Weekend wonders

Saturday night - I went to my best friends work Christmas function at the Beachcomber Cafe in St. Kilda. Good fun. Particularly when it's free! Whitebait, I discovered, tastes just like fish, but you have to see and eat their little heads and tails. Odd. Would defintely like to go back there in summer.
The Espy afterwards was packed and I found it hysterical when my best friend declared that the Espy was pretty scungy. We figure we need to take her to the Tote or somewhere to show her what a scungy pub really looks like!

Sunday night - Went and saw Inside Deep Throat at Nova. It was pretty interesting, but overall just ordinary. It tried to focus on too many different aspects and just wasn't cohesive enough for my liking.

Monday night - Christmas party of my old work place. Lots of fun, nice sized tab on the bar, got pretty blind and had a great night with mates. Was a little worse for wear the next day, and the welfare counsellor actually came up to me and asked if everything was OK. She laughed when she found out it was just a hangover.

Tuesday night - Ben Lee gig at Ferntree Gully. Awesome gig. Good vibe, and who knew that he was actually pretty funny! Talking hand puppets, info about his rejection by the Hoff...lot so ffun. He walked out into the crowd during his final song (We're all in this together) which is pretty gutsy considering chicks there were swooning over him. He also played All for Believing by Missy Higgins which was pretty cool.

That's it until I have my sisters 18th bday bash tomorrow night, 4 birthdays and 2 house inspections on Saturday....

On another note, one of my students' poems has been published int this aus wide anthology..pride swelling...
Oh and that student I was moping about got to sit his exam. His parents agreed to sign his exit forms (ie remove him from school) so he could sit his maths and english exams. NOt the ideal outcome, but he got a B+ and I get to write a glowing commentary on his report :)

Cheerios

Fun with exams

I thought i'd share with you my exam highlights:

HIGHLIGHT NO. 1
My English Skills (vegie-English) paper had a section on job interviews and skills and what not. One of the questions was 'If a customer came up to you and asked you a question you could not answer, what would you do?'

One of my students (who does have learning difficulties admittedly) answered:

'Put your hand up and the teacher will come over to you'

I found that really cute.

HIGLIGHT NO. 2
In response to the argumentative essay topic 'Public Transport should be free' I had a number of students argue that public transport is worse for the environment than cars because of the amount of petrol they use. Where do these kids get their ideas from??!!

HIGHLIGHT No. 3
For exam practice, I set the practice essay question 'That circles are better than squares' Obviously its a wide open topic designed to make you think. One of my Year 8 students wrote this great essay about how squares were better than circles because:
1) Circles pushed modern transportation into existence as we would not have cars etc without wheels. Circles have thus enabled us all to get obese being ferried everywhere by modern transportation. Squares on the other hand have not contributed to obesity.
2: In its 3D form, spheres have injured more people than cubes. I can't remember his evidence for that (they were allowed to make up evidence) but it was good
I can't remember his third point.

What would you argue? I may have argued that circles were better and use the example that squares are conformist, as it is ideal to "think outside the square." However boxes are useful when moving, as i'd hate to fit all my crap into blow up balloons.

HIGHLIGHT NO. 4
Write a creative short story which looks at what might have happened had mobile phones existed in Romeo and Juliet

This was one of the writing piece options in the Year 10 paper.

One of my super quiet super shy never says a word boys wrote a story which satirises how SMS speak has in part infiltrated spoken English. Here is a short excerpt:

"Hey Romeo my man!" shouted Mercutio as he came running towards Romeo.
"Yo yo yo! Mercutio, wassup?" Romeo asked as he turned from looking at the sea.
"Ya heard? The party at da Capulet's house? Mercutio responded as his face was all red from running.

...

"Yo Ro-may-o! Benvolio is coming to da party, it's tonight dude you gotta come!" Mercutio said as he sat down beside Romeo.
"Yeah OK, but won't they recognise us?" Romeo queried.
"It's dress up" Mercutio said, as he got up and started to walk away. "I'll catch up wit you later. Mercutio out."

Outside the Capulet's mansion, Romeo, Mercutio and Benvlio wait to go in.

"I got a bad feeling about this guys. I tell ya somethin bad is gonna happen." Romeo whispered.
"Don't be such a wimp! You're comin in! Let's go," Mercutio said.

Mercutio went first dressed as Queen Elizabeth II. Benvolio followed dressed as Lincoln. Romeo entered last dressed as Prince Harry.

