Posted 7:30 AM by Lodger
OF ALL TIMES, WHY NOW?

Sunday. Day before OFSTED inspection. 4:15. As I lift my glasses to my face, a screw falls out, a lense falls to the carpet and I am left with blurry vision. Shit! What now? I decide to run up to the mall to catch the Boots Optician department before they close at five. Arrive, out of breath, at 4:40. No problem. Woman at the counter takes away the glasses and from a distance I can make out fuzzy, efficient looking movements taking place at a back counter. A few minutes later she arrives back, looking a bit sheepish. 'I managed to fix the screw, but while cleaning your glasses I broke the frame.' Oh. I see. Where does that leave me? 'We can send the frame to Cambridge and they should be back in 5 to 7 days.' Oh. Shit.

And so, for the week of OFSTED I taught partially blind.

INSPECTION

Despite the blurriness, the inspection came and went and life went on. Our school did well, from what we're hearing, and the standard of teaching has been rated highly across the board. It was a strange experience, being observed with so much potentially on the line, and yet while it happens there's little you can do. You just teach and hope for the best. The English inspector was a nice guy... I was observed only once in English and it was a good lesson. I was observed twice during my form, once while teaching sex ed! The inspector saw the 'how to correctly put a condom on a fake penis' lesson and, all things considered, it went well. My form behaved well under pressure, as did my year nine class that was observed, and I am proud of all of them.

DIWALI

After a couple of nights out with staff celebrating a successful OFSTED week, Saturday was spent with JV and Verona for their Diwali celebration, or Hindu new year. Scott, Winnie and I shared the experience with JV and Verona who took us to temple, fed us an incredible meal and entertained us with a fireworks display in the back yard. JV's roast lamb is incredible and I hope to convince him to teach me the ways of Indian cooking. We had scotch and conversation after dinner and then we were all put up for the night.

Sunday we slept in, packed a picnic and went into London to see the new spectacle at the Tate Modern - a replica sun shining in the main hall. It was pretty cool, especially the shadows which were reflected onto the ceiling. People were laying on the ground in formations and looking at the shapes projected onto the ceiling. Free entertainment on a Sunday afternoon.

A LAZY HALF TERM BREAK

The rest of my half term break has been somewhat laid back. I've seen a couple of films (Intolerable Cruelty is a lot of fun) and I've seen two plays in the West End, 'Romeo and Juliet' and 'Jerry Springer - The Opera.' 'Romeo and Juliet' was quite unconventional, an all male cast of four performing the play as four private school boys discovering the play as they read and perform it. R & J is banned literature within the context of this adaptation. I enjoyed it for what it was, although many of the other members of the audience seemed to find it too unconventional for their tastes... I can imagine it being a very difficult theatre experience for anyone who was not already familiar with the play.

'Jerry Springer - The Opera' is amazing. It's the most outrageous thing I've ever seen, and definitely not for the faint of heart. Three nippled cousin f**kers! Tap dancing Klu Klux Klan members singing 'This is my Jerry Springer Moment!' Chicks with dicks!

It played this summer at the National Theatre to rave reviews and tickets were hard to come by. It's now started it's run in the West End. If I can get a cheap tickets a few months down the road I may go see it again. It's a true original.



Monday, it's back to work. These breaks always seem to go by much too fast. Tonight, like last night, will be a quiet night in. Fariba, Nooshin and I have a date with the VCR. Tomorrow, I begin to get myself into game shape for Monday... some marking, some planning.



Don't want to jinx them, but Canucks off to a great start. That's all I'll say.


Bye.