I’ve read 102 books this year with still almost three months to go. I read 117 last year, so I think I might beat that this time. I really, really love my e-reader.
I’m getting back into the swing of school time. I slept in this morning since the children went to school from their sleepover, although a certain barking dog woke me up before I really wanted to be!
Her barking at things out the front window is driving me mad. I’ve actually started closing the door to Jericho and Soren’s room during the day so that she can’t get in there and look out the window and bark at things.
I finished clearing all the branches and foliage away from the side fence today. The pile of stuff that has to be hauled away to the burning heap at Steve and Jean’s is a lot bigger now, and I’m ready for a new fence as soon as possible. (Still have no actual date on when this will happen- hopefully soon.) Our yard is going to look a bit neater once we have a new fence that’s not all falling down, since we’ve cleared away so much scrubby brush and branches. When I pulled into the driveway this afternoon after picking up the kids from school I was surprised to realise that with it all cut back I can see right down to the fence in the back corner.
It was an exceptionally quiet day today actually. With the kids having a sleepover I didn’t see them until I picked them up from school and then I just drove them to the office and left Emma, Jericho and Soren with Jean so she could take them to swimming. I came home with Nicholai and he read the newspaper and then worked on his presentation (they have to do a 3 minute presentation on something they did on the holidays and he’s doing the VFL grand final; Emma is doing the day we spent at Gulf Station) while I printed out some more Indonesian food bingo cards. Troy came home from work and he and I talked for a bit, and then kids came home a little after 6.30 so it was just time for tea and bed for them.
Tomorrow I’ve got to do my planning, because I’m back to teaching on Friday. I think I have a lesson or two that I planned for the end of last term and didn’t get to, so I might find I don’t have as much to plan as usual. And of course, I have the food bingo game for a fun lesson for a couple of the classes.
I’m feeling a little bit more optimistic about teaching than I was at the end of last term. I think on Friday I might have a brief chat with the children at the start of the lesson and just lay it out. While I want them to have fun and enjoy learning a language, they have to put in the effort and if they don’t there will be consequences. I don’t give them unreasonable amounts of work and I don’t give them homework, but if they don’t finish the work they’re given because they’re mucking around then I’ll give their names to their teachers and they’ll deal with it. Hopefully it does the trick and gets everyone back on track, because honestly the kids were doing really well for a while and there’s so much potential for it to be fun and rewarding for everyone.
Feeling the Sun From Both Sides 