General bliss

Hello there! Tis the season to be jolly, (sadly tis also the season to be snotty- Endoftermitus and all that jazz! But nie mind, let's not harp on about that...) . So far, it's been lovely to be on holiday, really enjoying the lack of school!
I quite enjoyed the last 3 days of school. The carol service was really successful and the kids sang my song (I wrote them one) beautifully! The last day was nice as they were doing (in the words of Rach) worksheets, pritt sticks, making calendars and cards (except they have run out- grrr! Like gold dust they are) and general lack of work. I desperately tried to get through the last couple of reading assessments left to do and marked RE and English grammar books. They then watched Cats and Dogs and I dished out 30 presents and cards.
I got a whole stack of pressies from my class which surprised me (they were lovely by the way- inc very pretty heart necklace) and attempted to leave my classroom in some semblance of order ready for the 3rd Jan return.
The week prior, and during that week, and after school, I enjoyed a variety of Christmas concerts, lovely playing and singing my heart out. One of the highlights was 'The Twelve days of Christmas' in Southwark cathedral (hilarious GKT tradition of singing it with medics, dentists, orchestra, parents, choir etc singing certain verses) and then singing it again at my church's Christmas Miscellany (except this time seriously embarassed by my mother being 'six geese a laying').
Had a delightful day in Paris with my good friend Alex- after rising at 3.30am (eek!) we visited Sacre Coeur, Notre Dame, stood under the Eifel tower, visited some of other lovely churches and went on a freezing but beautiful boat ride. I really loved Sacree Coeur, it was so beautiful and I really felt God's presence there. We somehow ended up buying portraits of ourselves that didn't look like us in Mon Martre (spelling?), drank expensive Chocolat chaud, ate Croque Madames, said Merci and Pardon lots and got lost on the Metro. We marvelled at double decker trains (soooooooo cool!), I embarassed Alex by trying to make him skip along the Seine, admired Degas and Monet at Musee D'Orsay and stood freezing cold in the queue for Eurostar that was delayed by an hour- poor Alex had to play word games with me for 45 mins! Returned on Eurostar and slept like a baby (a baby that sleeps that is). Alex then had to yet again endure my company playing at Guildford cathedral that Saturday where he admirably conducted a lovely choir and then consequently at church services! (mwah ha ha!)
The services were lovely at church, we were really blessed, especially during an interregnum. By Christmas day, I had almost lost my voice.
We've enjoyed some fun games over the last couple of days, board games, snail racing at my Godmother's (hilarious wind up things- my one was wonky!) and lots of nice TV too! Afraid I have spent the last 2 days in PJs due to cold, but has been restful!

I now have a million and one lovely Christmas presents I have no where to put and shall enjoy the last days of freedom.
Here's hoping that January the 3rd will bring a new organised Kezzie, one who marks books quickly, doesn't faff, has a tidy, organised classroom and smiles as she leaves her house!

Tis a bit late, but Merry Christmas one and all!

A teacher's wish

Die Kinder sind irritaten!
Ich mochte Urlaub gehen!

2 weeks and 4 days!

Eeek!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Almost the holidays I believe! Hurrah!
Must say, my kids are being VILE at the moment! Not all, but the collective is generally just vileness! Everyone says its the time of year and they are becoming hyper (not half!). They're just LOUD and argumentative! We are doing clay again tomorrow! I am fearful! I have managed to rope in our lovely Headteacher to come and help me with them for it I hope, so all is not lost!
School Christmas fair tomorrow- I am on some sort of lucky dip and I also have to play piano for carols (eek!) We have to stay at school till 8! Some sort of compost lucky dip is going on in my classroom. Never mind the mess THEY make, am most embarassed at anyone seeing MY MESS!
I blame it on lack of storage ;-)
Anyway, I shall go back to whatever it was that I turned the computer on to do! (Can't quite remember what it was!)
Tschuss jetzt!

