I think I may have found my book of the year.
A new school year began.
At 8:50 in the morning, the doors opened and the children of 4G assembled for their first registration of the year. I greeted them and made a very good show of not revealing how much I was feeling sick with anticipation and excitement.
My own class.
Wow. I guess that this was the moment I had been waiting for. This was the moment when I became a real teacher.
And it all went quite well to be honest but my voice was really sore by the time 4pm came round and the young people had departed. I didn't go above a mezzo voce all day but, after six weeks of enforced idleness, I was out of practice in talking so much to so many different people about so many different things. Lauren reminded me that I am a "professional voice user" and should head straight for the hot lemon and honey.
Being a dual entry school, I have colleague who is a newly qualified teacher new to the school working alongside me. She spent last year working in a classroom so she has a body of experience I need to gain. I have eighteen months' experience of working in this school and so I have expertise that she needs to gain. Hopefully, it is going to be a good match.
At a suggestion from the Senior Leadership Team, we are going to share the planning. My colleague will plan the literacy sessions and provide the resources. I will plan for the numeracy sessions across five levels of differentiation since the classes are merged into levels of abilities across the year group.
There has, however, been one blip that may signify problems ahead.
Our learning topic for the half term was set to be hung on the peg of portraits. As a consequence, I have organised for an artist to come into school to teach some basic portrait techniques and for a trip to the Walker Art Gallery to learn about some of the portraits there. Originally, Ross was supposed to come in to lead the session but he felt that he couldn't in the current circumstances and so his friend and colleague Karen came in instead. I felt that the day went well and am pleased that we have a day out organised.
My colleague has complained to me that I have gone ahead and organised these things without consulting her first. I would have thought that, entering a new school, it would have been a bonus that some of the activities were already set up for you. So, we shall see. Maybe I'm going to have to deal with an utter control freak.
Ross is still mightily concerned with the tremor in this eye. Mid-month, he went through another barage of tests and examinations reminiscent of his troubles back at the begining of 2013. This time, on successive days, he was in for an MRI Scan, a consultation with the Maxilofacial Unit and a consultation with Opthalmology.
As a consequence of the second, I think, he had a lump on the top of his head surgically removed at the end of the month. With the eye, we are on yet another waiting game. The current premise is that, following the viral infection in August, the gelatinous substance in Ross's eye has been caused to thicken. In all likelihood, over time, this will right itself. However, progress will be monitored as the healing cannot be guaranteed and cannot be brought about by any medical intervention.
Arse. Just arse. Fucking arse.
Elsewhere we are bidden to consider whether or not the European Commission is correct to consider banning the sale of many more domestic appliances which use powerful internal motors? Prof Will Stewart, fellow at the Institute of Engineering and Technology, asserted that there is no simple relationship between motor power and energy use and so caution must be observed.
But then he also said...
The hairdryer is a very small potato in terms of energy use.
And President Kennedy was a doughnut.
I think I may have found my book of the year.
My engagement with David Mitchell's work began in 2005 with Cloud Atlas and has continued since.
The Bone Clocks takes up all sorts of themes, incidents, characters, literary genres from his previous œuvres and begins to weave them into a meta-narrative of mythic proportions. It is an astonishing achievement and one that I am going to have to re-visit before I get it all sorted in my head.
But I was hooked from beginning to end.