Today's been a bit of a pottering-around-and-catching-up day. It's been the first day that I haven't had to do any marking or lesson preparation for my teaching job.
My creative writing class met on 5th June for the last time this academic year. Since then, I've been extremely busy marking their second assignments and portfolios for their qualification, ready for Internal Verification by my boss this week and moderation by someone from the Examining Board next week.
Given that my students are extremely keen and prolific writers, going through their massive portfolios has been time-consuming, exhausting and eye-boggling - at one point I was actually starting to see double!
But at the same time, it has been an entertaining, fascinating and exhilerating process. It's been a real joy to see how much my students have progressed since they started studying with me in September. And the quality of their work and the amount of time, thought, and effort they have put into getting their portfolios just right is astonishing!
Today I've enjoyed having the time to save some podcasts (Hay House Radio - their Listen Again archive is a treasure trove of programmes about self-development and spirituality), e-mail friends, and even wash the bath mat! There are still lots of things on my to-do list for the week - music practice, yoga, swimming, belly dancing, hairdresser, dentist, to name but a few.
And tomorrow I go along to the college clutching my own certificates in my sweaty hands. This time, I'm the one who'll be the student, as it's the induction morning for my two-year in-service PGCE course. I'm looking forward to studying again and finding out all the things I should have been doing this year! Perhaps I'll learn how to use the projector without having to rely on two of my technically-minded students!
So I definitely won't be bored over the next couple of months. I'll be glad to have a break and a bit of a rest. But there's part of me that will be thinking, 'Wouldn't be nice to have some writing to mark?' I think I may be having withdrawal symptoms by the time the summer vacation is over.
But, you never know, perhaps I'll get a few e-mails in my inbox before then saying, 'Gale, I've written another story - I wonder if you'd mind just having a look at it for me...'
There's hope for me yet!
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