What on earth....

Hey guys,
Just woke up from sleeping the whole day away.... I have soo much work to do but I had a headache, sore throat and ear ache so I had no motivation. Now I'm unsure how I will be able to fall back asleep tonight and what I'm going to say since I haven't completed any of the work I needed to do this weekend.

One more week left of school until half term! I seriously can't wait! Perhaps I'll get motivation to teach again soon!

x

New Word

I created a new word over a year ago.... I love it! I use it all the time much to Oli and Jess's amusement.

The word is Decievious its definition is: To be deceptive and devious all rolled in one.

Oli tells me I should just give up and stop using it... but its just so "Melissa"

Trash....trailer trash.....

Just a very quick post to tell you all about something that happened yesterday afternoon.... I found out that 2 of the parents at our school sold a "real" story to a tabloid glossy called love it! basically its the front cover story and is called...."BOOB OP TO KEEP MY TOY BOY then he bedded my flat-chested mate!" I say it is "real" because its not true at all.... she got the boobs because her mum offered to pay for them and she brags about that.

In the article she mentions her kids names and everyothing. Its just so sad that she thinks her life is worth £500 and a free copy of the 60 pence mag.

I'm concerned about the effect it will have on her son considering the article basically sums up the well known fact she's a slapper and is quite disgusting.

Anyways in the meantime we all had a great time reading the article knowing that someone has already reported them and its been reported that the article isn't 100% true.

So how much is one's integrity worth?

Nothing new

Nothing new to write about. Went out last night to a friends 30th bday party. Had a blast. Stayed sober but was drunk on caffiene. I think its weird that they have the same effects on me.

I'm exhausted today since we didn't fall asleep until about 3.

Oh well it was fun.
Roll on SATs week!

I did it!

I rode almost all the way to work without walking up the BIG huge hills. This morning I only stopped and walked up 1/4 of the massive hill then I did the rest of them!

This afternoon I did them all! I'm really proud of myself although I think if I do it too often I might die of a heart attack.... it was hard work but mostly mentally!

At one point I thought (on a side road) if I concentrate on the road then I'll focus better until I looked up and saw cars coming towards me and it is a very narrow road! Now I know that isn't a good idea!

Can't feel any difference or see any difference to my health but meh it is early days.

x

Work, Relaxing

Work is good. I got put forward for a management course for September. My "career advisor" thinks I'm ready for it. I need to make a decision about what direction my career is going to go and I'm not sure I'm ready for that.

Relaxing is important although it makes you tired. Fresh air and excercise is hard work for the body. Riding my bike to work again! Loving it. Shaved 8 mins off my time but I think that was because I was being followed by a big red London bus. Going to do it again tomorrow. Only walked up 1/2 of a hill. Really need to get the hill situation sorted out (they are massive for a prairie girl)!

Flowers are coming along nicely. I'll take pictures when they are starting to look like something.

x

Gardening, Relaxing and then back to work...

I've been busy over the last week since coming back from Oli's parents place. I bought loads of plants at B and Q and planted about 10 planters of plants for my patio area. I also cut down about half a wall of ivy that had overgrown and was consuming a large portion of my neighbours area. I've really taken gardening on as my little project this year. I think it will force me to relax after work a little more.

It is about 20 degrees celcius here on a regular basis. Long are the days of winter shoes and coats! Enter the season of sandals and tank tops!

I went back to work on Monday and things are going well although I'm exhausted but that's just because I have to get up early early!

Back to riding my bike to school as of tomorrow!

More news to follow!

back!

We are back in our own place after a week at Oli's parents. It was a great time and we got to sit in the garden for long hours. We went for a walk in Bedford on Monday it was really nice.

Silja is stopping through London today with her sister so we will be hanging out and feeding her with a BBQ!

Went out today and bought plants for my pots in the garden.
I'm even going to try to grow cherry tomatoes! (Doubt they will work though but I'll try)


Tell you how it went after I plant everything.

Easter Break

I'm on my Easter Break. :) It was Oli's birthday on Monday. We had a nice night. Went out for curry and then back to ours to play on his Wii :) Terribly fun!

Basically all i've accomplished over the last couple of days is playing Wii... but that's ok.

