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.