"All hail the Queen!" some idiot shouted.
Everyone turned towards them. Romeo's eyes met anothers. Was this gonna be his new chick? Romeo walked slowly towards her.
"Hey i'm Prince Harry" he said.
"And i'm the Queen of Norway, idiot" Juliet responded.
"Can I have your number?"

hehe. I thought it was funny. Particularly coming from a super shy kid.I can't remember what grade it actually got.

Better actually go mark the rest of these papers if Ihave any hope of finishing before going out tonight.

Peace out.

Nolites Te Bastardes Carborundorum

How is it that a real homebody like me has such a busy social calendar at the moment? I think its stressing me out more than work. I have a function this Saturday, 3 birthday parties to get to on next Saturday, a Christmas party plus numerable meetings on Monday night, the Ben Lee gig on Tuesday night, have got to get my sisters car to the shops on Wed night to get her CD player installed, my sisters 18th Bday party on the Thursday night... I think there is something on the Sunday night as well, and I believe i'm meant to go to a Linen party on the Friday night! (Linen party - when did we get this old!!???)

Work is stressful at the moment. In the next 3 days I have to grade approx. 100 exam papers, and then get the reports done in an equally short amount of time. How im meant to fit it in with my social life I dont know.

More stressful however is my concern for students. I know i'm a first year teacher, but you get attached (and not in a creepy PE teacher/pedophile kind of way) You do get taught to try and distance yourself but I find that hard to do. I got into this job to be a positive person in teenagers lives, but it can be a heavy burden.

One of my Year 10 students has just been suspended for 10 days. His 10 day suspension was for 'lighting fires' which sounds bad but all he was doing was lighting little pieces of paper and plastic on fire while out in the grounds at lunch. He's one of the smokers, so he always has a lighter handy. What smoker hasn't done that? However he also punched another kid on the weekend because that kid told on him.

I know he's done something wrong and needs to be punished. But the administration dislikes this kid and wants him gone. Which is why he's been suspended, and the other 3 girls lighting pieces of paper on fire haven't been punished at all.

I think i'm the only teacher who gets along with this kid and doesn't kick him to the Silent Room every lesson. He works well for me, and he even gets As (I teach him vegie-English) which he's thrilled about. You can see pride in his face when he does well and he doesn't often get told that he's a worthy human being. So I want him to sit my English exam because I know he can do well at it and for the rest of his life he has at least 1 report card which says he was a good student and that at least 1 teacher didn't think he was a drop kick who'd amount to nothing.

But when I asked the administration if he could sit the exam, I was told that when he had his meeting with the admin, his parents were there too, and while his mum was pleasant, his father was rude and unless the father apologises or does something to the like, the kid cannot sit his exams and the school won't offer him Job Pathways stuff which is all about helping kids find apprenticeships.

That fucking angers me and i'm even angrier at myself for not asking the administration why exactly the child was being punished for the sins of the father. Politics can be such bullshit.

My job is to teach. And I hate that politics can prevent my teaching a student who wants to learn.

Nolites Te Bastardes Carborundorum. Some days they do though. And that sucks.

Old friends

Well one thing that has plagued my mind of late is old friends. Back in my hey day, I was a Flinders Street goth and would congregate there on a Saturday afternoon, where we would have fun whiling away the hours chatting with the druggies and the homeless folk, or going to shoot pool where we had the Jukebox on repetitive Guns and Roses. I still can't hear Welcome to the Jungle or Paradise City without thinking of those fond memories, and our fabulous pool place, which now doesn't exist. Or some days we'd go to the Hare Krishna place and eat all this spicy food for like $3. It was a bargain and it was lots of fun. Good times, good times...

But unfortunately i've lost contact with those friends, and I find that kind of sad. I wondered what they were up to, and hoped they weren't dead. So I decided to do something about it. I'm hitting up friends for their Wesley yearbooks to see if I can at least figure out the surnames of two of my mates who were ex-Wesley, Cam and Hugh. I've googled some others, but the only available info is that they've written letters to the Age etc protesting this that or the other. My old email addresses for them are ancient and no longer work.

So I resorted to the White Pages. And it actually worked! Who knew old, pre-Internet methods were still valid? One of my mates, Avi, is listed in the phone book as his parents still live at their old house. The mum remembered me as Avi and I did our formals together, and gave me his mobile number. I called him, and i've now got his email address so we can organise coffee. I found out from him that he still sees another guy I knew who just got back from India, and the two Wesley boys i'm hunting have been backpacking or something through Laos.

