Weekly Review

How are we all, bloggy friends?

1. I meant to update last weekend, but I got busy with other things, had half a post written, and then got distracted and never posted it.  And reading it back now, it's too out of date to post.
2. This past week has been a busy one.  Actually made busier by the fact I only worked 4 days of it.  The reason being that I was out on strike on Wednesday.  Unfortunately the strike has happened to fall in the middle of the busiest week of the term - assessment week.  I ended up spending the 4 days I was in work, grabbing children whenever possible to come and read with me, then marking, marking, marking.  Then there were 2 nights of parents evenings, and then a Friday night at helping out at the school disco.  Thus I pulled 11+ hour stints at work, which wasn't much fun.  I'm hoping that this coming week is a little more relaxed.
3. Looking forward to the Easter holidays at the end of this coming week very much!  Touch wood, but after a tough first half term, I've enjoyed this past one, having mostly got the children settled, and learnt how to work with particular colleagues.
4. Next term looks to be very different.  There is a new teaching assistant coming in to support my most demanding child, who has both autism and ADHD.  He's lovely, and very bright, but very intense and a real time-suck away from the other children who are just as needy.  There is also going to be a final placement PGCE student joining the class for me to mentor.  I have never been a PGCEr mentor.  And as my own PGCE placement was so memorable for so many reasons (and I am still in touch with my own mentor), it a little bit feels like coming full circle in some ways.  Like...  I have my own skills to pass on now?  Gosh.  And the class I have now are VERY similar to the class I had on placement, particularly in terms of behaviour.  They aren't going to give the student an easy ride, that's for sure.  ;)
5. Tomorrow the parentals are coming to town.  Mum has an invitation to the 90th birthday party of an elderly friend of hers tomorrow night.  And as it's mothers day as well, they thought we could all do something. :)  For some reason, it seems like a particularly long time since I last saw them.  I guess it was Christmas, so it's 3 months.  Which is a long time actually!  But then I'll be seeing them again a week later when I head up to Shropshire for a few days.  I always make the Shropshire trip completely school-work free, which I'm very much looking forward to!