The house is empty, the lights are off
Yesterday’s glitter stuck to my shoes
Spending time alone in a crowded home
Are reminders there’s no time to lose

Is this now and is this our future?
The illusions around me would shatter
All those other sexy Halloween dresses
Illuminated the things that really matter

Figured it out but was unable to act
Here I am figuring it out again
Trying to rescue ice cream on a sidewalk
Is it even necessary to explain?

inspired by musings on Spinning Visions blog

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Today I’m feeling:

Surprisingly good. My classes have been okay and I haven’t been too serious with my lazy kids. I’m doing what I can to motivate them. If they don’t catch on at least I know I’ve tried.

Today I’m grateful for:

All the preparation work that I did during the holidays so that now I can walk into class and know that there is something ready to go, even if I can’t remember exactly how it goes, it will fall into place.   I think I will run out of lessons though and have to prepare a lot more during the next holiday when I already know I will have less spare time. But I can start getting my act together sooner too.

The best thing about today was:

It being a smooth and steady, enjoyable day. Lots of points in my short-term memory without anything standing out as the best. To add one thing though that I hope will be able to bring to mind in ten years’ time perhaps….

Yesterday one of the grade 7 boys was showing off some pornographic pictures on his phone. I just happened to catch a glimpse as he was doing it. I took his phone and put it in the teacher’s room and carried on teaching. He already felt regretful, particularly as I hadn’t talked to him about it or got angry about it. When I had assigned some work and the class settled into it I asked him to come with me to the teacher’s room. The only other teacher there was Ren who I think may also seem a little intimidating and he was overhearing me ask what the pictures were and why he was so interested in showing other students. He tried making excuses but he knew it wasn’t working and as he got more uncomfortable I used translation to tell him that now is not the time for playing but for studying. I also showed him that I knew how to mark down his behaviour in the school app and deduct points that his homeroom teacher and parents can see. He went back to class with his tail between his legs and messaged me later apologising and begging me not to tell his teacher. Today his behaviour was much improved though as a typical 12-year-old, he still struggles with self-control. I hope he stays onside because he is definitely capable if he chooses.

What was out of your control today and how did you handle it?

Today was the first time that I assigned work in Quizizz to the class whilst trying to teach it step by step. Despite telling the kids not to rush ahead some of the smarter ones still did and I’m not sure quite how to go ahead with these lessons. But I’ll give it a little more time because maybe a bright idea will come out of it.

One of the technological setbacks is students not being allowed access to the microphone to record themselves speaking. I know how to fix this most times but found it almost impossible to do when the phone’s language is set to Thai!

I’ll work my way through slowly fixing this I hope!

Something I learned today?

The notoriously bad weather department of Thailand forecast drought well into 2024. It’s definitely been hot again and drier than the last two years but I’m hopeful that up here in the mountains we will be ok.

What am I looking forward to tomorrow?

I got the good news today that one of my classes tomorrow and Friday will be off doing something which makes my days much easier. I’m looking forward to that!