Changes

This time last year, my favourite thing for relaxation when I had finished teaching for the day was to sit down with a coffee and a cigarette. Or a whisky and a cigarette; either way, there was nicotine invoved. I still maintain that this is the best wind-down one can have in the middle of the day (or evening, if it's the latter option), but since giving up smoking earlier this year I've had to wean myself off of such delights. However, today there is an exception - IT'S DOUGHNUT DAY! Every now and again, the lovely folks of Krispy Kreme come to the school and sell doughnuts to raise money for charity. Specifically, for sick kids. So, I'm treating myself. I've scraped all the loose change from the bottom of my bag and got myself a black coffee and a doughnut. It's not often I get to benefit somebody else through eating doughnuts, so I'm taking the opportunity while it's here.

...Although...

...when they don't actually do the worksheets, it makes my job a lot easier...

Why do I never realise...

...that when I give my students a load of worksheets to do, that it means that I'll have a load of worksheets to grade? 136 0f them to be precise... I fail.

Another Monday begins

It's that time of the week again - Monday. Monday morning, no less. 52 of them every year, and they never get any better than mediocre.

For me, Monday usually means three things.

First of all, it's the day I collect in the workbooks of my class at the Secondary School. I have 34 students, which means that I collect, assuming they all give me them, 68 books. The books are divided in two. One of them is for Grammar and Vocabulary, and the other is for Reading and Writing. Unfortunately, some of my students didn't manage to grasp this detail at the beginning of the year, so some of them have got Grammar and Reading, or one of any other strange combination. Then there's the issue of them getting confused by their own organisation and then putting work in the wrong book, meaning that I have to search both of their books in order to locate work. As it is, I promised my students at the beginning of the year that I would give them back their books, fully graded, the following day. This means that I have from roughly 09:00 until 15:00 to grade all 68(ish) books. Luckily I have developed a skill for 'speed grading' - that is being able to memorise the correct answers and scan for them. I can usually get one book done in around 3 - 5 minutes, depending on how much work I gave them to do. This useful skill came from being an exam moderator; when you've got 100 candidates to get through, speed and accuracy are vital.

It's not only grading which I have to do on Mondays, however. I also have two sessions with the aforementioned class - one at 07:50-08:40, and the other at 11:35-12:25. The first session is usually a disaster, as the class are reunited again after a weekend off. This morning I gave them a choice - finish checking and make last minute completions of the work from last week and do new work which I had planned for this morning as homework, or forget about the work from last week/ be smug that it was all finished, and do the work I'd planned for this morning in class. The majority of them did one or the other...a couple of students chose a third option, which was to attempt to insert one other student headfirst into the classroom bin. This I was not impressed with, and if hadn't already requested meetings with their parents I would have done so for this. It was amusing though...

Also, as the English coordinator at the Elementary school, I have a world of other things to do. I like to visit all the classes on Monday for example, and see how they are doing. I have grades to check. I have to check the lesson plans of all the teachers, and make sure that a) they have actually done one and b) that it's good. In addition to this I need to make sure that everybody's fine for the week and that they are up to date on other things, such as the bulletin boards outside the classrooms.

Mondays are busy. But, they do go quickly.

I just ate too many tacos

Today is birthday day at Elementary. It occurs once a month, and all the kids who have birthdays during that time get to celebrate and the classes have little parties and so on.

Usually, the kids bring stuff like cakes, sandwiches, fruit and crisps. Today, one mother sent her kid to school with a huge pan of baked tacos. There were layered up in the pan, and crispy round the edges but soft in the middle. Some were refried beans, some were meat. All were delicious.

I had 9 of them. And now I feel like I'm going to explode.

The only disappointing thing about today...

...was that the Japanese visitors to the school were very fast in their walk through. I had been getting ready for their visit for the last day, trying to remember the Japanese I learned two years ago before my aborted move to Japan. I was all ready, and they arrived...and were in a rush so all I got to do was shake a hand, say I was pleased to meet the guy and then he was gone. I didn't even manage to say ´dozo yoroshiku'.

Secret Santa

Today was productive. I got a load of stuff done, including getting the latest BEO tasks fixed up. I arranged all of the Elementary school exams into nice piles and organised them safely away in cupboards. I spoke to a couple of teachers and arranged some class subs for next week. Possibly the most important thing I did today was get my name for the Secret Santa which we're doing at Elementary.

Basically, we've all drawn a name, and now we have a $200MX budget with which to buy him or her a gift. This will mean that everyone will get a gift, and that everyone only has to buy one gift instead of feeling guilty about not buying something for everybody. We also wrote a guide on the board for the kind of thing which we'd like (in general...it's not a case of "I WANT THIS!!!")

I drew the name of ________ , and was secretly relieved as she's one of the ladies I talk to most frequently and if she doesn't end up giving some clue of what she wants then I have a better chance at least of finding something nice for her. So, I'm getting a little more excited!

I think that the week after next will start to be the beginning of the real festive onslaught. Exams are next week at Elementary school (I should know, I spent the last three weeks checking, modifying, printing and finally photocopying hundreds of the things. After that will be three weeks of relaxed classes with no hard work. There will be preparation for the Christmas show, there will be lots of craft stuff going on, and lots of glitter everywhere. Which I like.

Yes, another one.

This is my 6th blog. I don't like even numbers, so I'm sceptical about the survival chances of it. However, I'm going to try. I think the main reason why my previous blogs have died is because I've had a short space of time where I've been doing something exciting, and have actually had something to blog about, and then when it's finished I've lost the cause to write anything. I mean, when my average day can be summed up in a Facebook status and couple of tweets, what's the point? However, now I have a new job (three in one, actually) and am in a new place (Mexico) and new things happen every day, there may be a chance for this blog to survive. I can't guarantee that what I write (or what I write about) will always be interesting, but I think that if I make the effort to include most of the stuff that happens, then I'm more likely to be able to keep this blog from death.

Let's see what happens.