Life Is Peachy

School life, that is. As I write this, I have completed my second week of school and I'm really rather pleased with myself. All my lessons to date have gone smoothly (here's to them staying that way) and I've even mastered the discombobulating rotation of classes and strange end- times to lessons: I've finished each lesson bang on time.

Aside from having to bombard Kristin with questions about the way she assesses the tasks she sets (to ensure that everything's the way she wants it upon her return), I think I've managed to ask the minimum of my colleagues - or at least I hope I have. They're incredibly supportive but I do like to be independent and am perfectly used to hitting the ground running, in a strange system, and just going with it. Also, as teachers here can really pretty much do as they please, lesson-wise, many of my colleagues haven't used the same tasks or texts. Assessment is definitely the only area in which my confidence wanes: it's become clearer over the last week but I still get confused over the exact difference between a test and a quiz and when you use them. The fact that students can and do get graded on doing work in class (basically, staying on task - American students expect to be graded for literally everything they do and are highly unlikely to produce anything if they're not getting credit for it) is also confusing to me as deciding on a mark out of one hundred for each student for classwork feels a bit like I'm basically pulling a grade out of the air!

I'm still stuggling with the early starts too: I've been early for work every single day but I really do feel very ill until around half way through the morning. The actress in me (the one that only comes out when I'm in a classroom...I think) has enabled me to do what I believe is at least a passable job at my usual enthusiastic delivery of content, even if I'm actually feeling below par. Even though school is over by two in the afternoon, I'm not really making the most of the rest of my day: to me, it feels like about 8pm. I've actually been going to bed here much earlier than ever before during my adult, or even teenage, life.

I love my classes though. Even the surly College Prep class are now responding to my greetings and my teaching. They've tried it on a few times, so I've reaffirmed my expectations and even the lesson which crossed both sides of lunch today - Friday - wasn't a problem. Drama games work well as starters and plenaries and I even got them to adhere to a period of silent individual work. The other College Prep class are sweeties. My seniors and AP students are simply delightful - as much as I love Fairfield, I've missed having A Level students and so it's been nice to teach at that level again. They're providing me with a brilliant insight into local culture in addition to enjoyable lessons. Diligent and enthusiastic, they produce high quality work on time, every time. This week we've been working on resumes and college application (read 'university') essays, which has been an enlightening process. Most rewarding of all, several students in every single class that I teach have repeatedly asked me to stay for the year! It's probably just talk, with an agenda, but it's still nice to hear. That said, I do miss my younger students, my form class and all the bouncing around in my socks that would usually be an integral part of my teaching.

I'm also on top of all the grading - marks get entered in a 'rankbook' on an application called IPass - and hope that I can remain so. I've been using my prep time effectively: I've also put up a display of the bio poems produced by every class and planned and prepared resources for the next week. The computers in the library are booked (another unfamiliar system successfully navigated) and I've begun getting my head around the Literature textbooks. Teachers here don't routinely get taken for cover for most of the year (though that's now also true of the UK too, except for Fairfield where the teachers have less classes on their timetables than the national average, so any cover isn't actually eating into the preparation time they're entitled to) though their 'duty' is an entire 67 minute lesson every seven days, as opposed to a fifteen minute break duty once a week. My duty is in the foyer, which I'm told is a good location. I must sit at a desk and check on any students who pass/ try to leave the building. Staff on duty can use the time to mark or read, though they will most likely be routinely interrupted. Mine seemed very long indeed, and I'll be sure to have a fleece with me for the next one: it's cold down there!

Teachers must also attend an hour-long after school meeting once a fortnight on a Tuesday. Our first one was this week. Facilitated by the local police, we received a presentation on 'lock downs'. Since Columbine, American high schools all have a lock down system where, upon a tannoy announcement, teachers must check the corridor, gather in any straggelers, lock their classroom door and herd their students into the corner furthest from the door and windows. Lights and any equipment must be switched off and everyone is to remain in this position until a signal is raised. In the event of a real scenario, local police would not wait for a SWAT team, as was the case with Columbine. Instead, they would immediately enter the building in search of the attacker(s). Disturbingly, we were also shown a video of the weapons high school students have brought into schools and where they've hidden them. The guy in the film had a grand total of one hundred and twenty concealed about his person, including a pen that has a blade concealed within it. I really hope that these precautions never become necessary in the UK.

I will end with an observation that amused me when travelling home one day this week. I've been staying after school most days, but on this given day I left at quarter past two. As I reached the junction for my street, I discovered I was behind one of the yellow school buses (which cannot fail to make me think of South Park, for some reason). It turned right, as I needed to do, and then immediately stopped - literally at the end of the road, meaning I could not make the turn. Initially puzzled, I watched as a little red 'Stop!' sign popped out of the driver's side and the students begin to disembark. As there's no public bus service here, there are no bus stops. Therefore, the bus has to stop in the middle of the road and the 'Stop!' sign becomes necessary. I aim to capture this digitally before my exchange comes to an end: it's a must-see!