Today is an inservice day and I’m trying to make some curtains. I am not a Home Economics teacher: a fact painfully obvious from the uneven, puckered monstrosities of alleged curtains that lie before me. The reason for this venture into the world of needles and threads is a digital projector and some unadorned windows.
It’s almost bizarre that I am attempting to block out natural light from my classroom. The entire English department is located on the ground floor of the building. A ground floor which has been cleverly disguised as a basement. Our rooms have only a strip of narrow windows running along the top of one wall. And just to make it a little more pleasant, it never gets particularly warm down here. On the warmest summer days you can find me behind my desk wrapped in woollen polo necks and nursing a hot chocolate. On sunny days the little windows let in just enough light at just the right height to wash out whatever I happen to be digitally projecting, rendering my ICT toy almost useless. Bah!
So I’m making curtains.
Also rethinking my wall displays. What is the best use of wall space? Exhibiting pupils work? Displays designed to aid the pupils in their work? A mixture of both perhaps. And how often should I change them? How often do I have time to change them? Suspect I am not fully utilising a potentially powerful resource…
Hooray for inservice days!
A Wee Bit of Cooking 