As you all know, this school year has basically been a nightmare for me. I'm glad it's over and wanted to do one last post about my final days working there to really paint a clear picture as to why it just wasn't the right place for me. I realize that I am not going to agree with everything at every school I'll ever work at. I am extremely flexible and very easy-going but I can only handle so much. Over the last few weeks of the school year, I kept hoping that the tension would ease up so that I could just enjoy my last days with the children. Unfortunately, that never really happened. Different events and things kept popping up which just made me more ready than ever to run out the door. Today's post will be about the day the video camera crew came, the day the dog came, and the day the skip came. After you read about these 3 tidbits, please know that it was just constant things like this happening ALL THE TIME.
Story 1 - The Day the Video Camera Crew Came: During our last couple of weeks, we were crazy busy trying to get things complete and ready to turn in or send home. It was a wild afternoon. I'm pretty sure it was raining because we definitely weren't outside and the kids were crazy. We were down 2 out of the 3 teachers and thankfully we had all of our TA's (a rare event!!). Since we were down so many staff and it was pretty chaotic, I made the decision that we would tidy up a bit early and calm the children down with a story and maybe sing some songs in our own classrooms. We were just settling down and it was now about 2:15. We dismiss at 2:55. As soon as everyone was sitting on the carpet, a video camera crew comes through the door and says "Hi, we are here to film activities going on in Reception to make a promotional video about Reception." Just great. Activities weren't going on. In my opinion, if you are going to make a promotional video about Reception to encourage others to come to your school, you might want to let the teachers know that this going to happen so we can put forth our best effort to making everything look great. I don't like putting on a show, however; in this case we should have been warned that this was happening. Apparently, the head teacher didn't even know. It was the executive head that didn't bother to tell any of us. I was really embarrassed by the whole thing. If someone is coming around to see good practise and we've already cleaned up for the day, it doesn't look good on us. I'm over it now but at the time, it was just another thing not communicated to us that really should have been.
Story 2 - The Day the Dog Came: The underlying issue with this story also comes back to the issue of a lack of communication. Apparently there is a school dog. No one knew about this until the day it came around to visit at the start our our last day of phonics instruction. Not sure if it's actually a school dog or if that is what they are going with so it's actually allowed under health and safety rules. I have a child who is TERRIFIED of dogs. I would have loved the chance to say to my kids a little "By the way, a big black dog is coming around today with the head teacher. He's really friendly...blah, blah, blah." As much as teachers want to know what is going on, the kids do, too! Apparently it's been our school dog since April but he's been going through training and such. Who knows. If that is the story, an email should have gone round way back in April stating here is what's happening and we'll let you know when the dog is coming. Then the day before he came, we should have been warned. Again, I'm over it now but COMMUNICATION is so so important to me.
Story 3 - The Day the Skip Came: A skip is another word for a huge dumpster. It came the last few days of school and I figured it was just for some broke furniture and bits of rubbish during the final cleanup. I found out that the main purpose of the skip was to put ALL OF THE CHILDREN'S WORK FROM THE ENTIRE YEAR INTO IT BECAUSE APPARENTLY IT WASN'T GOOD ENOUGH TO SEND HOME?!?!?!?! How ridiculous is that??? The children in all year levels have different notebooks for maths, writing, homework, etc. Instead of sending home at the end of the year for parents to see the hard work, they all got tossed in the bin because it wasn't good enough. I realise that not all parents care to save everything but they should at least have the chance to look at it and make that determination themselves. I sent home an early morning jobs book that we had been doing with the children because I just figured we sent everything home. It's what I've always done and at this point, no one had said otherwise. I got told off for it since it wasn't a good representation of the children's work. No. It's not great, however, it shows where they started and if it was so crap to begin with...why did we waste our time and even make the children do it then in the first place??? I don't think I need to say anything else here. It makes me angry that this happens. They even had children lugging the bags of books out to put in the skip. Yes children, we really value all your hard work. Dump it now. Don't worry about sharing it with your parents. And to the teachers who marked it all and spent all that time grading and writing notes (there is a strict marking policy), thanks for taking ages to do all that but just throw it in the bin now. Oftsed is over so just throw it all in the bin. UGH! Enough said.
I could go on for days about the issues I have with this place, however, it's done now and over with. I couldn't be more happy to move on to whatever the next thing might be! :)
Tuesday, 26 July 2016
Tuesday, 14 June 2016
"Teaching is a work of heart."
