Categories: uncategorized
Date: 01 January 1970 00:59:59
Well, I survived it! And that was just the ordeal of the alarm clock going off at before 6 a.m! Had to eat my breakfast at the computer rather than my usual habit of sitting in bed with a book, purely for fear of falling asleep again.
Major achievement of the day: The Smudgelets and I were all, amazingly, ready for school in time. Well, I would have been if I hadn't had to de-ice the car so thoroughly before I dared venture down the drive.
Once I remembered the route (only just stopped myself driving into town instead), it was wonderful driving through the frost-covered countryside to work. The route is one of my favourite drives - hardly any town, just countyside and forest, with the occasional beautiful glimpse of the sea. A bit icy in the forest, though, and I suddenly realised I had to pay a bit less attention to the view and a bit more attention to the road!
It was, yes honestly, lovely being back. Great to see the kids and my colleagues again, and I was given a lovely welcome. I felt straight at home..... especially once I opened my drawer and saw all the paperwork to catch up on!
After the staff meeting and a stolen cup of coffee, I ventured out to my classroom.... which is, incidentally, a caravan! Have you ever had a caravan holiday in the middle of winter????? One where the heating has been turned off for a fortnight?????? Hmmmmm........ I went straight to my resources cupboard to find the worksheets I had hidden away.... and SOMEONE HAS REORGANISED ALL MY SYSTEMS AND MOVED ALL MY FILES !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Good job a teacher learns to think on their feet!
My classes are the "can'ts" and "won'ts" of life, with rather more of the latter. Luckily my hardest class was cancelled, although I'd been looking forward to seeing them again. The kids were great - worked hard, behaved well on the whole (only had to get really cross once!) and were bright and sparky and fun to be with. I had loads of compliments from the classroom helpers too. The staffroom is, however, running a sweepstake on how long I will still be saying "It's good to be back".
So how did I cope? Well, as I went through the morning I felt smugger and smugger. "I am better - I feel no different than I did before I was ill - this is easy, I could have come back full time".... right up to ten minutes into my last class when my body suddenly decided it had had enough, thank you very much. The kids were great - I explained the situation and they suggested making a little bed up for me in the "bedroom" part of the caravan! They got on and worked, for them, quietly and industriously while I sat and vegetated in my chair...and I even got a grunted apology from the lad who had played me up earlier.
I crawled to the car, drove slowly home, forced myself to have some lunch and collapsed on the sofa - not even waking when the cat apparently leapt on me and went to sleep on my head! I was finally woken by my Dad (bless him) phoning to ask if I wanted him to fetch the Smudgelet from school in ten minutes' time !!!!! Three guesses as to the answer.
It's good to be back. But thank you God for the misunderstanding about hours. I was devastated when I found the boss had misinterpreted our discussion about hours and had given me far less than I intended to start with - but I realise now that I am very very relieved he did! Three mornings a week will be plenty to begin with (seems pathetic, though, to say that I am jealous of the time the other teacher will be spending with "my" kids!) and I can build up gradually to full time by listening to my body instead of my bank account. Money isn't everything.