Working 9 'til 9 - what a way to make a living!

I woke up at 6am this morning knowing that today was going to be a long day. First thing was 2nd year tsunamis. Today it was part 2 of my four lesson course on tsunamis - Time for the children to think...oh dear. I am assured by other members of staff that this is a regular problem first thing on a Monday morning. The pupils seem to have forgotten all but their names. When asking them how they felt about a particularly emotional video clip of the Asian Tsunami last year I was met with blank faces and then the soul-crushing statement of, "Just tell us what we are supposed to feel". Eventually we got through the lesson although no matter how interesting I tried ot make it the response was the same...cow-eyes. I was relatively undeterred considering the lesson itself had gone well with my other two classes but I now realise the difficult job of the first lesson of the week is to get the children active and motivated and then send them on their way.

I spent the next lesson and first break marking the Higher RLD tests from Friday. Some very good answers, some very bad and some in between as to be expected. I will go over these with the class next Monday as we have now started the Sahel Case Study. The class seemed quite engaged and happy to be there and as a result we made a lot of progress. I am still having to separate some of the more disruptive pupils but I think they are getting the message that if they keep their heads down and do what they are being asked to do we can have a bit of a laugh along the way and that I will be more inclined to make the lessons more fun.

I also had a quick chat with Ollie about the geological timescale that I am creating for the pillar in his room. It shoudl be interesting....watch this space.

Handed out the final Atlas homework today to the 1st years. This time next week we should have 150 homeworks on display along the corridor. I spent what was left of the school day printing out names on coloured paper and cutting them, ready for laminating...who said geography was all about colouring in!

Staying for the 3rd Years Parent's Evening gave me a chance to continue with my marking and to plan tomorrow's lessons. A lovely meal was provided by the school, for which I am exceedingly grateful. The parents evening itself went very well. As with every parents evening that I know of the timetable pretty much went out the window by the second appointment but no-one minds and everyone was keen to see who they could when they could. Ollie pointed out a couple of handy hints before to let me know how he arms himself for talking to the parents and the pupils. All in all it was a brilliant experience and I am very grateful to both Ollie and to the parents for allowing me to witness it.

Home by 11pm and straight to bed ready to do it all again tomorrow.