Well, as I sit here in my living room, hot shower completed and in my comfy clothes, I figured now would be a good time to reflect back on the last week of teaching yeah?
So, you all caught a glimpse of how my week went from a more event based point of view. I attended a Champions League match in Chelsea, made my opinions known about arts funding in education, and generally had a decent overall week…it didn’t start out that way however. On Monday morning I was told to go to Bishopsford for the day. For those of you who remember (and those of you who don’t) Bishopsford Arts College is my archenemy if one could have an archenemy in an inanimate object. Every time I go to that school I labour to get through my day and try to keep the massively unruly classes in check while I attempt to dispense some strand of knowledge on their impressionable minds. It’s exhausting, mentally and physically, and Monday was no different. I ended up having a bunch of humanities classes, which really boiled down to some RE, and they were quite the bunch. A lot of these students I have had in other classes before so it gives me the advantage of knowing their names from saying them out loud countless times. The year 7 and 8 students and hyper, loud, and they have a very difficult time sitting quietly to even listen to the instructions for what they need to do at the beginning of class. I had two year 11 classes, one of which was actually not too bad because it was a small class, but the other was very trying. One of the obstacles at Bishopsfords is that it caters to an area with a large immigrant population. Many of the kids in the classes speak English as a second language and therefore it is difficult sometimes to communicate with them. The year 11’s also have a nasty habit of always having their cell phones out. While there is a strict policy against the use of phones in class, enforcing it is something else…especially as a supply. I’m supposed to confiscate them and by that I mean ask for them and hope they put it in my hand. After an intense confrontation with one year 11 girl (whom I kicked out of the classroom) things began to settle down a bit and I was able to finish out the day. Definitely a trying day and it was especially difficult to start my week out on that note coming back from Half Term as well. Needless to say I was in a bit of a bad mood for a little while after and went to sleep fairly early.
Tuesday and Wednesday I ended up not working….boooooooooooooooooo. Tuesday I unfortunately didn’t get anything and Wednesday there was a tube strike going on that limited the amount of work coming into the Protocol offices. Quick lesson on the strike (for those of you who know about it, feel free to skip ahead.) Basically, the tube workers have had an ongoing feud with the City of London for well over a year now. The only problem is they can’t exactly all go on strike simultaneously for a long period of time because the entire city would go to shit…people depend upon the tube operating like nobody’s business. Instead they opt to go on strike for one 24 hour period once a month to make their point. This severely disrupts commuting and it’s been happening for so long that it’s almost just a regular part of the month (insert obligatory “that time of the month” joke here). As a result of the strike many schools opt to use other means to cover their classes because they know that supply teachers through agencies depend on the tube to get to a lot of schools and they can’t risk people running late. Long story short, it resulted in me getting no work that day.
On the plus side I got pre-booked to work at a school in Wimbledon the next day! Hooray! Reason #1 why I was excited: it is within walking distance of my house so I had no transit costs whatsoever. Reason #2: it is a performing arts specialist school so I was really keen to check that out. Reason #3: it is an all-girls school and I was intrigued to see how that would go. You see, when one thinks about an all boys school certain stereotypes run through the mind. Boy running around hitting and fighting each other, screaming, yelling, and running rampant…unfortunately a lot of these stereotypes are true. When one thinks of an all-girls school the opposite stereotypes tend to run through the mind. As I found out, those are also really true. I suppose it might just be a result of quicker maturity in girls but the day was awesome. I had a bunch of PE classes (which ended up just being computer work) and I gave the girls the task and they just….did it. Bizzare right? I ended up speaking to the head of the performing arts aspect to the school about potentially volunteering for productions and whatnot, even as just a member of the community. I think it would be great experience for me, I could impart some wisdom on them, and maybe even get an “in” to the school for future use. We’ll see how that goes.
