graculus

Nearly at the end of term, thank heavens.

First off, the student teacher did not come back. I'm hoping it's been suggested to her that perhaps teaching is not really her thing and she ought to consider something else, but I have no idea if that's the case or not. I'm currently in the middle of organising and managing exams, not to mention encouraging folks to sign up for classes in September (with 4 of my students joining one of my classes already, which means I'm 25% full on that class with people where I already know what they can and can't do, which makes my life much easier).

I've also managed to snag a few more hours from September of what was going spare, though I didn't want to take on too much and also wanted to keep a day off in the week if I could - in order to manage both of those aims, I've agreed to teach a Saturday morning class, but at a higher level than I've taught before so that's going to be interesting. It's very grammar-heavy at that level, which is no issue for me, except making sure that I know how to explain the rules (which I've discovered is quite a different thing from knowing if something is right or not when I read it). Teaching on a Saturday means that I will now have Thursdays off completely and also no teaching commitments on Mondays before I head off late afternoon to college for a few hours each week.

I realised a few weeks back that if I didn't get a wiggle on, I wasn't going to actually have a holiday this year (since going to Nine Worlds doesn't really count, even if I sneak off to a museum or two instead of going to panels now I'm going to be in central London) so I've been organising to go to Mull for 10 days before the schools all break up. I'm also going to be camping, though camping when you have a car is a little less Spartan since you don't have to carry everything with you wherever you go. I've booked a couple of trips when I'm there, but tried not to organise myself too much just in case - my main plan is books, coffee and beer, and wandering about. It's prime otter territory, apparently, but that's what they said about Skye too and I never saw any otters there!

I also recently took a refresher navigation course, since I live very close to the Peak District National Park but haven't really explored it properly. I'd done map and compass navigation many years ago but had forgotten most of it, so I went off the other Saturday and spent the day re-learning how to do stuff and also would like to get back and do more later on in the year - the same guy does navigation in poor visibility training, which could be very useful in the coming dystopia. ;)

You may notice I have not, to this point, mentioned the referendum. I'm really not sure what there is to say about it, other than that one side was vigorously campaigning on what's turned out (to the surprise of nobody on this side of the situation) to be a tissue of lies and half-truths at best. It's also validated the views of a small bunch of horrible people who now think that the majority agrees with them about 'foreigners' and people who are British but not White, making them feel bolder about being arseholes in public. The folks who 'won' clearly didn't expect to, because they had no plans on what should happen next, so we're stuck in a bit of a limbo at the moment while political power games carry on and everyone on both sides of the House try and jockey for position.

It's all a bit pathetic but also quite worrying because nobody really knows what's going to happen - the referendum was, after all, advisory (another thing that seems to have been glossed over by and to the folks who want to leave the EU) so could be ignored by government if they want to do so, though that would probably require significantly more backbone than most politicians possess when faced with unpopularity. Whether or not I'll have folks to teach in the longer term is another matter, but for now nothing has immediately changed, so we'll have to see just how deep we're all in the shitter.

I managed to lose my house keys yesterday so had to call a locksmith, which I don't recommend not because said locksmith wasn't a really nice guy (he was) but because it cost a load of money. Since he couldn't pick the lock, he had to drill it out and replace it. And I'd just picked up my car from its MOT and was rejoicing over the fact that it had passed without needing anything done to it. Knowing how my income works, all I could think was 'well, that's x hours teaching'. :(

I'm very much enjoying working part-time but the drop in overall income is not so enjoyable - I used to travel a lot more, but now what with teaching in term time and the money thing that hasn't really happened. However, we have a couple of people retiring in July so their hours should soon be up for grabs. We run a load of ESOL courses every week (weekday mornings, afternoons, late afternoons, most evenings and even Saturday mornings) at various levels and in four different centres so I'm really glad I'm not the one who has to timetable it all!

I'm trying to get out more on my day off and also really want to have a proper holiday at the end of our year (the week before the schools break up), to the point where I've been offered the possibility of more work by the university but they want me to do more training and I'm probably going to blow that off in favour of going to Scotland for a week. Going to conventions is nice but it's not really a holiday, you know?

