back to work...

Oh dear! September dawns and it's back to work. I don't actually start teaching again till Monday but enrolment starts straight after the August bank holiday so I feel like I've been at it for three weeks already. Hence lack of blogs.
Actually it's not as bad as last year when I felt like I virtually lived at Redbridge Institute for a fortnight, just popping home occasionally to eat! But having failed our inspection back in the summer there have been a lot of new things to sort out, new procedures, new student records and so on, which all takes time to sort out. Being in maths I tend to consider it as a kind of equation: On the plus side we have some nice new interactive whiteboards - which actually work, shock! Minus- they're still not aligned properly so I'll have to reassure my 'mature' students that it's technology failing and not their eyesight. More plusses - we have three new/ish maths tutors, making 6 of us and are definitely a department now! Minuses -1) We will have to have proper Meetings instead of just chatting over the photocopier at lunchtimes 2) I'll have to organise them.
Actually interviewing is quite fun as I get the chance to reassure people that their maths is better than they thought and express my (very real) admiration for people who have been terrified by numbers all their life and have now decided to do something about it.
I see Adult basic skills as a genuine reflection of the gospel - setting people free of fears and limitations, allowing them to become more the people they were meant to be, raising the possibibility of change in stuck lives.