Ups and Downs
Looking back at my last post, things don't seem that good. I guess it just proves that life is full of its ups and downs. And also, that I'm a fantastic whinger. Things have been on the up-swing this week.Reno: progress is slow, but steady. Riccardo and I have usually spent most of the day on Saturdays, and some of the Sundays reno'ing. Though with my ridiculous amout of work, I've snuck upstairs to do marking while the paint on the door I just painted dries. Yes... I'm marking now... well, I do need to keep up my responsibility to the masses - sorry, honey!
Anyhow, this weekend Riki hopes to finish off the main ceiling and wall painting in the living room. That will mean probably one more day to get baseboards, door and window frames, chair-rails painted and the light fixture re-hung, then the living/dining room will be finito!!
Next we will finish the foyer, stairway and landing. Lots of doors to paint there, so that may take a few weekends. But so far, so good. Our fireplace will be delivered next Friday. And we are both looking forward to hosting a little wine-and-cheese housewarming party when it's all done!
Uni: on Tuesday I had a very important observation by my Uni tutor and my professional mentor at school. It went swimmingly. I taught iambic pentameter to a class of year 9s and they really bought into it. YAY! It was perfect timing for a really good observation, since it is the final one I need to have with my Uni tutor. And since she's the one that passes or fails me at the end of the programme, it was great to send her off on a good note.
Thursday I had my Section 1 Standards Final Assessment. This also went fabulously. There are 33 standards we have to meet in order to get our teaching certification; this assessment covers the first 9: Professional Attributes. Basically I gathered up oodles of evidence and then two mentors and I sat and had a chat about each standard and ticked me off. In the end, I got top marks for every single standard and top marks overall. An excellent start to the programme completion process!
We had a Uni Subject Day on Friday - a whole day on English. It was actually quite productive. We learned more about the National Curriculum and teaching reading, and gained loads of great pedagogical ideas for English teaching. There will be two more of these Subject Days over the next month or so.
The Job: last week a colleague of mine interviewed for a promotion at another school. Everyone suspected she would get it, because she's a really great teacher, and she did. So this week, immediately upon arriving at school, my Department Head asked me to accompany her to the Headteacher's office. Uh-oh! Upon arriving, the Headteacher gave a big speech about the interview I did, and how they would have loved to offer me a position then because I was such a great member of the team, but as they said before, blah blah blah... She then confirmed that my colleague had resigned and so they had another position open, and would I accept it? Well, I had to answer then and there, but I didn't really need to consider it anyway: I said I'd love to. So as it happens, I did get the job I wanted at my school afterall!!
All-in-all, the whole dilemma is slightly bittersweet. My school knew that my colleague was interviewing for this other job, and knew she'd probably get it. They also knew I'd still be around the school to fall back on if she resigned. So more than likely they decided to use me as their back-up plan. This is, obviously, a very assy thing to do. Considering the emotional distress they caused me in not giving me the position in the first place, and the hours and hours since then that Riccardo and I have spent filling out 10-page applications for various other positions, I have to admit, I was tempted to tell them to shove their offer up their thingamajig. But, I do really like the school, and I will benefit from not having to transition into another new school next September, so I chose to suck it up and accept.
Anyway, it's happily slightly less awkward having the whole school know I was B-listed into the job, rather than not having got it at all.
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