The countdown begins

-Oooh, only 5 weeks and 3 days left till Christmas holidays begin! Terrible really to be wishing one's life away. The week has been varied! I have enjoyed some elements although in general, afternoons are still difficult! They seem to become somewhat monster-like come 1.15pm!
-My headteacher is very encouraging, she comes every so often and encourages me and says she can see a definite improvement as I gain confidence. I find that the morning is generally fine.
-Geography I found hard to teach this week as we were doing the features of rivers and so hard to differentiate it, especially for a class containing children ranging from a Level 1A to Level 4B (essentially the difference between a child at the beginning of year 1, to a child in Year 6!).
Am looking forward to Christmas, as have somewhat stupidly agree to play and sing in lots of concerts, services and things all over the place (but I love it!).
-Had to play for assembly (piano eek!) on Wednesday and luckily didnt have too many Les Dawson moments as is usually the case.
- I started to teach the school choir the song I have written for them this week and they sounded lovely singing it thus far! Tres exciting!
-Just bought exciting Christmas children's recipe books so I can make tantalising temptations for my friends to eat- marshmellow fudge anyone?
-My hockey-related injury still hurts, but is getting somewhat better- I can now type (accidently whacked on the index finger by an irritating child who seems to have little awareness of space and apparently hadn't paid attention to the PPA Teacher's clear instructions not to raise ones stick higher than one's waist).
-Ugly-Betty- Henry and Betty got together-yaaaaaaaaay! 'Wicked' episode last night! I love Ugly Betty, it's such a fab programme!
-Strictly Come dancing- yay for Gethan getting better, Yay for Letitia improving in confidence, Yay for Anton and Kate getting better! Hurrah for Penny! I really am not sure who I want to win thus far. I do like Penny and Ian, I do like Alisha and Matthew.
- No 1. Ladie's detective agency- FAB book! (have added in an incorrect apostrophe to rankle the pedantic grammarphiles amongst the audience! Mwa ha ha!!!)
- Most irritating mistakea made by my class this week. Well, there are lots of close contenders: the final shortlist includes:
1. 'Should of done that'. AHRGH!!!!! I've mentioned this sooo many times, we had a lesson on Standard English, I made them write 'should have' as a spelling phrase, written individual things in children's books. But still there it is in their writing.
2. The spelling for ISOCELES, SCALENE AND EQUILATERAL WAS IN THE TEXT BOOK AND ON THE BOARD, AND ON SHEETS. Why oh why oh why do they not look?

Hmmm, I only turned the computer on to find the solutions to the Hexiamonds puzzle-oops, better go back to marking!
Ciao!

