November 1, 2009 at 11:54 am (educational mutterings)
Tags: acoustic neuroma
I’m nearly there, but am at the point where I just want it to end.
My interim report was better than I thought (based on the odd feedback I was getting – no positive, just Stuff To Work On). Quiet good really, all things considered (like trying to interpret man-speak for so many things). Apparently I’m not providing interesting enough experiences … but every time I try something, it gets boy-ified (and I’m teaching at a girl’s school) by the teacher.
I try to demonstrate concepts using objects the girls have seen before and have some idea about ….
Like showing how a ball rolling down a slope will accelerate due to the force of gravity which was bastardised to involve toy cars and ticker-timers (WTF are they you say? so did most of the girls which meant that they kinda missed the concept of acceleration).
Like – Kinetic energy to sound energy – I had a lovely little music box where you turn the key, see the spring tighten inside, then unwind and turn the little drum with raised lumps which brush against the tines and then hear a little tune (look in a music box and you’ll see what I mean). Noooo much easier to demonstrate a transformation to sound energy using a radio That You Can’t See The Workings Of. Apparently.
meh.
Other teachers at the school have been great. I got to do a day of supply teaching (unpaid and being observed by the paid supply teachers / other teachers from within the school) and got loads of great feedback. At least this gave me the confidence that I *am* “getting it…. which to be fair, was fairly clear on my report but after 3 weeks of “your board writing skills need to be clearer / neater/ faster/ more / less” and “no students may ever make any noise whatsoever when you are teaching. It’s OK for them to do this when I am teaching though as I do not observe this”. Ok, he didn’t say that last bit but it’s true …
…
and Dad has been pretty crook. Not sure why, but he can’t seem to get his legs working properly. He’s having another MRI for his acoustic neuroma on Wednesday and they’ll check to see if he’s had a small stroke at the same time. BUT given that if hes well rested, he can walk OK, to me it seems to variable to be a stroke. I suspect he may have some sort of lingering effects from the pneumonia in June.
…
well, its been another barrel of laughs from me, but I’m feeling OK really, despite the tone of this post.
I mean less than 3 weeks to go now and I’ll be DONE. I just need to get through the next few weeks…..
7 Comments
April 24, 2009 at 8:42 pm (educational mutterings, general mutterings)
Tags: acoustic neuroma, cancer, teaching stuff
I’ve been studying for my Dip Ed you see.
Working hard. As my brother has said, its the first time in my life when I’ve actually had to *study* for something instead of pulling stuff our of my arse like I usually do.
Its been worth it though (warning – shameless bragging follows):
So far I’ve submitted 3 assignments and received a 6+ (didn’t know you could get a “+” , a solid 6 and a *7* (the scale runs from 1-7 with grades under and including 3 being failing grades and then increasing from a pass (4) to a credit (5), a distinction (6) and a high distinction (7) …
So I’m one fairly happy girl right now.
At least I would be if I could stop dreaming about Essential Learnings and sequencing lessons on time measurements for maths…… (yep – I’m fun like that).
In other news, Dad had his MRI today. No results yet, but he said he could hear the clunking in his head for hours after the test was over.
Please God let the tumour be small like they think it is…..
5 Comments
April 13, 2009 at 9:06 am (Life can be hard sometimes)
Tags: acoustic neuroma, cancer, prayer, stress
has an acousitc neuroma.
If you are going to get a brain tumour, this is the one to have ….apparently.
…and given that the symptoms include going deaf, having raging tinnitus, being wobbly on your pins, and periodically complaining of motion sickness *whilst not actuality in a vehicle* and hurling your guts up we probably should have worked out that he had a problem many years ago.
Dad’s been deaf in one ear for years. But aside from a complete inability to whisper and a penchant for only catching half a conversation, we thought it just went with the territory of having worked with noisy equipment for half his life.
The tinnitus? …same thing.
The dodgy pins? Well he tore the ligaments off his left knee about 8 years ago so no wonder he was getting a bit wobbly. Not to mention the three rounds of major abdominal surgery he had last year making him a bit weak.
But now that I really look at him and not tune out when he whinges* about stuff I am noticing that he’s really *really* dodgy on his pins:
- He couldn’t walk up the hill to our front steps last week and that never used to bother him.
- He was walking around the front of my car as I reversed out the driveway a few weeks back and he had to grab the wall of the house so as not to fall over. I thought he was still struggling a bit from the major surgery he had at Christmas time … but as it turns out he’d been looking at my car as he was walking and as soon as his point of reference started moving, his balance gave way.
Tomorrow, he sees the neurosurgeon. I’m hoping and praying that the news is all positive. I hate to ask again, but please keep any spare prayers and good thoughts flowing in the direction of my Dad.
*He does go on about his health like a hypochondriac … but annoyingly when he says things like “I think my bowel is blocked” or “I think I have a brain tumour” … he is actually right … I mean there’s no family-humour-pay-out-on-him value in that.
9 Comments
