Old start, new times

Less lunch.

We were supposed to have switched to our new timetable this week. After last night’s meeting, Mr V gave me my new timetable, which was new for less than 24 hours. The time of the first class has now been restored to its usual insanely early hour, but it also means that ten minutes have been lost from lunchtime, which is annoying because the actual time available starts looking quite cramped once I lop about five to ten minutes off just to get back to the office.

In addition to that, I’m going to have two extra classes a week to make up for the time lost because classes are now so short. I don’t have a huge problem with that apart from the extra classes being a.) last thing on Thursday and Friday, and b.) standalone classes. Forty minutes is enough to do very little at most. I certainly don’t want pre-AL β last thing in the afternoon.

It was observation day today. I thought, overall, that things went a little better, but I’d say the vegetables did nothing when I asked them to predict answers, which is why the section about their predictions took so long. I was expecting rapid responses, but they were rapid in the same way a slug is rapid. [Not rapid? –ed.]

I’m nearly three times the age of my little darlings and can think several times faster (and that includes translation time).

But, at least what I did manage to do came to an end just at the right moment to take me into the plenary (a word which I loathe for no discernible reason; possibly it’s a little too American or UN-speak for my taste).

I mentioned the IB learner profile quite a bit, and actually put the relevant aspects of it in the footer of my Powerpoint slides, which I then used to remind students about the sort of learners they’re meant to be being. Gormless Gwladys could barely respond when I asked whether she’d been a thinker, a risk-taker, a com­mu­ni­ca­tor, and, er, reflective. (That last one is awkward because it upsets the rhetorical balance of the rest.) But she can barely string two brain cells together.

I think the observation will be all right, but there will be issues.