I honestly can't remember how I came to the decision that I wanted to be a teacher. There isn't a standout teacher from my life that influenced me (while I had many good ones!) and there is no great back story so I won't pretend like there is. I have always enjoyed working with children. They are funny and loving and innocent. They don't judge. To this point in my career, is teaching everything I thought it would be? Probably not. I don't know what I thought was going to happen. I didn't expect unicorns and rainbows every day but to some extent I thought it would be easier. Not easy, just not so emotionally draining all the time. We (most of us) care A LOT. During my first year of teaching, I honestly had no clue what I was doing. Maybe I did but I sure felt lost. I think most first year teachers are in that same boat. Somehow we figure out how to survive the first year, hopefully the children learn something, and we move on. With experience comes confidence and better understanding. I enjoy teaching and I love the creative side of things. I like making things and coming up with new ideas (something I am definitely missing this year!!). Back in Horry County, it was normal for people to come in often and observe my teaching and talk with my students. When that first started happening I remember being really stressed about it. I like constructive feedback but it's in the nature of a teacher to worry. No one likes to feel judged and there is always a fear of doing something wrong. After a while, having people come in and observe didn't really phase me. I was used to it and so were the kids. Sometimes we would have special visitors (superintendent, math consultant, etc.) so we would "fluff" things up a bit to make it more of a WOW but for the most part we carried on as normal. Fast forward to today, teaching in the UK. At my school, this is not how things work. There are NEVER rainbows and unicorns. And so my story about OFSTED begins...
When I first started teaching here in the UK, Ofsted was a name that kept coming up over and over again. I'd like to bet that I am not the only American person that has no clue what Ofsted is. When you google Ofsted it says "Ofsted is the Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills. We inspect and regulate services that care for children and young people, and services providing education and skills for learners of all ages. Ofsted is a non-ministerial department." I still wasn't really sure what this meant. Of course I asked lots of questions and the general idea is that basically every school in the UK is given a rating by Ofsted. Your school can be considered outstanding, good, requires improvement, or inadequate. From what I understood, if your school is rated good/outstanding, Ofsted would basically leave you alone for a few years before another inspection. If you are a requires improvement school you should expect another inspection at any given time. I have no clue about inadequate schools. Knowing how things work here, they probably shut it down and blow it up or something ridiculous. Kidding! (I think?) The way that it was presented to me by the heads of my school at the beginning of the year was that when Ofsted declared they were coming for a visit we would be given a days notice, stay late tidying and preparing for them and then endure several days of intense observations, meetings, questioning, etc. I was also told by my colleagues to definitely expect a visit from Ofsted this year. I believe the last rating of my school was a requires improvement score, even though Early Years (Reception) scored good to outstanding. We get our own score. The school thought Ofsted was coming the end of last year but since they didn't show, it was a given that at some point this year it would happen.
I was uneasy with the idea of Ofsted based on what I was told for several reasons. The way it was presented to me was that some random people that may or may not have ever taught in a classroom would be coming to make judgements about me and my teaching methods based on a single day of observations that could last up to only a few minutes long. I was also under the impression that when Ofsted comes for a visit, we "fluff" data percentages and "put out the good China as if the Queen was coming for tea." If you are a teacher reading this then you know exactly how I am feeling at this point. I completely disagree with making up data and doing anything different from a normal day just because a visitor is coming, especially if the visitors are coming to see a normal day. Yes, we might tidy up a bit more and yes, we might go the extra mile to make our lessons more engaging, BUT I think certain things should be done every day and we shouldn't make it all up and do things out of the ordinary. As I said earlier, I don't mind people giving feedback about my teaching. I like to have feedback both positive and negative. This year there has very rarely been anyone in to watch me teach. Maybe 2 or 3 times. This means that no one truly knows who I am as a teacher. If Ofsted were to come in on a day where maybe it wasn't a good lesson or some kind of drama was going on, no one would be able to fight my corner and explain that it was just a one off and no one would know that I am actually not a terrible teacher. I don't like that. Anyway, as this year has gone on and we didn't have "the call," I think tension started to build and we had a staff meeting all about Ofsted because we knew it was coming at some point and hopefully sooner rather than later.
The meeting about Ofsted was basically to explain how it would all work. Ofsted would call the day before, no later than 12 noon and speak to the head, ask questions, request parking spaces and ask for lunch to be provided. The executive head of our school is actually an Ofsted inspector so you would hope that he would have our school fully prepared as he knows exactly what they are looking for. He explained to us that Ofsted inspections would be 2 days long. They would never call on a Thursday or Friday because they don't give schools weekends to prepare and they need 2 full days for observations. On the first day of observations, several inspectors would come round, in and out of our rooms all day observing us, questioning us and the children, and taking in the environment. The second day they would look at evidence, books, and follow up with anything they may have missed from the first day. Their visit would also include talks with parents, school governors, and a teacher and parent online survey. Our head told us that when they call, he didn't want us staying late to put up new displays and tidy everything. He said he would rather the focus be on making sure we have good solid lessons planned. Ofsted don't look at lesson plans. The meeting ended and several weeks went by before we finally had THE CALL.
On a Tuesday right before half term (for my American friends, half term is a week off from school!), we found out that Ofsted was coming to visit us on Wednesday and Thursday, our last 2 days before the break. We had no school on Friday, it was just before a holiday so great freaking timing...of course. I wasn't really nervous because I wanted to continue on as always. I didn't want it to be a song and dance. They were looking for what we do every day and that is what the score should be based on. Because this whole idea of Ofsted is still completely crazy to me, it didn't really affect me like it did many others. People were staying at school til 10 at night, they ordered pizza for those that were going to stay late to get things together and ready, and on the first day Ofsted were there the parking lot was full by 7 am which NEVER happens. I'm all for doing your best and showing off what you can do but it really puts A TON of pressure on teachers.
