Invaders from Planet Teen

Today has mostly involved discouraging students from tormenting the residents of a wasps nest ...

"please don't stand there"
"why?"
"because the wasps are swarming in and out of their nest and you might get stung " (in my head I said something very different)
One student told me that they wanted to stand right by the nest and no matter how starkly I explained the consequences, she was determined not to move. Teenagers!

Full day, of teaching, duty, patrolling, making arrangements for my absence tomorrow, trying to sort out a potentially chaotic day on Friday, then gate duty, a conversation with another teenager who has powers of invincibility and therefore is completely able to ride his bike in the middle of the road, whilst wearing earphones blasting music into his lugholes that I could hear from a few feet away. "But I always ride with them in" ..."can you hear the traffic?" says I, somewhat indignantly. "no, but I always ride with them in" WELL THATS OK THEN ISN'T IT?

Coursework club with students attending without threats of detention and phone calls home...will get these ones sorted first, then start attacking (not physically) the ones who won't come of their own accord. Fortunately, only a handful, but they are the ones who need it most.

Home to a quiet house, for about 30 minutes. Then the superhero "pre-teen boy" and his band of teenage associates descended, with bikes and nerf guns...traipsing through the house, leaving doors open, gates open, bikes dumped somewhat unceremoniously in the garden...only to reappear five minutes later with more nerf guns and a video camera ready to shoot some sort of mini action movie.

My only option? Bury myself in work, so I have been marking my year 7 science books and marvelling at the many variations of spelling for words such as temperature, measure and organism. Oh yes, an entertaining evening it has been.

Tomorrow, hospital pre-op appointment. It's getting closer and I am awaiting surgery with anticipation. It seems so wrong to be gleefully counting down the days to when a surgeon cuts me open!