night..

yes yes, it's so late.. the house is still.. PC in bed.. Dan just home from a movie.. "not bad" he says then his phone rings and he's off to his room leaving me alone in the kitchen.. footy's over.. I fell asleep in middle of the third quarter.. knew the Demons had no chance of pulling the game back from such a long long way..the best part of the night had been the thin black magic man who leapt and ran and fell in front of goal and booted the ball in sideways!!!.. he made his mark and they danced in their seats, his girlfriend up on her feet and his mum and dad and grandmother sitting there in one long line of Northern Territory colour smiling and taking him in and taking it in, the whole thing in, again.
and that was it for me, I lay back in a corner of the sofa and took the evening in like that..
and now in the kitchen at the table once again and with one click I'm back on a page of poetry.. an a to z of poets to be precise..though I never am I do not think..precise.. but here it is and here I am.. Heaney in Mossbawn Sunlight, even Dahl reading Little Red Riding Hood in a way that only a sly old fox could .. and both are good.. really good..and I mark them as favourites with the orange star at the side of the screen then something makes me look again and I find the name Ciaran Carson and knowing nothing click on this and Belfast Confetti comes up and Snow and I listen in awe here in the tick tock still of a kitchen in Gippsland and know as i know my fingers are finding these letters on the keyboard.. i've found another Irish mine..

http://www.poetryarchive.org/poetryarchive/trackListing.do?poetId=29

report thoughts...

For the last three weeks on my days off I've been writing reports. When I wake in the night more often than not I'm thinking of those litle kids working away at school..

In Victoria now, the report model that all schools are obliged to follow goes like this..
what the student has achieved...
areas for improvement/future learning....
what the school will do to support the student's learning.....
what you can do at home to help your child's progress...

For all the limitations there are in following a prescriptive format, in the end all I can do is try my best. One by one I go down the list.. Because I teach part-time I write 13 reports.. half the class of 27 - one of the boys is away for the term, travelling in Western Australia with his family.

Maybe it's because I've managed to finish over a week before the deadline or maybe it's the fact that somehow I've just put down what I know about each child, tonight I feel relieved. (My great fear every semester is that I won't know what to say...)

I slide the cursor up and down the screen and discover there's one more..

Frances finds it hard to run about or even hold a pencil so weak is her muscle tone.. She speaks softly too and in the busyness of the class it's extraordinarily hard to make out what she says. But I know she's happy.. the others take care of her.. pull out her chair, find her books, write letters for her, carry her lunchbox to her table. look after her on the playground.

Frances has settled into grade one very well. She has a gentle, friendly nature and is well liked by her peers. She brings out the best in everyone...


The last report I realise is a model of hope for the class..