Our minds have been over occupied of late with things that could be, and have been at times, quite depressing. The seemingly relentless march of bird flu in Asia has lots of us very worried and actions taken by the school have done little to ease our concern. There is a protocol in place, which appears to be very conservative indeed, and the school will only close if citizens are dropping like flies downtown. We are very frustrated with this attitude, which seems to put faculty last in a list of priorities. We often wonder why they bothered to buy, implement and train everyone in the use of the remote online classroom if it is not to be used. Cass has begun to stockpile food (as we have been advised to do) in the event of a quarantine situation arising. More likely, in my opinion, is that we will have to break contract and flee the country if human to human strains appear: better to look after number 1 in these situations. The whole country is devoid of Tamiflu it seems, but we have each got a full course of another drug that seems to have some good effects on battling this flu strain. We need to get Virg’n Mary microchipped for any possible return home and we’ll do that this week. We think we’ve done all that seems necessary at this time and will continue to monitor and make our own decisions if other’s decisions are unpalatable to us.
Although it seems impossible to believe, the powers at school have also decided to muck around with our pay and benefits. Although we don’t have any firm details, the rumours of “restructuring” seem accurate and this is the time of year it will happen as contracts are prepared for signing just after Christmas. We’ll wait and reserve judgement, but talk about worrying and destabilizing times: not what we’re used to at all and it’s just rotten timing coming on the back of all the external worries.
Nevertheless, we’re managing to forget about this stuff pretty much in our day to day work and life, trying to focus on the positives that we have, of which there are always many to think of. Cass has managed to read two books this week, devouring them with great relish, mainly because the writing has been so sophisticated, succinct and crisp. They were Daniel Lehane’s “Prayers for Rain” (also wrote “Mystic River”) and Siri Hustvedt’s “What I Loved”. I also read the Lehane and found it very hard to put down and beautifully written. I’ve started reading the new Inspector Rebus tome called “Fleshmarket Alley”; Ian Rankin is another author who takes the time to build a plot and suspense while not treating his audience with contempt. It’s interesting to note that some of the most successful contemporary literature is quite dumbed down to appeal to as wide an audience as possible. Cass and I both deal with the lexile level of literature to ascertain whether books are right for the levels of the kids we’re teaching, whether they be at grade level, above or below. The immensely successful, popular and dynamic books of Dan Brown for example, are only measuring at a low Year 8 lexile level while the Harry Potter juggernauts should be comprehended at a higher level than this, say high year 8 or early year 9! Some of my Year 3 kiddies are struggling away with Harry and many adults are reading Brown books all around the world…just interesting, I think!
That last little bit of delirious rambling is due to the fact that I have just returned from yet another course, this time in leadership. The 4 principals at the school under the banner of the State University of New York ran it and yes, you guessed it, I’d signed up to get the credit points! From 8 till 5 on Saturday and 8 till 12.30 today is just the beginning: the online component and final project look quite frightening in terms of time commitment. I should have realized; 4 principals teaching a course would almost certainly have to try to outdo one another!
Two last thoughts: this blog passed its 3rd anniversary this week and 171 pages and 84,000 words later, it's still going. I always knew I was full of it, but not quite that full!
Thanksgiving this week…. remember my recent rant about non-comprehension of our American cousins? It’s still true, but I say “God Bless America” if they’re going to give me two days off at the end of this week!!!