We are off to Oli's parents place tonight until Tuesday so I'm looking forward to lying in the sun on the grass at his place. *cross your fingers the weather will be nice*

Happy Easter to you all.

Wicked-The New Musical

Last night I went to Wicked the Musical to celebrate Jess's birthday. I don't know if you know this but since moving to England I have been a West End performance critique. I'm not sure if i've really known it until the last couple of performances. I would say that the production I saw was about 3/5 stars. It is a great story which gives it a good start with me. The musical ties in quite nicely to the beginning of the Wizard of Oz and shows where the characters Scarecrow, Lion and Tin Man orginate from. Although it was not written by the same person I feel that it kept true to the feel of the Wizard of Oz. So by now you are probably thinking well why didn't it get more stars with you Melissa.

Well here are the reasons:

• the sound production wasn't up to standard
• the music wasn't catchy and didn't "feel" right
• it was very American (not surprising since it was written in America)

At some points it was very hard to hear the words over the orchestra. The music in a musical needs to make you feel that it was added in because of emotion but also needs to be catch enough to make you want to sing it long after the show was over but also there were no big chorus dancing/singing songs really. I say it was very American because it was I can't really describe it but here are a few examples... the jokes were quite obvious and for European especially British shows the jokes are subtle, a lot of the songs were sung arms stretched out in a look at me fashion.

Don't get me wrong it was still good and I didn't want to get up half way through the performance but it just didn't enthrall me like musicals usually do. So that's that.

Micky

Easter Holiday!

I'm on my Easter holidays now :)
Tonight I'm going to wash up some dishes then spend the night with 2 other couples playing board games. It's going to be fabulous.

There were no kids at school today so there isn't as much venom in my blood :) End of term means bad mood approaching until you are officially on holiday and then it's euphoric.

To all the educators out there.....

Why does a child that has Special needs (whether great or small) and/or is EAL only get support if they are in danger of hurting someone or themselves?

Part of me wishes that the children in my class and some previous classes learned that fighting will help them. Since I've learned that actually I can't.

Things I can do:

I can teach them the basics but can't help them walk.

I can teach them the basics at the same time (but at the cost of many other able or more able children's education being pushed aside)

Things I can't do:
Help anyone who isn't EAL, SEN or from a terrible family life.


So again I say... if you are a normal studious English speaking "can just get on without much help" perhaps y0u should just start beating people up, bring in guns or just stay at home because I don't have the support to teach you.

Frustrated,
M
x

ps It's not that I don't want to help its I physically am not allowed/can't .

Today's saga

My boiler isn't working again! The water is warm but not hot. The programmer isn't working very well either. How many times do you need to call someone out to get them to fix something? Seriously.... this will be sorted soon or I will flip!

Today I will also be spending the entire day crunching numbers with my Science LEA advisor. Joy o Joy. Alas, someone has to do it.

xo

For Rach!

Most people who read this know Rachel. She is wicked! We met when I was at university. I was a wandering, hyperactive person with no real direction. Rach kicked my butt and brought a lot of things to my attention. She's had up and she's had downs but all along she's been a fabulous friend. Rach now lives in Vancouver so I won't get to see her very often anymore but even though I won't I know she's thinking of me. So if Rach wants me to blog more then I'll try even harder can't let the lady down you know :) I miss her terribly and can't wait to see her smiling face! So this is for Rach....

I was observed teaching yesterday... again... on sunday I basically decided that I wasn't sitting down to plan an amazing lesson so whatever I did was going to be enough. The deputy was disappointed because I only got "very good" instead of "outstanding" I was quite happy considering I made no effort really. *LOL* I guess its all about perspective. 4 more teaching days until 1/2 term. I'm burned out and tomorrow I have to crunch numbers with my LEA advisor.

All my love,
Micky

Finally!

I'm alive! It's been so long since I last blogged but it has been seriously crazy around here. Since I last blogged it was Science Week at school. I was pulling hours from about 6am-midnight consistently for about a week. I barely could stay awake during the day. The only reason I didn't fall asleep was adrenalin. So once that stopped I was exhausted. This week I have had a VERY hard time not falling asleep standing up in my class. Yesterday I managed to rack in about 15 hours of sleep so I'm feeling a lot more like myself. Playing catch up with marking, school stuff generally, cleaning the house, cooking and sleeping is VERY time consuming.