On Wednesday morning we met with the 3 Ofsted inspectors and already the lead inspector made me realize that I had the total wrong impression of Ofsted...sort of. She really put me at ease and made clear that they weren't coming to judge us as individual teachers. It was an overall picture of the school that they were looking at. Basically, they would look at what we were teaching (more so the content and how it was presented) rather than judge our teaching. I was thinking GREAT. It was made to sound so much better than what I thought. I wasn't worried and the day was actually really good. We had one inspector with us in Reception most of the day. She asked questions, spoke with parents that gave incredibly positive feedback, observed children, looked through books of evidence, and met with our lead teacher to talk about the data. I'm not going to really talk too much about the data side of things at this point because it makes me cross. Let's just say that we had our data sheet and then we had an Ofsted data sheet. We all left feeling positive about how things went. It was a very stressful day and I think everyone was looking forward to a glass of wine at the end of it! Everyone but poor Laura. Since she is pregnant, her end of the day thought was "I wish I was a caterpillar." It was very funny to hear her say that randomly!
Day 2 of Ofsted was when the crazy started. Unfortunately one of our TA's was out due to a poorly child so we were down to 5. Luckily she was replaced but it is just never the same. It was just after 7 am (the kids don't come until 8:40) and we were approached about finding evidence in our learning stories to prove all of these different things. We didn't have enough evidence of challenge and we needed to show more boys writing and we needed to show more evidence of growth in our EAL students and blah, blah, blah. It wasn't a great way to start the day when negative everything is being thrown in your face. We found what we could, rushed to set things up for the day because we were now behind, and didn't have any Ofsted anyone come in throughout the whole morning. The lead inspector hadn't come to us yet so we knew she would be in at some point. She ended up coming in almost immediately after lunch. It wasn't a terrible input but I didn't feel like it was the best learning she could have seen. Apparently she liked what she saw though so that was ok. This has been a couple of weeks ago now so I don't remember all the other drama but the day ended with a meeting between teachers and the lead inspector. She basically wanted to know why we all enjoyed working at the school, how we feel about the heads, and how we all work together throughout the school. Considering almost half the staff is leaving at the end of the year, it was bloody annoying to hear people start spitting out all these positive things left and right when it isn't actually how people feel AT ALL. I just sat in silence because my days at this place are numbered and for that I am thankful.
The Ofsted rating is kept secret by the administration of school for 2 weeks until it is published by Ofsted. We've just been given the official word today that our school overall rating is "Good." I'm pleased for the school even though I don't agree with the system AT ALL. It's hard for me to put all the nonsense and craziness into words but I'm trying to put pieces of it out there. I'm glad I got to experience an Ofsted visit but again, it is a stupid, ridiculous thing that they do here. Just a few days ago it came out in the news that a new lead Ofsted inspector or something has been appointed. She has some educational experience but has never actually been a teacher before. How can that even be possible? If you are going to observe teachers and rate schools, you really need to have experienced some time in the classroom. That's my opinion anyway. There is a lot more to Ofsted than what I've said here. This is just a very basic explanation and I'm sure I'll remember more details later that I'll want to say about the whole thing. For now I am just counting down the days. I realise that I should probably change the name of my blog from 'The Travelling Teacher' to 'The Whiny Teacher that Complains A Lot." I guess I just feel like I have nothing to lose by putting this out there because I'm not going to teach here again. I'm just saying what everyone feels really.
When I first started teaching here in the UK, Ofsted was a name that kept coming up over and over again. I'd like to bet that I am not the only American person that has no clue what Ofsted is. When you google Ofsted it says "Ofsted is the Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills. We inspect and regulate services that care for children and young people, and services providing education and skills for learners of all ages. Ofsted is a non-ministerial department." I still wasn't really sure what this meant. Of course I asked lots of questions and the general idea is that basically every school in the UK is given a rating by Ofsted. Your school can be considered outstanding, good, requires improvement, or inadequate. From what I understood, if your school is rated good/outstanding, Ofsted would basically leave you alone for a few years before another inspection. If you are a requires improvement school you should expect another inspection at any given time. I have no clue about inadequate schools. Knowing how things work here, they probably shut it down and blow it up or something ridiculous. Kidding! (I think?) The way that it was presented to me by the heads of my school at the beginning of the year was that when Ofsted declared they were coming for a visit we would be given a days notice, stay late tidying and preparing for them and then endure several days of intense observations, meetings, questioning, etc. I was also told by my colleagues to definitely expect a visit from Ofsted this year. I believe the last rating of my school was a requires improvement score, even though Early Years (Reception) scored good to outstanding. We get our own score. The school thought Ofsted was coming the end of last year but since they didn't show, it was a given that at some point this year it would happen.
