Hi Jeanie,

Do your schools there not have summer holidays anymore? Don't know what I'd do without this time to plan. I've got 3 weeks to prepare 9 classes, which works out to maybe a couple of days or so on each . . . not a lot if you want to develop worksheets and other resources too.

I think it's wonderful that you want to do special ed. There's no way I could do it myself and I respect people who can. I had a class for 2 years at my previous school which was a bottom set consisting mostly of white working-class boys who hated English, and the syllabus (which is national) dictated that they write Shakespeare essays. The head of special needs team taught that class with me but they were very hard work and it was probably the most unpleasant teaching experience of my life.

I'm hoping tha after Christmas, when my schedule changes, I'll be able to go into a couple of classes and support and tema-teach with some of the new teachers. The head of department suggested this but it's a matter of whether the school is willing to pay. I don't know where the special needs teachers go in that school but we get very few of them in lessons. People who teach bottom sets don't always even get them, and I had a very needy group last year who didn't get regular support either. I'd be rushing around to help as many as I could, and often they would just stop working and waste time when I couldn't get to them straight away.

Team teaching is fantastic, if you're in a school willing to pay to have 2 teachers in one classroom. Before I really got ill, I was very enthusiastic to get back into teaching; I missed the kids and I missed the creativity of planning lessons. I didn't miss the work load, and working evenings and weekends as well (planning, marking, etc). Best of luck with what you do. I'm sure you'll be a great help to the kids even if you are not teaching as such. You seem like a very compassionate person.

I can't imagine what my daughter will be like when she's grown up. I hope she won't want to go away too far, I would miss her. She's our only child. We wanted to have 2 and it would be nice for her to have a brother or sister to play with, but it can't happen. I got ill when she was 1 1/2 and have been trying to put it right ever since. No way could I look after a baby in this state. What's more, I need to work, because we weren't making it on one income. We managed to save enough so that I could spend 5 years at home; we both thought it was important for one of us to have that time with her. We won't be able to do it again and personally I wouldn't want to drop my little baby off at childcare during the week, I wouldn't want to be separated like that when he/she was so young.

Adrenal issues . . . I've just fessed up on the adrenal/thyroid list that I'm doing a chelation round, despite the fact that the moderator there recommends that adrenals be completely healed before anyone does this. I'm waiting to get a telling-off. It has to be said, if my body doesn't adjust to the strain, I won't be able to keep it up because I'm having to stress dose a lot and you don't want to be doing that indefinitely.

Stay cool over there Dare I look at what's happening on the creation/evolution list? It's sapping my time and some rather unpleasant people are there. Maybe I can get some self-discipline together and not post there so much.