Bookshelf.

I finally have a bookshelf! And it means that all my books could move from the floor, an odd cardboard box and my desk to their proper place.

I've realised that there are really two things I spend my money on: food and books. I absolutely love cooking and baking, so I don't try to get by on baked beans on toast. My fridge needs to be filled with delicious food: veggies, cheeses, fruit, whatever you can think of. 5 a day is a must.

Books are my second passion. At the moment it's mostly books about teaching and Maths. I have a whole stack of books that are waiting to be read. Here is my little stack:

Talk-Less Teaching is on the menu at the moment: it's extremely informative and includes plenty of handy advice which will help me to become a better teacher (and to look after my voice a bit better).

I've noticed that, sadly, novels do not feature in my reading list that high, so I've bought a book which was longlisted for the Booker Prize and hopefully will find some time to read it soon.

Travelling from (and around) the Island is time consuming so I use it for reading, in an attempt to make most of a boring commute. And my new resolution is to spend 20 minutes each day reading. It will give me over two hours reading time each week. We'll see how it goes with a busy teacher's schedule.

Not so happy Halloween.

Happy Halloween! said Google when I opened the browser today. The thing is, it's actually not Halloween today, today is Oct 10th and as far as I can tell, Halloween is on the 31st. 

Also, there is nothing happy about Halloween. Or is there? Maybe I've just missed the point. Maybe scary glowing pumpkins with carved oversized eyes and teeth are actually funny? And skeletons. Well, it doesn't get much better than decorating your garden with remains of dead people. Oh, and I would have forgotten the ghosts. Yeah, they are surely fun too, jumping out of nowhere with a not at all frightening boo!

You see, I'm not into Halloween at all. Putting aside all the religious reasons, I just consider it a completely pointless "celebration".

Why celebrate death and all things horrible and spooky? Somehow it is acceptable to dress up as a serial killer for the occasion, but in what sort of a world we live that this is considered funny? Shouldn't we condemn everything that condones acts and attitudes which are destructive to the society? But instead, for Halloween, the moral value of these does not matter. We put in the cupboard all the objections to murder, torture, animal sacrifice and witchcraft. All of a sudden, for one night in a year, all these are perfectly fine. And, lo!, there are even sweets involved! (or alcohol, depending on the age bracket)

Not to mention the fact that I don't see any reason why celebrating death can have any appeal at all. Death is not funny at all, despite what the image search on Google can lead you to believe. Let the dead rest in peace. Pray for them, light candles in their memory or sponsor a park bench with their name on it. But please don't dress up as our dearly departed. It's in a very bad taste. It's as if we were dressing up as people with cancer or other terrible disease. You wouldn't do that, would you?

Commercialised as they are, Christmas and Easter at least celebrate something, or rather someone, Jesus. Halloween is completely pointless, there is no spirituality or other justification behind it. It is yet another way of making us spend money. Because obviously you need orange-wrapped chocolates for the occasion, right? Oh, and don't forget the pumpkins. Pumpkins are actually seasonal vegetable in the UK in October, but this doesn't seem to be a good enough reason for supermarkets to sell them. No, what is necessary is to place the pumpkins in a box with bats and spiders on it to increase its appeal.

There's nothing happy about Halloween. Full stop. I have nothing more to say on that matter. Enjoy your Sunday. And Monday. Without the cobwebs, skeletons and black cats.

Job description.

Since I’ve started teaching in September, I’ve definitely performed duties that go much beyond those written in my job description.

I’ve become a life coach and an advisor.

A house painter, a bouncer and a jester.

A crowd-controller, a multi-tasking guru and a protector.

A mediator, a sweet dispenser and a self esteem boosting machine.

I’ve mastered the skill of using all the possible setting on the photocopier and the skill of resurrecting the connection between my laptop and the smartboard.

My body has been used as a number line slider, arms of a crocodile inequality sign and other impromptu learning resources.

I’ve become an improvisation expert, a more attentive listener and a fluent conversationalist with my gut feeling.

I’ve also grown to appreciate the power of tea to carry you through a long day.

This is what being a teacher is really like. Teaching is my main job. But really there is much much more to it. And this is what I love so much about it.

Tissue mountain.

A week until half term, and my body seems to have given up. Waking up at 5:30am, long hours at work and little time for myself has taken its toll on me.

The end of my first seven weeks in school is in sight, but I feel like I will crawl towards it rather than run joyfully into a brief freedom.