I was uneasy with the idea of Ofsted based on what I was told for several reasons. The way it was presented to me was that some random people that may or may not have ever taught in a classroom would be coming to make judgements about me and my teaching methods based on a single day of observations that could last up to only a few minutes long. I was also under the impression that when Ofsted comes for a visit, we "fluff" data percentages and "put out the good China as if the Queen was coming for tea." If you are a teacher reading this then you know exactly how I am feeling at this point. I completely disagree with making up data and doing anything different from a normal day just because a visitor is coming, especially if the visitors are coming to see a normal day. Yes, we might tidy up a bit more and yes, we might go the extra mile to make our lessons more engaging, BUT I think certain things should be done every day and we shouldn't make it all up and do things out of the ordinary. As I said earlier, I don't mind people giving feedback about my teaching. I like to have feedback both positive and negative. This year there has very rarely been anyone in to watch me teach. Maybe 2 or 3 times. This means that no one truly knows who I am as a teacher. If Ofsted were to come in on a day where maybe it wasn't a good lesson or some kind of drama was going on, no one would be able to fight my corner and explain that it was just a one off and no one would know that I am actually not a terrible teacher. I don't like that. Anyway, as this year has gone on and we didn't have "the call," I think tension started to build and we had a staff meeting all about Ofsted because we knew it was coming at some point and hopefully sooner rather than later.
The meeting about Ofsted was basically to explain how it would all work. Ofsted would call the day before, no later than 12 noon and speak to the head, ask questions, request parking spaces and ask for lunch to be provided. The executive head of our school is actually an Ofsted inspector so you would hope that he would have our school fully prepared as he knows exactly what they are looking for. He explained to us that Ofsted inspections would be 2 days long. They would never call on a Thursday or Friday because they don't give schools weekends to prepare and they need 2 full days for observations. On the first day of observations, several inspectors would come round, in and out of our rooms all day observing us, questioning us and the children, and taking in the environment. The second day they would look at evidence, books, and follow up with anything they may have missed from the first day. Their visit would also include talks with parents, school governors, and a teacher and parent online survey. Our head told us that when they call, he didn't want us staying late to put up new displays and tidy everything. He said he would rather the focus be on making sure we have good solid lessons planned. Ofsted don't look at lesson plans. The meeting ended and several weeks went by before we finally had THE CALL.
On a Tuesday right before half term (for my American friends, half term is a week off from school!), we found out that Ofsted was coming to visit us on Wednesday and Thursday, our last 2 days before the break. We had no school on Friday, it was just before a holiday so great freaking timing...of course. I wasn't really nervous because I wanted to continue on as always. I didn't want it to be a song and dance. They were looking for what we do every day and that is what the score should be based on. Because this whole idea of Ofsted is still completely crazy to me, it didn't really affect me like it did many others. People were staying at school til 10 at night, they ordered pizza for those that were going to stay late to get things together and ready, and on the first day Ofsted were there the parking lot was full by 7 am which NEVER happens. I'm all for doing your best and showing off what you can do but it really puts A TON of pressure on teachers.
On Wednesday morning we met with the 3 Ofsted inspectors and already the lead inspector made me realize that I had the total wrong impression of Ofsted...sort of. She really put me at ease and made clear that they weren't coming to judge us as individual teachers. It was an overall picture of the school that they were looking at. Basically, they would look at what we were teaching (more so the content and how it was presented) rather than judge our teaching. I was thinking GREAT. It was made to sound so much better than what I thought. I wasn't worried and the day was actually really good. We had one inspector with us in Reception most of the day. She asked questions, spoke with parents that gave incredibly positive feedback, observed children, looked through books of evidence, and met with our lead teacher to talk about the data. I'm not going to really talk too much about the data side of things at this point because it makes me cross. Let's just say that we had our data sheet and then we had an Ofsted data sheet. We all left feeling positive about how things went. It was a very stressful day and I think everyone was looking forward to a glass of wine at the end of it! Everyone but poor Laura. Since she is pregnant, her end of the day thought was "I wish I was a caterpillar." It was very funny to hear her say that randomly!
Day 2 of Ofsted was when the crazy started. Unfortunately one of our TA's was out due to a poorly child so we were down to 5. Luckily she was replaced but it is just never the same. It was just after 7 am (the kids don't come until 8:40) and we were approached about finding evidence in our learning stories to prove all of these different things. We didn't have enough evidence of challenge and we needed to show more boys writing and we needed to show more evidence of growth in our EAL students and blah, blah, blah. It wasn't a great way to start the day when negative everything is being thrown in your face. We found what we could, rushed to set things up for the day because we were now behind, and didn't have any Ofsted anyone come in throughout the whole morning. The lead inspector hadn't come to us yet so we knew she would be in at some point. She ended up coming in almost immediately after lunch. It wasn't a terrible input but I didn't feel like it was the best learning she could have seen. Apparently she liked what she saw though so that was ok. This has been a couple of weeks ago now so I don't remember all the other drama but the day ended with a meeting between teachers and the lead inspector. She basically wanted to know why we all enjoyed working at the school, how we feel about the heads, and how we all work together throughout the school. Considering almost half the staff is leaving at the end of the year, it was bloody annoying to hear people start spitting out all these positive things left and right when it isn't actually how people feel AT ALL. I just sat in silence because my days at this place are numbered and for that I am thankful.
