A New Beginning

I must apologise for going AWOL this week. I have been rather quiet on the blogging front for several reasons:

1.  I had a choir rehearsal on Wednesday
2.  I had a band rehearsal yesterday, followed by a gig in the evening
3.  I started my new job...

Yup, the job.

It's taken up most of my time this week, as well you might imagine. Since Monday it has been a whirl of meeting new people, visiting schools, arranging appointments, trying to work out the new Blackberry, finding out who deals with the stationery order in the office, making initial assessments of children and deciding which approach to take. This is no mean feat. Turns out I have around 368 children in the borough who may need my input. That's one big class.... I think I might need to clone myself six times over... :o)

I have enjoyed my first week, even though it has been hectic. I feel like I've been working there for ever. I have managed to assess just 10 children, and taught 9. This evening I am sitting at my laptop trying to work out lesson plans for students in one class between 11 and 16 years, all of whom have different levels of English and different needs. I am also trying to get my head around tomorrow - a school visit in the morning where there are around 60 children needing my help, followed by a visit to a secondary school and an assessment visit to another primary school. Just as well that I like being busy and am a self-starter... Think I'll probably be able to come up for air round about the end of July - oh, hang on, that's the end of term...!

Already I have come up with some great ideas for resources to help the children, all of which I'll make available to you when they are ready. Everything from teaching basic language patterns and phonics, through to developing good grammar and descriptive passages, to being able to use English in an everyday setting, and the tricky area of tenses of irregular verbs. It's going to be a challenge...

No-one said it would be easy - and that's the way I like it!

The other thing on my mind this week is losing weight. With summer just around the corner, it's time to get into shape. Not that I'm obese you understand - I just need to lose a few pounds. But it's always those few pounds that make you feel ugly and uncomfortable in your clothes.. I've tried... I'm a lover of the gym and in the past have hit the place almost every day of the week. But I can't seem to muster up any enthusiasm - I've lost my mojo... But I need to get it back quickly! It's difficult to find time, but I need to try. I don't eat rubbish. I'm a vegetarian so meat and meat derivatives are totally out. I don't eat much bread, and hardly ever have chips. I never have fried food. My one vice is the occasional chocloate treat. So where am I going wrong? Help!!! All advice gratefully received.

Have a good week everyone! Oh, and happy Father's Day to all dads out there.