Colombian Broadband Strikes again.

Sorry no update yesterday when I came to write up the blog Colombian Broadband decided to play up a bit and I lost what I was working on and the internet for about an hour... To say I was in a serious state of panic is an understatement.. NO INTERNET !!!! so I went to bed.

Today everything is normal well I am in school and writing this during a FREE period its about the FIRST FREE period I have had since the start of the week, DIANA SARMIENTO you owe me BIG TIME !!!!! Though I hope she has been enjoying her trip to the Amazon.

The Junta meeting yesterday was staged so well.. The Headmaster stood up to give a short introductory speech which was instantly accompanied by a resounding crack of thunder a flash of lightening and the loss of all power. Divine Intervention perhaps ? Eventually the Junta gave their decision that they had temporarily rescinded their early decision and normal working hours would be resumed (ish) though there were some factors they wanted taken into account, and I can see the same problem arising in the future. I wont be here though so I wish the staff good luck when the situation raises its head again.

There are still problems with Grade 9 and now some of Grade 8 and its much deeper than I first thought. I wont go into details (Mainly because I dont know the full information) but its fair to say the school are between a rock and a very hard place. Should they crush this revolt with an Iron Fist or try to Talk the pupils round. Is it ALL pupils or a hardcore few who are using intimidation and peer pressure to create disruption.
Fortunately I dont teach grade 9 so I havent had to deal with any of the issues yet, But tomorrow I and 4 other teachers are taking 75 students to a Robotics exhibition 25 each from grades 7, 8 and 9 so we are rewarding some pupils by taking them out of classes while at the same time they are refusing to attend normal day class - somehow I dont see any of the 25 going refusing the day out of school... Just a little bit of double standards - though I may find tomorrow they don´t turn up.

Yesterday was a hard day as I taught all 6 periods so by the end of the day I wasn´t sure whether my head was screwed on , a push fit or glued... maybe a bit of all 3. What it has shown is that the kids don´t cope well with working to timescales, but then again this is South America. There will be some photo´s tonight of the buildings created so far for the Shop project, they vary from outstanding to out right awful. Needless to say the group with the boy who created the outstanding box in the first project has excelled again by producing a building complete with grass effect base, plastered walls and TILED roof !!!! I wonder how he will do with the school project they are moving onto next.
More updates tonight Colombian Broadband allowing.