Hawaiian disco, pubs and boys vs. girls night

I’m getting very settled in over here and I’m starting to think that I will hate leaving. For one I’ve had very good feedback from my superiors and I get along with the students, so my work is not that difficult. After lessons us, teachers, usually stay on for another shift and help out with the afternoon activities and this week that included the Hawaiian disco, where students and staff had to dress up Hawaiian style, and yesterday we had boys vs. girls disco, which included cross-dressing, so boys dressed up as girls and girls as boys and I must say some made a real effort and it took me a long time to remove the nail varnish from boys’ fingers.


On Monday night I went to a local pub with a co-teacher and our boss and we ended up having a fantastic time. The pub was in the old part of Headington and the area really gave us the feeling of being in the Cotswolds. It was really pretty and the pub even had a gorgeous beer garden, so we stayed for quite a bit, talked about work and other things. I love the fact that the team of teachers gets on like a house on fire (with some exceptions to the rule, of course). Yesterday I spent quite some time with the boss transferring things between our computers, so I’m now well-equipped with additional materials and books and so is he and today I’ve had co-teachers coming to my room for a chat all the time, so we’ve really become a small family.

Tomorrow I’ve quite an easy day as the kids are off to London in the afternoon, so I might end up at the gym again (congratulations to myself for dragging my bottom back to the gym!!!).

Off to bed now. Good night!

Challenge: Let's do the laundry!

It’s lesson preparation time (well, basically it is my time off, but over here that means that this is your time in which to prepare for the lessons, which I still don’t really understand as the activity organisers have time off as well and in that time they’re just off), so I have time to update my blog.

I’m feeling more and more at home (despite the food and the room), but at the moment I’m actually having a cup of coffee in my room and that is a first. Of course I had to buy a flask in Starbucks (where else ;-)) but it at least means I don’t have to be in the office if I want coffee as that means that you get pulled into working (don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind working, but when I’ve been on duty from 7am to 5pm, I really want some time off). Another good thing is that my clothes are in the washing machine and will be all fresh and clean in 25 minutes (I hope, because the machine looks a little bit dodgy and I bought some gorgeously smelling detergent only to realize that the machine uses its own (?) which again I don’t understand, so I hope my clothes smell of my stuff and not the suspicious pinkish liquid from the plastic tank next to the washing machine. It is quite typical that I only discovered the pinkish liquid after I had pressed start.)

I went into town today with another teacher and we had a really nice morning/afternoon and even managed to grab some delicious pub food from one of the pubs in Oxford I actually know and I had Pimms for the first time in 2 years :-) So, you can understand how happy I am at the moment. Plus the kids aren’t here, which means it’s really nice and quiet. Swindon Oasis day is the reason why the only people left on campus are the teachers.

As for Oxford... It is packed!!! There are so many people here that it’s difficult to walk on the pavement and it’s sales time, so it’s not only tourists who crowd the streets. But I love this town! It’s got history and magnificent buildings and I love the atmosphere.

And work? I can honestly say that I expected to be teaching according to a program and would not spend too much time on the activities. But it turned out that besides not having a program to follow I keep being on duty in the afternoon or evening, so I tend to stay up late or get up early to finish lesson planning which is also more complicated than the usual mainstream school. Not having a program and a coursebook to follow everything is pretty much left to me so each lesson requires more time to plan. The students also have no own books which means I need to photocopy materials and that takes ages. I do love teaching and I got a very positive feedback from our DoS who observed my lesson on Thursday, but at the end of the day I feel drained. And I haven’t done any sport in months now, so I’m not only being tired most of the time but I’m also gaining weight and it’s driving me insane. ARGH!!! And on top of everything I was really in a hurry going to work in the evening yesterday and I managed to break the buckle on my favourite high-heeled sandals. Which almost made me cry. Hawaiian disco was a success though and I did look extremely elegant in my try-not-to-breathe dress :-) After the disco we put the kids to sleep and gathered in the office for wine and cheese. I loved it! It’s great how all the staff gets together and the atmosphere changes - it almost felt like being home on the couch, your feet up and a glass of white wine in your hand. It’s a wonderful bonding opportunity and the newest clever idea is that all schools should put sofas in the staff room :-)

Now, my clothes have been washed and they don’t smell of my lovely detergent but of some mixture of my detergent and I assume the pinkish liquid used for washing masses of campus sheets and stuff. :-( The new challenge is to dry them as most of them should not be put in the dryer. Now I have wet clothes hanging in my wardrobe and I hope they will eventually dry. The sooner the better.
Cheerio!

Teaching and working at a boarding school

My writings have become irregular and I really hope I’m not repeating myself cos I keep forgetting what I’ve already written and what not. Today’s supposed to be my day off, but I need to plan the lessons as I have absolutely no idea what I want to do in classes.

As for the teaching bit... The summer courses over here include a lot of (and when I write a lot of I mean seriously a lot of) excursions and activities, so it sometimes feels like English classes are just a secondary activity and us teachers are sometimes treated like that as well. For example, today we had a fire drill (yes, it was my day off and my only chance to sleep in since beginning of July and no, that doesn’t mean that I didn’t have to participate in the fire drill) but none of the teachers was told what to do, so I asked our CD what my duties are and she told me and then this morning a AO gave me completely different instructions, so who do I listen?! Most teachers believe that we’re not informed enough, especially cos it’s our first summer here. Ah well, I guess we’ll all survive.

Yesterday I bought Dongle at the 3G shop, so now I have expensive Internet access in my room. Lucky me! And it’s not restricted. I got so frustrated with the restricted Internet at this school that I now totally understand why some girls lose it when they leave a Catholic school! Sport web-pages are restricted (it seems like a good Catholic girl is not into sports) and so is “The News of the World” (apparently it has low quality content) and that’s far from all the other restricted or simply put BLOCKED web-pages. In today’s day and age that’s an utterly and completely insane if you ask me! I understand some schools blocking Facebook as it can be dangerous since children add people they don’t know as their friends, but news and sports and even teaching resources web-pages?!

The school itself is nothing special. I have always imagined British boarding schools in almost a romantic way, but working at one has opened my eyes. The rooms have no bathrooms, so you share (I really hate the fact that I am sharing a bathroom and toilet with students!!!), a lot of rooms have no desks or chairs, so you write on your knees (which I am sure is very good for your back and general health) and students’ rooms do NOT lock (which I guess would make it easy for valuables to disappear). As for the classrooms - they are in different buildings and whereas most of them are equipped with an IWB (which have been taken off, so we cannot use them) the rest of the equipment and furnishings would make most of the teachers I know back home cry (and those wouldn’t be tears of joy). But we’ll manage! Teachers are the toughest breed I know!

Here are some photos of my room, so you get a taster (keep in mind that my room used to be an office and it is much bigger than your normal single room!).




And I still haven’t planned the lessons....