Circle Time

I had my first KS2 circle time today, and it was lovely. What a good idea, and I enjoyed being part of it. One of the activities was to say 'I would like to be...' and you could say what you would like to be (profession, animal, etc etc). I said that I would like to be a teacher so I can have a cool class like them. There were lots of teachers and Scientist. However, the following are the ones which I thought were really memorable and really lovely:

I would like to be...

... a cooker because I like cooking.
...a scientist cheetah because I'd like to be the fastes scientist in the world.

and my personal favourite:

...a pink peacock, because they are really pretty.

My first Haiku!

falling leaves swirl in the whirlwinds

leaves litter the lanes

scarves fly in the gusty winds

I may have got the syllable thing wrong (is it 7.5.7 or 5.7.5? I must try to find out), but it was one of the tasks of inset, and I was quite pleased with mine, even if it is wrong (and therefore is not a Haiku!)

Cryptic confections

1. Wobbly infants

2. Wise Guys

3. Edible fasteners

4. Nine, ten, eleven

5. Occult perhaps

6. Home for alcoholic dentures

7. Fallen fruits

8. Sport for Princes

9. 100% metal

10. Tartan Granite

11. For being good children

12. Miscellaneous blacks

13. Royal Herbs

14. Mother’s local

15. Endurance test

16. Nearly between two

17. Pirate’s loot

18. Bovine peepers

19. Belly dance perhaps

20. All sorts of girls

This was a quiz we had at a party. It was great fun, though there were some tricky ones as they weren't all current sweets. For those unfamiliar with British confection A quarter of... may be helpful. I got 12.5/20, 50%. Would I get a level C in GCSE confection?

Observation day 1 survived!

I had my first day at school today and it wsa great, but I am sooooooo sleepy!

It's a lovely school, only 1 form entry. It has 97% EAL (I think) and 90% are Bengali. I was in wih Year 2 today and it was a great experience. Lovely children, and it benefits from having less children in the classes in some cases. There are only actually 19 in the class, and it is amazing how quiet they are in relation to other schools I have been in. That 11 children less makes all the difference. And the classroom seems so much more spacious. I think there are instant tangible benefits in smaller class sizes. I observed literacy, Numeracy, story reading and the end of a science lesson.

Also, there's a great acting Head master and it's fairly easy to get to. Pity it doesn't have a school field. I think that's one thing that it is a shame that inner-city schools really would benefit from. I feel so privileged remembering Barley Lane's massive field!

I had to get up at 6am this morning and my oh my was that a shock to the system! HOW do you do it every morning?????? Mind you, I didnt get to bed till midnight, due to printing my proformas. Oh how I long for my old fast laser-jet, double-sided all-singing, all-dancing printer at work. It certainly had its moods swings, flashing angry orange lights when I tried to re-use paper, chewing up documents and generally acting like a spoilt child, but it was soooooo easily! Come back, all is forgiven!

We managed to be good and get hold of the policy file and selectively photocopy (double-sided of course) those policies that were most integral, so it was a positive start to the week. Tomorrow, I am with Year 1 and then Nursery- May the Lord help me! Ahrgh!

The night before...

...can have two meanings!

Last night was our harvest supper, and I was kindly offered the task of making Chilli Con carne for 20. Hmmmm, well I've never made it before and I am a bit of a paranoid cook. Always think I am going to get it wrong! Oh, and compounded by the fact I am convinced that all things start at 7.30, not 7 (due to being a musician). So it was 7.09 and the chilli looked rather red and liquidy and tomato-heavy), so I left it to simmer (what temperature IS classed as Simmering? I always think it is 4-5) went and threw on a clean top (because onions and mince are soooo not a particularly endearing smell to be wafting in pleasant company!). It was all a bit worrying carrying a large jam-pan full of chilli slop-carne along the length of the street sans lid. I liked it very much, but then in general have the consistency of an ox! However, it was a success and kind people reassured me as to the taste of said carne. In fact, I have heard no news of deaths, violent reactions or dodgy stomachs so I think I may even try cooking it again. Twas a lovely evening all in all and we sang a lovely new latin American sounding version of 'We plough the fields and scatter' and yours truly led a rhythmic samba percussion interlude and got the folks on their feet congaing round the room (except David, you were just sitting there! Just realised that- how did I not notice?!!!). It was a lovely evening and was certainly thought-provoking as we considered the mental effects of malnutrition which can result in in alcoholism and wife-beating as well as all the physically obvious effects, and the work of TEAR fund in Bolivia is amazing the difference it can make to the lives of poverty-stricken South-Americans.