I also got invited to stay behind this week at fencing and train with the rest of the adults for the first time, so I must be making progress; that means I got out of warming up again, as I was still very much warmed up from my lesson! At the moment, there are only two women turning up regularly (both of us relative beginners), so that means I got to fence a couple of teenage boys this week in addition to my fellow learners - I don't mind losing, though it's frustrating, as long as I've given it a good shot and hopefully taken at least one point off them. I'm now about halfway through my first set of lessons so I can definitely see myself carrying on past that, though I plan to delay buying any equipment for as long as humanly possible.

As we rapidly head towards the Easter break, I am looking forward to trying to get ahead of the game in terms of course preparation for the two classes I'm teaching - I'd already got a lot of material I could use since I'd taught stuff at a similar level in the last academic year but (of course) no two courses are completely alike. I've also had to adjust what I'm doing for one class because it's being taught alongside functional maths and ICT classes, which means teaching the kind of vocabulary that you need to be able to follow instructions around those subjects and also talk about what you're doing. So that's a bit of a work in progress!

In theory, there's a bit of an overlap in terms of ability between my two courses but the extremes at both ends drag things out of a nice sensible shape. At one end I've got a chap who says he's bored because he knows everything I'm teaching - though when I get him to do stuff in class, that's not always borne out by his work, so I'm taking that with a big pinch of salt - and at the other end I've got folks who sit and look at me like rabbits in the headlights. So there's a lot of repetition in that class. A lot of repetition. *sigh*

Anyway, at least I've started getting paid again, that's the main thing - the outstanding wages from the university turned up, I got paid for the hours I taught in January and I'm looking forward to wrestling with the tax office soon about the money I've given them which I'll be having back. Unfortunately for them, I keep meticulous records of all my incomings (good thing too, since I got paid by three different employers last year) so it's not as much of a chore as it could be.

In other news, my aged computer finally fell over and breathed its last, just refusing to boot up at all. Considering it had gone through various bits being replaced over its lifespan, not to mention outliving the company that made it by a matter of 7 years, I decided that enough was enough. So now I have a refurbished Windows 7 computer that cost me less than a night in a London budget hotel and so far, so good.

Speaking of London hotels (see, what a neat segue!) I'm still currently undecided about what to do about Nine Worlds this year. I enjoyed last year's convention, mostly because of getting to hang out with folks, since a lot of the fandom panels in particular were quite basic in nature. And this year, after a bunch of understandable complaints regarding the hotel it's moved to, of all places, Hammersmith. Very convenient for the folks running it who I assume mostly live in London but a little more difficult for the rest of us who weren't able to get a hotel room in the hour that the discount rate rooms were on sale.

Being in the hotel itself makes a big difference to the experience (in my opinion), both in terms of being able to disappear off for a bit of peace and quiet if needed and also not having to worry about carrying everything you're going to need for the day. A list of back-up hotels has gone round but I've yet to organise anything, so who knows if any of those other places even still have space? I was also underwhelmed by the concept of having to phone to book stuff, because phones... bleurgh. So I may or may not be going, I really don't know right now.

If nothing else, I will be going to Helsinki next year. I'm already starting to look at what else I'll be doing while I'm there, though sadly I think I'm missing the main season for spotting flying squirrels!

Finally met with my boss so now I know what I'm going to be doing next year, when my new teaching contract kicks in. I've been asked to do evaluations for a particular course that's currently running for the first time (which gives students an IT, ESOL and numeracy qualification) and then take over teaching the ESOL part of it when the next cohort starts after February half-term, right through to late July by the time we've done exams. It's only a little more in terms of hours than I was teaching last year, but it is the next level up from what I was teaching last academic year so that's another new curriculum and new things to figure out how to teach!

Anyway, in terms of my interview apparently there were a bunch of folks who didn't score as highly as I did despite being more experienced/qualified. Likewise the teacher I'm taking over from had never actually had an interview before and since this is a course specifically for jobseekers, that was one of the reasons I've been asked to take it over - the other was that my manager wanted someone with 'a bit more spark' (which doesn't surprise me, since the teacher I'm taking over from always reminds me of Eeyore).