The Ofsted rating is kept secret by the administration of school for 2 weeks until it is published by Ofsted. We've just been given the official word today that our school overall rating is "Good." I'm pleased for the school even though I don't agree with the system AT ALL. It's hard for me to put all the nonsense and craziness into words but I'm trying to put pieces of it out there. I'm glad I got to experience an Ofsted visit but again, it is a stupid, ridiculous thing that they do here. Just a few days ago it came out in the news that a new lead Ofsted inspector or something has been appointed. She has some educational experience but has never actually been a teacher before. How can that even be possible? If you are going to observe teachers and rate schools, you really need to have experienced some time in the classroom. That's my opinion anyway. There is a lot more to Ofsted than what I've said here. This is just a very basic explanation and I'm sure I'll remember more details later that I'll want to say about the whole thing. For now I am just counting down the days. I realise that I should probably change the name of my blog from 'The Travelling Teacher' to 'The Whiny Teacher that Complains A Lot." I guess I just feel like I have nothing to lose by putting this out there because I'm not going to teach here again. I'm just saying what everyone feels really.
Monday, 16 May 2016
"Appreciate what you have, before it turns into what you had."
One of the things that I took for granted when teaching in America was the fact that we were given sick and personal days. 10 sick days and 2 personal days per year. Unused days were carried over each year. You could have loads of sick days piled up and a max of 4 personal days. When taking a day off (sick or personal) you were able to put it in the computer system so that a sub would come and cover for you or whoever might be out (teaching assistant). Only on a rare chance at the peak of flu season was it almost impossible to find coverage and even then, we were given additional help when needed within the school. Most times it was someone amazing that came to help or cover and as a teacher, I was left with peace of mind knowing that things were running smoothly in my absence. Yes, I realise that some subs weren't worth much (such as the readers, the sleepers, the 800 year old ones, or the bossy ones) but most were great.
At my current school and in all of England (as far as I'm aware of) there is no such thing as a sick day or personal day. If you are sick and need a day off, you call the headteacher and you are "allowed" to stay home and rest if needed. If you need a personal day (because heaven forbid you have a life or something and just need a day for whatever reason) you basically need to pretend to be sick or they make you come in? I actually have no idea what happens. I'm assuming you get docked pay or something. I'm not sure though.
The biggest issue at my school is that apparently the budget for supply (sub) teachers has run out due to too many teachers being sick early in the year, so if you or your teaching assistant are sick, it's basically too bad so sad. There is no coverage. Sometimes they will send someone from within the school (an assistant from another year level if possible) but in Reception, we usually just deal with it the best we can. We have 3 teachers and 3 teaching assistants for a reason. 74 children at ages 4 and 5 is A LOT OF CHILDREN.
We shouldn't be made to feel guilty when we are sick nor should we feel like absolute chaos is going to ensue when we are down a person. It is a ridiculous system. As teachers we know that missing a day isn't usually worth it because you miss out on so much (even for just 1 day) PLUS you create even more work for yourself when you go back. I don't like to miss days for being sick, however, guess what? PEOPLE GET SICK. THINGS HAPPEN. IT'S CALLED LIFE. I cannot understand why appropriate coverage isn't given and why days aren't built in or why the budget for supply teachers disappeared way back in December probably when we weren't even halfway through the year.
The reason for writing this is because today we were down 2 TA's, both of which had extremely valid reasons for being off. I know they both felt awful and guilty for not coming in, mainly because they both knew we would be lacking coverage and on plan XYZ for the day. My point is, they shouldn't feel bad for this! It isn't their fault. It's not a fault to be had. No one needs to be sorry for being sick. Of course no one was given to us for additional support and we did manage and made it through the day. Was it crazy? YES. Chaotic even? ABSOLUTELY. Did I come home with an insane migraine from the stress? OF COURSE I DID. Will we have to do this again tomorrow? YEP! Will we do it again with a smile on our face? YES. Because teachers know how to "play the game" and we play it well.
Sorry for the complete and utter rant. I figured if I didn't start blogging about some of my issues with UK schools, the list would be too long to ever blog about in the future because I won't remember it all! I know I am being totally negative and grouchy and I'm really sorry for that. Not everything has been negative and I want to share all that I've learnt, too. Today is just one of those days and I needed to vent!
At my current school and in all of England (as far as I'm aware of) there is no such thing as a sick day or personal day. If you are sick and need a day off, you call the headteacher and you are "allowed" to stay home and rest if needed. If you need a personal day (because heaven forbid you have a life or something and just need a day for whatever reason) you basically need to pretend to be sick or they make you come in? I actually have no idea what happens. I'm assuming you get docked pay or something. I'm not sure though.
