From One Extreme to the Other!

The week started with the realisation that it was my last full Monday away from school as the starting date for the new venture rapidly approaches. Although in theory there is one more Monday left, I have to go into school at dinnertime next week for a final run through with my GCSE group before their exam. You may think then that I would have taken the opportunity to have a nice relaxing day, but unfortunately such is the nature of my life at the moment i.e. balancing numerous balls in the air, I again had a mass of things to do. I know that 'Spiritually' we are supposed to be living in the now, but I still find myself working through a list of things to do each and every day.

My number one priority for Monday then was to do the final planning for a workshop I am teaching next weekend. It is a subject I have taught many times before - The uses of the Violet Flame - but I still like to do some preparation for it in case I intuitively feel that the subject matter needs to be 'tweaked' for this particular group. As I sorted through my 'visual aids', which I usually take on a day like this, I was aware of a mixture of emotions. I always enjoy meeting people and hearing their personal stories, but this was also to be my last workshop for certainly a few months. I have already cancelled some bookings as I feel I need to focus all my energy on the new venture. Consequently, I felt it necessary to spend some time reflecting on my own personal journey and where it had taken me over the last ten years. I am even beginning to wonder if I have reached a form of completion with this area of my life as far as going out to other groups is concerned. I guess I will just have to see for if the bookings come in then I guess I am still meant to do them.

Tuesday saw me back in school and having to face the fact that I have started to feel very protective of the room I am going to be using for the new group. For in my absence, another member of staff had forced their way into the room and had even used some of the resources that I am building up for the group. I surprised myself with my reaction to this, but at least it gave me an opportunity to use the Violet Flame!! Tuesday was also the day when parents received the official letter about the new venture and so at 10am approximately the school phones started ringing and the Head of Year received numerous requests to phone parents. Fortunately the feedback so far seems to be positive and supportive, once it had all been explained to them again. It would appear that no matter how clearly you describe things on paper, people still want to be re-assured verbally.

I guess most teachers are familiar with the idea of the staff briefing which our school has at 8.45 three mornings a week. I think some schools even have one every day. This is basically a ten-minute slot when the Head can give out a series of notices and info to keep the staff updated on the day-to-day events. We never used to have these years ago and I am now convinced some Education Official stole the idea from NYPD Blues! Anyway, the main talking point after the briefing on the Weds morning was the fact that a 'Senior Management member of staff' would be leaving as he had been appointed Deputy Head at another school. I have to say that staff can be rather predictable after such an announcement as it always triggers much speculation as to who is going to apply for & get his / her job as well as the personal reactions to the news. I have to say that in this case, the person in question has been rather controversial & so many people were feeling a sense of relief at this point. I however, was rather intrigued as the said person whom I shall now call Mr X had a car accident 4 days before the interview. Nothing serious, mainly shock & a bit of whiplash, but as I often do, I had already started to analyse the reason for this, for as we know there is no such thing as an accident. Without going into the personal details, I was beginning to see links between the life and personality of Mr X and why he is such a controversial person within the school. For a long time I have wanted to give him a 'therapy type talk' & I wondered if I would have the opportunity to do this before he left at Easter.

The rest of Wednesday seemed to be a little like 'everything in perfect order & flowing' as far as the group is concerned. I dealt with another delivery of stock & then mentally went through a checklist of what else I felt we needed. I wondered if it was possible to have a computer in the room so that the pupils could access the literacy game sites that are up & running. It seemed that no sooner had I thought this than a member of staff mentioned to me that some new PCs were being installed in one of the other classrooms & therefore the older models were now available. Things were quickly sorted and two are being installed next week with a possibility of another 4 if I feel I have the space. I feel the need to mention again that although in a lot of schools new computers would have automatically been given to a group, our school is very much the poor relation and has a projected deficit of thousands & thousands. The final bit of 'cosmic ordering' then came in the form of a fridge. The organisation of the timetable means that there will be some days when I am in the room with the group for almost 3 hours without a break. So I have already thought about the domestic arrangements & provided a kettle, cups etc. but not having yet weaned myself off the basic cup of tea, I was feeling that a small fridge would be essential to house a bottle of milk 'organic' of course. Yet again my wish was granted as a member of staff mentioned that her son was wanting to get rid of one but he lived in Bath. What a pity it was not closer! 'No problem' said another person, I am going to Bath at half term so I will pick it up for you & bring it back then. What can I say?

Events of Thursday prompted my title for this blog. Looking back on it now, I can only assume that the whole day was some sort of 'test' to see if I could maintain my balance. Bearing in mind the length of this blog already & knowing just how many things happened in the one day, I will again use bullet points where possible.

The first event of the day, I feel I have to describe in full as it concerns the aforementioned Mr X. Following the announcement of his new job, I had heard that the school he was going to, was a special school for children with behavioural problems & autistic children up to the age of 18. I was intrigued to know a little more about it & I wondered if he would be 'open enough' to listen to some of the ideas from the inspirational speakers at last November's conference organised by The Energy Alliance. Fortunately I was able to catch a few moments with him before school started. It appears that money is not a problem at his new school & some of it will have to be spent on training the staff to work in different ways with autistic children, as this is a weak area at the moment. He seemed fairly open to looking at new material, but how he will cope with the multidimensional aspects of Suzy's work I am not sure. I am assuming that if I was not meant to pass this information on, then the opportunity would not have arisen.

Lesson 1 of the day was an English lesson with several of the pupils I will be having in my new group plus some more. It was this weird mixture of some really positive moments when the kids where relating & working well & even showing signs of excitement at the new venture. Then this was swiftly followed by a fight between a boy or a girl & some real anger management issues. Luckily I was able to break it up & the group returned to be being quite calm again.

A couple of bullet points now.

I had an in-depth conversation with a year 7 girl who could
see no point in living. After talking to her for 25 mins into the
dinner hour, I am hoping I had some success at helping her to
see life a little differently.

I have as yet failed to resolve the situation of the year 9 boy
in my tutor group who was being accused of 'inappropriately
touching a Year 9 girl!'

By midday I had intervened in the second fight of the day,
between 2 boys this time.

At dinnertime I had another brief conversation with Mr X who
had 'heard' that I did Dream Interpretations. He was very keen
to know the meaning of a dream he had had a couple of days
before his accident. After hearing the details, I realised that I
was going to be given the chance to talk to him about a whole
range of things, thereby granting my wish about a therapy
type session before he leaves. Hopefully we will get to this
next week as we ran out of time today.

Then the school day ended with the most horrific case of
verbal abuse I have ever received from a 16-year-old girl and
as you can imagine I have been on the receiving end of a lot
after 31 years of teaching! She did a very dramatic storming
out of the room at the end of it and I was given a cheer and a
round of applause from the rest of the class who said I was a
real hero for not having hit her. What a day this has been!

Friday, no school but a journey on National Express as I was on my way to London. I am pleased to say it was smooth and hassle free and we even arrived in London early. I always find this amazing when you consider the miles we travel. I then spent a wonderful evening at the beautiful house of the lady who had booked me for the workshop and an Intuitive Healer friend of hers joined us for the evening meal. He has the ability to scan a person and diagnose their illness or dis-ease. We had some wonderful conversation and spent a little time experimenting with the use of energy and both our abilities and ways of working.

Saturday was a beautiful day both weatherwise and in terms of the people who attended the course. Everything ran according to plan and I even managed to snatch a little time in London at the end of it with first-born son. We decided to do the tourist bit and visit Harrods to look in amazement at a rather different style of life. I arrived back home at midnight. As a result of this, I will not get to post this blog until Sunday evening.