Hurrah hails half-term

At last I have finished marking my English writing assessments! Lions and tigers and bear oh my, there is no misery like National Curriculum levelling of English writing, but at last it is done! Am sick of reading about 'Uri and the quest for the golden owl's claw'! Was it a 3a, or a 3b? Is she working towards 3a or is she simply a 3a? Only hope it's right, but since I have only ever levelled 3 children's work before, then I cannot expect to be an expert already! AHRGH! Oh well. At last I have finished all my marking so I have 3 days of half term left to enjoy! Haven't really done detailed planning for the other subjects but we have the weekly plans and I know what I am teaching! (And enough is enough, I think I need at least a bit of holiday! But I do feel so much better for having got the marking done!)
In other news:
1. Parents (to apostrophe or not to apostrophe? Chris?) evening went well. It went surprisingly fast and I had enough to say. I managed to get most of my displays done (only remaining one to fill is my Parthenon one. Needs something special...).
2. WISPAS ARE BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Dairy Milk Bubbles was not a patch on the blue and red classic!
3. I really want to go to Scotland. For about 6 years now, I have really wanted to go to the Orkneys or the Isle of Skye, due to giving a lecture recital on a piece by Peter Maxwell-Davies which involved me finding out about the Orkneys, and my general delight in small islands in general, plus reading Katie Morag books (Wish list also includes outer Hebrides, Isles of Scilly, Aldernay, Sark, Polynesia, Micronesia, Greek islands and some of the Irish islands which I learnt about in a talk I heard in the Youghal debating society in Ireland some years ago). Anyway, the reason for this sudden zeal is that I was watching 'Coast' earlier and I saw the beautiful island of Arn or something like that (is it? The one where Nobel lived, it's off the coast near the border), and it is absolutely glorious. I do sometimes think that I should just try to find a teaching job on an island somewhere. I didn't really go anywhere new this year as I was impoverished, but I really would like to go somewhere in Scotland or the Scillies next year.
4. Oooh, am going to Paris for the day in December. Something to look forward to!
5. Have written a short song for the choir at school. It can't be that bad, as my sister heard it and likes it, and she is usually my most fervent and honest critic (in a nice way!)
6. I did some ironing today! (Yes, Hell has frozen over!)
7. In a bid to feel less of a complete and utter social failure (have indeed turned into recluse since I entered the teaching profession) I am attempting to meet 4 sets of people tomorrow in London AND going to a choir rehearsal! How will I cope????!
8. I am reading 'Jane Austen book club' for the second time. I read it three years ago and to be honest, felt rather sheepish reading about people discussing Jane Austen since I had never read Jane Austen, but rather was reading it as was given it as a birthday present. Anyway, since I have now read some, I felt more qualified to read this book again (and had bought a copy of it in the charity shop since Fiona borrowed my copy and hasnt given it back and since she a) lives in Oxfordshire b) has a baby, I feel that copy is a write-off). Am enjoying it and seeing it in a new light. The characters were discussing which 'Miss Austen' they liked the most. I tend to go with the underdog choice and choose Northanger Abbey. Now there are several reasons why I like this best:
a) I confess, I was a 'saw the TV version first' novice. I saw the ITV adaptation with the lovely Felicity Jones as Catherine and the simply gorgeus JJ Feild as Henry Tillney. I liked the adaptation even though it isnt true to the book.
b) Catherine reminds me of me. She has an overactive imagination, loves books, sees mystery and menace in the benign, and even though in the TV series she was beautiful, in the book, she isn't anything special
c) Northanger Abbey is like famous five territory! Secret cupboards, mysteries
d) Misunderstandings and Catherine being sent home for something that isn't her fault!
e) The excitement of Bath. I like Bath!
f) Since I really liked the TV adaptation, I was most excited about reading this one and was going to like it, well, whether I liked it or not!
g) Again, I am a sucker for the underdog!
h) Since I am a 'late-starter' in terms of my Jane Austen enjoyment, I feel that may be reflected in my choice.
Anyway, does anyone (if anyone is out there?) have a particular favourite Jane Austen book and why?

Cheerio for now. Just about to do some sheepish blog reading.

A pre-holiday horrid hurdle...

I had almost forgotten all about blogging! Until, in a pre-parents evening fluster, I decided I needed distracting from the ugly task of drawing together all that I want to say about my charges and thought I would look at Welshy's blog to cheer me up! It did cheer me up, although the horrid task till remains.
Well, I have almost made it through the first term and I am relieved, though it has been very hard work, and I am exhausted. Anyone who says teaching is a 9-3.30 job needs a smack from a big saucepan. I call it more a 7.00-11.00 job. Do find myself thinking longingly of sitting at a desk organising meetings, calling students to demand why they have not returned their borrowed Degani violin and arranging a string quartet for a toddler project etc! Oh, how simple in comparison that life seemed! But, my school are very supportive and kind and I am lucky that they are helping me so much. I still don't know for certain if I can take doing this long term or not. I feel very very stressed and miserable at the moment if I am honest, but I do enjoy some elements. I enjoy much of the literacy teaching and Foundation subjects and even some of the maths, but in general, afternoons are VILE! I don't know what happens to the kids at lunchtime, they seem to morph into their evil twins. Marking takes me a looong time!
Anyway, I had better get back to writing my spiel. Here's hoping that all is well! Pray for inspiration for me!
4 days and counting....

Am alive!

Hey! Am still alive, thanks for concern! It's just been a bit manic so far, no time for going on computer when not at school, marking ahrgh! resources ahrgh! planning- hmmmm!!!!

Will post more asap !!!

Pray for me lest I be overcome by fear!

I am not scared
I am not scared
I am not scared
I am not scared
I am not scared
I am not scared
I am not scared
I am not scared
I am not scared
I am not scared
I am not scared
I am not scared


**well maybe just a little bit**

Blaurgh

Am going to make a Welshy style list, but a boring version of...