I got home to face the carnage of having left the kitchen for later. Herumph! And then made Barbara's birthday card. But such was the state of my fatigue, I did not notice that I was decorating the envelope, not the card. I almost cried! However, a good night's sleep prompted the move to cut the said envelope and stick onto a larger card: hurrah!

So it's 11pm, and I am trying to print out my observation pro-formas for tomorrow. They're almost done! Yes, tomorrow, I go to my first school. It's in Bethnal Green (however nearest tube WOULD have been Shoreditch- grrr) and involves a fairly perilous journey in terms of having to read a map and negociate a number of twists and turns on the trail. Oh and I have to be there at 8am!!! Worried? Meeeeee???



Nope!

Teaching is like a tree

We've had a lovely day today so far. It was Collaborative learning day and we've been working on projects in small groups. My group's job was to make a representation of 40 years in the teaching profession. After a brain-storming with mind maps, we made a tree collage from magazines (as teaching is an ever-expanding profession, putting out new branches, it's an ever-changing cycle and it produces young off-shoots etc etc) and included words connected to teaching like ‘inspire’ ‘inform’, ‘the future’ as branches and all sorts of curricular links cut out teaching images, collected leaves from the park made speech bubbles. At the roots, we put a little door which opened and inside was a teacher leaping out. There were people (representing teachers) sitting on branches, children leaping out. I even made a mini notepad and pencil for the Art branch!
It looks FAB and we are really pleased! Not bad considering our magazine resources were 3 cooking magazines, a home magazine and Timeout! My group were all very inspired and creative people! Plus, we finished early, so we're all going home now! Hopefully someone's taking a photo, so I'll try to post a picture!

Now got to do my analysis from the day and finish my maths audit at home. I've suddenly found that I am horrendous at maths! The algebra isnt so bad, but I think I will need some help to be able to explain maths concepts when it comes to it!

Tomorrow we get to meet our mentors from our schools we start at next week to do our 9 days of observation. It’s very exciting and I can’t wait to find out where I have been placed!

Doctor WHOOOOO????

This may be a cause of embarassment for myself, but hey, I'll admit it. During my big tidy-up over the holidays, I came across around 50 or so issues of Doctor Who magazine which I had neatly filed into a box file. I started liking Doctor Who in 1996, when the Paul McGann movie came out, as I watched it, and decided that it was wonderful and I really really wanted to see more Doctor Who. And so it went on from there: I began reading DWM, got many videos, wind-up Dalek, Dalek polly-pocket etc. And I forgot to mention the really embarassing part, which was my 15-year old self's big crush on Paul McGann. I thought he was amazing and incredibly cute! And it was largely thanks to that that I joined the ranks of 'trainspotter' (I do not mean any sort of negative connotation here). Well, anyway, times have changed, and I realised that perhaps I really didn't need all these magazines cluttering up my very limited space available. But just before I bagged them up for E-bay prospectives, I had a glance through them, and remembered THOSE letters. Yes dear reader, I only went and sent not one, but TWO very embarassing letters to DWM, declaring my love for said actor, and saying how I cried at bits in the movie. And at the respective times of publication, I was so pleased that my letters had been published and showed everyone! They even published a picture of Paul McGann in a heart-shape next to my letter saying something like "Kerenza loves Paul" or something embarassing like that! Oh my, after reading them, I absolutely cringed and ran around the house screaming "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!". How could I do such an embarassing thing?!

2006, and I love Doctor Who still, though thankfully I do not have the big crush on the man himself (though David Tennant is rather foxy!) and yes, some of the storylines have made me blub again (after all, who could fail to be distressed during Badwolf, Parting of the Ways and Army of Ghosts & Doomsday). However, I must say, that I am very pleased that Captain Jack is to come back in Torchwood . Because he is rather cute. It has been very nice to see him on "How do you solve a problem like Maria". (Still cannot believe the contestants got to kiss him!!!!). I look forward to Series three lots!!! It's also very nice that kids of this generation are seeing and loving Doctor Who. It is highly amusing that my 15-year old sister is exhibiting the same signs as I was, 10 years on about Doctor Who. I wonder, if in 10 years, she will find old copies of DWM and cringe about letters she might send to it?