The biggest issue at my school is that apparently the budget for supply (sub) teachers has run out due to too many teachers being sick early in the year, so if you or your teaching assistant are sick, it's basically too bad so sad. There is no coverage. Sometimes they will send someone from within the school (an assistant from another year level if possible) but in Reception, we usually just deal with it the best we can. We have 3 teachers and 3 teaching assistants for a reason. 74 children at ages 4 and 5 is A LOT OF CHILDREN.
We shouldn't be made to feel guilty when we are sick nor should we feel like absolute chaos is going to ensue when we are down a person. It is a ridiculous system. As teachers we know that missing a day isn't usually worth it because you miss out on so much (even for just 1 day) PLUS you create even more work for yourself when you go back. I don't like to miss days for being sick, however, guess what? PEOPLE GET SICK. THINGS HAPPEN. IT'S CALLED LIFE. I cannot understand why appropriate coverage isn't given and why days aren't built in or why the budget for supply teachers disappeared way back in December probably when we weren't even halfway through the year.
The reason for writing this is because today we were down 2 TA's, both of which had extremely valid reasons for being off. I know they both felt awful and guilty for not coming in, mainly because they both knew we would be lacking coverage and on plan XYZ for the day. My point is, they shouldn't feel bad for this! It isn't their fault. It's not a fault to be had. No one needs to be sorry for being sick. Of course no one was given to us for additional support and we did manage and made it through the day. Was it crazy? YES. Chaotic even? ABSOLUTELY. Did I come home with an insane migraine from the stress? OF COURSE I DID. Will we have to do this again tomorrow? YEP! Will we do it again with a smile on our face? YES. Because teachers know how to "play the game" and we play it well.
Sorry for the complete and utter rant. I figured if I didn't start blogging about some of my issues with UK schools, the list would be too long to ever blog about in the future because I won't remember it all! I know I am being totally negative and grouchy and I'm really sorry for that. Not everything has been negative and I want to share all that I've learnt, too. Today is just one of those days and I needed to vent!
Wednesday, 23 March 2016
"I haven't been everywhere, but it's on my list!"
Hello friends! It's been ages since I've written a blog post, I know. As Haydn and I prepare for an AMAZING European road trip over the next week, I figured it might be a good time to start writing again. As the name of my blog is the "traveling teacher," I might as well blog about the travel part! The teaching part is a different story for another day. While teaching in the UK hasn't been the most glorious experience, I have learned a lot and will share more about that soon. For now, it's enough to say ONE MORE DAY until Easter Holiday! So thankful we have 2 weeks off! On to the fun stuff...the traveling! We are planning to drive through 14 different countries in just 8 short days. We start out on Friday at about 12:30 AM to get to a VERY early ferry that leaves from Dover, England and takes us to Calais, France at 3:20 AM. We will then drive through Belgium to reach the Netherlands. It will take about 1 1/2 hours to get to the ferry and then about 3 1/2 hours to get to Amsterdam. We have such an exciting day planned for Friday. Keep your fingers crossed that the rain stays away so we can see all the beautiful tulips and take a bike ride through the tulip fields. I'll make sure to post loads of pictures!! xx
Wednesday, 12 August 2015
"Being sick can seem like all fun and games until you no longer live with your mom."
Thankfully I have Haydn. He has been a star in taking care of my while I've been sick. I have no idea what happened. I've been having terrible allergy attacks for weeks now. I think the change in climate, the dust from moving, and the fact that it's hay fever season around here all combined and I've been having issues. Allergy meds usually help clear it up. Last Friday I thought it was that but then my throat started hurting. I figured it was just sinuses and drainage issues. Then the fever started. I think that having a fever as an adult is one of the worst feelings in the world. I had chills and was achey and it was just plain awful. On Saturday morning I was feeling worse. We had a ton of things to do so I didn't want to take up a lot of time by making a visit to the Dr. Also, I haven't actually registered with a Dr. in this area yet. You can't make an appointment until you've registered somewhere but we decided to go to the walk-in clinic. The wait wasn't too long so we were glad for that. I never feel comfortable going to a Dr. I haven't been to before. I was afraid of hearing lectures about my blood pressure being high (I'm sure it's through the roof right now due to stress.) and I just didn't know what to expect. They took my name, asked for no ID, and didn't even ask for my National Insurance Number. The Dr. was about 500 years old and could barely walk. I was scared but still hoping this would somehow help me. He didn't take blood pressure or anything. He just asked what was wrong. I explained the sore throat, fever, etc. I was trying to explain the symptoms but he didn't seem to care. He wanted to look at my throat and didn't use a light or any of the normal tools, he just looked at it and said "Oh, ew, yeah I can see why you say you have a sore throat." He then gave me a prescription and said have a nice day. WHAT?!?! It was like a 2 minute process. It was weird and I just don't know. I know it was strep because I know what that looks like. I haven't had strep this bad since I don't even know when. I am finally feeling better today. Even yesterday I was thinking about going back because my throat just wasn't feeling any better. My glands were so swollen, my neck was sore, and I just thought maybe it was something other than strep. My diet the past 5 days or so has been cranberry juice and mashed potatoes and I still don't have an appetite for much of anything else. I'm feeling better today I am SO THANKFUL. I've been trying to rest and get sleep as much as I can. I've also been trying to get a lot done so the rest/sleep hasn't been happening so much. I haven't been sleeping well at night but last night I finally got a full night of sleep so that was good, too. The Dr. experience was bizarre and I definitely need to get registered elsewhere ASAP so that I can see a Dr. that isn't 500 years old. :)
Wednesday, 5 August 2015
"You can't have rainbows without a little rain."
