The summer break is long enough to catch up on things you should have done in the Summer Term, completely relax and then move on to things you want to do during the autumn. It’s the start of the second week of the holiday and I’ve finished marking my Year 10 coursework. I’ve also emptied my laptop of all documents. I’m changing schools and so those are the last jobs I needed to do in order to feel I’ve been a good colleague to whoever inherits my teaching groups or laptop. I’m just coming to the end of the visits to the dentist, optician, etc. My car’s had a £500 service (don’t ask!). I’ve booked the hotel for our wedding anniversary weekend. So although I have a few planning meetings for my new school still to come, I feel at a loose end. More than ever this year I want to have a (school-related) project. The cynical part of my mind suspects this is so I don’t get around to my home-related project of painting the bathroom. I started that job at the same time as I started applying for jobs. Funnily enough I now have a new job but still have an unpainted bathroom. I’m not sure I’m brave enough to try to consolidate my teaching materials. Every year (for 12 years now) I’ve said I’ll put all my ‘number’ stuff in one place and then sub-divide into categories such as fractions, types of number, percentages, and then start on the ‘algebra’ stuff. I’m going to have to synchronise all my electronic teaching materials as well. They are currently scattered on three memory sticks, a PC and two portable hard-drives. However, it would make life simpler and my planning more effective if I only had to look in one place to find my indices pairing game!
If you’re changing jobs this summer, how are you spending the holiday?