Houston, we have a problem

I've forgotten how to write formal essays and present tasks. How can I get used to writing without exclamation marks?


!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Fruit fact

This year has been the year of the plums. The weather conditions we have experienced this year seem to have been ideal for the growing of the purple beauties, as my experience of picking them in Gloucester and home have proved.
However, I am rather impressed as the plum tree in our garden has this year yielded 250 plums! Not bad for a tree shorter than your average 11 year old!

Afghanistan and the property cult

As someone who would always prefer to do ANYTHING else (read, watch Friends, wrench eyelashes out..) other than watch the news (I do realise that this is a bad attitude to have, but I happen to like my spectacles. They are a nice shade of rose...), it would be unusual for me to blog about something I've seen on the news.
However, the BBC showed a story about Afghanistan today and how Condoleezza Rice was saying that troops really need to finish the work that they are doing there otherwise the problems will never be resolved. I've not really thought about the whole situation until last night when a missionary worker came to talk to my church about her time spent there (she has now moved elsewhere). Apparently 95% of Afghans think it's a good thing that the troops are there and really want the process to continue. I was struck by how beautiful a nation it is, so green and verdent in places, full of streams of water, and how what is seen in the media rarely reflects this. There are so many possibilities for Afghanistan, they used to have a prolific export industry in dried fruit, it would be wonderful for it to regain some of this past success. The soldiers actually have created a lot of jobs for people living there, as have NGO's. I really hope the regeneration can continue in peace.

The second story to capture my attention was a talk from a man Martin Lewis (I think?!) about the property ladder. He believes that we have been hypnotised as a nation into believing that we must get on the property ladder. I agree. People are getting into serious debt in order to obtain what they think is a sure fire way of making quick money. And I am not denying that it is. But I really feel like it's become an obsession- everyone is so transfixed with it, and I find it really irritating and worrying! As the guy said, people are getting out of their depth (some people) because they are gambling on the house rising in value (once they have paid their mortgage in 25 years). And anyone who says that they know that houses will increase cannot be certain, can they? How will they know that? We can't be sure about it. And how will people afford the (possible/probable) interest rate rises? I know that people say renting is equivalent to throwing your money away, but unless I was really certain I could afford it (with any nasty shocks having a contingency plan), I would not purchase.
I say NO to the property cult!!!!

Day Two...

Day two is over. We've been studying science all day. It was a lot more interactive than yesterday, and we had to do some simple science experiments in the afternoon. Now, I absolutely detested science practicals at school (particularly senior school), largely because alot of them involved dealing with scary chemicals or even scarier bunsen burners, and a Year 5 experiment involved me getting an electric shock (or involved me pouring things down the drain that I really wasn't supposed to. Impressive though very embarassing that I managed to get through 5 years of senior school science and get AA for GCSEs and not touch a bunsen burner) So, those familiar feelings of dread emerged, though I consoled myself that a) this is primary science and b) how dangerous could it get in a lecture hall where the materials to be used were in a small tray?
Well our experiment was to do with investigating which part of the hand or arm was the most sensitive, and largely involved me sitting with my eyes shut obediently with arm outstretched whilst various materials (sandpaper, sponge, wallpaper, sugar paper) were brushed against various parts of my hand and arm. We then evaluated our responses. It might seem a simple experiment, but it made me realise exactly how important science is as part of the curriculum, as it is an ever expanding and even simplistic sounding experiments can bear fruit that you may not consider. It's great that kids today will have so much more practical experience and may not fear science like me!
There seem some nice people on the course, though I haven't really got to know any particular people especially well yet (not after two days!). I really enjoyed the company of two girls Aisha and Ossab two girls I worked with today.
Anyway, I'm off to do some work!

Some fascinating facts...

I received these as an e-mail and I thought they were absolutely fascinating. I do not know who found these out or wrote them, but whoever you are, they are very interesting! Be warned, if you are trying to avoid doing work (you know who you are!), they may take a while to read!

