Time flies

The semester started insanely hectic. Things that really stress me out, is when I don't have control over the situation and when I don't get the time for planning and reflection. I have been on the edge of exhaustion lately. I have a ton of work to do, but right now, I'll take the time to write a post. Because it's autumn 💜. I love it. I will soon lay the garden to rest for winter.

We had our first frost night, but I snatched a photo of my mediterranean corner before it hit. Pumpkin, basil, cucumber, sunflowers, grape, lavender, tomatoes and chilis are growing together at this spot. The tomatoes looks tired, but the cucumber likes this moist weather.

I learned a lesson about pumpkins, this summer. They crossbreed with zucchini very easy. You can see a glimpse of it by the colour of the green pumpkin. I Planted what I thought was a Connecticut field (Traditional Halloween pumpkin), but the fruit looked like a swollen zucchini. That one is left in the garden. I also realised that pumkins actually prefer a normal summer, not the hot and dry one like we had this year.

My flower beds are a sad sight. But I also grow flowers in my vegetable garden, they literally flourish. The green twigs with red berries are aspargus. There are seeds inside the berries that I will try to sow.

My Begonia Odorata having its crescendo right now. I took it indoors to enjoy the flowers. Johan thinks they smell like Gin and Tonic.

Things I do at work: Letting the teenagers burn metallic salts. I beleive it's Potassiumpermanganate here, or a mixture of salts (because they have to try that too).

I reminded my old chemistry teachers hands, they looked damaged of all the chemicals he unsafely handled. I looked the same (almost). It is the salt mentioned above that gives these spots. They disappeared a day later.

Our ash tree at the backyard looks so beautiful with the green and yellow tones. 

♥️

Schools out

I work as a science and chemistry teacher in High School. One thing that many don't know is that we teachers also have angst about grading. The end of term is very hectic, because national school rules says that teachers ought to help students as much as possible, to pass grades. Some students wake up only a few week left and starts to work. I have given encouraging chats, called students on their phone to get them to work, comforting crying students and giving hugs and pats on shoulders, but sadly, also negative responses.

My oldest son went out of High School last week. He studied house building at the same school I teach. He was a bit dismissive and avoiding the first year, it was tough. But it changed the last years. I teached many of his friends and he told me, he never heard anything negative about me as a teacher, on the contrary, only positive things. Maybe that changed his view of me.

Anyway, the graduation ritual is a serious thing in Sweden. It's almost like a second National Day. A week before, there is a ritual in putting on the Student cap (it's a Swedish thing). Falun has a local tradition, were you have to walk around the center block with one foot on the pavement and the other in the gutter. Then you jump on one foot towards a draining well, while mumbling a verse in latin. You throw a coin from the same year you were born in the well and gather around  the market square. After all this, you are allowed to put on the cap.

The day for the graduation is also special ritual for High School students. They receive their grades and maybe an award, having a dinner with their class teacher and then run out of school to their relatives.

I took my day off and welcomed Oskar out of school. We hold up a sign for him to find us in the crowd (its a tradition) and we hung silly gifts around his neck.

He looked very smart in a flower shirt, red bowtie and costume.
After this, a carnival like tour around town take place. Every class has hired a truck and decorated it with branches and banners.

These banners have different messages written.

Top photo: "Get drunk, get handsome". "I rather be eaten by an animal than study science". It is common to mock the Science classes like this.

Bottom left: An hommage to a colleague of mine, named Åke, he teach math.

Bottom right: A cropped banner but it is the students from the Science programme that writes "To hate us Science nerds is your favourite thing, but we get the best grades".

Oskar has boarded the truck. The sign says "We are better than Di Caprio, we have 5 Oscars". It means that there are 5 guys in the class named Oscar. I tried to call for my Oskar, but three other boys, not mine, looked over the wall. I had to yell Mårten (his nickname) for him to respond. Johan had to climb up in the flatbed to help the students with the sound system. Suddenly the truck drove away with him and the students. Not every adult is welcome on board.

