3 weeks in, still in love with the job.

It's been quite on here again! Teaching is an immense time commitment, it turns out. I might be teaching a maximum of five hours a day, but when you factor in all the planning, creating powerpoints, finding resources, printing handouts, marking and attending meetings, you get up to an almost 12 hour day.

My working days might be long and there's always more work to be done than time for it, but I love every minute of it. (I think I've said it before, but I just want to emphasise how happy I am now)

I'm so glad that I've chosen teaching over any other career. It's the best job in the world.

I've experienced a lightbulb moments with my students, seen them being extremely proud of their achievements, I was called their favourite teacher and some entrusted me with their troubles and worries.

I wouldn't change anything, except maybe adding a couple of hours to the day so I can get some more sleep. The only day when I can lie in is Saturday, and I'm trying to make the most of it.

My other relaxation involves swimming, Zumba, watching crime drama, reading about Maths (though Mr Magic disputes whether it truly counts as leisure activity), and baking. Baking is a big one, my most recent creation is an insanely good chocolate cheesecake. I think I'm spoiling my housemates a bit too much with all these baked goodies, but at least I have people to share with: otherwise my waistline would not be happy with me.

I went off to Southampton for a call back day and it was so nice to catch up with other Mathematicians doing TF and share ideas. It's amazing how many different things can be done to influence your teaching and in how many different ways I can organise my classroom, my teaching and my planning to be a better teacher for my students. I will try to incorporate some things I picked up yesterday. My most recent changes include challenge questions incorporated into slides so that my most able year 7s feel stretched enough. I also need to reconsider how I store my mini whiteboards. another teacher just taped it to the side of the tables and I might do it as well  to maximise desk space, but this requires some preparation.

It seems like I'm making a progress and everything is slowly coming together. Behaviour is improving, my planning does not take ages and students are getting more engaged. Life is good.

Found in a train toilet on the way from Portsmouth.

Back to school.

I've survive my first week in school! Although survive might not be the best word to describe my experience, since I've actually loved every minute of it.

It was a really busy few days, filled with running around to sort my classroom out, trying to get my IT equipment to work, frantically printing out stuff for classes I forgot about, learning how to use SIMS and a thousand different little bits and pieces that I need every day to get through those few hours of the day without a major hiccup.

My classroom has undergone a little transformation: the tables are in rows rather than pods and some stuff gone up onto the display boards. I'm doing my best not to clutter the room, I know that it can be difficult to concentrate if you have a lot of stuff going on on the walls around you. So I'll try to keep it simple. I have a few quotes about mistakes around the room, I want my students to embrace making mistakes.

I've taught six lessons and met four out of five of my classes. It's amazing how much you learn on the job. I now know where the more naughty ones sit, that there are a few who try to go by without doing any work, so I need to give them a little nudge. I must say that children constantly amaze me. In my first lesson with year 7s, we had a discussion about whether there is the first (or the last) number and whether one is a prime number. Not bad for a bunch of 11 year olds. I've also taught them how the binary system works and was surprise how many of them really wanted to learn, persisting until they've understood the process. I must say that my year 7s seem to be very different from some of my year 8s who just give up when they see something unfamiliar. I really hope that I will manage to change it during this year so that they start to love the unfamiliar, embrace challenge and stretch themselves.

If I were to describe my levels of tiredness now, I would say that it's like nothing I've experience before. It's probably because I actually need to be attentive every single moment of the lesson: no drifting away, thinking about what to cook for dinner or any such thing. Just full attention for a full hour when I have the students with me. Emotional investment also comes in here. I care so much and want my students to succeed so badly, that it drains energy, especially when something goes wrong. And, my word, so many things went wrong in the last couple of days. I had to send pupils out of my classroom, stop the entire lesson to have a serious chat about attitude to work and I've almost lost my voice trying to be heard over their chatter. 

It definitely feels like a learning curve, but I know it will be absolutely amazing. There is no better way to spend your time than to educate young minds.

Sunday Special: Reclaiming Sabbath.