1. A rat can last longer without water than a camel.
2. Your stomach has to produce a new layer of mucus every two weeks or it will
digest itself. 3. The dot over the letter "i" is called a tittle.
4. A raisin dropped in a glass of fresh champagne will bounce up and down
continuously from the bottom of the glass to the top.
5. A female ferret will die if it goes into heat and cannot find a mate.
6. A duck's quack doesn't echo. No one knows why.
7. A piece of 2x4 is really 1-1/2 by 3-1/2.
8. During the chariot scene in "Ben Hur", a small red car can be seen
in the distance.
9. On average, 12 newborns will be given to the wrong parents daily worldwide!
10. Donald Duck comics were banned from Finland because he doesn't wear pants.
11. Because metal was scarce, the Oscars given out during World War II were
made of wood.
12. The number of possible ways of playing the first four moves per side in a
game of chess is 318,979,564,000.
13. There are no words in the dictionary that rhyme with orange, purple and
silver.
14. The name Wendy was made up for the book "Peter Pan".
15. The very first bomb dropped by the Allies on Berlin in World War II killed
the only elephant in the Berlin Zoo.
16. If one places a tiny amount of liquor on a scorpion, it will instantly go
mad and sting itself to death.
17. Bruce Lee was so fast that they actually had to s-l-o-w film down so you
could see his moves.
18. The first CD pressed in the US was Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the
USA".
19. The original name for butterfly was flutterby.
20. The phrase "rule of thumb" is derived from an old English law
which stated that you couldn't beat your wife with anything wider than your
thumb.
21. The first product Motorola started to develop was a record player for
automobiles. At that time, the most known player on the market was Victrola, so
they called themselves Motorola.
22. Roses may be red, but violets are indeed violet, not blue.
23. By raising your legs slowly and laying on your back, you cannot sink into
quicksand.
24. Celery has negative effect on calories. It takes more calories to eat a
piece of celery than the celery has in it to begin with.
25. For fun, Charlie Chaplin once entered anonymously a "Charlie Chaplin
look-alike contest", and won third prize.
26. Chewing gum while peeling onions will keep you from crying.
27. Sherlock Holmes NEVER said "Elementary, my dear Watson".
28. An old law in Bellingham,Washington, made it illegal for a woman totake
more than 3 steps backwards while dancing.
29. The glue on Israeli postage is certified kosher.
30. The Guinness Book of Records holds the record for being the book most often
stolen from Public Libraries.
31. Astronauts are not allowed to eat beans before they go into space because
passing wind in a space suit damages them.
32. In the movie Casablanca, Humphrey Bogart never said "Play it again
Sam". What he said was "If you can play it for her you can play it
for me, so Play it".
33. It is impossible to lick your elbow.
34. A crocodile can't stick its tongue out.
35. A shrimp's heart is in its head.
36. In a study of 200,000 ostriches over a period of 80 years, no one reported
a single case where an ostrich buried its head in the sand.
37. It is physically impossible for pigs to look up into the sky.
38. A pregnant goldfish is called a twit.
39. More than 50% of the people in the world have never made or received a
telephone call.
40. Horses can't vomit.
41. The "sixth sick sheik's sixth sheep's sick" is said to be the
toughest tongue twister in the English language.
42. If you sneeze too hard, you can fracture a rib. If you try to suppress a
sneeze, you can rupture a blood vessel in your head or neck and die. If you
keep your eyes open by force, they can pop out.
43. Rats multiply so quickly that in 18 months, two rats could have over a
million descendants.
44. Wearing headphones for just an hour will increase the bacteria in your ear
by 700 times.
45. If the government has no knowledge of aliens, then why does Title 14,
Section 1211 of the Code of Federal Regulations, implemented on July 16, 1969,
make it illegal for US citizens to have any contact with extraterrestrials or
their vehicles?
46. In every episode of Seinfeld there is a Superman somewhere.
47. 23% of all photocopier faults worldwide are caused by people sitting on
them and photocopying their rear ends.
48. Most lipstick contains fish scales.
49. Like fingerprints, everyone's tongue print is different.



and lastly...



50. Over 75% of people who read this will try to lick their elbow.

Day One

So, the day that I have been anticipating for well over 9 months has finally arrived. I am here at the Institute of Education beginning my PGCE! We've had a lovely day so far, and met some nice people, though it was very much like the first day at school at first. What are we, the students of 2006 feeling right now about our course? Well according to our getting to know you exercise:

"Excited but apprehensive"

The schools in my cluster group seem to be mainly in Enfield or Tower Hamlets (the latter will be much better for me, so here's hoping), and only two schools in Essex which is a little sad, but I hope it should be ok!

I am organised, I am efficient...

...I am off to complete some work....