I'm walking on sunshine

Isn't it glorious?

God I love the sunshine! Life is brighter and clearer, it's easier to get out of bed in the mornings, and walking to work is just a joy.

That's right folks, I'm back to work, and I've had a fab week. I can't believe how much all my cherubs have grown while I've been away, and it seems that some of them have even missed me as much as I have missed them.

The one thing my long illness has taught me, is that life, and particularly your health, is a very precious commodity and we need to take more care with it. With this is mind, I decided to spend some of my Easter holidays figuring out ways to reduce my stress and my work load. I needed to find more balance in my life.

My first big decision was to keep weekends sacred. No more marking, or planning or worrying about the small fry on a saturday or sunday. This was quickly followed with work ends at 5pm. No more staying in my classroom til 6pm, then carrying on working at home after tea. If it's not done by 5pm, it needs to wait until the next day.

If these decisions were going to be viable I needed to get organised, so I sacrficed two days and went into work. I tidied the classroom, throwing away the junk left by multiple supply teachers and the general detritus you find in the wake of 9yr old children. With a clean fresh room, I turned my attention to getting the cupboards in order and getting a jump on the term's planning.

I was lucky enough to have my teaching assistant give up some of her time to come in and work with me and between us we got the first few weeks sorted out. It made such a huge difference to know that I was riding the wave of work, rather than drowning under it.

So starting back was that little bit easier and the children were mostly on their best behaviour. As always when children ar involved, comedy is never far behind. I love the funny little things that I hear and this week has been no exception.

I was teaching about negative numbers, using money and overdrafts to try to make it relevant to real life. I stood at the board and said "I have £10 in my account and I spend £25 at amazon, what am I left with?" Quick as a flash, one of my world weary 9 yr olds said "Debt! That's when the loan sharks come in!"

On Friday, I was really pleased to see all hands in the air, and every child getting involved. I was teaching French and we were just starting to learn about telling the time. The children were suggesting words we would need to learn like midday, midnight, afternoon etc. All was going well until I asked Bob to share his word with the class.

"Miss Glass! That man over there is in the shower and you can see EVERYTHING!!!!"

Yup, my classroom overlooks a side road and it seems we can see right into the house on the end. You would think that since they overlook a school they'd have checked their windows were sufficiently frosted, but apparently this was not the case.

I love my job!!

Run for the sun little one

There is something special about storytime, something that we never really grow out of. After all, what is TV and film, but an extended animated version of the original bedtime story.

We humans are a total contradiction. We spend years reading our children tall tales, fairy tales and adventures, convincing them that anything can happen if you put your mind to it. We teachers further perpetuate that myth, forcing them to write imaginative stories about rampaging giants and distant turreted castles.

Yet somewhere around age 10 to 12, we start forcing reality back in. There are no giants. Dreams don't come true. There is no handsome prince, ready to sweep you off your feet.

Why?

Why do we spend so much time creating this world of illusion for our offspring, when we are all too ready to tear it right back down again?

I understand that the world we live in today is a different place, from the one I lived in as a child. There are more opportunities for those who do not carry good intentions, but unless we make a concerted affort, the next generation are going to be cynical and burnt out before they've even left school.

What's so wrong with climbing trees and playing pirates? In my day everyone knew who One-Eyed Willy was, and could quote almost every line to you. I can swing from a tree with sword in hand even now. I have the scars to prove it, yet when I did just that whilst babysitting some 7 year old boys, I got a mouthful from another mother about how I was a bad influence for them. When pressed, she said 'they might fall and hurt themselves'. Well? so what? The damn sky could fall and we'd all be dead!

Life is for living, not wrapping these kids up in cotton wool and bubble wrap. Parents of the world, I teach your children and they are boring! They are spoilt, selfish and generally more whiny than a week old baby. Give them their childhood before it's too late. Teen angst should not be starting at 9. In fact, if you get it right in the early years, it need not start at all!!

Let them play in that forest. Let them make that tent out of old duvets in the garden. Hell, let them camp in the garden all night. As Marie Antoinette once so aptly said:

Let them eat dirt!

(ok, so a slight misquote, but you're getting my drift, right?)