Moving house is chaotic. End of story. We are so happy with our new house, however, we are currently living in a sea full of cardboard boxes and things that need to be put away and dealt with. I'm doing the best I can while Haydn works during the day but there are just some things I need help with. Hopefully we will get a lot done over the upcoming weekend. We have our first guest (Haydn's sister and our nephew) coming to visit next week! I can't wait! It gives us a good deadline to get things done by!
In addition to the chaos of unpacking and moving, I've been spending a lot of time at the gym. It's such a nice gym. The building itself has a ton of other things going on (huge pool, gymnastics centre for kids, a cafe, shops, track, etc.). They gym is great. I like going in the mornings with all of the older people! When I don't feel like going I just remember that there are about 20 80-90 year olds there so I have ZERO excuse!! I've been running again, some weight training, and finally got back into Zumba. It's the best and it's such a great release of all the current stresses I have going on right now!! Plus it burns a lot of calories! Another note about the gym is that apparently in 2012 when the Olympics were in London, the Bermuda Olympic team used it as their training facility. I thought that was pretty cool! Moving on...
In my phone I've started a list about random things that come up for me to share here in my blog. It's very random but I hope you find it interesting!
*AA does not stand for Alcoholics Anonymous here. AA is the Automobile Association that comes to help you when your car breaks down. Basically it's our version of AAA. Here AAA is just a battery. :)
*Pandora doesn't work in the UK. So sad. I'm trying out Spotify but I don't like it as much.
* TJ Maxx is TK Maxx. Weird. No clue why it's not the same!
*Sundays drive me crazy. ALL stores of any kind shut down around 4 PM. You have to make a really early start to get your errands done! I guess there is some kind of law that only allows businesses to stay open a certain number of hours. It's crazy because stores close pretty early on most week nights, too. Lots of places close at 5:30. I think the mall might be open until 7ish but not every night.
*Thank goodness for IKEA. I'm glad we don't live that far away from one!
*Near IKEA is a Costco!! They even sell Cadbury chocolate in bulk!
*England is not very religious. After living in the south for so long you get used to seeing so many churches all over. There aren't hardly any around here. I think I know where 1 is located but people generally don't seem to be very religious at all.
*The Pound Shop is great. It's our version of the dollar store but obviously they don't have dollars here, they have pounds. There is the Pound Shop or Poundland. Both of lots of things for school!
*Dancing here is known as having a boogie. Boogie is pronounced boo-gie. :)
*I went from NY to shopping with a cart to shopping in SC with a buggy to England where we shop with a trolley!
*Apparently I hold my utensils incorrectly when eating. I guess I'm supposed to hold my fork with my left hand and knife with my right hand at all times throughout the meal. Lefties have it easy!
*Some other interesting words/phrases:
-What's the crack? meaning What's going on?
-Slag meaning skank
-Crackers meaning crazy
-Crumbs meaning darn it
*Everywhere Haydn and I go, people always say to us "You look nice and brown. Have you just been on holiday?" I love the compliment but I promise I am not any shade of brown. I'm pale as a ghost and our holiday was over a LONG time ago!
*Today I found out what a "subway" is in England and I'm not talking about the sandwich place. It's a creepy tunnel that you can walk through to get to the other side of the motorway. I've used them before but didn't realise that is what they were called!
*I love our new TV provider. We have LIFETIME!!! It's not the same but close enough. It's funny because a lot of shows on the British version of Lifetime are shows that air on Bravo or HGTV in America. Glad to have it though!
*At almost any hour of the day you can watch Judge Judy on TV here. People love her! You can also watch Jeremy Kyle, the British version of Jerry Springer, at almost any time. He's hilarious!
*When going out to eat you can have a starter (appetiser). The best is baked Camembert. I've never seen this in the US before. It's a melty cheese that you can dip breads and fruits/veggies in. SO YUM.
I promise to work on posting pictures of everything as soon as I can!! :)
In addition to the chaos of unpacking and moving, I've been spending a lot of time at the gym. It's such a nice gym. The building itself has a ton of other things going on (huge pool, gymnastics centre for kids, a cafe, shops, track, etc.). They gym is great. I like going in the mornings with all of the older people! When I don't feel like going I just remember that there are about 20 80-90 year olds there so I have ZERO excuse!! I've been running again, some weight training, and finally got back into Zumba. It's the best and it's such a great release of all the current stresses I have going on right now!! Plus it burns a lot of calories! Another note about the gym is that apparently in 2012 when the Olympics were in London, the Bermuda Olympic team used it as their training facility. I thought that was pretty cool! Moving on...
