Homeward Bound!

School has been out since the 21st of July, and I have been taking my last week in England easy. The last day went well enough, with only a half day, the students were not significantly worse in behaviour than normal. My last lesson I had the top set of the year 10’s (biology) in which we played a fun quiz. At the end, they even gave me three cheers to wish me well on my return to Canada. That group always has behaved very well with me and I felt my teaching was engaging, so it was a touching and fitting way to end off my last lesson. Then to spoil it all, my tutor group came in to register in the afternoon during which I handed out information telling them what new group they will belong to. Many were not happy because not all of their friends were in the same group. Even some of the more sensible students were throwing fits and ran out swearing and violent to other students. One boy saw there was a blank information sheet and asked if I could write a new one for him with the group he wanted. The students didn’t understand that I was just the barrier of news: I did not make these group nor can I change the groups. It was not a very happy way to end the my time with the students, but in some ways quite representative of the behaviour and attitude of the group over the year. “Nutters”, said one teacher as he watched them yelling at each other as the slowly made their way to the door and out of school until September.
Before having a farewell for leaving teachers, we had a staff meeting about a new behaviour management system that will be introduced in September. I don’t know why they had to do it on the last day in July because they will have again in September anyway. When that was all done, there was a little party with all staff and farewells were given to people such as myself. It was nice to be recognized for my effort and realise that I have at least made an impact on the staff, if not some students, too. In the evening we had a staff disco which I had to miss. I was feeling out of sorts all day and in the evening I knew I would not be able to enjoy a disco and bike back. I ended up staying in my flat over the weekend near the toilet. What a fun way to end the year!
Since recovering, I have been slowly packing and cleaning my flat. I went to the beach on Wednesday to deal with the heat. I have a nice red rectangle on my back where I missed it with sunscreen. I have relinquished my keys to my classroom, and today I am now officially homeless. I’ve had my flat inspected and I have given up my keys there as well. I used to have a big mass of keys jingling in my right pocket, and now it’s just the key to the bike lock.
Tomorrow (Saturday) will be a long travelling day, as I will be leaving Colchester somewhat early so to get an early start in London and hopefully avoid the rush of tourists and locals in the Tube. I will be loaded down with luggage and I don’t want to have to jostle for position with pushy tourists and apathetic locals. My flight leaves at 3:15 from Heathrow, but I hope to be there before noon. I might be able to meet up with Jill one more time as she is flying to Calgary 2 hours earlier. If it works, great, but I won’t stress out too much about it if it doesn’t.

So the year is done, and I am returning home to see family and friends again. I am really looking forwards to it. I will probably do a post production wrap blog in which I’ll give you my general overview of the year. Until then.
Shalom
Kevin