Anyway, the way it's going to work next year is that I should be able to do a week's invigilation for the university before I start with this job, so that'll help out in terms of money. I'm currently temping 5 mornings a week which is a bit tedious but helps immensely in terms of regular income as I continue to figure out how much the tax office are going to give me back in the new financial year. ;)

If I'm going to get to London, it's going to have to be the first week in January, which is always risky in terms of weather, as the Celts exhibition ends that month. I've discovered I will in fact only be teaching 3 days a week, not 5, so that's a little less traumatic in terms of organising my life although my only opportunities for a block of time off will now be the same as school terms, which is not so good for getting anywhere cheap. That's not so much of an issue this year, but in 2017 I really wanted to go to Finland for a couple of weeks before WorldCon, which is the first full weekend in August so that's going to take a little bit of organising once I know what next academic year's timetable brings.

I'm going to do a separate post for books, since I've read some absolute crackers since the last book-related post back in June and possibly a TV post too over the next few days - currently really enjoying Jessica Jones (though I'm only 2 episodes in so far) and hoping it continues to be this good all the way through!

It really is downhill and no brakes till the end of the year, isn't it? It seems like only five minutes ago I thought I knew what I was doing and then it all went to pot - I've just started back working 4 hours a day on a temporary basis at the place I worked at in August, doing data entry. And trust me, 4 hours of that is more than enough! The money's not great but every little helps while we see what's what and I've told them I'm available till Christmas, which works for them as well.

The process with the other job is going to interviews, so I don't hold out a great deal of hope I'll be one of the lucky ones, since there are others out there with a lot more qualifications and experience than I have, but I may claw back some credit because I actually bothered to do training this year (which I know some of the 'old hands' didn't) and because I am prepared to do any day, any time. My interview is on Tuesday afternoon, so I plan to give it my best shot and see how it goes.

Since I have time on my hands, I'm currently trying to get my garden cut back before winter really arrives, as well as clearing out extraneous crap in the house. And cooking, a lot of cooking - I subscribe to a bunch of cooking blogs and use an app called ChefTap to get them onto my tablet, so I can use it as a cookbook. Also it's now apparently pumpkin season, since the local supermarkets have loads of them (for carving, not eating, I presume!) so I expect my newly-cleared-out cupboard under the stairs is about to get some new residents. ;)

In other news, I'm still writing every day and have well over 60,000 words written in the period I've been signed up to 750 Words - it's all been Man from UNCLE movie fic so far, but when I'm done with the story I'm currently working on, I intend to dive back into my WiP (where some Mag7 and WWW lurk) and see if I can knock some of those on the head finally.

Since it's new TV season, I'll do a separate post on that and maybe also a book post soon - I'm still regularly posting on Booklikes if anyone is interested and am currently at 102 books read this year. I'd set a target for myself of 100 so I'm past that and still going, courtesy of my TBR bookcase and my local library's 45p hold arrangement.

After the metaphorical smack-in-the-face that was last week, I figure I deserved a break and on Monday I seem to have got a small one at least... I got a text from the agency who organised the time I worked in the university library (and I didn't think I was still on their books, as it was more than 18 months ago) asking for someone to do admin work for a couple of weeks locally.

I started yesterday and it's going to be 17 days' worth of work in all, in the office of a small manufacturing company (don't ask me exactly what it is they manufacture, something to do with insulation) dealing with purchase orders and all that sort of thing. Yesterday was a crash course in what to do, as the person whose job I'm covering is away on holiday, though she's only been there a couple of weeks herself!

And yes, they know I need next Thursday & Friday off (I can't believe it's time for Nine Worlds already!) and were cool with that too, so that's excellent news. Hopefully I'll be getting some work from the university in August too, as it's resit time and apparently there's a lot more demand than they were originally expecting (uh oh!), though there's a bit of an overlap so I won't be available for just over half of the resit period. Hooray for money! \o/

Still waiting on final details of my classes for September, but I'm keeping 'my' evening class, along with picking up something else (as yet still to be confirmed). Instead of 3 evenings, I'm going to be teaching slightly longer for 2, as I'll be at college myself on the Wednesday. Still, even if I don't get anything else consistent, I've survived so far and there's always cover and exams hours to pick up.

