[Miscellany]

Despite the unravelling spool of 4 day weekends lately I am still chasing my tail. I get home at the end of the day and just collapse on the bed thinking about all those things I haven't yet done and then spending the rest of the night trying to forget them. Sleepy at 4pm, wide awake and terrified at 3am. That's me.

I've somehow managed to talk myself into losing yet another lunch block due to request at girls who want to run the Art Club. As it stands I have only 2 days of an actual lunch break. I wish I was better at saying no, but when students request things of you that are within your power to grant and it creates interest in a curriculum area, god how can I say no?

I've also done the dumb thing and signed up to get my level 2 first aid. I've been meaning on doing it for the last couple of years, but now the school wants teachers to attend to sick bay duty with more regularity than we've been doing in the past and I figure that I need to know what I'm doing - even if other teachers feel they can get buy without it. So, smart in that sense, but dumb because for the next month not only will I be spending an extra 4 hours every Tuesday night doing the training I will also have to "study" in order to pass the test. This should be real fun.

I somehow also need to get a school display happening in the local shopping centre before Tuesday! Also, fill the cabinet with 3D art made by the children (err..have not done any 3D art! Furthermore, get a display of all the art work for the mural happening.. Not to mention getting the mural done in TWO WEEKS (when we are only half way through!) I am going into convulsions thinking about this..

Then I also decided that it would be good for me to attend a two day seminar on literacy next week. To be fair I am one of only 3 people in the whole school who has done the whole training thus far and it would be idiotic to let it go. But it means missing a couple of days in the art room to train for something that is irrelevant to my subject area. Prin was happy to let me go. But now I've realised that I am training for first aid, this literacy thing and the movie project.

Ahh, the movie project. I've picked my 8 kids for the movie project. Hopefully they will come through with the goods. They are beside themselves with excitement. I'm really going to have to do something that I've never been able to pull off before and that is getting ORGANISED! It's worrying me quite a bit, because I am last minute girl and last minute girl doesn't work well with timelines or dates. We're having a meeting on Monday to talk about what we're going to do, and really, what is realistic to do. Picking only 8 kids has meant that there are a whole bunch of kids who were *desperate* to do the project that won't get to. One such girl is the school captain, who gave me the worst evil glances during art class after she had heard through the grapevine who was getting involved. DUDE you're the SCHOOL CAPTAIN, you are already the shining star - let someone else have a go! I hope it works out.

A teacher came up to me the other day while I was putting up my Footballer display (oh, they turned out so, so well - so many people stop and stare at them!) and complimented the artwork I was doing with the kids. She said that the standard I was producing was beyond that produced by the last art teacher. Now, when I mention to people outside the school who the last art teacher was they usually gasp in reverence. The last art teacher had a reputation for being awesome and I have struggled with the notion of filling her substantial shoes. She really was awesome. I know that the standard of art work I produce is not on par with last art teacher but it was nice of this other teacher to compliment me in that way. It made my day.

The art role is much more isolating than being a classroom teacher but at the same time you're always out there putting work up that everyone sees that you are told what a good job you're doing. Let me tell you, that 'apple for the teacher' thing doesn't come along everyday. It's not often that someone will come and compliment you for doing a great job. Teachers deal a lot of daily shit. Not only do parents have many demands, they also approach in a very negative and aggressive manner (not all of them!)..so many negative things to deal with on a daily basis - sure globally it's such a rewarding profession. There is a lot of joy in teaching! But still, the everyday drudge is exactly why people who go into teaching now are *not* planning on staying in teaching for more than 10 years. So when you get a compliment it's the pearl in your oyster shell, really. As the art teacher there is much less contact with everyone, but most of that contact is positive. I like knowing if the work I put up has made someones day. And so often it does! It's a very cool part of being the Art Teacher.

posted by M at 3:49 pm 7 comments