As the mountain of used tissues continues to build up in my bedroom, so does the mountain of work. I have my PGCE essay due in a couple of weeks, but it's hard to try to recover from the illness, mark homework, plan lessons, do some reading and sort out everything for school at the same time. Hopefully after half term life will become easier, if only because I will actually know what I'm doing. Though they did warn me that it will be tough.

I'm so drugged up with paracetamol and the like that I'm not sure to what extent I will be able to teach tomorrow, but hopefully by period 2 my brain will clear up a bit and turn into a teacher mode. At the moment it feels like a sponge or a mini whiteboard rubber.

On a side note, highlights from last week include using plickers with my lovely year 7s, TF conference day and carrot cake. Carrot cake is delicious. Conference was quite helpful, but I shall give an update on it once I have time (and ability) to put my thoughts in some coherent order.

Being attacked by a cold monster in my bed. Obviously.

Sunday Special: More love in the classroom. That's all.

Last Sunday Bishop Philip issued a pastoral letter that was read out in every church of the Portsmouth diocese.  Putting aside my views on reading out letters instead of giving a homily for a moment, there was something else that has really made me think. 

The letter implies that it's really important to be "drawing in Catholic teacher not currently in the Catholic sector" No, no, no. What use of more Catholic teachers in Catholic schools? Pupils there already receive a good formation, they often have daily mass, reflection time, built-in prayer during the day and a chaplain at hand. Being a Catholic teacher might help you to fit in and really subscribe to the spirituality of the school, but I don't think this brings any added benefit to your young people.

Don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan of Catholic schools. But since not every school in the world is Catholic, I feel like it is increasingly important to have Catholic teachers in non-Catholic schools. Of course all teachers should be kind, understanding and committed to the wellbeing and success of their students, but those who believe in Jesus have a special responsibilities as those who have seen the Light. We shouldn't expect any less from ourselves as apostoles than making sure every child we encounter, and every member of staff, regardless of where we are placed, sees that we bring a message of love.

I don't think we need more Catholic teachers in Catholic schools. We need more love in every single classroom in the country. That's all.

Little gems.

Isle of Wight has a lot of little gems scattered around. I had an opportunity to explore some of these amazing places during summer, so I thought I would share my findings in case anyone still thinks that there is nothing interesting on the Island.

Shanklin Old Village

Walk down High Street in Shanklin past a ridiculous number of places selling fossils and you will eventually end up in the Old Village. It's full of thatched cottages, some of them dating back to 1600s I believe. It's rather unusual to have so many thatched houses preserved in the same place. Really worth a visit. I particularly recommend, the Old Thatched Teashop.

Why on earth would I recommend a pink teashop with a different colour scheme in every room which makes you dizzy? Well, because of the fairies.

In the garden behind the shop there is a true fairies heaven. It looks incredible. There are little houses, animals, and tens of fairies of different sizes. Even if the shop did not sell cream tea, it would be worth a visit just to see the fairies garden.

The Needles

Go to the opposite end of the Island and you end up by the Needles. It's a beautiful place with 21 colours of sand, an opportunity to take a boat tour (or a jet boat tour, which I don't recommend if you are not a fan of extreme adventures). Mr Magic and I had a lovely day there, sitting at the beach, eating frozen yoghurt, walking around and generally enjoying ourselves.

Carisbrooke Castle

One word: amazing. We were lucky enough to visit the Castle when a Medieval Joust was taking place. It was a such a great day, full of story-telling, falconry, medieval jokes and beautiful surroundings. I think we've been there on the hottest day of summer too, so I was really impressed with the knights in their shiny armour, must have been boiling hot in that!

Osbourne House

It might not be the most exciting place, but surely it's really pretty on a Sunday afternoon. The gardens are absolutely huge, there is an opportunity to sit at the seaside where Queen Victoria would have gone for a swim and a little cafe serves really nice cakes and scones. 

Steephill Cove

Apparently this is one of the most secluded places on the Isle of Wight. I can vouch for that: when Mr Magic took me there I thought I would kill him, because it's quite far out of Ventnor and it was at the end of a long day at the Needles. Anyway, it is a really picturesque place, worth a visit should you be down that end of the Island. Peaceful.

Wight Karting

I'm an extremely careful driver, so I haven't thought karting would be so much fun. But I loved the speed. Shame the track only has one place where you can actually overtake, but I wholeheartedly recommend it.

I still have a few places on the island that I would like to see:
Shanklin Chine Lumiere
Isle Jump Trampoline Park
The Garlic Farm - Garlic Festival
But these need to wait for half term or an evening off (ha ha).