Chasing jobs

I visited a local school this week with a view to applying for a job they had advertised. I've been doing a lot of this lately. If the advert says, 'Visits to the school are welcome' it's as well to comply, otherwise your application isn't even considered, but it all takes time.
This one, like the others, is a pleasant enough school. There were eleven of us on the tour. There had been a dozen more the day before. While we were waiting, the talk was of other jobs applied for.
"Did you hear anything from ******* school?"
"No, but I believe they had 63 applications."
Not unusual these days. In Wales particularly, the numbers of newly graduating teachers is far in excess of the jobs available, and that's before you consider the 'oldies' like me. So much for the government's much trumpeted assurances a couple of years ago about addressing the shortage of teachers. Seems someone did their sums wrong and didn't take the falling birthrate into account.
The tour concluded with the headteacher saying that the shortlisted candidates for this 12 month contract (not a permanent job) would be asked to come in and teach for an hour one day and then be recalled for interview the next. All well and good, except that at this time of year, any applicants are going to be newly qualified teachers who are doing a few weeks supply before the end of term or supply teachers per se, which means possibly turning down two days work for a job that only one of them is going to be offered.
Oh, and that's apart from the fact that the successful applicant will be joining her new colleagues in doing two lots of planning - one in keeping with the present curriculum and one for the way they are actually teaching, which follows the draft Foundation Stage. The reason for this is that the new Foundation Stage will not be fully established until 2008, so in the event of an inspection, the school will be expected to be planning and teaching in line with the present curriculum.
Nothing changes!

Update

Keith has had the pin out of his foot and I collected him at 2 o'clock yesterday. He had threatened to drive himself but I talked him out of that one.
However, as I disappeared at three o'clock to keep an appointment of my own, off he went to the shop for the rest of the afternoon. You can't keep a good man down!
The wheelchair has been jettisoned and I'm sure the crutches will follow as soon as possible - and of course, he can now access the kitchen and all the crisps and cakes he can find....

The day of reckoning

Tomorrow is P day. It is the day Keith goes back to hospital to get the pin removed from his ankle. For the benefit of new readers, Keith broke his ankle on ice at the beginning of March. Being a conscientious sort of chap, he did it properly - a complicated break in three places, which, for various reasons, needed a pin inserting through the base of his foot, to remain in place only until the bones were healed.
So, after weeks and months of hobbling around on crutches and cruising around in a wheelchair, the pin is now about to be taken out. He'll still have to wear his 'moonboot' for a bit longer, but at least will be able to put his foot to the ground.

Just as well, really. He is getting a bit fed up with my 'Ah, Jim lad......pieces of eight' impressions.

Father's Day

I sent Dad a Father's Day card during the week and, as he is a steam enthusiast, I was pleased to have found a card with a train on it (sorry - engine!).
This was his emailed response this morning:

Thank you for your card which came in the week but was left until this morning. It is a 4-6-4 loco as far as can be seen through the steam with a Westinghouse air compessor just in front of the cab with the 50 feet of air cooling pipe in front again. The safety valves are lifting and the cylinder cocks are open so it is ready to move.
I don't know the driver's name.

You see, it's important to get the details right!

Time and tide...

Comments heard from Younger Daughter this morning as she glanced over a job application I had left on the dining room table:
"You were at college when???" (As in, "Did they even have college in those days?")
"Ohhh, things have changed a bit since then, Mum."

I think I knew that, thank you!
This will be you one day, Sunshine!

Teen Buzz

There's a new ringtone specifically for teenagers. It uses very high frequencies and so can't be heard by older people as the ability to detect these very high frequencies is something which deteriorates with age.
There was an item about it on the evening news, during which children and adults were interviewed and asked if they could detect the ringtone. The children were able to hear it loud and clear, the adults weren't.
This, I thought, is annoying - another of these age things! So I turned the TV volume up, pressed my ear to the speaker and listened intently............
"Yes, I can hear it," I announced to my sceptic audience of one.
"I can definitely hear it..........I think...................I can, I can, really!"
(Runs in the family, you know, it's in the genes, good hearing. Can hear a pin drop, I can!)

Board dusters, chalk and flying missiles

This post by Krip reminded me of a conversation Keith and I had just the other day. I was talking about various new initiatives in education (let's face it, the last 20 years have produced more new initiatives than most people have had hot dinners!) and we got to talking about punishments and discipline in 'the old days'. Keith reminisced nostalgically about the good old piece of chalk hurled expertly at recalcitrant pupils, followed swiftly by the board duster if improvement in behaviour and attention was not instant. I recalled the dents in the back walls (pinboard) of many of the classrooms in my school caused by board dusters which had missed their mark.
"Of course, I never got anything thrown at me," I boasted.
"I did," said Keith. "My blazer was covered with white chalk marks by the end of the day."
No surprise there then!