This beaut!

For some strange reason I am up early this morning and am thinking that there is no better way to kill time than to do a bit of blogging!

I've been meaning for a while to post a picture of the amazing Christmas present I got!  For the last 2 or 3 years I have really developed an interest in photography and have wanted a bit more decent a camera so that I can start to play around with taking photos.  Anyway, after a lot of 'saved up presents' I was finally able to get a new camera.  It's nothing snazzy, but I LOVE it.

I think it's slightly ironic that the first thing I did upon opening this present was take a photo of it, but hey ho!

Over the last few weeks I've had a chance to get out and play around a bit with this bad boy, and here are some of the shots I've snapped:

The Screes, December 2013

Wast Water, December 2013

Mum and Dad's House - Love this place!

My gorgeous, if slightly sickly, niece

The beautiful Alice-Rose on Christmas Day 2013

Low Mill House

Wast Water on Christmas Day 2013

And last, but by no means least, here is a little snapshot of Rose and me enjoying cuddles for the first time in 6 days - the longest that I have ever gone without seeing her since she was born!!

Hallway Dance Parties

My flatmate and I have spent the previous few days having random dance parties in the hallway every time we see eachother.

I'm not fully sure how it started, but once it had started we just kind of carried it on.

Two days ago it was Take That Tuesday, yesterday was Westlife Wednesday (I'm surprised I let that one by...) and today is Throwback Thursday...the theme to our evening - hits of 1998

I don't know what our other 2 flatmates think of this strange practice, they haven't really commented, but it is making my week so much more manageable!  I've been cracking down on my marking recently and as a result have spent the previous week bringing home 20 books a night and marking away.  I only come out to grab a drink, pop to the loo or have a little dance!

It's not the first time that H and I have started our own little trends - I think we just have such a similar sense of humour that if one of us finds it funny it's likely the other one does too.

There must be some research out there to prove that a little boogey every hour or so increases the endorphins in your body and makes you happier!!  I reckon it should become standard practice - I might even suggest it at school, a bit of cha cha slide on the corridor in between lessons!  I'd love it!

Now to get our other 2 flatmates to realise that they want to join in - we've been having difficulty figuring out a theme for tomorrow evening, although I'm pretty set on funky Friday.  I reckon if we can get E and M involved we can convince them to crack out a funky Friday playlist.

Right, procrastination over, back to my marking!

January's Behaviour Blues

Returning to work after Christmas I had convinced myself that the behaviour would have improved and I'd be coming back to a new and improved academy.  Just prior to the holidays one of the most challenging students I work with, JB, was involved in an altercation with a senior member of staff at the school in which he began to attack the staff member and beat him up so violently that the police had to be called.  JB was bundled out of the school in the back of a police van and, needless to say, I was informed that it was highly unlikely he would be returning.  I went home that night and cried.  Not because I thought it was unfair treatment, I completely agree with the sanctions that the school put in place.  I cried because, realistically, we were it for JB.  In an area like ours there really isn't another school who will take a 12 year old boy with a record like his...

Unfortunately, it seems, incidents like this are becoming more and more common in the school and there is little being done to prevent them from reoccurring.  JB is the first student in Year 8 to be permanently excluded this year, despite the fact that there have been some awful incidences that, in any other school, would have resulted in the permanent expulsion of the students in question!

As a result of all of this the behaviour is hectic.  In an average week it is likely I will be hit out at, sworn at on numerous occasions, screamed at and have something thrown at me. I've become so used to this that at times I forget it's not the norm.

I love the kids I teach, don't get me wrong.  They are what keep me going back day in day out...  But I think I need to take a break from this for a while.  By far the highlight of my job is the pastoral responsibility I have in the shape of my Year 8 form.  They are the bookends to my day and I think every single one of them is so talented and unique!  Although at the moment I'm not completely sure what the plan is at the end of this year when the 2 year Teach First programme ends, but I would love to move over into a pastoral role within a school.

Right, I'm exhausted and I need a good long shower and then a decent nights sleep so that I can get up in the morning and go into work bright eyed and bushy tailed and ready for whatever the kids of kenny have to throw at me (hopefully not literally...)

Back and no longer hidden!

It occurred to me over the Christmas holidays that when I became a teacher I automatically hit panic and decided to delete any evidence that I had a life before I appeared in the school.  This took the form of blogs I had kept, websites I had subscribed to, articles I had written for the university newspaper and even went as far as altering my name on Facebook.  This wasn't completed down to my own choice, more on the recommendation of countless teachers who offered all the advice about 'don't show any emotion', 'don't smile until after Christmas' and every other nonsense idea that is thrown at you as you embark on your training.

Now, almost 18 months down the line and numerous Facebook friend requests (and deletes...) later I realised that no matter what you do the kids are going to find out that you are human sooner or later!

I think the turning point for me last year was when I was chatting to a few of the students in what had been, up until that point, my most difficult Year 10 class, and one of them turned to me and said "Miss, did you know that you're friends on Facebook with my brother's girlfriend?"  The entire class went silent and my mind went blank as I considered what the implications of this could be.  I mean, my profile was completely private for any non-friends, but for my friends they had access to everything!  I looked over at the boy who had said this and tried to consider what he knew, but even as I was thinking it he continued with "Yeah, she said you were really cool and that I should ask you about when you lived in Canada cause I'm going there in the summer to see my Dad."  I didn't think too much about it then but over the next few lessons I noticed the kids becoming less hostile and more open to chatting.  They spoke to me about what was happening in their other lessons and what they were going to do on the weekend, asked my advice on what to wear if they were going on first dates and how to speak to boys/girls that they liked.  Gone were the terrifying, argumentative and disruptive students I had been battling with for the first three months of my teaching career - and all it had taken was a sign of a life other than just as a teacher.

I still teach that class, they're in Year 11 and have their final exams coming up in 6 short months, and at times I find myself frustrated by their lack of focus in lessons or the fact that they can still at times be argumentative and disrespectful, but whenever we have had a particularly difficult day I always find that the following lesson they will make an effort to talk to me about their next boxing match or college interview, showing me pictures of the shoes they will buy once they get a job and making an effort to remind me that they too are human, and sometimes we don't make the best impressions even if we do mean to.

The reason I'm talking about this isn't just because I like to talk (although this is a true fact) but because I have decided that it is okay for me to reinstate this blog, even if the kids do find it.  I'm not sure how successfully I will be able to keep it up, but hey ho, I'll try.