Speaking of exams, my students have done me proud. We usually do exams in all three terms but since I only took over the class in January, I'd put a hold on everything till this term. That gave me a chance to see where everyone was at, get them all lots of practice at what they needed to be able to do and also catch up the new folks. We have rolling admission, so people can join any time of the year (if there's room in a particular class) and that means going over everything on the curriculum more than once throughout the year. I've got a couple of folks re-taking one of the exams next week, after very narrowly failing, but if they pass I will have pushed a significant majority of my class up to the next level. And now some of them are going 'but what classes are you teaching in September?'. ;)

I'm picking up some mandatory training next month, as well as (hopefully) resits for the university in August, but that's pretty much it in terms of work till September. So I've decided that it's time for a major sort-out of the house, including the dreaded cupboard under the stairs. *shudders* This is not a task that fills me with joy, but it definitely needs doing - I've just recycled about 5 years' worth of carrier bags, as well as getting rid of broken electrical items that had been lurking in various cupboards. All sorts of minor domestic chores need doing and, if I'm not working, I don't really have an excuse for not doing them except for 'I can't be bothered'.

Being an adult sucks. :P

First off, a request: does anyone reading this have a Windows XP Home installation disk I can borrow? There will be a prize if anyone is able to help me with this!

I thought I was having graphics card issues but it now seems to be both the monitor (which is about 6-7 years old, I guess) and the computer (at least 10 years old, with various bits of it having been previously replaced) both turning up their toes simultaneously. I'm left with a computer that now won't boot up and the recommended way forward seems to be reinstallation, except I don't have the requisite disk and the company that sold the PC went under years back. So, rather than turn to dodgy folks on the internet I don't know for assistance, I thought I'd start with dodgy folks on the internet I do know! :P

In other news, I've just got back from my last full day of invigilating exams, with just one left to do next week. This morning's was for folks doing a Drama module in the English dept. and involved them watching a scene from Faustus (yes, morganmuffle, the one with Evil!Rory as Mephistopheles) six times, after which they were supposed to go off with their respective invigilators and write about it. Except that I took my student and then discovered shortly after that all the other students had trailed along behind us like ducklings because we looked like we knew where we were going. Heh.

Back to the day job on Monday...

Well, that's probably a slightly over-dramatic title but it's the one I have, so let's stick with that!

Still really enjoying my job, even when my lessons don't turn out quite as good as I hope they will - usually because I didn't figure out what I wanted to achieve, so I'm still very much learning on the hoof. My poor students are my guinea pigs, getting the first run of everything and seeing what works and what doesn't. It's very inconsiderate of folks out there that there isn't a resource I can just pick up and use for everything I want to teach. The internet is great for a lot of things, there are loads of resources, but sometimes I've still ended up writing my own because what's out there doesn't do quite what I want it to do. Or it's very centred on a particular culture and that just won't work for the bigger mix of nationalities and ages that make up my students.

I've had a really aggravating conversation with the college that offers the teaching qualification I want to do. I'm currently teaching 3 evenings a week and that course is one evening a week, so I need to confirm which evening so I can adjust the course I'm teaching to fit around it. Except that the other college haven't decided which night it's going to be and won't decide until some time in May. And it could be one of my currently committed evenings or it could be another one. Grrrr.

Anyway, let's change the subject and I'll tell you about the last 5 books I've read:

( Read more... )

I'm currently reading Blood and Mistletoe by Ronald Hutton - which is a history of the Druids in the UK, though he starts with a whole chapter about how we don't really know anything that we can prove. So it's more about what people think about the Druids and how that changes over time to the present day. I'm also reading The Machine God by MeiLin Miranda, which is one of a bunch of steampunk novels set in a shared universe, this one with a black protagonist in a very white University town.

... watching university students write essays and so on. Yep, it's exam time at the local university, which means working every day last week and this except Sunday. Couldn't do it all the time, and really wouldn't want to, but the crazy fortnights roll round in January and again in May, with a reasonable chunk of cash at the end of each of them.

I even get to use my 'teacher voice' at times, when people won't do what they're told. Yes, 'stop writing now' means you. Stop. Writing.

Knowing how busy this fortnight would be, I did a whole load of prep for the course I'm teaching, which ought to hold me till half term, so I can just veg out when I get home from my proper job.

I'm also trying to get some stuff read to nominate for the Hugos this year, relying heavily on a variety of rec lists to cherry-pick stuff to read and seeing where we go from there. I've got a supporting membership for Sasquan, so I'll get the Hugo pack when it rolls around, but like the idea of actually nominating stuff as well. And roll on nominations for WorldCon 2017 - seriously, if Helsinki don't get the nomination, it won't have been for lack of effort! Those guys are everywhere and are hopefully carrying a chunk of support with them.