My marking is all done, and we have food in the fridge (thanks to Oli) so I might learn how to cook again.

The weather is crazy here. During Science Week it was about 20 above but all last week it was cold. It even snowed on a couple of occasions.

I feel like I'm getting my life back to normal just in time for my Easter holidays (they start next Friday). So I might even blog regularily again.
xo

A VERY BUSY WEEK!

Man this week has been busy! A huge scale of moods...a huge pile of marking and lots of bits and piece.

I'm in charge of Science Week (12th-16th March) at my school and I have spent every waking moment trying to get it sorted and perfect! But in doing so I have had no time to think.

Its a very good thing though that i've been so busy because we have had no heat or hot water in our flat all week. Our boiler broke down and we are waiting for a new one to be installed on Monday! So we've been showering at our neighbours!

We are on our way out to the movies. We are going to see a movie called 'Hot Fuzz' it apparently like an American cop film but set in a very non exciting English town. I'll let you know all about it!

A nice week.

My boss has been out of town all week. It really makes a huge difference to the workplace. Everyone is just getting on with their work but at the same time really enjoying themselves.

Nate, Oli and I went with some of our friends to the pub last night. It was great hanging out with someone you don't see enough and them getting along with people you do.

Work is really busy but its going well. Lessons I thought were going to bomb didn't so overall its been a great week.

I'm being observed teaching tomorrow so I'll let you know how my week ended.

Thinking of all of you.
xo
Melissa

Au Natural

New hair do photo is below.... watch out though... its long and my natural colour.

Had a good first day back at work. Nothing interesting to say except I bough the new Norah Jones CD on the off chance it will be as good as her first. Since her second wasn't that great.

Talk tomorrow.

xo

M

ps i'm not photogenic so i hope you understand how many photos were taken in order for me to choose an ok one.

Back to the daily grind

Half term is over :( but that is ok. I am going to make a HUGE effort this 1/2 term to not let it get me down. Its the most serious time of the year for me as I have to get children who are not going to reach their intended targets for the year to them before their exams.

I'm going back to work with a new haircut, a new cold and a new bounce in my step. Hopefully being more positive about myself with make this term more enjoyable and mean that I have more organisation in my life.

Oli is going to be working from home as well so it will also allow me to get to work earlier since I won't be tempted to wait for him and go in together.

Also I'm in the process of filing against the illegal bank penalty charges that I was informed about over the half term so I might find myself in a financial windfall which would be nice for a change since for the last 2 years its been a rough time financially.

On that note I'll also say that I only have 2 more loan payments so that is very exciting! (I've been paying it off in Huge installments for 2 years).

OOOOO wait before I go I got a new mobile phone over the half term as my free upgrade! Its well cool. It's a Nokia 7373 and I love it dearly. Its got a neat swivel opening system that is very chic!

Nate is coming into town in the next couple of days and I'm so excited! I wish more people from Canada would come and visit. Even if its for a couple hours seeing people that really know where you come from is so nice!

On that note I do have a free phone number for anyone that wants to call me from Winnipeg for no cost to them. E-mail me and I'll tell you the number.

Anyways its late here and I still need to blow dry and straighten my hair before bed.
Hope there is someone out there reading this.... I still can't believe my niece doesn't deserve and nice comments.
xoxo

Spooky

I woke up on Sunday looked at the picture of my Grandma and Grandpa Baker and suddenly felt this urgency to call my Auntie Gwen. This wouldn't seem strange to some but it did to me since I've never in my life called my Auntie Gwen. She is the wife of my Great Uncle Reg who died last summer of a terminal illness.

As far back as I can remember our families were not close yet I could not shake this feeling that I needed to call her. Since it was about 3am in Winnipeg I decided that it would be best not to. Instead I waited until about 3pm when my dad called me to have our Sunday chat.

In passing I said "Dad how's auntie Gwen." He was very surprised I would ask that and said "Not good from what little I know. Why?" I explained everything as I was overcome with emotion. He gave me her number and I made the weirdest phone call in awhile to her. She wasn't in but called me back later.

