I've re-discovered my old grading prowess during this first stint marking my mini doorstop of papers, 92 strong! This time it's just a paragraph, but even so I've had to eke out a little time, squeeze a little fat from my schedule today, to put fingers to keyboard to get this blog started. Cass has been great, sharing her many tips and tricks gleaned from her years doing this same gig, so I'm trying to follow her schedule that she's mapped out for me. If I do, I'll get them all done in time.
Combined with this great slab of papers, we're also undertaking some "live" grading during class this week as well, as kids present their oral book reports on a memoir they chose a couple of weeks back. It's intense, as not only does the audience have to be perfectly behaved and quiet, but we can't afford to miss a word of what's being reported: we just get one shot, with no videos backing us up. It's incumbent on us to get it right, so the hard-working kiddies don't miss out on a mark they otherwise should have received!
So, obviously, there's no rest for the wicked on the 3rd floor of the B block at TAS! We tried valiantly to wash our grading stresses away on Friday night (or at least I did!), and I met up with Wol to have a chat and some beers at Uli's then onward to watch some football games in both codes as the teams approach the finals. Cass kicked back with the most spoiled cats in the world as they watched game shows on the TV5 French language channel, lying all together on the lounge. Cass is always stoked when she gets a question before the contestants: this time she got three!
We needed a new vacuum cleaner so we bought a jazzy new unit that looks like a Dyson, but only cost $80....obviously straight off a production line in a factory in the depths of the Chinese industrial heartland. Sourced down at Carrefour, I whisked that home on the scooter while Cass did the grocery shopping and we met up later to continue same. After lugging the red bags home in the spitting afternoon rain, we belatedly realized how muggy and foggy the inside of our apartment was! After getting the air-con fired up, I stepped out once again to get the bread for the week and a couple of sublime Oggi pizzas....authentic German fresh cooked bread as well as certified Italian master chef rated pizza. Yum!
We were so graded out this weekend, or in such an ominous warning period for the coming week, that we didn't feel like facing anything beyond a wrap-up of an almost unbelievable week in Australian politics via "Insiders" plus a plethora of pre-finals football on TV. Cass was again occupied in washing great piles of towels and sheets for the increasingly dirty cats and I deigned to go out and get 10 packs of litter to stock up supplies.
We're back into the thick of another super busy week....I'm tapping this out in a ridiculously gratuitous after-school meeting discussing the kids' scores from last year in internal tests....."Serenity Now!"
Photos: Cass outside the roped-off local playground: for some reason (maybe give-a-man-a-job) they're ripping up a play area they only re-built a couple of years ago. Incense burning outside Carrefour to pray for good trade: (must have worked as we bought our vacuum cleaner straight after this!) and Aussie mandas.We're both reading Richard Flanaghan's "First Person" on our dueling Kindles!