[Miscellany]

What's with this daylight savings malarkey? Where the hell did that hour go? I want my hour of sleep back. How can you save daylight anyway? I know there are logical answers to these questions but I really don't care. All I know it that it's an hour later than it should be, which means that I'm an hour closer to going back to work on Monday. Boo hiss.

Monday will be interesting because I may be confronted by prin about my proposal for a media centre in the art room. HAHAHA you dumb bitch - wake up and smell the coffee - you work in a government school. No media centre for you! I hear you think, but hey, a girl's gotta try eh? I spent 7 hours on Friday writing the budget for all my art expenses for next year. It doesn't quite add up that if I was writing a budget for 7 hours, then who was teaching the kids? The answer to that is - shamefully- I don't know. I sort of ignored them all day long (well as much as you can with a bunch of kids who need you all the time). I had to - it was due that afternoon and I hadn't even started! Of course, I should have done it before Friday, but if I wasn't to procrastination like that girl from high school was to anal sex (err...it sort of makes sense) then I wouldn't have had to spend all of Friday doing it. But noooo, I left it all to do on Friday never thinking it would take me more than a couple of solid hours. WRONG!

That was the first real budget I'd done. By real, I mean cared about. I hate budgets. I hate balancing numbers. I hate filling out forms. I hate being prescriptive. I just want them to give me my damn money and leave it to me to sort it out. The best projects I do with the kids are the ones I suddenly think of in the shower before my day starts! That means a lot of last minute scrounging for materials. What I want is a pool of money there that is entrusted to me so that I can access it for whatever the hell last minute hair brained scheme I've got on my mind! Is that so much to ask? I'm not going to go spend it on a jacuzzi for the art room or anything! I'm not going to hire a cabana boy to give me shoulder massages while I teach the kids! I know what I need...just that I don't quite know exactly how I'll need it! I know that prin not only expects but demands that the school looks schmicko in terms of the art work - but that only comes from buying the GOOD STUFF and the good stuff costs money.

Anyway, I wrote the budget in terms of stuff I'll need (I went through and itemised everything - it was HELL). I did it like that so that they couldn't say no to the money I'll need without knowing that they were depriving me of something essential. I hope they say yes - I wasn't being frivolous at all. Everything I put down on the list was something I need or I die. If I don't get the money I want there really will be something that has to go missing from the program next year. This makes me sad.

Apart from the nitty gritty, as I mentioned, I wrote a proposal for a media centre in the art room. It includes computer art, animation, digital photography, screen printing, film making, claymation etc and all the equipment and software that goes with it (generally speaking). We are talking mega bucks over a few years here. Prin was so happy with our film project and I mentioned the media centre to her while she was high on euphoria from that premiere night and she was very interested. Vice Prin said he would back me up because he is very much into technology and media. I know we are just a primary school but if private schools are doing this kind of stuff and we want to keep up with them then we need to more forward too - plus kids love that kind of stuff. Art is one of the ways that the school can gain favourable exposure if done right. Eventually I'd like a dark room for film photography as well - but I remember someone pricing it a few years ago and the costs were phenomenal. Still, why not ask? At least it's being proactive. Currently we don't have any provisions for digital art in the art room - it would be nice to get something going. Pipe dream? Probably.

In other news, I found a place I actually like and doesn't need any renovations. The agent (who one his own personalised flier said he "lives, sleeps and breathes real estate" hahah what a dick) said that they are not accepting any offers before hand. I don't want to go to auction. Surely there is another way. He can't be the absolute final word on this. Can he?

posted by M at 9:31 am 13 comments