Wednesday: The New Friday

Ah Wednesday... originally named in honour of the Norse god Oden and more recently known by many as the middle of the work week or more colourfully as "Hump Day" (insert your own joke).  Well, now I have another name for it...  have you all heard the news?  Wednesday is the new Friday!  For the first time, I'm taking advantage of my 3-day-a-week job and decided to not call in for work today.  Its very liberating feeling, a bit like a school boy playing hooky (not that I ever did anything like that... I was sick... honest mom! ;).  Anyone jealous yet?

Last year I think I was simply too conscious of the financial uncertainty of supply work to ever willingly take a day off, but with this 3-day guarantee and good feedback from previous schools, I'm a lot more relaxed about it.  At the moment I seem to be consistently getting 4 days of work each week which I'm quite happy with.  I know the work is there and it will get busier after the October half-term break so I may as well take advantage of my flexible schedule while I can.  I may land a full time position in January and long for these days again.   It was definitely a nice break in the week just taking it easy at home and I feel quite refreshed to go into my booking tomorrow (at a nearby school). 

Speaking of last year, today is officially my one year anniversary in London.  Yup, one year ago to this day I was stepping off of a plane at Heathrow airport looking around with an air of excitement and apprehension, wondering what I had gotten myselaf into :).  A few weeks ago some friends (the survivors) and I had been talking about this and reflecting on we wanted to do this time in "Round 2".  Honestly, I've had a good year and met some amazing people so I don't know what I would do differently.  I guess I'll try to do more of the same (as its worked so far... famous last words I know) and maybe be a bit more proactive in meeting people and more conscientious about planning.  I also want to take another big trip... maybe Egypt or Eastern Europe.  Better start saving!

Since yesterday was the new Friday, I suppose this means that today is Saturday, though it feels more like a Sunday as I have to work again on Friday which, following this pattern, would be Monday.  Arg!  Its Monday already?!  Where has the weekend gone?!  Wait, you mean the weekend  is two days from now?  But any Reception student... ok, some Reception students could tell you that Tuesday is after Monday which... oh forget it, I'm just going to bed! lol

My first week of supply

I survived my first week of supply teaching... and even better, I actually worked every day!  Quite surprising this early in the semester.  Yeah me (and my consultants at Protocol)! :)  After having a regular class last semester, being back to supplying is interesting - a neat mix of change and uncertainty.  Fortunately, I have three days guaranteed at one of my regular school which gives me enough security to find not knowing where I'll go for the other two days exciting rather than annoying/agonizing.  I find the variety of ages and assignments very interesting... this week alone I've worked with Year 4's (11 year olds) all the way down to 1 year old babies.  This highlights just how adaptable a supply teacher has to be - especially this early in the semester when work is relatively scarce.  Luckily for me I already have 4 days booked next week - just looking for another Friday (fingers crossed)!

Since I'll be in the same classes for three days a week two of the teachers have asked me to take the science lessons on.  Its nice getting back into the routine of planning lessons - rather reminds me of my practicum days.  I'll  be doing the unit on "Changing States of Matter" so am currently looking at various resources to use in class.

I had an interesting moment in one of my classes this week:  As the children were coming in from their break, one of them came up to me and said that "A" was calling "B" a Christian which was upsetting to "B" who was countering with "no I'm a Catholic".  Strangely, they seemed to think it was an insult... incidentally, they also thought "pregnant" was  a bad word - where are they getting these ideas?  I had to take some time to explain what the word "Christian" meant and that its alright for people to believe different things.  Appropriately enough, we were about to start our Religious Education lesson at that time so it was even on-topic :). 

Back to reality

Well it looks like my summer holidays are over and the Autumn (not Fall, Autumn) school term has begun.  Time to wake up from the dreams of summer and get back to the reality of work!  It may seem strange to some, but I'm really looking forward to getting back to work.  Holidays are fun and I had an amazing trip around Europe, but I can only take so much vacation before wanting to get back into a routine/paycheck and doing something productive.  Its kind of like the Law of Diminishing Marginal Returns - after a certain point there is increasingly less enjoyment out of each additional unit of vacation time... see, those Economics classes in university came in handy after all :).  Hmmm, I wonder if anyone has applied this law in this way before....

Speaking of work, Wednesday was my first day back.  It was an inset day (PA Day for the Canadians among us) so no kids so I sat in on the "Welcome Back" and "Behavioral Policy" meetings in the morning then assisted the other teachers in setting up their classrooms.  Our school was chosen to host a second Reception (Kindergarten) class this year which necessitated the building of a new classroom during the summer.  Now when I first heard about this at the end of last year, I was thinking "simple port-a-cabin" - small, flimsy and not very pleasant.  Boy was I wrong... looks like a permanent structure with the same carpeting and tiling as the rest of the school, 3 bathrooms, entrance area for coats and boots, large classroom and adjoining ITC suite.  Inside you don't even realize your not in the main school.  One thing I love about this school I'm at (at least for 3 days a week) is that everyone on staff gets along and helps out... everything for the Year 2 class was moved over in about an hour (including cabinets, tables and chairs).

In regards to my Thursdays and Fridays, nothing has been booked as of yet (well obviously if I'm writing this Friday morning....) but I have had a few leads.  Fingers crossed that one will pan out - supply days are rather scarce in the beginning of a term as teachers are just getting back from vacation so I'm really fortunate to have the days I do.   Just need to keep doing my eyes open and do a good job.  Let's make this year (potentially my last in England) the best possible!