Monday Night.

It was a long but interesting day. It turned out I had all Grade 8 classes so it was a good day, but the swing side to that is that tomorrow I have all Grade 6 !! I guess for every plus side there are negative ones.

Didn't really have a lot to do today just tried to keep the classes on track. 3 of the classes worked hard particularly the girls who were looking into the simple wiring and electronics we are looking into. What did surprise me is that the girl in grade 8 who is the most creative pupil I have, tried to tackle the electronics and failed to get a result. She immediately experienced frustration and decided it couldn't be done because it wouldn't work. This surprised me a little as she doesn't let anything else stand in her way, so will be interesting to see how she copes next class, as she will still be attempting it.

I have been in contact with the school in Jordan asking for an update on the Inventory and Equipment. I have £6000 to spend but its a bit pointless when you don't know what is actually there. I also have to consider that part of it might also be to cover ICT. So what seems a lot for Technology might not be so much if I need ICT equipment or software.

I am now waiting for contact from the deputy head to clarify a few points, then I can get organised with materials and hardware for the 2 areas. It seems a bit unusual to be organising the departments resources from 6000 miles away but I want to make sure I have what I need when I arrive and I am not in a make do situation where I lose the first year treading water. What it does do is involve me from this early stage in setting up and organising my department and as such gives me focus and a feeling of being a part of what I am intendng to move to in August.

While I still try to keep the projects I am working on here being as interesting and involving as possible for the kids.

Grade 6 are coming to an end of their Tangram Project (Thank God) its gone on way too long but part of the problem is the number of kids and the amount of tools and equipment we have.. We dont have enough tools here to allow each kid to work individually so everything takes twice as long.

So tomorrow will feel like 12 hours instead of 6 .... long long day ahead.