I can't wait till I sit down at coffee and see and hear what he's like. I don't know about you, but I have changed heaps since my high school years, and I want to see what my old friends are like. Curiosity may have killed the cat, but I sure as hell hope it wont kill me. What's the worst that can happen?

On the same topic, I caught up with my Hoyts pals last night for dinner at the Lower Plenty hotel and drinks at the Eltham pub. I was lucky enough to see my old friend Adam, who has been in the army for the last 3 years. We've both decided we're going to the Hoyts Xmas party, as its only $10 and there's a huge tab on the bar! Apparently partners of current employees are allowed, but ex-Hoyts aren't meant to go? How does that work? You put in almost 10 years at a company and apparently you can't celebrate with old friends? Well several of us are going, includig friends who are ex Hoyts AND current partners of Hoyts ppl. It's on a Monday night, and we've vowed to get hammered, which will make the following Tuesday the first time I have EVER turned up to work with a raging hangover. I've got it covered - am gonna book my Period 1 & 2 classes into the video room so I can just sit back and let my eyes glaze over. Myeh, its after exams and we only have to while away the time with the kids anyway!

Had better go get ready to hit the town with Kateo and crew. It's 9.15 and i'm not even close to being ready!

A very filmy weekend

Film to go see - Tim Burton's Corpse Bride
This film, like all Burton masterpieces, is beautiful to look at. You just sit in awe of how visually stunning it is. It's funny too. Check it out.

Film to NOT go and see - Flightplan
I saw this on Friday night and left completely unsatisfied. Anyone who knows me knows that I am a scaredy cat. I hate suspense. When I finally got around to watching The Green Mile, I pestered my boyfriend to tell me if anyone was going to die, coz there was no way I could handle three hours of such worry! Thats how much of a wimp I am. So hear me clear when I say this is not scary, not suspenseful, and downright boring. The plot has more holes than anything you can think of that's holey, and while I liekd Jodie Foster in Panic Room, she just got on my nerves in this flick.

Another film to miss - Elizabethtown
To be more precise actually, skip the first half. The first half sucks, and Orlando Bloom not only demonstrates his complete lack of anything resembling acting ability, it is additionally painful to watch him fuck up an American accent. He drops bcak into his Pom voice, particularly when required to show emotion. I guess having to do an accent and be emotional at the same time is too much for his teeny tiny brain to register.
The second half picks up purely because Cameron Crowe knows how to pick a soundtrack. Soundtrack is cool, like in all Cameron Crowe films. You have to give Crowe points for playing the soundtrack over the top of Orlando Bloom speaking, as it is purely for this reason that the second half was so bearable!
Am hanging out for Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. But not only do I have to work on the release date, it is also my little sisters 18th birthday! Grr. And I just realised I am meant to be on Surf Camp that week, so i'll have to weasel out of it, which is annoying coz I was looking forward to getting paid to work on my tan!

Cheerios,
Melby

Useless info

Favourite new word of the week: 'hubris' - arrogant pride or presumption

Favourite student saying (well writing). Two students, writing on the topic of Generation Ys supposed constant job changing days used the term 'doll bludger' instead of 'dole bludger'. What do you think a doll bludger could be? One who bludgeons Barbie dolls? Someone who relies on the Bratz dolls for their personal income? Perhaps they're pimping them out (god knows those dolls are hookers in waiting!)

Favourite website this week: People who know me know i'm a Harry Potter nut. So im checking out a website called www.dumbledoreisnotdead.com Yes yes its a conspiracy theory but who doesn't love a good ol' conspiracy now and then?

Melbourne Cup Day watermelon shenanigans

Melbourne Cup BBQ at Jarrod's was much fun, wallowing in the Cuban flavour of it (coz, you know, all you need to be Cuban are cigars and Buena Vista Social Club!) It was a day of beer, watermelon, sausages, Grug in a sexy frilly apron, Kateo's boobs, Raz and Chris not paying me my hard earned $2(!), Brian's vomiting, and much much more! Here are some random pics for your perusal when people often didn't know I was happy snapping!

Kid Dynamite, Rick, & Emmett

Brian and Thao. This one is a favourite - what is that face you're pulling Thao?

Mav, Kateo, Jarrod & Lani. One day i'm going to get a photo of Jarrod where he doesn't have his head tilted up. Has anyone else noticed his tendency to do this????

Lani and Brian kicking back

Emmett with 7, 8, 9, or 10 watermelon slices in his mouth? We discovered how disgusting it is when the juice starts dribbling down the chin, pink and fleshy....