Teachers - how can one half term have seemed soooo long?

[Lucycat]

That's it really - those 2 days off with the snow seem an age away. I'm knackered.

Bring out the wine.

I agree, this half term has been painful. Bring on some sleep!

No snow days here either. And we seem to be writing reports every three weeks or so lately. And I have no classroom this year. Or office. I am living out of boxes.

Really sad to hear about the death of a child Mo.

Yeah It was really tough. The funeral cortege drove passed the school field and every person on the premises at the time, stood in complete silence. It was the utter respect from the usually unruley teenagers that was so emotional! I've never seen anything like it. We were so incredibly proud.

That is so sad Maureen, teenagers do usually pull it out of the bag when it matters.

We have had a mad end of term, I also started a new position in school, although I was chuffed to get the promotion it did make a stressful end to the half term as I had not factored in the extra workload into my halftermly plans.

The last week I have worked on average about 17 hours a day. I was actually shaking with exhaustion last night when I got home and could not talk.

I slept for fifteen hours straight and then had a further nap this afternoon.

I slept for 11 hours last night and then dp dragged me out of bed to take me to the deli for breakfast! Was lovely of him but I could happily have stayed in bed for another four hours.

I've also been sort of promoted this term and it has been beyond manic. Has anybody got anything lovely planned for half term?

Maureen that msut have been so sad for you all.

I am writing an essay this half term so not that lovely!

My mum is coming to visit though so I am sure there will be some lovely parts of half term.

Congratulations janeite on the "sort of" promotion.

Thank you. It was actually in September - I am confused! It was a move to recognise that as an AST I should be 'sort of' on the leadership team too. All I need now is an office to make me feel really important!

Are you doing a Masters, Twinset?

I have an office and a lovely one at that, have a swivel padded chair and an assistant. The former is a big hit with dd!

No I am doing a second degree.

Will probably do a masters after that.

It's been a funny one.

We had 4 snow days in total, & a couple of silly days with collapsed timetable & hardly any kids in because the boss was grimly refusing to call a snowy when any fule could see our bussed in kids were voting with their feet!

Oh & I've had a couple of days off this week - ds, chicken pox.

So I've no idea why I'm so very very knackered.

Congratulations on the promotions, janeite & twinset , & sorry to hear of the death of a child at your school Maureen .

Thanks RavenAK

Oh crap, I just remembered I do have Masters stuff to do. It's only a book review, but you know, it does help if you've read the book first.

I did have a lovely day today. Long lie-in, crossword, papers, wine, bliss.

I am desperate to do a Masters and can't find a course fancy. Having said that, the school day is so long now that I don't know if I could fit one in anyway.

The course I'm on is an Advanced Certificate in Sustained Professional Development (fancy!). It's 60 credits, so a third of a Masters, but I already have 60 from my PGCE apparently so if I do this I only (only!) need to do a dissertation to get my MA (or is it an MEd? I don't really know). The absolutely brilliant thing about it is that it's taught at work - the tutors come to school on some Saturdays and we have full-day seminars with staff from our school and another cohort who come along too. They're really interesting! And because it's organised through school, it's free.

In an ideal world, I'd do an MA in English Lit or something, but they're not very compatible with teaching and it costs a lot. This is free and convenient, so it seems silly not to.

Quite a few PGCE's offer partial credit to an MA.

My school encourages us all to do an MA and will fund it but I am not sure if I want to do an education MA.

Yes - my school will fund it and have already finded me to do 60 points (Leading classroom based enquiry - I loved it) but I don't really want to do any more educational gubbins: I just want to read some lovely books or maybe write some poems!

Funded not finded - am on my third Baileys!

I haven't worked out if I have to do my dissertation in education stuff or if I could do an English one and just get a general MA. Must say the latter would be vastly preferable - I'm sure I could knock out a literature dissertation without too much effort but doing more educational research is like real work!

I've had a pretty relaxing day today. Making a point not to do all those things you usually have to do on a Saturday. Trouble is, I am now sitting in amongst god knows how much tat and I'm starting to get a little twitchy about it!

I love my half terms even more now, because DD is 14 and needs no care, so it's all about me! That said, on Tuesday she's having an ingrowing toe nail removed in hospital, so I guess I will be looking after her for a couple of days afterall!

The only trouble is, the seminars have showed me how jaw-droppingly thick some of my colleagues are. How they managed to get a first degree I'll never know, seeing as some of them can't even write an essay (bitchy icon).

Badger - I must admit that, reading emails from some of the other staff, I wonder how they passed GCSE English, let alone a degree.

I got "It's easy for you, you're an English teacher!". Er, aren't we all supposed to be qualified graduates? Or did the PE teachers really, as I have always half-suspected, spend the whole three years at university throwing stuff?

Now I must admit that our PE teachers are v intelligent - and v literate.