Re: Open Circle Cairn Project

--- On Wed, 3/28/12, Gwyn Ryan <gwynhefar@gmail.com> wrote:

> What happened to the chattiness?  Talk people, or I
> shall have to
> regale you with tales of my new kitten!
>
> *holds up mewling ball of fluff threateningly*

Please, do tell. :)

I've been busy. It's the last week of term and the usual chaos is active. I'm trying to get in late coursework from students. We're worried about numbers, so we can't just remove students from the exam lists at this point if they haven't turned in the coursework. (Some deadlines were ages ago.) But I really need it now as it must be marked over the two-week holiday. Somehow, we need to moderate it during the first two weeks we're back, starting on 16 April, but it's going to be tight. Nobody wants to cancel classes for moderation meetings, not with first year A level exams starting on 16 May. And our internal inspections will be either the first or second week back; we've not been told which yet. Some of us may be seen in the first week and others in the second. It would be nice to know which week I'll be seen to plan when to give mock exams. (For some reason, the observers don't want to see students sitting a mock! Silly people.)

Oh, oh, and yesterday I came home to a jury summons. What is it with me? I was called for jury duty in Boulder just this past November! I got out of that one as I now live in England. But I've done jury duty in Colorado several times before I moved. Ian's never been summoned here in England.

The bad thing is it's two weeks starting Monday, 21 May -- my final two weeks with my second year students before their exams. Not a good time to miss. *sigh* I'm sending in the deferral request tomorrow. But even that's tricky. Friends from the US are visiting in July after I'm done teaching. I've already deferred sinus surgery until August. It's been tricky putting down what weeks I could do it. There are only two weeks during my five-week holiday that I can do two weeks in a row. Work is having us return earlier than usual in August to help answer phones when GCSE students are ringing in with their results (rather than hire temps), so I've put down those two weeks -- the phone answering time and planning/meeting time. Etc.

Oh, and work still thinks that Ofsted might appear next term. *sigh* Waiting for Godot, waiting for Ofsted.

Ellen