Can We Go Home Yet?

The snow has finally arrived! Outside it’s coming down thick and fast and I’m watching it from the cosiness of my front room, feeling very thankful that today is my day off. In teaching there are many things that can lead your carefully planned lesson astray; last night’s Facebook kick-off, a puppy love quarrel (and the subsequent tears that come with it), someone accidentally calling you Mum. But nothing compares to the complete derailment that is snow! Forget trying to teach them anything, your lesson is literally out of the window! It starts as soon as the first few flakes…

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The Pumpkin Patch

October is one of my absolutely favourite months.  I love Autumn, and October in particular, as the weather starts to cool and the scarves and hats can start to reappear.  And the absolute highlight of the month is Halloween, which means the search for the perfect pumpkin is on. My room-mate from university is American and for the past couple of weeks my Facebook timeline has been filled with the most gorgeous pictures of her and her beautiful family amongst the Pumpkin fields in Westchester (it always makes me smile that she moved there, probably living next door to Monica and Chandler),…

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A Few Words That Made My Day

My poor little Year 7 classes are always bottom of my priority list. With three A level and three GCSE classes, they are the two I feel I’m least on the ball with. Maybe I’m being a bit hard on myself, but I always worry my lessons could be better planned, with better resources, their book better marked. However, this year I’ve found these have been the lessons I’ve enjoyed the most. I love the enthusiasm of 11/12 year olds and their innocence. In each of the classes there are a couple of real characters, who really make me smile.…

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Kids are crackers!

I sometimes have moments when I sit at work and honestly think “what the hell am I doing here?” Kids are crackers! Unpredictable, thoughtless and way too honest for my liking. One of these moments came last week one of my Year 7 kids pulled a potato out of his pocket with a face he’d drawn on and declared it’s name was Rodney! These moments occur every now and then, and can leave me completely speechless. Sometimes there really are no words. Let me share a few of those “precious” moments. A year 10 boy shouting out in class “god…

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His First “Proper” Christmas

This is actually Little O’s 3rd Christmas, but for his first one he was only 5 weeks old, last year he’d only just turned one and didn’t really know what was going on so this is the first year he is starting to understand that something special is happening. Me and hubby love Christmas, we first met on Christmas Eve, so it is always a very special time for us.  Getting to now share it with O is fantastic.  I know he won’t understand everything this year, but that helps to make this time even more special.  The anticipation of…

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