In my phone I've started a list about random things that come up for me to share here in my blog. It's very random but I hope you find it interesting!
*AA does not stand for Alcoholics Anonymous here. AA is the Automobile Association that comes to help you when your car breaks down. Basically it's our version of AAA. Here AAA is just a battery. :)
*Pandora doesn't work in the UK. So sad. I'm trying out Spotify but I don't like it as much.
* TJ Maxx is TK Maxx. Weird. No clue why it's not the same!
*Sundays drive me crazy. ALL stores of any kind shut down around 4 PM. You have to make a really early start to get your errands done! I guess there is some kind of law that only allows businesses to stay open a certain number of hours. It's crazy because stores close pretty early on most week nights, too. Lots of places close at 5:30. I think the mall might be open until 7ish but not every night.
*Thank goodness for IKEA. I'm glad we don't live that far away from one!
*Near IKEA is a Costco!! They even sell Cadbury chocolate in bulk!
*England is not very religious. After living in the south for so long you get used to seeing so many churches all over. There aren't hardly any around here. I think I know where 1 is located but people generally don't seem to be very religious at all.
*The Pound Shop is great. It's our version of the dollar store but obviously they don't have dollars here, they have pounds. There is the Pound Shop or Poundland. Both of lots of things for school!
*Dancing here is known as having a boogie. Boogie is pronounced boo-gie. :)
*I went from NY to shopping with a cart to shopping in SC with a buggy to England where we shop with a trolley!
*Apparently I hold my utensils incorrectly when eating. I guess I'm supposed to hold my fork with my left hand and knife with my right hand at all times throughout the meal. Lefties have it easy!
*Some other interesting words/phrases:
-What's the crack? meaning What's going on?
-Slag meaning skank
-Crackers meaning crazy
-Crumbs meaning darn it
*Everywhere Haydn and I go, people always say to us "You look nice and brown. Have you just been on holiday?" I love the compliment but I promise I am not any shade of brown. I'm pale as a ghost and our holiday was over a LONG time ago!
*Today I found out what a "subway" is in England and I'm not talking about the sandwich place. It's a creepy tunnel that you can walk through to get to the other side of the motorway. I've used them before but didn't realise that is what they were called!
*I love our new TV provider. We have LIFETIME!!! It's not the same but close enough. It's funny because a lot of shows on the British version of Lifetime are shows that air on Bravo or HGTV in America. Glad to have it though!
*At almost any hour of the day you can watch Judge Judy on TV here. People love her! You can also watch Jeremy Kyle, the British version of Jerry Springer, at almost any time. He's hilarious!
*When going out to eat you can have a starter (appetiser). The best is baked Camembert. I've never seen this in the US before. It's a melty cheese that you can dip breads and fruits/veggies in. SO YUM.
I promise to work on posting pictures of everything as soon as I can!! :)
Thursday, 30 July 2015
"Fill a house with love and it becomes a home."
This weekend is our big move! I cannot wait to be in anew place and finally get settled. It will be so nice to unpack everything, get organised, and start living life without boxes and suitcases all over the place! Once we get settled, I'll definitely make sure to share lots of pictures! I'm not even sure we have good pictures of our current flat but I'll work on that, too. Thankfully we are only moving about 10 minutes from here in the same town. The main reason for our move is that we simply need more space. The flat we are in now has been Haydn's "bachelor pad" for the last 3 years. It's worked well for us, however, the lounge (living room) is Haydn's office, if I stand with my arms out in the kitchen I can reach both walls (It's that narrow!), and the spare bedroom is full of tools, and other misc. things that belong in a shed meaning we have no room for guests. When we started looking for a place, we had a list of "must haves" and then a list of things that would be nice but not totally necessary.
Our "must haves:"
*3+ bedrooms (master, a guest room, and office)
*En-suite bathroom to master bedroom (not common in this country!!)
*Yard
*Off-street parking
*2+ bathrooms
Would be nice but not totally necessary:
*Tumble dryer
*Conservatory (Kind of like a sun room but not!) See picture! >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
*Dishwasher (again, not totally common in a lot of places!)
*Close to town (I love to be able to walk there.)
*Shed in the yard (for storage)
*Built-in wardrobes (Closets are unheard of! Wardrobes are huge clunky things that take up lots of space in the rooms that are already pretty small. Built in wardrobes help save space!)
*Detached property (Meaning we wouldn't have to share a wall with someone.)
*Detached property (Meaning we wouldn't have to share a wall with someone.)
We were lucky enough to find a house that has EVERYTHING on BOTH of our lists!! Here is a quick picture of the front and back of the house. I can't wait to show you the inside!! :)
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