Summer
The summer holidays have finally begun. I always find it a complicated time with mixed emotions.
The biggest one is relief. It's so good knowing that you've overcome the challenges of the year and got to the end and now have six weeks to relax in. This year was a particularly challenging one with a difficult class, an inexperienced staff team and being short-staffed for much of it. I always find myself flagging after about five weeks of a term and this final one was nearly eight weeks long so it feels like a rest is well overdue. I think I've aged about five years since September.
Weirdly though the challenging year has increased my self-confidence. I've had to step forward a lot more than in previous years, leading the class and supporting my less experience colleagues. It was really tough at times but I feel that I was genuinely successful at doing this. A long time ago I wrote here about astronaut Chris Hadfield. He says that in life you be a minus one, someone who hinders a situation, a plus one, someone who helps it, or a zero, a neutral. You obviously want to be a plus one but going about your life acting like you are a plus one just alienates people. Instead you should aim to be a zero, to not make things worse and help in any way you can. That's been my philosophy for some time now and I think this year I probably was a plus one a lot of the time.
I received several messages to this effect- the outgoing teacher's message was really lovely and one set of parents wrote that I am the reason their child comes to school, complete with an enormous box of cider attached (there will be a lot of time spent in the garden with a drink this summer I suspect).
There's also some sadness in the end of term as it always means a parting. Two members of staff and two children are leaving my class and two of those people are not returning to the school. No matter what frustrations you have, when you work with people for a year there's always going to be an element of sadness to them no longer being around.
I also experience a certain amount of anxiety. Six weeks is a long time to fill and I know once I've had a few days of rest I will likely feel unfulfilled. At least this year I have a week's holiday and a week's worth of work too so this is my busiest looking summer for some time. I hope I can find enough to keep me occupied the rest of the time.
Mind you, that's not the easiest thing when it's so hot. The UK is undergoing the longest heatwave I've ever known with daytime temperatures rarely dipping below about 23° and regularly exceeding 30°. I know this is not really that hot compared to other countries but it's unusual for the UK. Air conditioning is far from the norm and British heat is scientifically proven to be a more sticky, unpleasant heat than in other countries (don't ask me for a source on that though). I've been spending a lot of time sat in the shady part of the garden trying not to move much.
Of course, a heatwave is the perfect time to grow a beard. Now I started growing a beard at Easter and let it grow for the next half term before shaving it in the half term holidays. I work with autistic children and so don't want to cause them distress by dramatically changing my appearance overnight. The trouble is that this half term was three weeks longer which it turns out is quite a lot more beard. It's proved unexpectedly popular amongst the children at school though with several being oddly bemused by it and one getting very annoyed when I informed him he was alas too young to be able to grow a beard like mine yet.
The real unexpected bonus is that passers-by on the street seem to be much less likely to say hello to me now I have a reasonably lengthy beard. I can only assume that I look less approachable but frankly I have no desire to undergo interactions with strangers so it suits me just fine. The beard will remain in the long term though at a significantly shorter length than it is currently. I have to get rid of it before I go on holiday in order to look anything like my passport photo anyway.
I hope you all have a lovely summer and stay safe in the sun. I should have time to write here regularly over the next few weeks so watch this space.
The biggest one is relief. It's so good knowing that you've overcome the challenges of the year and got to the end and now have six weeks to relax in. This year was a particularly challenging one with a difficult class, an inexperienced staff team and being short-staffed for much of it. I always find myself flagging after about five weeks of a term and this final one was nearly eight weeks long so it feels like a rest is well overdue. I think I've aged about five years since September.
Weirdly though the challenging year has increased my self-confidence. I've had to step forward a lot more than in previous years, leading the class and supporting my less experience colleagues. It was really tough at times but I feel that I was genuinely successful at doing this. A long time ago I wrote here about astronaut Chris Hadfield. He says that in life you be a minus one, someone who hinders a situation, a plus one, someone who helps it, or a zero, a neutral. You obviously want to be a plus one but going about your life acting like you are a plus one just alienates people. Instead you should aim to be a zero, to not make things worse and help in any way you can. That's been my philosophy for some time now and I think this year I probably was a plus one a lot of the time.
I received several messages to this effect- the outgoing teacher's message was really lovely and one set of parents wrote that I am the reason their child comes to school, complete with an enormous box of cider attached (there will be a lot of time spent in the garden with a drink this summer I suspect).
There's also some sadness in the end of term as it always means a parting. Two members of staff and two children are leaving my class and two of those people are not returning to the school. No matter what frustrations you have, when you work with people for a year there's always going to be an element of sadness to them no longer being around.
I also experience a certain amount of anxiety. Six weeks is a long time to fill and I know once I've had a few days of rest I will likely feel unfulfilled. At least this year I have a week's holiday and a week's worth of work too so this is my busiest looking summer for some time. I hope I can find enough to keep me occupied the rest of the time.
Mind you, that's not the easiest thing when it's so hot. The UK is undergoing the longest heatwave I've ever known with daytime temperatures rarely dipping below about 23° and regularly exceeding 30°. I know this is not really that hot compared to other countries but it's unusual for the UK. Air conditioning is far from the norm and British heat is scientifically proven to be a more sticky, unpleasant heat than in other countries (don't ask me for a source on that though). I've been spending a lot of time sat in the shady part of the garden trying not to move much.
Of course, a heatwave is the perfect time to grow a beard. Now I started growing a beard at Easter and let it grow for the next half term before shaving it in the half term holidays. I work with autistic children and so don't want to cause them distress by dramatically changing my appearance overnight. The trouble is that this half term was three weeks longer which it turns out is quite a lot more beard. It's proved unexpectedly popular amongst the children at school though with several being oddly bemused by it and one getting very annoyed when I informed him he was alas too young to be able to grow a beard like mine yet.
The real unexpected bonus is that passers-by on the street seem to be much less likely to say hello to me now I have a reasonably lengthy beard. I can only assume that I look less approachable but frankly I have no desire to undergo interactions with strangers so it suits me just fine. The beard will remain in the long term though at a significantly shorter length than it is currently. I have to get rid of it before I go on holiday in order to look anything like my passport photo anyway.
I hope you all have a lovely summer and stay safe in the sun. I should have time to write here regularly over the next few weeks so watch this space.
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