Basically the sum of the ending of the story is that on Saturday she got her tests results back. She has a problem with the valves in her heart. Her doctor has told her that she isn't to do any excercise or anything stressful until her operation for a pace maker. She wasn't sure when that was going to be though. She also said that she hadn't been listening to her doctor.

I can't help but think. (read my mind here, its too horrible to say)

I know that to anyone who does not have faith of any kind this sounds really stupid but its happened so many times in my family that it seems more crazy not to believe that sometimes we get warnings.

If you want more info about the warnings let me know.
xoxo

ps I can't believe a picture of Deneige didn't even get 1 comment. You guys are tough.

House cleaning

I think there is something to be said about music from the 60's and 70's. I found this really good online radio station and found myself cleaning without stress or dislike all day yesterday. So much so that I even cleaned out my 2 fridges and washed them up.

I mentioned it to Jess last night and she didn't seem surprised at all. Is there a component to the 60's and 70's music that subconsiously makes people want to clean?

In case you don't know my niece is really cute! Here is some proof!

The Big Snow

It has snowed a lot here in England in the last 2 days. Wednesday night dropped over 4 inches of snow and then again today there was a little drizzle of snow.
School was closed yesterday so I stayed at home and worked my backside off but I did take some time to make a couple of snowmen. Here are some pics :)






ps like my pj bottoms? was too excited to play in the snow to get dressed

Hi!

I feel as if I've not said hi in awhile.

I've been really busy the last couple of weeks. My friend Jess was moving house and things took awhile to get her new flat sorted out before she could move out of her temporary residence (my place) to her place. So between helping her pack, move to mine, move out of mine and into hers, and helping unpack its been nuts. Dont' get me wrong I don't mind helping out its just been busy.

This week we have also been doing practice exams for my students (6 yrs-7 yrs) they will be writing their formal exams in May. The exams are called SATs (Standard Assessment Tests) and they are bullshit but in order for them to do well the kids need proper preparation.

Oli and I haven't done much at all so I don't really have anything to write about so I guess I'll just chat with you all later.

xo

The last week...

has been so hectic!

Jess moved out of her flat and is in a state of holding in my flat. This was supposed to be just for a couple of days but due to circumstances beyond anyone's control has been extended. Apparently tomorrow she will move into her own place. I might even miss her.

School is ok. Nothing too much new there.

Need to lie down now though. I have a huge headache.

The last couple of days.

The last couple of days have been very very busy. My friend Jess is moving flats on the weekend so I had to help her find a new place. So on Tues and Wed I was out for a significant part of my night finding places for her while at the same time freezing my ass off in the cold winter air.

Seriously its really really cold here at the moment. The actual temp isn't bad but the wind is ridiculously strong and cold.

My grandma doesn't have a broken back but instead a crushed vertebrae so she'll be out of commission for awhile.

This week at school its been book week so all week long we've had a special Literacy focus. It's been really good and fun but very bitty for our regular timetables. Tomorrow we have to dress up as our favourite fairy story character. Our year group team are going as Goldilocks and the 3 Little Bears. I'm Mama Bear. It should be quite fun. If any picture looks ok I'll perhaps post it.

Here's a question for all you bloggers out there....

What do you do when you want to really rant about something that pisses you off but would upset someone you know reads your blog or that might through a series of friends obtain access to your blog or even if family members have access and read it?

I'm going to guess at you just don't rant about it...but seriously sometimes people in your life everyday just can't be bothered to listen about it anymore.

Broken?

My teaching assistant fell on Sunday and broke her ankle getting up off the couch. Just goes to show how fragile we really are. That same day my grandma fell and hurt herself really badly. They are still unsure whether she has broken anything but we will know for sure on Wednesday when they get the better xrays back.

I'll talk more about my views on my feelings about this after work.

xo

The Last Couple of Days

Heya,
Sorry i've not posted for a couple days but I've not been quite right.

Friday I recieved upsetting news about a friend and nothing I wanted to type seemed appropriate or good enough. So I decided to just leave it a day.

