Days where you make a difference

Well it's definately been a day with a difference.

At the start of it, all I was really thinking about was getting the display work underway for the school's open evening tomorrow (I'll have more to say about that later if I remember). By lunchtime, everything had changed and it was one of those days where being a teacher was the smaller part of the job. Obviously I can't go into details about what was happening as it would be both unfair to the student concerned and professionally improper to do so. All I'll say is that I needed to get out and do something (ended up swimming) after school just to make sure that I was focused away from school. My only other comment is that it was one of those days where you can see that you've made a difference in someones life and hopefully made a situation better. It's probably the more rewarding part of teaching away from the academic side of school. The student is going to have a tough time, but hopefully some of what has been said will help them get through it.

So, tomorrow, Open Evening. For those who haven't been to a school open evening, now-a-days they are basically sales pitches to parents, that basically determine whether teachers have jobs the following year etc. There's a lot of work in the displays etc and I think that the majority of it is wasted on most of the parents. To be fair, the majority are OK and have a look around and a few ask questions, and a few go over memories of their time in the school. However there are also the questions that make you think twice. I'll try to remember to post any good ones I get. Previous hightlights though include the parent who wanted to know why, on my computer timeline, I didn't have the Lyon Tea Shop computer. (Apparently had it been taken up it would have been better than anything today) I wanted to point out the fact that it wasn't so really didn't deserve to. Biting of the tongue reuired, as it was with the parent who wanted to know why the school didn't have an automatic telephony system built into the computers for the kids to use. (Like we don't have enough fun trying to get them off the mobiles as it is).

Anyway, that's all for now. My eyes are killing me from the chlorine in the swimming pool (I must make sure I find my goggles for next time), and it will be far better if I closed them (and I'm not sure that my touch typing is so reliable as to be able to do that.
Have a good day all of you and I'll write again soon.

Chris