The truck drives around for one hour or so, then the students march through town, making noice, singing, and sprinkles champagne before a fancy car picks every student up to bring them home to a student reception and a party.

I got my vacation a couple of days ago. It lasts until mid August. 

Happy summer holidays.

Work has absorbed me.

I have been completely absorbed by my work. Even my studies has been put aside and I do as little as possible to finish them. The result is a bad student and a good teacher. 
I really love to work as a teacher. I'm going to tell you why.

• I work with young people, their energy is amazing but some times they can be extremely tired. They live their life at 150%. My students are my battery power.

• 99,5% of the students are amazing people. I really get mad at other adults accusing them for slacker lifestyle or lazyness. You only have to take a look at their schedule to realize how their days looks like. I try to know all my students, what they like, what they do in their sparetime, where they come from and maybe even their parents. Of course I let them to know me as well. If I have a bad day, I tell. I share chosen bits of my life (without exposing myself) so they can understand that I don't stand in a closet waiting for the next day to come. 

• As a result of keeping the distance short, the relationship between students and teachers at the school is very friendly yet professional. Our office has become a bit of a hangout for some students, they like to sit by the table, studying close to their teachers or have a cup of coffee in the sofa. The drawback is that we sometimes need to walk somewhere else to talk about other students.

• They learn me stuff. Sometimes we do laboratory tests that fail completely or try things I've never done and fail. From that we are all learning.

• I have amazing colleagues. Except from a very few ones most are without prestige and share their thoughts, tips and tricks. It's very far from the engineering career I had before were some older men saw me as a threat or uncanny.

• My bosses are great people. The principal is a caring person like to throw parties and put the students first. 

• I work with one of my interests, chemistry. We have a lousy laboratory but I have to be inventive. The bonus classes I have is math wich I find very fun to teach.

• I beleive that I'm a good teacher because I once were one of those students who didn't get it in math, didn't have any motivation from time to time and generally had difficulties. I can say that I understand them and they know that I mean it. I never call them lazy, I tell them that I know what they are going through (with hormones, lifesituations, anxiety, stress etc). I encourage them to ask questions. I even say "Great! :-)" when they say they don't get it, because I was once a student who didn't dare to speak up in class and ask questions to the teacher. 

• I have a bunch of kids that I raise but don't have to pay for. I don't have to deal with the early teen problems but I can see them growing up to adults and that's fantastic.

• I do lots of weird stuff sometimes and the content of my working bag can be mysterious. Sometimes I do silly things like in the photo above punching paper confetti for a students poster. I try to use different kinds of teaching methods and do practical and creative stuff.

So thats why you don't see me much. Time to get absorbed again.....

More planning

The Carpe Diem pages were a bit far from who I am and my style, so I made my own dividers and pockets for the calendar. The colourtheme is the same as for my work space; brown, black and white.

The first insert have a pocket with wallpaper scraps to use as decoration or notes.

The other side of the insert has some tiny post it notes. I love these tiny ones. I use them for my to-do stuff. When I have done them, I can just remove them from the calendar or, I can move them forward (the perfect procrastination). 

The first page of the calendar are just some glued together scraps. I had to add an owl. 

This is an example of a month divider. 

If I have the time, I will decorate every week. This will make work and studies more fun, right?

This is the Valentine week, apparently. 

You can see some of my classes here too, math and chemistry. But monday and tuesday will be spent at university and the seminars.

Some things are blurred for integrity.

Another non-planned week, with a vintage style

Some of the Carpe Diem pockets are left to be replaced later. I made a clever pop up pocket for eventual notes or to do lists, or any list.

My memory is on paper

My memory is made of teflon, it's a common disorder for people who are brain-workers. I forget meetings, reporting students on vacation, and all those small things I have to fix to make the world go round. A planner is essential for my daily life and I've concluded that google calendar doesn't work for me. 

To keep my stress level down, I use mini post it notes for "to do" tasks. I post them in my planner, and when I've finished each task I throw the notes away. I can also move the notes to another day if something more important comes up. That means I only have to focus on one day at a time, being present, carpe diem and shit like that...