I would strongly urge everyone to rediscover Sunday: Do not be afraid to give your time to Christ!Yes, let us open our time to Christ, that he may cast light upon it and give it direction. He is the One who knows the secret of time and the secret of eternity, and he gives us “his day” as an ever new gift of his love. The rediscovery of this day is a grace which we must implore, not only so that we may live the demands of faith to the full, but also so that we may respond concretely to the deepest human yearnings. Time given to Christ is never time lost, but is rather time gained, so that our relationships and indeed our whole life may become more profoundly human. (Saint John Paul II, On Keeping the Lord’s Day Holy)

I plead guilty. Guilty of treating Sunday as a catch-up day when all unfinished tasks accumulated during the week get done; a day when I polish the house; get the weekly food shop done.

It didn't used to be like that. I had a period in my life when I was really principled about not doing work on Sunday. I would go to church in the morning, then go for a long walk, have tea with friends and read for pleasure. Sadly, life gets busy. And although I really don't like this excuse, I didn't have time to carry on with having Sunday off.

The thing is, I can make time. And I hereby resolve to make time to have time off on Sunday this year.

I am a firm believer that we simply need this one day a week to not only rest, but also recharge our spiritual batteries. During the week there is not only not enough time to have a break, catch a breath and simply be present in the moment, but from my own experience I know there is always something to be done, so prayer and reflection are pushed aside.

How to go about finding time to reclaim Sabbath? This is what my plan is:

1. Try to finish all tasks by Saturday evening. This will require good time-management, hard work and full focus during the week. No procrastination or putting thing off until tomorrow. 

2. Have a plan for Sunday. For the rest to be constructive, I need to have some sort of idea how I want to spend this day, otherwise it will turn into a one massive nap or binge watching tv. I will go to church in the morning, read something spiritual, bake a cake for the house, go for a long walk by the sea and Skype my family.

3. Be gentle with myself. Sometimes I will be overwhelmed with work and will need to work on Sunday. And it's ok. It's not about perfection. I will do my best to have a restful Sunday, but when it doesn't work out, I will not feel guilty. I will just make most of the time I have.

Happy Sunday!

The longest 1h 34s of my life.

One should never make important life decisions under influence of excitement. It never ends well. And it didn't end well this time for me either.

At the time when I've heard about a 2000m swim in a Copenhagen canal, I was clearly in an adventurous mood. And so I must have been when we were registering for the swim. My mum, quite rightly, was absolutely petrified by the idea of spending an hour in a cold water. Dad thought it was ridiculous to intentionally get so tired. I didn't listen.

And so we've ended up by the Christiansborg in Copenhagen. It was a pleasantly warm morning, not a cloud in sight on the sky. After intial wetsuit issues, I was all ready to go. In all fairness, just before the start I was quite excited. I've even took some time in the past few months to try to improve my swimming and managed to get up to 1700m in my practice sessions. So I felt reasonably confident about this swim and hoped for a time around 50 minutes. Oh, how overly optimistic I was!

Before the race, with a smile on my face.

First jump into the water was not too bad. My feet and hands sensed a little cold, but the wetsuit (and probably the emotions) kept me warm. It was a complete madness when the start signal finally came. 65 people close to each other in the water. I could barely move any of my limbs without constantly kicking or hitting someone next to me. There was a current and some waves on the water as well which made everything even more difficult. If this wasn't enough, it turned out that my body was wholly incompatible with swimming in a wetsuit. It added too much buoyancy which restricted my moves. Even though I tried really hard to kick, it felt that I was barely moving forward. Each metre of the swim was a struggle. My neck and lower back hurt. Half way through I've figured that backstroke was easiest to do, although in any other circumstances it would have caused me much trouble. All the way through I was deliberating whether I should ask one of the lifeguards to get me out of the water. But I wanted to get a medal. Also, it would be really embarrassing not to finish the race. So despite my desperation, and desperate I was,I pushed through and eventually made it to the finish line.

After the race, with a medal and a somewhat forced smile.

You can imagine how relieved I was when I was finally out of the water. I didn't manage to finish within my desired time (I've actually made it in 1:00:34), but given how much trouble I had in the water and how disheartened I felt all the way through, I'm proud of myself. I've done something I've never done before. But it was, without doubt, the longest 1h 34s of my life. I don't think I will be longing for more such experiences any time soon.

If're worried about me, you will be glad to hear that I've recovered now, thanks to a few nights of good sleep and a hot stone massage. But this dubiously pleasurable adventure successfully got such crazy ideas out of my head.