• Had a lovely time at Music Camp despite horrid torrential rain for 6 days. Resulted in desperate but delightful purchase of large pink floral wellies and lovely jeans and trousers perfect for school, the latter two courtesy of charity shop! Hurrah!
• Panicking slightly about starting school on Monday. Inset training, but haven't done any planning as my parallel teacher felt we could do it on the first day. AHRGRGHGHHG!!!!!!!!
• Wishing I wasnt a teacher now. Don't want to do it, want to escape and do something simple and easy which wont affect anyone.
• Dreading school
  
• Read Pride and Prejudice and loved it. Hurrah for Ms Austen!
• Had nice excursions to Kent, Oxfordshire, Brighton- all lovely!
• Contrary to other opinions, Wicked the musical, was really really really good, soooooooooooo much better than Gregory Maguire's original book! (the story of the witches of Oz)
• Am dreading school, did I mention that?
• JJ Field is definitely the cutest actor around, with perhaps the exception of David Tennant.
  
• Crumhorn's are definitely the most comedy instrument in the world!
• I am really procrastinating now!!!!
• 
  

You know you've been reading too much Jane Austen...

...when you find yourself using the word Vexed in all manner of conversations!

A Welshy style list

• I've spent two days at school now working with my new class. They seem nice so far, though I admit, I have found it challenging to appear confident and assertive and firm when I am in someone else's classroom. There are two pupils who are challenging me a bit, though the others seem ok. I've got to teach Numeracy and Literacy on Thursday, which feels a bit weird in someone else's classroom!Strange since essentially that is what I have been doing in the last year! Also was really hoping not to have to do ANY actual teaching this week! Oh well, at least it is a chance to see how they react to my teaching.
  
• There are 14 children in my class who have some sort of SEN, whether SA, SA+, Statement or behaviour, that's quite a lot!
• My parallel class teacher is lovely, really lovely.
• The school has already made me feel very welcome and I am very glad to be there. We had a Staff .v. Year6 netball match this afternoon, which was great fun! I played Wing defence which was great fun! It took me back to being at Primary school myself, as this was the position I played in our Netball club!
• I have a lovely concert with my flute quartet tomorrow in Chelmsford, which should be lovely. I really like my flute quartet- it is such a blessing and I love playing with the other 3 players.
  
• I am reading my first Jane Austen book at last- Emma! It is lovely and am really enjoying it!
• On a similar theme, tres annoyed that my mummy accidentally managed to tape over the 3 Jane Austen films I videoed from TV. Oh well, serves me right for leaving the video in a heap without putting a clear label on it.
  
• Peas in the pod are very nice
• Hurrah for the sun!
  

My mind is like a dazzling, shimmering sky of happiness!

FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

YIPPEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
EEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ALMOST FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

School is out!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Just got to finish my CEPD statement and then life is peachy! YAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And can it be?

I actually quite enjoyed today. My little cherubs behaved, and although I had a lesson observation which wasn't super, it was ok. Literacy and Numeracy were ok and then I played flute for Year 5 (which they loved). Then, I did a music class with the kids this afternoon, one of their first opportunities to compose, and I think they enjoyed it. RE was somewhat challenging, but we survived and finally I played them some flute. Maybe the flute is the reason for the good mood, or perhaps the end being nigh.

I also discovered the miracle that are easy-thread needles. They are fab! I may even do DT with my cherubs if sports day doesn't go on all morning.

Trying to write my CEPD statement. For those in ignorance, this is essentially a 'what I am good at and what i am not' statement for future professional development. It is not what I want to be doing when feeling like I am coming down with a cold, but ah well, it's better than having 2 weeks left of term left!!

The final furlong

Found it really really hard to concentrate today. It's like my brain has befuzzled.
However, I made up a seaside themed tongue-twister for your delight and delectation.
Ahem...


I see a seagull sitting on the sea
Sitting on the sea, what does that seagull see?
I am sure that on that shore, what that seagull sees,
Is people sitting seeing seagulls sitting on the sea.

Boring blog.