Saturday I went to work at the Advanced Computer School that I'm working at Sat mornings. It was nice. Then I came home had a nap and friends came over. But around 9pm I checked my e-mail and I recieved one saying that my password has been changed fro one of my accounts. I'm really upset about this. Its not like I need that account I never use e-mail from there I just play games on it. It is just that I feel violated. I never use it on any computer other than my home one... and it is secure so I just have NO clue as to how this happened to me. Yahoo! says they can't do anything about it unless I provide the correct postcode that I gave 10 years ago when I signed up. Like I know what I typed I'm pretty sure that was when I was in my make up information stage of the computer era otherwise they might know lots of stuff about you and what you do (recommended my ex Rob).

And now i'm off to play a rousing day of Settlers of Catan with the expansion pack!

But I still feel violated

How fun!

What an interesting day it was here in the big smoke.

It was so windy there were gusts up to 46mph!

It was a pleasant day at school. Nothing majorly bad happened although it was a trying afternoon since it was soooo windy it made the kids get hyper.

I wasn't in class this morning but in a meeting about Science Assessment. Crunching numbers and methods... how fun. This afternoon I was back in class though and we had Philosophy. Philosophy was fabulous. We watched the clip of Matilda and the question they chose to talk about was "Why did Matilda's parents think she was 4 and not 6 1/2?" It was a good conversation and some of the non speakers started to get involved.

Tomorrow I'm supposed to have release time so that is going to be a nice way of ending off the week.

I even got a comment from a friend of a friend yesterday so that's exciting!

Perhaps I'll even get my diamond ring my day is going so well...although I'll settle for a chocolate bar.

Someone buy me something nice...

seriously flowers, books... a diamond ring? I'm not asking for much*giggle*

Better day today than yesterday but can someone please inform the man upstairs that I need a break from crap days?

That's enough negative for today so I'm going to tell you about what I'm going to be doing tomorrow because it gets me excited every Thursday.
I'll be teaching Philosophy

Tomorrow our stimulus is a clip from Matilda (the movie). After we watch the clip the kids are going to generate their own questions,we will vote on which one to talk about then discuss it.

Its so great because the kids are getting so good at it.

I'll let you know how it goes.

Oh yeah I also have release time!!! Yippee! I need a week of healthy time away from school. Since I was sick for all that time I really didn't get a holiday so I don't feel like I've had a break at all.

On a departing note... how many people are reading this blog? Leave a comment or two and tell me who you are.....

This week is awful!

Better today than yesterday but no where in the realms of good.

Here is a sneek peek at why today was not so good.

7ish wake up, no time for breakfast generally grumpy.
7:45 Catch bus :) (Things are looking up)
8ish- See a colleague at the bus stop and she asks me to watch her 10 yr old and her friend while she goes to get a bus pass. As she's walking away she says If a bus comes catch it. I thought ok. Bus comes the girls, Oli and I catch the bus.
8:10ish-Get a panicky phone call from colleague... Do i have the girls? Say of course Claire asked me to take them. (Apparently miscommunication) she meant me to get on the bus and not to worry about the girls. All is smoothed over.
8:35- Go to staff room to relax and have breakfast. See on the notice board that my prep time has been taken away and rescheduled for Friday and there is a surprise book look to see if we are indeed teaching and marking properly today. GRRRRRRRRRRRRR to senior management.
8:40 Just about to go on playground duty and realised that the supply teacher for my partner class hasn't showed up.
8:41 Talked to head and realised she indeed hasn't but arranged that I would register the class in the meantime.
9:10 Still no supply teacher. I'm teaching 2 classes at the same time. Still waiting for supply teacher. Managed to get another teacher to take the other class to do the activity.
9:50 Obtained estimated time of arrival for the supply teacher..... NEVER! no one is on their way.
10:00 arranged for class to be covered.
The rest of the day... very stressful it seems as though my children are deaf today either that or thick.

Feeling better now that I just got home from a lovely cuppa hot cocoa with Jess.

I need a holiday.

A crap day.

It was completely and utter shit.

Simplified reasons:
- I had to work.
- One of the troubled kids squeezed and entire container of milk all over me for "fun"
- The same pain in the backside threw a piece of lego at the teacher and had to be carried out of the class.
- I'm just fed up with targets for this, targets for this, obtaining evidence that you teach, formative marking, how can you improve.......

WITH WHAT BLOODY TIME? Are they going to pay me to work at home at night? NO so... i'm not going to.