The problem with prefabricated templates is that they sometimes doesn't fit your needs. My teachers planner worked just fine, but I thought it was a little bit boring and limiting. After some good advices from my sister in law who also is a teacher, I bought a planner from Simple stories in A5 size. I liked it because of the pockets, the dotted lining and the size. But the main thing is that the ring opener is making you able to personalize it more.

I bought mine from Skaparlusten. I can highly recommend any swedish people who likes stationery this shop, because I got my parcel within two days. And she called me the day after I put my order because one of the items were out of stock. I told her to change it with something that fitted the rest of my order and she sent me the clips and inserts for the planner. 

I wanted my week plan to look more like a schedule than the horizontal one that came with the planner. Publisher is an excellent office based programme that is easy to use, making templates. I kept mine simple because I'm supposed to alter it for every week.

If someone is interested, I have this template in pdf-format to send to you. Note that you print it on A4, divide the paper in half and make your own holes fitting your planner. Oh and if you like, I can change the days to english or change the fonts, easy peasy.

Styling my workspace

I got a new office. Yay! It's still a shared office but I have the fortune to sit with very nice people. We have our own entrance and a felt carpet that lower all sounds.

I use my Spooky box club bag to work, because the perfect size, sturdy and fabulous fabric.

My "dorm" goes in the colours of birch, grey, white and black and those are the colours I chosed to pimp my notebooks and calendar with. The seashellprints are made by Haeckel. If you google search the name you will find lots of amazing and detailed drawings of natural forms.

A teacher needs a calendar for all sorts of events. I tried a few weeks last year without one and missed a few appointments before I learned my lesson.

Maybe I will show you a photo of my office later.

This was supposed to be a long post with lots of photos of nature, bathing, planes, a festival etc. But I didn't have the energy to bother you with old news. The end of the summer was either way amazing. 

Now I look forward to an amazing semester with lots of new teenagers to meet.

A late catchup

Wow! The year of 2015 has really been busy for me. I didn't had an idea of how much work a teacher does. Those said 45 hours per week are b-sht, it's far more and by the end of the school year every teacher are like cottonball heads, no brain just some fluffy mass above the neck. 
So first week of vacation has been spent in the sofa, tv, cheez doodles, wine, sleeping, a very little gardening....
There are lots of prejudices around this profession, one of those are about our long vacation. "Oh you lucky duck you get twice as long vacation as me" many use to say with this image in their head. ..

I would rather say, it looks more like this...

Just before the schools were closing, one of the towns landmarks, Oskars school was celebrating 100 years anniversary, with activities and open doors. It reminds of an old institution with the large windows and stonewalls, wich it, well, is..

A building so large it's not easy to get a photo of the complete thing...

 The stair up to the attic and the tower was locked up, wich for many former students was a one in the life time moment. Lots of rumours have been circling around about the attic no one was allowed to enter.
This paper bat had the year 1971 written on the back. Wonder what it's purpose once was as it sat on the wooden spiral staircase up to the tower.

In one of the ends of the attic behind a door with a sign, saying "renovation in progress, keep out" were an abandoned classroom with very old teaching stuff, large rolls of paper and black boards, a place were time has stopped (I guess the sign was a lie and a way to keep qurious ones out).

The old clock isn't as impressing as Hogwarts, but it's fascinating that this mechanism still runs the time. The wind up steel wire is unwined by a weight that is out of frame.

 Oskar is the third generation in the family who went to this school. It's a fascinating building, filled with stories. After working in the town for half a year I have become more aware of it's beauty and the old buildings. The house on this photo is called Elsborgs castle. It's not a castle per se, more of a nickname but once belonged to a noble man. Part of the house is from the middle ages. The second house on the photo below, the log barn is where Johan work. The rustic walls hides a super modern office with lots of technology. 

I have aged but I'm fine with that. With young people around I think it's more obvious for myself. I almost never do makeup anymore, only on special occation and if I have the time.