A few thoughts and ponderings

• CEDP- Blaughrgh. What do I write?
• Playing flute for a concert today at the last minute for a friend. Probably not the best idea given the amount of work I have to do, but still a happy thing!
• Saturday night without Doctor Who. I can quite frankly say, that the only thing I want to watch on TV at the moment is Home and Away. Which is no bad thing I suppose.
• Hmmmm, around 300 pieces of work to mark all in all. Dun dun daaaaaaaaaah!
• School trip to Shadwell park this week. We are to be there for a whole day. What on earth are we going to do with them for a whole day in a park??????? Wish we were going to the seaside. Recky trip on Monday to do the risk assessment!
• All creatures great and small really was a lovely TV programme. I wish they made things like that now. All those wonderful 70's and 80's programmes such as The Good Life, To the manor born, Bread.
  
• 4 DAYS LEFT AT SCHOOL! I raised this point at choir practice last night, to which we had a rousing rendition of the Hallelujah chorus! The Lord he is good.
• Someone gave me a precious gift this week, which really really truly is a gift from God.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO JULIETBEC, pervayor of a great blog!

8 days...

...until the Peeg is over. Oh that it were 13th July now. I've found this week really tough so far. This evening was very hard as I wanted to stay at school and get stuff done (only night it is open late), but I couldn't get into the frame of mind as a) my teacher was tidying up her stuff in the room, and I just can't work when there is someone else there, and b) it was a hard day (with crappy teaching on my part- particularly as had a full day with ICT floor robots AND PE in the rain and I kept them on the carpet faaaaaaaaar too long in Literacy and therefore they achieved zilch) and I should have just gone home straight away but instead wasted 3 hours. It frustrated me. I was stressed. I came home, ate peas, ate pasta, had a quick bath, felt much better.

2 people phoned me last night, to ask for advice/generally talk about the placement. I feel lucky that I dont have the internal examiner coming to me, really I am blessed. It was horrid trying to give someone advice about a lesson idea, as I wanted to help but it is hard when you haven't been part of that class. Oh that in a couple of years, I will be able to give good ideas and advice to fellow sufferers of Pee-gee-see-eeitus.

Better do marking...

15 days until Happy Rotter is out!!! What a nice thing to look forward to!

Must dash...

...but on the flip side...

On a positive note, I take my first phonics lesson tomorrow. This may be interesting!

Banging one's head against the proverbial brick wall

AHRGH!!!!!!! I seem to only blog when miserable or wanting to rant!
Before beginning this topic of 'seaside' I did a brainstorm activity with the kids so I could see what they knew before my teaching. They talked largely about sandcastles, sand and playing ball. So after 3 weeks of teaching with a focus on the seaside, looking at buildings, other pastimes, natural features etc and the chance to look at seaside books, what are their non-chronological reports saying? 'This report is about sandcastles. The seaside is a place where you can have fun and make sandcastles. At the seaside there are sandcastles and you can play ball and you can eat ice-cream.' And is it organised under headings like we have spent time talking about and practising? Nope, it's in one long order. AHRGHASHADJKAJDKALJDKLJKLJ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! One day to try and get them back on track.

Did a lesson which was supposed to be fun today, making circuits. Was it fun?

Oh to be able to teach these 3 weeks again. Now onto the last three. Pray for me!

A day of freedom

Week 2 of 6 is now over, as we are at Uni for one day's break tomorrow. It's such a treat not to have to get up at 6!!!
The week has been up and down. The weekend had been lovely doing a flute concert in East Horndon, but Sunday rapidly became miserable as I tried to get my weekly planning done. Literacy is soooooo hard to plan for, especially as I don't get this new framework we have to use now. Nobody has sat down and shown us properly how to use the old one, let alone the new one.
Well anyway, my reflection for the week is that I am pitching my Literacy way too high and expecting far too much of my 6-7 year olds. My tutor came to school on Tuesday and was very nice, helpful and constructive about what was frankly a disasterous ICT lesson. I sooo understand why our ICT tutor told us people hate teaching the Control part of the ICT curriculum as it is manic! Most of my lessons have felt quite disasterous and my timing is still quite bad, my explanation needs honing, my EAL support needs working on, (always over-running) but I have more confidence now than I did on Tuesday.

