new beginning

E and I moved into our new home last Saturday and have begun to make it feel more like a home. ADSL is back on; bookshelves are getting back together (thank goodness), but the office is going to take sometime to get together. I have taken over the dinner table as a workspace - I hope E is OK with this - all she does these days is work and sleep - the baby is getting heavy.

Tough week at school - had a run in with a Y12 student - swearing etc. I realise that this is always a relative 'problem' - TLL wanted to make it a bigger problem that I thought it was - my biggest concern is the underlying culture of mediocrity that these students have bought into - this is much more distressing than bad language. Anyway, I'm glossing over the details, but it followed me for a few days - and I'm glad to be rid of it. I must admit that I probably lost control and said something that I shouldn't have - I regret this, and will do better. I'm not excusing that, but it's easy to be frustrated when you deal with student immaturity day-in, day-out. Not that all my Y12 are like this - because they are not. Perhaps only 3 or 4 of them (out of 20). But it often drags the whole lot of us down. I have been tougher on this sort of behaviour, but I need to try some different strategies. Most Y12 teachers are in the same boat - 'fighting' student apathy and ambivalence - but NO ONE says anything to anyone in 'student management' b/c they have absolutely no confidence that anything can be, or will, be done.

In other news, KB has taken over CW Y12 class indefinitely. CW is too sick and cannot come back to that kind of stress. At first KB approached me, but in the end decided to take it on herself - this has ment some big changes for her - going fulltime till Y12 finishes (8 or so weeks) and putting pressure on her English Coordination time. Students seem to have responded well and KB is happy about this - there was some concern about them just writing off the rest of their year and blaming the school and CW. It seems as though they have started working again and are even handing in a load of work - much to KB's chagrin.