The more I do at home the more they expect. The bar just gets raised higher and higher. I'm not going to comply anymore.

Nothing

Nothing interesting to talk about today. Oli has been at his parents this weekend and I've been home trying to get over what is left of this Bronchitis case. I'm getting there.

There is nothing on my mind except this:
Why is it that I'm afraid of windows at night.

Seriously when i'm home alone at night I panic everytime I have to shut off a light or walk past a window. Anyone who knows my flat knows that this must be annoying in my current flat as we are on the ground floor and have a window in every room and 2 in the living room.

I just feel like there is someone watching the flat and following my every move into new rooms. How paranoid!

Another point:
This is why I don't watch scary movies.... it just feeds my fear of windows.

Clarification, my thoughts and just something plain funny

Clarification:
I'm not getting married (evil look to Oli *giggle*). I'm just saying I really like wedding planning and I don't think I'm so bad at it either. Part of me really wants to be a professional wedding helper if I ever stop teaching or maybe just even during the summer for some extra cash! Anyone need my services since I don't have any need of my own?

My Thoughts:
In the last year I've really noticed how I don't have any hobbies or any interest about learning about new things. Well actually its not that I don't have any interest about learning new things its just that I don't know what interests me enough to learn about it. So over the year I've taken up reading and every now and then I try to look up information about things that interest me but never know what to put in the search engine or what kind of books to look at...so I often find myself not actually accomplishing anything.

Well I've been really sick with Bronchitis since the 20th December and I haven't left the house very much at all (not even on New Years) and I've been pretty down and bored so I've been on the internet looking at stuff. Well last week Oli told me about this toolbar called Stumble! and since then that's all I can do. Basically it works like this... you tell it what you are interested in and it takes you to recommended pages from your search criteria that other stumblers think are good pages. You can add your own recommendations and also vote on pages they give you.

I have found this to be a great way of just finding out random facts and now I am addicted to stumbling and learning so much more!

Here's the url if you are interested in joining me in being a stumbler:

http://www.stumbleupon.com/

It's really really great!

Plain funny:
On our side of the pond we have this show called "Just the two of us" basically the premise is that there is a professional singer and a celebrity that compete every night in a "singing" competition for Comic Relief. This year they had 2 celebrities from my favourite shows "Eastenders" which is basically an evening soap opera set in the East end of London. Well needless to say I got hooked. This year I was watching it particularily for John who plays this lovable old man called Jim. He is just old and very funny.

One night in a plead to stay on the show he revealed that he was going to be singing Nelly Furatities "Maneater" so needless to say he was voted on to stay.

Now the reason I'm going on about this is simple. It was flipping hilarious. I've included a link to Nelly doing the original version of this song from you tube.



But here was John's version.I think it was soooooo much better! Actually i'm laughing just thinking about it!


Wow that was long!
Enjoy!

Does it count?

I made a mental note to blog everyday even if it was a little sentence. Does it count as a new day if I blogged after midnight?

Today was interesting. Nothing exciting although one of my best students moved to a new school eventhough I begged, pleaded and tried my hardest to convince them to not leave. I taught him and his brother and the two were just fabulous kids (although his older brother was quite trying at times). **side note: it feels really weird to teach siblings...especially since this is the first time i've been in one place for long enough... almost like i'm settling down for a long haul at this school. Is this what i want?**

Things I like:
-sitting on a dock over looking water
-going to Covent Garden for a cuppa tea and to watch the street performers
-hot chocolate at Starbucks (I know... they are a mass produced horrible company but I can't help it that they made good hot chocolate)
-getting pictures of my niece (Deneige)
-reading a good book
- Jamie Oliver
-getting comments on here from people I barely get time to speak to anymore
-baking
-entertaining people for dinner/weekends etc
-wedding planning

Things that bug me

-people who are too busy for friends
-people who say give me 5 mins but mean until I can be bothered to talk to you
-headteachers who don't send really out of control children home
-being sick but not sick enough not to work
-secondary school children on the bus in the morning!
-feeling the need to create a blog just to have a rant!
-not being able to tell someone you care about the truth because it would upset them (nothing about Oli)
-not having enough time to get into a book during a working week