Thursday Morning Interview.

OK so there I was awake at 4am for a 5.30am Jordan Interview. It went quite well I think though I dont know the outcome and won't in theory until the 5th of Feb which is after they have carried out the UK interviews.

I was also in touch with Repton and I am one of 4 candidates short listed for Head of Department, the problem is the interviews wont be till after the 5th of Feb so I may have a moral decision to make next month as Repton now has a much higher priority.

I felt last year I didn't want to go through all the stress of applying and then waiting for ther response and here I am doing just that. But the hope is if I get one of the posts and of course thats not guaranteed I won't be moving on for a few years.

OK back to teaching...I did some today and enjoyed it... funny thing that but when you actually get to teach and watch kids learn its actually a nice experience, fulfilling and satisfying like a really good steak dinner, You come away satiated and content, unlike the sodding rice and chicken I see for dinner each day. Now if only every day was like that.. oh wait... they pretty much are here .. yes there is the odd day that isn't but on the whole the opportunity to teach and to enjoy it is what I see every day I go into work. I actually look forward to being there (Though I also look forward to it being FRIDAY, no more rice till Monday)

When I think back to the teaching experiences in Scotland they seem miles away (and I dont mean the 5500 physical miles) Pupils here are polite, I have never heard a single pupil swear, but of course if they did it in Spanish would I really know. I have only seen 1 small fist fight in the 6 months I have been here and have not seen any obvious signs of bullying or peer pressure and I see a cameraderie amongst the pupils and the staff that would never be seen in UK state school system. As a case in point Diana, who is rather good at Volleyball spent her lunch hour playing with a few other staff against some pupils. She was due to teach a class straight after lunch, the bell went but the game wasn't finished so every one stayed to finish while her class watched from the sidelines. Now what parts of that wouldn't happen in UK, and how many pupils would still be around for class if the bell went and the teacher wasn't there.

I had one cover today a grade 10 English class who I couldn't find, they weren't where they were supposed to be according to my list but I did eventually track them down in the Library where they had gathered to read an excerpt from George Orwells 1984. The only problem was the Library doesn't have any copies of 1984. Did make me smile, so instead I sat and chatted to 1 of the Grade 10 Girls whose younger sister I teach. We spent an hour talking about where she had travelled what she had seen and what she was going to do after graduating from school. (She wants to be a Plastic Surgeon and has a further 13 years of training mapped out). This 16 year old spoke near perfect English, I only noticed 1 grammatical error in the whole hour we chatted. But that wasn't the only language she could talk in, she also spoke French and Portuguese, and wanted to learn German and Italian but wasnt sure her commitment to medecine would allow her the time. Hell I can't speak Spanish after 6 months though I haven't tried that hard to learn to be honest. But it does bring it home how those who speak English tend to take so much for granted. When I think how hard English is to learn compared to other Languages and how well the kids here at all levels speak it - it is deeply embarrasing to me not to be more fluent in Spanish. One quick aside, I was covering a class a few weeks ago that was a Biology Class. One of the boys who had been doing self study came out and asked how to pronounce WOMB I explained that the B was silent and that the "o" became extended that another example was TOMB. He seemed happy with this but just before returning to his seat he looked back and said so its COOM then "c" "o" "m" "b" I must admit I didn't have a very good answer for him. Bloody English is hard.

Have a good day .. the TGIF update tomorrow.