You know how when you have a couple really busy days, that when you finally get a chance to stop and the adrenaline falls you feel like you have a really bad hangover? Well, that is me today.
Tuesday, as I wrote, Minerva was home with her head in the toilet. What I didn’t mention was that Tuesday was also the prep day for a literacy event planned for Wednesday. Major movement at the library.
Everything in our library is on wheels, so when we want to host a public event we can move all the stacks, the couches, tables and of course chairs. It is heavy work, but it can be done. First though we have to make everything safe, such as taking book displays down, and books on ends off. Baton down the hatches.
Then the brute force comes in and bing bam we have a large empty space. Cue the chairs for the audience. Lights, cameras, podium, action!
So Tuesday, the library was open until just after the lunch break and then we went into house moving action and set up. Without Minerva it was a little more work as I had to keep working at the circulation desk while supervising the preparations, but as we know, I am fabulous and achieved it all in time to go home and make a three course dinner for my family. (Was that insect chirping I heard? Yee of little faith…)
Wednesday was event day. The event was scheduled to start at 7am, yes we also provided breakfast, and so I was in the library by 6.15am. Approximately sixty people attended the event which was to celebrate Indigenous Literacy Day. We were fortunate to gain a bit of a coup, not only did we have the founder of the IL Foundation speak, but also Australia’s joint children’s laureates, Boori Monty Pryor and Alison Lester, but also an ambassador for the ILF, author Andy Griffiths. In Australian children’s and young adult literature these three authors are superstars and we were amore than a little stunned by their attendance.
They had to be back in the centre of Brisbane at 9am for the Brisbane Writer’s Festival, but lingered with the guests and students until 8.45. They commented that they felt that their attendance at our event was more important than the BWF as our event was about making things happen,. Their comments were like the cream on a very nice cake, for us.
Once the crowd went back to their day jobs, we had to return the library to its more traditional function before we could stop for a coffee. Minerva was back on deck, so we broke out the party food, had a quiet celebration in the library workroom and then it was time for me to teach two classes.
By this time I just wanted to put my head down and nap, but the day rolled on, with a meeting after school to discuss the theories of John Hattie which we are trying to introduce to our professional development. As always, everyone says they will attend and then when the time comes a core of about 6 actually do. Like we aren’t all tired? One of the teachers who had also worked on the event had to get up at 3am to get public transport from inner Brisbane to our school and I imagine he was feeling pretty tired, but he stayed the course.
I mention this because today, Thursday, we are on strike. Really, we are out on strike. A day’s pay given up to protest our conditions. It isn’t just about money, (may I just state here that Queensland teachers only get paid for a 30 hour week, averaged over the year and that is how we get paid holidays, so please don’t use that argument) . It is also about our students.
Some teachers are climbing aboard the school minibus to attend a rally, but Flamingo Dancer doesn’t do minbuses or rallies. I am catching up on rest, and laundry. How selfish of me, I know, but tomorrow I will be back working my 7.30 am to whenever pm day, with barely a break, and we all know that a tired Flamingo Dancer is a grumpy Flamingo Dancer, and so for the greater good, I shall now have a midmorning nap.
Long Live …Me!
