Day 22: Feelin' Blue

Let's just say the day did not get off to a flying start. I walked in to school in the rain, and was delighted that it only took about 25 minutes door to door. When I got there I decided to quickly watch and mark the speaking and listening DVD we had been given in preparation for the staff training today, and sat with a couple of colleagues to do so. Unfortunately, in the process of which I managed to offend my colleague (by making fun of the kids on the video) and was given a severe telling off. I felt about 2 inches tall. Not a good way to start.

I made it down to the conference room for the training and sulked (and coughed) for the first hour or so. We were given a break and I ran upstairs to check up on my year 11 class (all 4 of my classes today were being covered) and luckily the two students who owe me coursework were there and I was able to tell them they have to come in on Friday to finish it. My colleague stopped me on the way as we were walking up to the department and we talked briefly about the telling off. It was resolved, in a way, and I went about my business then skipped back to the training. Which was looooooong.

We went through our marks for the examples and any that had discrepancies we were discussing. We weren't far off on most of them, when we came to compare our agreed marks with the examiners', but we were definitely too lenient with the lower grades. This is a bit of an issue for me, as my group's marks so far are incredibly low as it is. I didn't realise until today that speaking and listening is worth the same amount as coursework, so I feel pretty bad for my group that their marks are SO bad. I was going to try to squeeze another speaking and listening piece out of them tomorrow but it might be a bit ambitious without serious prior planning.

At the end of a very long day I went back up to the department and called in to my year 8 group in the last 5 minutes. They were all working pretty hard when I got there, and excited to show me how much work they'd done, apart from my group of idiots. Again. I kept behind the ones whose names I had been given and made them stay for 20 minutes to finish the work whilst telling them off. I must remember to email their tutors tomorrow.

After work I got an email through telling me that A, who I had spoken to yesterday, has been excluded for 3 days for disruptive behaviour. Oh dear.

I ended up staying till half 5 to plan for tomorrow; I'm not convinced by what I've sorted out, least of all for the year 10s, but I have time tomorrow to sort that. Although I still need to mark their APP work. BAH!

In other news, I feel proper rough now. Some more Battlestar Galactica then bed, methinks.