Monday 9 November 2009

Busy busy

You know how easy it is sometmes to say that you haven't had time to do this or that? That you were busy? Either it's true or not?

Well, that's not one of those cases. I have actually been very busy lately. Not too busy to drop a line or two on this blog, but when I have a lot on my mind (a lot of different things or a lot of one and the same thing, doesn't matter), it can easily happen that I have no idea what towrite and I don't want to push it and write nonsense (like this is something different... I know I know).

Our Danes have different plans for next year (but will hopefully still cooperate with us in the following years).Our eighth-graders, however, can't wait when it's their turn for the exchange. That would be in the ninth grade, but as I said... no Denmark next year. And they are such great kids! With so many ideas and great energy! So I made our school's profile on two different portals and wrote a ton of e-mails and did quite some clicking and again and again.... not to mention all the times I checked for new messages ("Stop it, mum, they can't be writing at all times, some people actually have work to do..." dear Poppy!) Got some good and serious replies, only to learn later that the teachers changed their minds, for one reason or another. Sigh. Then I wrote more e-mails just to take these kids somewhere next year (no, I'm not that selfless, I like going, too) and received a reply about half an hour after I had written one of them, saying "Actually, we are kind of looking for a partner school right now..! Yaaay! So at the moment it looks like we're going to the Netherlands next year. Keep your fingers crossed, will you?

I even translated a video. Did you know scientist are writing equations of the movement of the fish? Or jellyfish? Or making new materials from the atom up, planning their quality - like ability to feel, to remember or heal? Materials, yes, not machines or robots. Imagine tearing trousers or a blouse and seeing it whole some time later, or crashing with your car and not needing to have it repaired?

I'm writing some tests these days. Yep, we need grades. The law says so. I don't like tests. And I hate oral grading even more. Can't do anything about it, though. I'll live, I guess.

I'm working on a project dealing with learning difficulties for which I should write some reports and some other material. Haven't yet. Today, maybe.

My 11-year-old students started corresponding with sme kids from New York. They love it, but they've just started. I hope they won't get tired of it (What should I write...). I guess we'll just have to send different things to keep it interesting. Still, it takes some co-ordinating, meeting them, creating accounts, things like that. And it's just corresponding! What if we started a project with some serious work to do!

In our eighth grades we're having crosscurricular lessons this week: Librarianship-English, dealing with dictionaries and translating. So I have to prepare for that, too. And my head is kind of empty, only ready to do a little thinking, just enough to let me go to work tomorrow with some realistic chance to survive without embarassing myself too much. I'll do better than that. I'll make my brain try a little harder. Hopefully.

Among other things, we'll be reading verses by our poet Tone Pavček. There is this book, full of them, each of them in Slovene and English.

I have plenty more to do.I have some tests to grade and some articles to translate into English. And prepare for tomorrow.

So I'll stop whining and get back to work, leaving you with a short verse by Pavček:

You're in this world to watch the sun,
you're in this world to follow the sun,
you're in this world to be the sun
and chase the shadows away.

6 comments:

  1. I LOOOOOOOOOOVE Tone Pavček. So positive, positive, positive .... :) Is there the translation of "Nekaj je v zraku" too? I'd love to hear and share it. :)

    By the way, my head is empty too. I need some ideas for my essay topic. I'm thinking of choosing Alice in Wonderland for my essay. Any topics in mind? Plis? Tenks. :P

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  2. Nice to see you back. I was wondering where you were.

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  3. Thanks! I'll try not to disappear like that again any time soon... but time flies.

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  4. Are you 11 year old writing actual snail mail letters or e-mails to the New Yorkers? Cool stuff.

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  5. That is a great poem!

    We don't like tests either, which is why we almost never test in our homeschooling. As a parent who sees the results of their work every day, I'm quite aware of their strengths and weaknesses and try to adjust the materials we use to work on things they most need help with.

    I hope the Netherlands exchange trip works out!

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  6. Hey ho! Soooo much wonderful information in one post. Thanks so much!
    I sure hope the exchange with that Dutch school works out. (I've just been there recently, in Enkhuizen, that is). That would be really great! I wish you and the kids all the best.
    And the news on an intercurricular lesson, so great! That's something I've always wanted to try out. In my head it was Art, though. Although a lesson on using dictionaries is simply great ... priceless!
    By the way, I too love those verses from Pavček.
    Once again thanks so much for lighting up my day ... oops, night! :)

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