But I'll never quit buying clothes that I maybe won't use more than a handful of times. Hot topics Penny Dreadful collection is amazing. I bought the jacket and it's perfect!!

 My wishes is that the lost energy will emerge soon enough to enjoy the beautiful Swedish summer where the sun never sets. This photo was taken one hour before midnight on midsummers eve. Almost one hour darkness before the sun rise again so this photo could be taken one o clock at night as well.

Hopefully, seeing you again soon :-)

Silly and sad

It has been a very emotional weekend. On thursday morning when we were about to feed the bunnies, before heading to work we found empty cages. There were no trace of them at all and they were nowere to be seen. I walked around our and the neighbours garden to look for them as Johan reviewed the nights security camera shoots. By the side of the bike road I found a twig with Pooki-hair 1 feet above ground. It was a fox.

Johan confirmed, that the fox was there twice to get the bunnies. 

I'm so sad 

I'm not angry with the fox, I'm angry with myself because I should have prevented this. 

We have these wallpaper eaters left as company. 

 I drowned myself in work and as I usually tell you nowadays, I work a lot. We had becoming students visiting our school and they were supposed to do some fun activities like building a shield for a falling egg. Of course I couldn't resist trying myself and my co-chemistry teacher helped me to build a frame with pipes, tape and thread. Our construction was the only one that crashed the egg. Don't give this task to a chemistry teacher, leave it to the physics said the physics teacher. 

Trial and error. 

As the weekend arrived the mourning smacked me with a heavy fist. I had to replant my seedlings and had to go to the backyard and see those empty cages, I've been weeping the whole weekend.

You know when things like this happens. Lots of other shit comes to the surface, family issues that my work has forced me to surpress. I'm going to log out from fuckbook. Why should I read shit what others do and write shit about myself, the consequence is that they don't call or pay me a visit because they can see me on facebook (like that is some kind of reality). 

My dearest, loveliest. The nicest bunny that ever was. I miss her so...Rest in peace Wilma. 

Crawling out from the crypt

Thank you Ms.Misantropia for the giveaway. I'm looking forward to read it and I hope it's not that corny as the movies ;-). I also got a card letter in my first letter and a book mark fit for a dark novel.

So were the hell have I been?

I have been working a huge part and trying to keep pace with my studies at the same time, more on that later for you who are interested. 

We didn't throw our annual Halloween party because of my tight scedule. But pumpkin cupcakes it was and Alfons carved out the huge one . The inside gave a huge batch of pumpkin puree to bake and make tasty stuff.

A tip when you carve out the meat of the pumpkin. Bake it in a pan tightly covered with an ovensheet on low heat to get a nice puree with all the flavours left.

The rest of the time has evolved around technology and science only, even at my sparetime. Oskar and his class mates joined the First Lego League challenge. It was an exciting game. They had a good chance to win but as a sensor failed to work an the other didn't have the equal calibration, they lost the semi.

We also visited the science museum for kids. Where they have a simple and harmless laboratory. My bunch are making lava lamps on this photo.

 I had to buy the Monster High Halloween pack. The magazine is ridicilous, I hate the effeminated texts in it. The craft stuff was nice and I finally have a real ink pen that works for my lefthanded writing. Yay!!

So why do I work so much? Well I teach two different math classes, I also have a class in chemistry, then I'm an examinator for some of the third grades exam assignments and I'm a mentor for a couple of students in my first grade class. This could fill my time completely but I also teach second technology and scientific specialisation. In these two last classes there are no books, no material to use, and no material to find. I teach my scientific class steel plant technology, hot forming of steel and material technology, because that's something I have knowledge of. The technology class is worse, they ought to learn mechanics like transmission, hydraulics, and pneumatics and so forth but I can't find any books of good standars. I have no idea what other technology teachers are doing in this case, this course is very new as well. I have this weekend to work on this and to do my own schoolwork, an essay about environmental sustainability work in school.

I say bye for now. See you maybe in another month...