An End

Today my Year 12 English students did their exam. Boy am I glad! For the last week and a half my studious Year 12s (and I don't include the whole class in that definition) have been making appointments, writing essays, asking questions and getting prepared the best they can for their exam. Whilst any teacher is more than happy to spend time with those who are putting in the effort and who want extra help, this is a taxing time. I have not had a free period in over a week, and due to the fact that half of my job is administration, things have been piling up. This afternoon was the first joyous free afternoon I have had in what feels like an eternity and my jelly-like brain has switched off well and truly. I am also excited that there is a four day weekend coming up because if I am a good little teacher and do all of my correction (3class sets worth of essays) then I will come back to school next week refreshed, with no work hanging over me and with a three day week ahead. Just the thought of it soothes my aching bones. If I am a bad little teacher however (which is entirely possible given my ability to be extremely unmotivated at times when it comes to correction) then that will be what consumes my entire week next week, a fate I don't really want to condemn myself too.
This is the part of the year that is exciting for me. The time when I get to look forward, identify my goals and targets for next year and start planning and working to bring them to fruition. This is the time of the year when I start to feel like I am really getting things done. The challenge though is to keep the momentum going and to get my teams working towards next year too. I have tried to start early, to set up teams of people to work on particular tasks and hopefully if I can keep them motivated and united we might get a result that doesn't involve me doing all the work. I'm proud of my BYTES team actually because I put out an urgent email this week for them to come up with report comments for their BYTES modules and within a day they had all responded. Due to the fact that I was dealing with Year 12s this whole week, the fact that I didn't have to chase anyone and that the comments were all of a decent quality was fantastic.
Anyway- I'm packing up so that I can leave ASAP after the bell goes. Tonight I am going to have a nice long bath with a nice long book!