Ups and downs of a day but I am through another day.

I spent all last night trying to calm myself down. I then briefly got internet the glib response to my pleas for help sent me sky high again, but to my delight when I got up today I wanted to teach the kids the material that I have been lovingly prepared for them on Walking through the Jungle. So I actually got to work early. My colleague rang me on route and finally understood the seriousness of the issue and my plan was to book an appointment immediately with my head and get some laminating done ready for the lesson. However as the head was not in and the computer room locked I had to take the materials in for the children just as they were but the good news and it is good news is that year one were brilliant. True their teacher was with them, and that does help, but actually they wanted to do the work too.  We started in a circle pretending to climb, run, etc then were animals, howling growling etc. Then we sat down and I began to read the story.  I had read it to a few in September and used it extensively in Senegal so know it is a good book for children, but if you could have told me all these weeks later two children could say the lines before I got there well I think it shows how powerful good books can be.  Once we had read and sung the story all the kids were asked to draw pictures from the book. I had prepared pages for them to copy from but they chose the image and these kids love to draw love to copy so they were off.Complete silence for at least 20 minutes. Only two children stopped slightly earlier than the rest who were happy to continue and as they both need a bit of help we did writing on the board.     It is so nice when an idea works. Now the plan is to develop  it into their English show for the winter, or if they get through it quickly use it as a model for what they will do for winter.

A reminder of my childhood: frozen knickers. 

Year 2 usually work well and do not really need controlling, and the teachers if they sit in tend to tell them to be quiet at the wrong moment and the kids understand the discipline system, but yesterday one girl who is lively, very intelligent but ultimately well behaved just would not join in even when I read the others The Turnip (A Russian story that they know and which we are planning to turn into a puppet show but read in English) she would not join in, so I thought I was going to have to discipline her. But at the reading I went up and saw that she had been doing a drawing based on the book.  Definitely not the usual miscreant and asked her what was up.  So she mimed that her mum has just had a baby.  As the trainer said the other day in training when it comes to children's behaviour we need to know our children. I could not agree more. So I was very relieved that when the head came in we were able to have a little chat, I was talking so fast that I know she could not understand it all, but at least I know that we have some time to try and worked on both the negatives and the positives and hopefully begin to turn things around.





On the way home I discovered how the farmers get their chickens who wander all over the place but home.  They call them.