Thursdays are an easy day for me. Due to a timetabling system that's presumably borrowed from a bus company I have three frees all at once. It allows me to make sure I'm ahead of the gaming with planning and marking and catch up on any other little jobs. It's also opportunity for to cause chaos around the school.
I emptied my room of any coats that have been left behind. I'd been a bit slack with this recently so had quite a pile, earning me a disapproving look from the person in charge of lost property. We really should take things down as soon as possible but quite often is something gets left in your room the pupil comes back for it anyway. To avoid further scorn I'll be a bit more pro-active about it next time.
From there I went to do some photocopying, during which time I managed to give the copier a serious error. Apparently this is only the second time that particular machine has had an error - as opposed to a paper jam, which happens qutie regularly - so I was quite honoured.
Periods two and three I actually had to teach some classes. Though seeing as they were just doing their end of year - yes, it's that time already - exams, it wasn't excitement central.
In the afternoon I was interviewing some pupils about behaviour. I'm attending these meeting about Behaviour for Learning, which is to do with coming up with a policy on behaviour rather than just discussing the behaviour itself. Impressively they haven't just descended into a whinge-fest about everythign that goes wrong in the school. Curiously the pupils felt that a good shouting at was far more effective than a removal or a detention.
I was just settling down to mark some of the tests from the morning when the phone rang and I had to do a last minute cover. The Assistant Head was speaking to the police about a fight that had taken place the previous day so needed someone to take his year ten citizenship lesson. He put Question Time from the BBC i-player up on the projector and left me to it. It was all about the expenses scandal and after a few minutes I'd lost interest myself. There's a time and a place for Question Time and it isn't in a sweaty classroom at around three in the afternoon. Seeing as they were pleasant enough children they were at least capable of sitting and talking quietly without turning the chairs and tables upside down, though I still couldn't help but check the time every five seconds. Their teacher apologised to me later for putting me in such a situation.
To finish the day I attended the aforementioned Behaviour for Learning meeting. All of which fun and games meant I took a huge stack of marking home with me to complete in the evening, not something I had been expecting to be doing. I can't help but feel that somehow all the marking would have been done already if I'd been teaching a full day's worth of lessons. Such is life in a school.
