Monday is Admin Day

Monday is now designated as my admin day. The sorting I've been doing has generated a pile of papers that need to be filed, I have to catch up with the band admin (which has taken a bit of a back seat lately) and, if I am going to resume teaching I will need some plans and possibly resources.

Actually, the teaching side won't generate much extra work. When teaching individuals I don't use the detailed lesson plans I needed when doing whole class teaching but will use the system I followed when I was working full time. As progress in an instrumental lesson is determined by the amount of practice a child does each week, I quickly found that I was wasting my time with detailed lessons plans which were rarely followed because the child hadn't practiced!  So I devised a workable system which consists of a high level overview of what needs to be taught at each stage of learning (i.e. scales, technique, theory, etc.) supported by resources and lists of pieces of music which would allow the child to learn and practice whatever was being taught. Luckily I didn't throw this away (because I thought it would be useful for band) so I just need to check for any gaps and print out some assessment/progress sheets for each child. Then I'm ready to start after half term and will only need to add to my resources if a child gets completely stuck at any stage and needs extra support over and above the vast range of goodies I already have.

Changing the subject ... does anyone use an iPhone to comment on blogs and if so, have you noticed any problems? Yesterday I answered all comments due a response from me as well as commenting on other blogs, all using my iPhone, and although the comments seemed to go through properly, I've checked and today there is no sign of them on my blog or any other blog. I've noticed before that some of my comments seem to go missing so this may be the reason. I'd be interested to hear if anyone else has experienced this. I doubt I will go back and re-comment but will make sure I use the laptop from now on.

I've paid the final invoice for the recent work so now I know how much money I have left and can decide what else I want to do now and what will have to wait until I've saved up again. The outstanding work which I'd like to have done and dusted is the replacement of the internal door handles and the final bits of decorating, both of which I have asked for quotes and timescales for completion. The SONOS multi-room audio system will probably have to wait for the next sale but I will be shopping for bedding, towels and throws as soon as possible. The new pictures for the living room will probably have to wait a while but I will get the shelving done asap, assuming that N says that the timber studs on the internal wall are sufficient to support them ... fingers crossed on that one. 

This evening it is the band committee meeting, rescheduled because I couldn't make the last one so they cancelled until I was better ... probably for the best because you tend to find that you have volunteered for everything in your absence when you don't attend!