that, I won't lie.

For my NILD I asked one of my students to be my guinea pig. He is badly dyslexic and ADHD. I was delighted that he is keen to do it and didn't see staying in for 20 minutes at break as being a punishment. I think he actually likes the attention. Going well so far. I need to read up on this week's new technique to try apply it tomorrow with him. So far otherwise have been doing last week's rhythmic writing.

Yesterday in gym my trainer got me to play "pick your poison". She gave me a deck of cards and I had to pick a card - each suit and number symbolising a particular workout and number of reps. I got A LOT of box jumps and 30 burpees!! When I picked the burpees she said well at least I was getting the burpees out the way. The look she got from me said it all and she said, "Yoh, that was a look indeed". Yes I think it was my not-impressed-teacher one unintentionally :P

I have volunteered to be quiz mistress in October at the Mustard Seed. It will be the day before Halloween so think I will use that as inspiration.

OK, off to help my form four and then must get ingredients for Friday's tea and then work on NILD, finish marking and write reports.

Teeny bit manic but being productive

So I think I may be a teeny bit manic but told my therapist and she said as long as I am being productive with it I should maybe capitalise on it but monitor it. Am getting through what I need to. Managed to mark one set of exam papers before the end of school and made a start on the next. I then need to start on this week's NILD. Just taught my Chinese student online. We read The Smartest Giant in Town (I love Julia Donaldson). Have been trying to find kids books that are funny as he is beginning to lose his English being in China and needs humour to stay focused. Came across a delightful book called How To Be a Dog by Jo Williamson. The illustration of how to toilet train your dog had my student and his mum both in stitches. I am very excited that my five year old will be back in Zim from next week and I will see him soon. It still is the highlight of my day when he comes online and says hello Kitty. Also had my form four this afternoon and we managed to get halfway through chapter summaries on Spies. His exam is "only" next week - ahhh! Last minute dot com.

Finding NILD interesting and it is definitely giving me a greater appreciation on the intricacies of learning difficulties and how to approach it. We looked at different ways of being intelligent and processing information and where different parts of the brain come in. I found it really interesting that they consider depression, anxiety, poor motivation and low self esteem as learning challenges and that these should be considered in school children as affecting their mental availability to learn. I would love to go into this more.

Am suddenly in demand for house sitting. It looks like I will go home for a week before moving on to three more successive house sitting stints. Is quite fun but when things go wrong it's a little bit of responsibility. I do enjoy having my own space though.

OK I must mark, write report comments and start this week's chapters for NILD. No essay though this week does make life seem more liveable, I won't lie :P Will try not to drink too much coffee to compound the semi manic high I seem to be on.

So much for not hearing from me :P

I managed to finish everything I needed to this weekend and go to two baby showers and have people round for lunch - I actually seem to achieve more with a bit of pressure (a little, not going to test that theory too far). Was also invited to a kitchen tea yesterday but sadly couldn't divide myself in three - did have fomo though. The baby showers were special. Both girls I've been at school with. The mum of one went all out making baby booties from cardboard that had marshmallows in as a gift for each of us. The second baby shower was at Tin Roof but in a side room (I had pictured us sitting by the main bar I won't lie :P ). The best gift I thought was a push plastic motorbike! Brilliant idea.

I have just about finished my NILD assignment - cut 20 words. Need to cull another 23. Sitting waiting to try again at our weekly Skype discussion group. It didn't work sound wise just now when we tried. Fingers crossed it's going to work just now. Otherwise maybe they should try Zoom.

Eeeek, they actually were back on as I was sitting here waiting to be called. Luckily didn't miss too much and not everyone was on the second attempt. BEST NEWS EVER - I don't have to write essays this next week and the week after - only one more in the fourth week, at which point I will be on holiday - YAY!!!! Am so relieved - life just got easier - although I will have lots of reading. Tonight I am getting cracking with report comments before I get my first load of exam marking tomorrow (28 papers to mark a day - let's see how much work I created with the questions I set 😁

Have to make staff tea this week on Friday. I am looking for recipes that are quick and easy where possible. A friend is going to send me a pastry free quiche recipe and date and chocolate fridge cake. I might do some sausages and samosas again too. I told my class the other day that if they gave me two things I was asking for in their answer they would get brownie points. The one boy says, "Oh, are you going to make us all brownies?" - that's not what I said. I said maybe if they all behave but that is bribery and corruption and I don't believe in that. They have also been calling synonyms cinnamons. I hope I don't get major exam howlers but I am sure I may get one or two. My grade 7's wrote their entrance exams yesterday. Hoping they get in. Tomorrow I have to take assembly. Possibly should talk about exams but have prepared on saying kind things to each other. Think my class especially needs to think about this.

Bracing myself for the next three weeks

At the end of term

So I haven't blogged in a little while. Life has been fairly full on. With elections meaning school closes earlier everything has been brought forward and I have had to get into exam preparation mode for school. Have set all my papers now and have just drafted letters for parent consultation the week after this. I will have to have reports done for this so next week is going to be a little crazy trying to mark and get ready for consultation. I have also just started the American National Institute for Learning Difficulties' educational therapist course online. I need to try finish an essay for that tonight looking at Mather and Goldstein's Building Blocks of Learning and how you look at all sorts of factors in assessing why a child is struggling to learn - you see if it is the process, environment, inherent difficulties and the interaction of these. I have to take part in the online discussion on Sunday evening. I will have essays and online work for the next four weeks for the course and then a residence week at the end of August. A part of me wishes I had not taken this on in my first term of teaching, but it will help me to assist my students better, particularly the dyslexics and slow processors. I also now officially have a boyfriend which is very exciting and the first time I ever have. Catch myself smiling from ear to ear.

Apart from that (well that is my life in a nutshell at the moment), it is flipping cold today. Apparently there is snow in Cape Town and it is sub-zero in Joburg. My two ridgebacks that I am dog sitting are buried under blankets. I feel sorry for the poor street kids and vagrants. Everything is heating up politically now as elections are three weeks away. Heard about the grenade thrown at either Mnangagwa or Chiwenga on the radio almost as it happened. There are posters going up everywhere and all sorts of random independent candidates parading about. Things economically really need to be sorted out as industry and commerce just can't operate with the restrictions in forex and imports. It is really tough for many people to carry on and they are in limbo.

OK I need to apply myself and finish this essay! You may not hear from me for a little while :P I may re-emerge at the end of term (hopefully!!)