Wednesday, 5 March 2014

Life gets in the way


I am trying to read, I honestly and truly am. I am falling asleep in a book after reading the same page three times.
I don't have space for reading journal articles in my life just now. Inspection is looming over us and although management thinks we are doing really well I have massive reservations. I am constantly comparing my record keeping, practice, planning and evaluations to what I did in mainstream and I come up so short every time. I am drowning in an endless sea of paperwork that doesn't serve to make my job easier. I'd love to spend my time planning good, productive, engaging lessons but I feel so swamped by review meetings, the fact that I haven't done my evaluations and don't have a theme planner written, constantly being pulled out of class for this that and the other and not actually managing to get time in my class where I teach anyone anything. One pupil is getting disproportionately more time with me than any others and while that is working for him, everyone else is suffering. I'm spread too thin and its getting worse instead of better. All targets have to be evaluated and photo evidenced for this term, new long and short term targets set for every child and parent's night the first night of the inspection.
For the next two weeks I have the planning to do for my three days out of class and for the inspection week and I'm so exhausted that I'm completely out of ideas.
I can't get my brain to work to think of all the things it needs to think of! I am praying for a sick bug that only affects children starting tomorrow!

Add to all of that the daily grind of busy family life, trying to get help for a son who is having difficulty at school and a daughter who is never in the same place two days in a row.

Stop the world, I want to get off!

Right, enough moaning, off to put the kettle on and brew myself a nice strong cup of Man the F*ck Up and get the head down and get on with it!