MU'd!

 MU'd!

Hmmm. I seem to have been given a Management Unit for next year. Yay me, I suppose.

It's pretty awesome to have the confidence of the department and management, and the extra $ will be most handy, but this week I'm really not sure that more responsibility is really what I need. Except that, of course, it is if I want to progress my career and end up sitting in a nice comfy office pushing paper about and telling people what to do.

The one uncomfortable thing is that I think there were only 2 candidates for the job, and the other person will be part of my team next year. I hope that goes smoothly. I felt a mix of pleasure and guilt at being given the job, especially as the other candidate was sitting just around the corner in the English department office, and could no doubt hear everything that we were talking about.

All is well, I am sure that it will go swimmingly.

Now I must finish my junior reports, as the mountain of marking at home needs sorting tonight, in preparation for the Saturday kick-off.

I shall be very glad when the next 2 weeks are over and done with. I might skip the end of term booze-up, in favour of marking. Debbie and I are working on our plan to get up early and do an hour or two of work before school. It didn't happen today, but the start of the week was quite productive for me.

Table Manners

Last night Debbie and I saw a play called Table Manners at the Kapiti playhouse. It was awesome! Really funny, well acted, with a great stage setup / set dressing. A fantastic night out, filled with chuckles and laughs and some great comedic performances!

Early Christmas Presents!

 Early Christmas Presents!

Today I received some wonderful Santa sacks filled with joyous marking as an early Christmas present. I was pleased to note that I have been assigned 1337 scripts to mark - pretty awesome that I only get the best of the best :)

OK, that would probably work better if I'd been assigned l337 scripts to mark. And now that I think about it, having to decode essays written entirely in leet-speak would possibly take longer than merely deciphering bad spelling.

Whatever the case, I am overjoyed that my life shan't be boring for the last couple of weeks of school - I can add marking to prizegiving and designing a media studies course to my plate.

For even greater enjoyment levels, my eyelid has thrown a wobbly again. The excised flap of skin that was mildly irritating as it rubbed against my eyeball has grown back. Hooray!

Luckily I insisted on a follow up appointment at the eye specialist to make sure all was going well, so I don't have to shell out for a pointless doctor's appointment to get a referral that would take at least 3 weeks to be followed up. Instead I have a ready-made appointment in 2 week's time. More surgery awaits!

I've been up since 6:30am this morning - not an early time in itself, but half an hour earlier than I usually get up. The honda has a wonky muffler and needs something like $250 worth of repairs/replacements. Presumable it will be a quiter beasty after today. I also spent an hour before work today putting together And then there were none... DVDs. I like finishing projects, so it was a very satisfying process. I had to make multiple copies of thd DVD (6), redo the label image to get it aligned properly, print off and apply labels (with help from Debbie) and get the covers trimmed and inserted. The final product looks pretty good, and contains about 15 music videos made with Picture Package. Quite a groovy little memento.

Now I shall go and fill in my attestation form, which allows me to be pay-raised (after an observed lesson tomorrow and a meeting and goal setting and all that good stuff). I should have sorted it out last term, but it's been a busy year, and I am talented at flying under the radar and putting off whatever can be left till the last minute.

Well, mildly talented. I'm working on being more action-focussed and speedy-result-delivering. It's not going too badly, all things considered.

Minor systems failure

 Minor systems failure

Oops. I had a feeling like I was forgetting something all last week, and it turns out I was!

Happy birthday Ma! We totally have a present for you (have had for ages), but it's not even near being in the post.

I've been writing lists the last few days, of all the important stuff I should not forget to do. That one was sadly remembered multiple times, then forgotten before the lists even started. If I consult my shirt pocket I find that my list has... 3 items on it. Not bad given that yesterday's list had about 8 things. I might even try to knock one more off the list before I go home - it's a simple faxing job.

Life has become markedly less chaotic this week - only 1 and a half hours of prizegiving work yesterday, and an after school meeting that finished before 4:30. Today - 10 minutes of PG work, and no after school meeting at all. After school blogging instead.

So, I shall now add "send present to mother" to my list, try to get "Fax OnTv confirmation" crossed off, and go home to cook some food to take round to L&S's.

The next 2 weeks are going to be very nice. I am low-key worried about marking, but it's not me that has to do it - it's Future Matt. No point me worrying about some other dude who's going to have all my cash (and natural charms), but isn't me. I'll do my best to set things up nicely for him, but I'll let Future Matt worry about Future Matt's job.

I'm sure that's a normal way of thinking, right?

Prizegiving Looms

 Prizegiving Looms

I have to leave to go to Prizegiving in about 20 minutes. It has not been a stress-free process, to be sure. I shall be very glad come 7pm tonight when the senior stuff is all over.

I have very low key anxiety about my job tonight - I have to stand up on stage and shuffle piles of books, certificates and trophies around, making sure to keep them in the correct order, so that the 200 or so students who are coming up on stage all get the right certificate, book or trophy (or engraved pen, or Japanese eraser, or colouring pencils, or boardgame, or watch, or CD, or medal, or whatever other crazy thing they need).

It will be mighty fine to have it all over and done with :)

Oooh - and Debbie and I get to see L&S's new house today, as we're helping move a carload of stuff tonight! Yay!

Weathering the Storm

Five days to go before we get a breather!

The past couple of weeks have been intermittently busy, with work and socialising and the occasional visiting of an open home. The next few days are hard slog for us, with all the deadlines for marks and reports and such that happen around this time of year.

Added to all that stress, I'm part of the Prizegiving team at my school, so there are a few dozen extra hours of work that need to be done before Wednesday afternoon. I'm sure we'll get it done somehow, but it's not going to be fun.

I did think this morning about how lovely the next two days would be if I wasn't doing prizegiving work. I'd be able to plan thoughtfully for my seniors' last classes, and actually be there in class the whole time. I'd be able to mark all the extra practice essays that students are giving me during school time, instead of after dinner. I'd be relaxed and upbeat, knowing that I only see my seniors once or twice more this year. Instead, it's rush and hustle and stress and extra meetings and going out to buy prizes after the extra meetings. Not really all that bad, but not as nice as not doing it would be.

It's all just part of the job, and the pay-off is really nice at the awards ceremonies (if all goes well), so I really shouldn't complain ;)

Umm, in other news, ah, I've been working on 2 DVDs - the school productions. A program called "Picture Package" has been a neat thing to get - it makes music videos out of video footage and photos. Quite neat but very addictive.

I've also been killing a lot of plants recently (Mattspeak for gardening). It is satisfying, but really I'd rather do it with a flamethrower and be done with it. I like nice plants, but weeds and spiky plants (like the silly bogan-villia on our deck) really just irritate me. I should develop a thorough understanding of poisons, and get into some chemical warfare, but I'd feel guilty if I accidentally killed any trees or roses or similar acceptable foliage. Maybe when we've got our own place.

Now I must depart and get back to the prizegiving war-room, and sort hundreds of certificates. It's monkey-work, but it's confidential monkey-work, so it has to be done by us. After that it's off to buy prizes, then home to do some marking.

I am totally hanging out for the weekend, with the departure of senior students and the reemergence of breathing space.