Africa Day and 1800 more minutes

 Today is Africa Day. Always makes me think deeply about this wonderful continent of ours and all the places I still want to visit on it. I'm very keen to maybe try go to Namibia with a German friend at the end of the year and then maybe Gonarezhou in Zim if I can with her too. Both on my bucket list. Still not sure when to use my England ticket. I'm not paying a fortune for quarantine and PCRs. 

The rest of this week is going to be a hectically busy one. Tomorrow, I go with the geo and drama departments to the Swedish Embassy for a workshop on climate change. I'm not sure if I'll be taking maths support before that, if I do, I will have to leave slightly early. Thursday straight after maths I hop on the bus with the A level art girls to go to Gallery Delta and then come back to school to do invigilating training. Friday I have professional development at Gateway in the afternoon. Three days, I can do it, just. Thank goodness no more really early mornings this term to do temperature checks at the gate. The guy who does it with me said last week he was manning the station on his own and because he was multi-tasking he accidentally squirted hand sanitiser at a girl instead of taking her temperature with the temperature gun. It went in her eyes, oops.

So looking forward the the three week break in June. Although I don't like having had a 6 month long term, the idea that I won't have to rush out of bed right in the middle of winter is a small consolation prize. Hope to go do some art with Sarah Fynn and maybe go to Nyanga. I might try my hand at doing a Bolivian multi-grain miellie. The other art teacher is having a go herself at the projects we've set our form ones and twos. Have to try using just primary colours and blending, like we've asked our students to.

My form ones are very sweet. Last Friday at the end of the lesson, one very petite girl came up to my desk. She had her mask on and I couldn't hear what she was saying, but eventually I heard her saying, have a nice weekend. They are all still obsessed with the concept of diamonds from peanut butter. I found a cool geology video though that had them bopping in their chairs which explained the rock cycle well, so hopefully they've understood it now.

Nearly the end of a half a year term

 I won't lie, the last couple of weeks have been a struggle. Especially with the very early morning temperature gate check duty which means I have to leave home at 6.15 to get to school on time. Lots of coffee has been needed and a great deal of exhaustion at the end of the week with lots of naps at weekends. The end of term is on the horizon though. We close on the 4th of June, but we have school exams before then and I have training tomorrow afternoon on how to write reports in the correct way and will also have training on how to invigilate exams. This Friday we have another professional photographer coming to give a talk in the art department and next week the geography and drama departments are going to the Swedish Embassy to do a workshop on the environment and the Sustainable Development Goals.

I might get a new NILD student from school. Am still trying to decide whether I will do Level 2 this year. At this precise moment I feel I could cope but school can suddenly spring extra work on you and leave you feeling very stressed. I am also not sure if I am using my air ticket to go to the UK in September or not. It all depends on the quarantine law. I'm not spending more than my air ticket on a crummy hotel and sitting isolated for 10 days out of my three week break in September. My form twos today were bemoaning COVID and how they haven't had a proper social life as teenagers so far.

Am quiz mistress along with another friend on Saturday. We're going to sit and try and gel our joint efforts together tomorrow. Tempted to ask whether it's true or false that you can make diamonds out of peanut butter. My form ones asked me this in geography and am afraid I dismissed it, until I thought I'd better Google and check, and low and behold you can, albeit low grade ones. My form ones are now theorising that if you sat on a jar of peanut butter with enough pressure you would create diamonds and make your fortune. I hope they're taking in the rest of the geo notes too.