9pm on a Friday

You know you're a teacher when.... you finish working at 9pm on Friday (and begin again at 9am on Saturday morning, most probably).

I'm not too worried though because I got my first spontaneous hug from a child this afternoon. She was quite small so she just about got her arms around my knees, which took me by surprise. All I did was make her laugh once and tell her the drawing she'd done was good, but hey, when you're that small I suppose anything's great!

It was a nice end to a week in which I'd been much more aware of the other half of teaching. The one in which teachers stay at school till 6pm or go to meetings about obscure planning strategies that makes them come out all grumpy. Several things about assessments and school procedures went worryingly high over my head, but I've made it to the weekend and I'm hanging in there so it's just about okay!


On an entirely different note, I heard about some WW1 diaries being released online this week. Haven't had time to get around to reading any, but it did remind me of some writing I did a while back based on an extract of my Great-Granddad's dairy from WW1. Here is part of it:

Dawn had not yet broken as HMS Inconstant arrived in Rosyth Harbour at 6 am, March 5^th, 1918. It had been a night without event, which was not so unusual now, although the cold March winds across the North Sea, and off the East coast of Scotland meant little joy on board, even for the fit young men going about their duties.
     The day was grey and plain, without rain, but the fifteenth century ruins of Rosyth Castle, rising above the new walls of the dockyard, were damp and blurred by the sea spray from the Firth of Forth. At one time the Castle had been surrounded almost completely by the river and over the years had been passed through many hands. By the eighteenth century, however, it was unoccupied and partly dismantled, leaving only the high tower and the courtyard walls. In 1903 it had become the property of the Admiralty and soon after lost its position on the waterfront. The Castle that had withstood many battles had been replaced by a modern defence, but still men fought to defend it.