On Friday I did a 180 and ended up back at Henry Compton School, the all-boys school. I had one hell of a time trying to get there too. I opted to take the tube there which unfortunately requires a few changes of lines to get to my destination. When I needed to board the District Line (a notorious one for disruptions) they had signal failures and did not know when it would be up and running again. Another long story short I had to run around London to hop on the Picadilly Line and then hit Hammersmith and then walk down to the school. I missed the first lesson. Luckily the school was aware of my plight and things were covered but I missed one period of the day unfortunately. I received my schedule for the remainder of the day and I was covering a year 7 maths class, a year 8 maths, year 8 english, and year 8….wait for it…DRAMA!!!!!! I was kind of excited about that one…I hadn’t seen the word drama on a cover timetable yet so I was pumped to say the least. The maths and English class went relatively well. The younger boys at this school seem to be a bit of a handful but they also have a large population of kids with special needs and a lot of hyperactivity. The kids seem to respond to me very well and I had a bunch of the same year 8’s throughout the day so there was at least some consistency there. The drama class ended up being a bit of a bust (sorry to disappoint you). Apparently a PGSE teacher (student teacher) was supposed to actually be running the lesson but the lesson plan built upon a previous lesson that these students had not had. So that all went out the window and we ended up combining that class with another year 8 class and bringing them up with the art teacher to his room to do some art instead. He led the class so I was demoted to a TA/damage control duty. It was fine and actually an easy way to schlep into the week-end. It turned out to be a decent week after all .
I didn’t end up getting into too much trouble over the week-end. Saturday I ended up taking a trip up to Kensington and Hyde Park because I hadn’t been up that way in a while and felt like I needed to get back into some London touristy things. I took the tube over to Harrods and get my mind blown by the ridiculously expensive things they have for sale there. Pretty much every major label you could possibly think of and it just made me feel like I needed to win the lottery some time really soon. After that I ended up taking a walk through Hyde Park and past Kensington Palace before heading over to Oxford Circus, down to Covent Garden for some mulled wine (sold right out on the street) and then a tube ride home for the evening.
Sunday I had a bit of a lazy day and spent most of it preparing myself for an audition that I would be having that evening. There’s a community theatre located east of where I live that puts on 22 shows every single year. It’s all a membership based program and being a full time member allows you to participate in shows (acting and production) as well as buy tickets and whatnot. I had been looking into this well before I arrived in London and looked forward to becoming a member and getting involved in shows during my time here. Since the theatre is comprised of all different age levels they can cast characters for shows based on age, not having to rely on younger actors to play older characters. I’ve been waiting for a show to come up that fits me and it finally did a little while ago and I’ve been looking forward to this evening ever since. The show is entitled “Entertaining Mr. Sloane” and it was written by a British playwright in the 60s. There’s also a film of it and it’s enjoyed a number of revivals in British theatre. It’s apparently a well enjoyed dark comedy about a psychopathic murderer (Sloane) who seduces and manipulates a brother and sister pair into convincing them he’s not a murderer all the while avoiding their crazy father who knows exactly who he is. For a plot synopsis you can click here to view the Wikipedia article. You could also YouTube the film if you’re so interested. I auditioned for the part of Mr. Sloane and thought it went fabulously. It was a bit odd because there were only three of us there last night (auditions take place over three evenings) and the director had all of us in the room at the same time doing auditions. We had three scenes to work with and we were sitting in the room as each person went…not exactly what I was expecting. There was a woman who was auditioning for the female part and another man auditioning for Sloane. Needless to say….I had to crush him. I don’t think he’s had any sort of acting training at all, I think he’s just a member of the theatre and thought to try out an audition. He ended up going first too so I took into account where I could adjust my own reading of the scene to make it a little tighter and better….I’m devious. The director seemed to like what I did and was laughing at some parts. He had me perform it in both a British and Canadian accent so I’m not sure how that’s going to work should I get cast. I felt confident after it all. As I said before there’s still a couple more days of auditions to be had so I don’t know any of the other competition for the role and I won’t hear back until next week at the earliest. Fingers crossed!
I think that’s about it! Sorry for having to cram all of that into one post…I should really get on writing these more often to save you and I some time. I’ll write about my day today tomorrow…if that makes sense…it was a good one though. I hope all’s well with everyone reading this and thank you all for the well wishes in regards to the audition. Other than that:
Keep fit and have….wait….that’s not it…
Cheers, Love, Rock That World!
That’s more like it.
Erik
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