Day 56: Only 14 more get-ups till Christmas!

I got home today at 4. That must be a record. This was for two reasons, the first: I just had to get the heck out of that place and the second: to sign up at my local GP surgery. That fun being over, I slumped in front of Friends (oh, where would I be without the comfort of Friends every day?) Unfortunately I got a bit carried away with relaxing, and have made it to 8.30 without prepping anything for tomorrow. Not good.

Well, before I get down to that, eventually, I will try to remember what happened today.

I managed to get in at 7ish today, which was good, and as I had first period off I had ages to prep for the day. I was pretty nervous because I had year 8 first thing, but I was trying to put on a brave face.

Year 8 eventually turned up, later than expected. All we were doing today was prep for their assessment tomorrow, and the little buggers didn't seem to care that they needed to prepare today if they wanted to do well. Oh well. The behaviour overall was not great but not terrible. We ploughed through the work, and I am a bit relieved that, as we're having an assessment tomorrow, I can sit them separately and not have to worry about it too much.

Year 7 were up next, and they have definitely gotten too feisty. The lesson was ok; I put them in groups which was an organisational disaster, and then they had to read the chapters and answer questions between them. I looked over and saw P throw a book behind him, so asked him to go outside. He stood, leaning against the wall, and ignored me. I moved around him and he kept turning away. Eventually I could see that he was crying. I asked if he was upset or angry.
"Angry."
"Why are you angry?"
He went off on a little diatribe about one of the girls saying she didn't want to work with him because he was stupid. I felt really bad. I eventually persuaded him to sit in a colleague's room until he calmed down. I went to speak to the girl who looked pretty confused but sheepish when I told her what she'd done. After the lesson I kept them behind and told her to apologise to him; she did and he ignored it, then sat staring at the wall so I told him to wait until he calmed down before he left.

I was pretty excited about lunch because I had brought with me... Easter Pie! I ended up passing it round to everyone because I was so proud of it, and almost all of my colleagues who tried it were impressed. And so they should have been!

After lunch I had year 9, and I was pretty nervous about it. One of my boys was coming back from HIP, so I wasn't sure how that would be. As it turned out, he stormed in, sat down and refused to do any work. It would seem that they enjoy HIP. Not surprising that. The lesson was a bit of a drag; my colleague told me that I need to improve my pace because they get bored when I wait for the slower kids to catch up.

Finally I had year 11, and as much as I like the boys, they were a little restless, what with it being the end of the day. I had to work one on one with three of them, which meant that they didn't do work when I wasn't helping. K was being obnoxious, walking around the room and writing on my board when I wasn't looking. Idiot.

The lesson finished and, as there was not Teachy Firsty training, I RAN out of there. Less than 3 weeks left now. Thank god.