Words of Wisdom

Youth is wasted on the young.

Monday 7 December 2009

Over A Week? Wow. Imagine What It Will Be LIke When I Am Fulltime

I knew I hadn't posted for a while but WOW. Over a week. Life is freeway-like at the moment. I can't really even afford to be posting this as I am meant to be marking..but it is so mind numbing.
"Hah," remarked a colleague,"marking maths? Isn't that just tick, tick, tick?"
"Yes. If the children you teach get everything right. In my case it's sort of 'search for a mark'."
Having said that I am excited by the fact that only one of my year 8 babies failed his exam and that may be partly because he didn't take a calculator! I have been working on him all semester (he joined us late) to come to class with a pen and his maths book. Time after time he arrives empty handed. We agreed to have a text book which we keep in the classroom for him and that has helped. I gave him a chocolate every time he remembered his pen. I reminded ALL of them about having calculators and fresh batteries available for the exams. *sigh* I don't know what else I could have done. Perhaps this will teach him something?

In another exam, Y10 Science, I was supporting two girls with mild learning difficulties. The topic was Human Reproduction and the question asked them to describe the journey of the sperm once it entered the vagina. With some prompting it became evident that one of them thought sperm came from women and the other didn't know what it was at all. What had they been doing in class? What will happen to them in the world????? I dread to think.

Last Wednesday was the BA's Graduation from Middle School. Middle School is a new concept here in Australia. It's really just High School but they keep the kids with one form teacher and gradually introduce the concept of moving around classes. Next year in Year 10 they are into full on' find your own room and subject teacher' mode.

It was an emotional night as she leaves her dear friends to start at a new school next year. I do hope we've made the right decision. *sigh*

Isn't it terrible how you don't realise your kid needs a haircut until she's up on stage in her uniform!?

On the weekend we put up the Christmas tree. Well, I kind of left it to the kids.As you can see, Small Boy is a great boon in the process.He got minorly excited about putting up his own mini-tree. This tree is the sort of thing one has to deal with in second marriages. It is a left over from Himself's bachelor days. One year it will quietly disappear. Like that sofa.
Here Small Boy helpfully shoots baskets with ornaments whilst the BA does the whole elder sister thing. She is so mature. See?
I mean, don't we all try on the ornaments as earrings? Of course we do.

And do Madonna impersonations with Christmas wreaths.

7 comments:

Brittany said...

Ohhh dear. I love the Christmas photos. I love how Small Boy watched BA put up the tree. Very genius of him. haha. And of course BA's earrings and Madonna pose. Very fun! Can they come here and put my tree up, please?! :)

Amy Jo said...

I love christmas time. Also, I hate to sound like an old coot, but BA looks so grown up! When I remember back to the days when I first started reading here, she was a little girl. Sigh.

We'd always love more flaming sword!

Andi said...

Where do the weeks go? I completely understand how busy you are! I still think you are a SAINT for teaching math to minors. I couldn't do it! English / Language Arts is hard enough when everyone hates to read.
I love the Christmas tree photos. I am ready this year to think about decorating, but we have not done it yet. If I keep procrastinating, there will be no use. Maybe this weekend...maybe.
Congrats to BA on middle school graduation. Here MS kids switch classes, but they do not really have to find everything on their own. We still baby them a bit until they get to high school, and then they are as lost as lost can be.
Well, hope you find some time to take it easy, and slow down a little...relax and enjoy yourself! We have exactly nine more school days before our Christmas break...thank God!
Take care :)

Unknown said...

entertainment and manual labor?? can you please send SB and BA over here - i could use the help! :-)

chaoticfamily said...

Love the pics.

I know I can't believe I blogged every day of November. It's a good outlet for me. Look forward to your next post - whenever it comes!

ssg said...

hehe, i love playing with christmas decorations. can't believe it's your long summer holiday at Christmas time, and your school year starts at, well, the beginning of the year. I think I would find that very weird if I lived in Oz! But I am missing sunshine, its sooooooo cold here!

Anyways, I saw these t-shirts and thouught you might like some of the humour.. http://teenormous.com/lists/funny-science-t-shirts-23

there are more if you change the 23 to 22 and so on...
xxx

Jill said...

Oh I sure did try on some ornaments for earrings at that age! Maturity can be over rated sometimes. :-)