Christmas Cheer

This was the last week of the Autumn term, and a hugely busy week it was.

We had our Christmas concert at church which went very well, the children sang beautifully and joyfully and (in some cases) reduced their parents to tears - in a good way of course!  We had our Christmas party which was enjoyed by all the children and a visit from Father Christmas, who said I'd been very good, made everyone's day.  I took my lovely little choir to sing at a local rest home too...

We arrived just after lunch at a very very hot rest home. The children were melting, we piled coats and jumpers high on a table and undid top buttons.  Our audience, of course, needed the room that warm and didn't realise why we were all turning bright red!  We sang all the songs from our Christmas concert for them.  They sang beautifully and I couldn't have been more proud of them.  They were in an entirely new situation in a place they didn't know with people they didn't know.  Lots of old ladies and gentlemen calling out "Aren't they lovely!", " Don't they sing beautifully",  "I can see you all you know" and "Oh isn't it wonderful". All very complementary but all called out or discussed loudly with the person sitting next them during our singing.  Some even joining in but singing the wrong words or at the wrong time.   My little choir carried on and continued to sing no matter what went on around them, no one so much as glanced away to see what was happening.   I was and am extremely proud of them.

We definitely brought a great deal of Christmas cheer to the folks in that rest home and will be doing so again next year I hope.

Changing Years

As I said in my previous post I have recent changed to teaching a junior class.  Some parts of it I like better, some parts of it I find harder but I wasn't prepared for today.

Today I heard a 7 year old tell his friends there was no such thing as Father Christmas. 

I was not ready to deal with this.  He told them that he definitely didn't exist, that their grown ups were wrong and they were silly.  I quickly intervened, said I believed in Father Christmas and how else could you explain all the presents (grown ups couldn't possibly manage to get all of those ready in one night!) and scooped the child to a quiet corner to ask him not to be so unkind and spoil it for others.  His response was "But he isn't real!"  I said he could believe whatever he wanted but it wasn't fair to say it wasn't true to others who did believe it. He shrugged and repeated "but he isn't".

Today I am a very sad Year 3 teacher and am missing the Christmas magic of Reception.

Christmas is coming

I like Christmas

I like it a lot.  Family, friends, occasional snow, carols, Christmas dinner.  Fab!

I am a teacher, I teach young children so Christmas means Nativities and Christmas concerts too.  This year, one of my many changes has been to move into teaching a KS2 class (from Foundation Stage),  change I didn't want and wasn't looking forward to.  Thankfully, it has not been as bad as I'd thought.  Bits of it I really quite enjoy.  I am used to the chaos of the Nativity Play.  Finding costumes, begging for hall time for rehearsals, repeating lines over and over.  I've missed that a bit this year.  As a junior class we do a Christmas concert at our church. We went down to practise for the first time today. So far so good and I'm told that this is the smoothest it has gone for a long time.  Fingers crossed there.

I am also responsible for the choir at school.  (Also new for me as last year I shared this responsibility with another member of staff.) It consists of children from all KS2 classes.  Last night we took part in an Advent service with lots of other local schools.  I am EXTREMELY proud of them.  They sang their hearts out, moved together and smiled the whole way through. I'm sure they don't know just how brilliant they are.

This time of year though I think about MY school.  Not where I teach, where I went. We always started Christmas with a Carol Service in church.  The whole school (and their families) attended.  I sang with our choir.  Christmas had really begun then.  After leaving school members of the choir we were invited back to sing with the choir again, which I did until my school closed.

A Christmas ritual that I truly miss.  I hope that one day that the children I work with now will feel just as proud to have been a part of our choir as I do at having been part of mine.

Something new

Last weekend I went to see one of my favourite comedians.  He makes me laugh till my face hurts (in a good way!). Though I was not expecting there to be one, as there wasn't for his previous tour, he had a support act.  This act was also brilliant and I have spent much of this week singing his silly comedy songs to myself and others! 

Because of some mischief that I now know is being created by one of these two comedians, I ventured into the world of Twitter for the first time this week. 

I don't get it!

I have found a few famous faces to follow and am waiting for something to happen.  Random tweets that others (people I don't know and are not famous) have posted appear on my profile, these have apparently been "retweeted" by the celebrities I am following.  Mostly I cannot work out why.  I'm hoping for a revelation.  I shall wait and see.

Well back to the silly songs!

Something different

This is a whole new thing for me.  Just getting started really and thought I'd say hello!

Many changes have happened in my life recently - some I like, some I don't - but I have been shoved into doing lots of things differently.  Well, "A change is as good as a rest" we are led to believe.  (I am still reserving judgement on that).

I am a fan of smiling (and laughing).   They are infectious and ought to be spread by as many people as possible. The smile poem is one of my favourites, I might just post it another time.

I am also a fan of manners and politeness - please and thank you cost nothing and mean a great deal.  We shouldn't appear surprised when people say thank you, however I am increasingly aware that people seem to be confused when strangers thank them for simple everyday acts of kindness.

Anyway, that's enough for now I think. I have at least made a start on my new venture.   
Bye for now.  Speak to you soon!