Nicky, Mark, Finn and Leila
As the man makes three sandwiches for lunches for the rest of the week, the dog sits at the edge of the kitchen in a drop position and quietly watched, only her eyes moving.
But, if he should leave the kitchen for any reason, she would be off like a shot. The bread would fly off the counter, at least until he returned, flustered an annoyed.
Today, he was not distracted and the sandwiches made it into plastic containers and then the freezer. The dog would try again next time.
After twelve days of listening while commuting, I have finished the audio book of The Slap.
When I started listening, there was a lot that I liked about this Australian novel. The tone seems to strike a good balance between conversational and authentic and the content seemed balanced, sensible and thought provoking.
A key feature of this novel is that each of the eight sections is about a different character. The narratives overlap and start from a common incident, but they are mostly individual stories. For a while I thought that this might be a powerful technique. However, I soon felt that these characters fell into cliche. There were still moments of genuine tension, but in 16 hours of audio these moments were few and far between.
Although this popular book has been much acclaimed and even nominated for a Booker, I can’t say that I would recommend it. I found the characters to be basically horrible, trite people and, although it nods at a litany of contemporary issues, I didn’t actually prompt me to understand or think about any of them more deeply. I felt the occasional flash of emotion in response, but that wasn’t enough for me.
The last seven days have not been horrible as such. But, against the background of my otherwise charmed life, it has been exhausting and dispiriting.
This week can only be better.
This video struck me as being very clever.
It’s back to the regular job of guiding teenagers to learn stuff today, and not a moment too soon. The one thing that I really like about regular teaching is that it is real, honest work.
I am looking forward to a day of it.
Finn has been curious about Dr Who for some time but has been put off because it looked too scary. He finally watched an episode last night: the Christmas special with The Bride.
In short, he loved it. There were certainly spots where he was scared, but he was also delighted and is already begging for another episode tonight.
We have a whole season on disc, but I can see us getting more from the library if this sudden devotion continues.
As I was washing the dishes, I was thinking about my two most recent Year 10 lesson and wondering why they went so badly. And then I realised that I had made another of the classic blunders: I was blinded by how well planned the lessons were.
I was so blinded that I had forgotten to constantly work the room. I was, without realising it, assuming that a well-planned lesson just teaches itself. Of course, saying it now, it is obviously bunkum.
So tomorrow I need to marry the best of the old and the new: comprehensive planning, and steady prowling and nudging.
It’ll let you know, but I think this can only work much better.
Tags: teaching
We have heaps of terrific parks near our house, and very literally spoilt for choice. Finn and I have been talking about taking some photos of them so other people get in on all the parky goodness.
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I find that I am still surprised by things that, when I think about them, I already knew that they were true. This week, I’ve discovered anew about books and covers.
With this in mind, I have been delighted to find that some students who looked pretty rough and ready from a distance are in fact both lovely people are terrific students now that I have interacted with them in my own class.