Today I played piano for KS2 assembly as we have Edwardian day on Tuesday and they have to sing 'God save the King' (and Jerusalem and Land of Hope and Glory), which started being a bit scary, and I somehow ended up offering to teach the 200 children to sing it, and managed to teach them by singing it in bite sized chunks in 10mins! I felt absolutely fearless doing it. It was a lovely feeling!
I also taught a manic literacy lesson, messy but fun content in Science and had a slow worm making a visit. Problem solving in Maths was a nightmare, teaching the seaside song was fab. My class were vile most of the day, so was somewhat in a bad mood. Did anyone find on PGCE, I just find it hard to be in the KS1 classroom on my own without a TA when trying to teach differentiated literacy and numeracy, it's a nightmare. The lower attainers just don't to be able to do anything on their own, but the 2nd to bottom group can't either, and then the poor top 3 groups have barely enough time with me.

This weekend I am playing one of solo recorder parts for Brandenburg 4 in Felsted, which should be exciting. Must get practising...

Meme? Meh meh? Meee mee???

So these Meme things…? Does one pronounce it Meh-meh (as in, well I don’t know what, but a meh sound) or Meeee-meeee as in ‘All all about meeeeeeeeeee’. I’ve always wondered! Can usually not be bothered, as I am not all that interesting, but as I walked through Stepney Green park today and saw a Lord of the Rings advertisement, I started thinking about favourite movie stars and all that, so I thought I would do a mehmeh/meme. I’d be interesting to read if anyone has a go at it though I presume no-one reads my blog as I am not very regular... I tag Welshy, Stephen, Chris and Luvlylittlesister.

Top 6 things I am watching on TV.

1. Dr Who – you know you love it!

2. Ugly Betty- Fabulous, funny, the lovely lovely Henry, Justin the sweetiepie!

3. Hustle – ok so I haven’t managed to watch this much this season, but it’s great!

4. Any dream will do – Fab fab fab! Hurrah for Lee from Southend on Sea!

5. Home and away: not fab, but it’s usually something I might just make it home in time for, whilst I have a brief chill before starting planning.

6. My goodness, I can’t think of anything else!!!!

Top 6 things to read

Always changing, but at the moment

1. Michael Morpugo – writes beautiful books for children. They are so evocative, beautifully written and carry wonderful themes, ideas and characters. The Butterfly Lion is particularly fab!

2. Millgate court in my Mum’s magazine. Ok, so My weekly is for your slightly older reader perhaps, but I like this magazine, it has integrity, is not full of gratuitous sex, being mean to celebrities or indeed much about celebrities, but lovely stories, Romania Appeal, one page of fashion and always some lovely features.

3. Jacqueline Wilson books. Ok, so the characters are annoying, since they are always argumentative, rebellious, and her modes of communication aren’t beautiful but I do enjoy reading them…

4. My utmost for his highest… Oswald Chambers. First seen in the bathroom at Rach and Dan’s, this is a lovely book with a small bible extract and meditation on this for each day, that gives you a thinking point. It’s beautiful and surprisingly when I read it, it seems to show me what I need to know and remember…

5. La Bible: Am on 2 Kings at the moment in my lectionary: must say the Israelites annoy me, always turning back to Baal worship and all that. Silly people. But the new testament reading is John, which is so beautiful and encouraging. His book is written so beautifully and you sense the awesomeness of God.

6. Louisa M. Alcott - who did not want to be Jo???!

7. Because I am feeling greedy, you cant beat a good Enid Blyton book. She writes great stuff. Ooh, I’ll read the Faraway tree books in the holiday again!

Top 6 female movie/TV stars I admire/would most like to look like/think are very beautiful!

1. Liv Tyler

2. Emmy Rossum (Phantom of the Opera)

3. Gemma Craven (Cinderella in the Slipper and the Rose)

4. Sophia Myles. (played Madam Pompadour in DW)

5. Anne Hathaway.

6. I did admire Katie Holmes, though that was when she was younger (and not married to Mr Cruise!)

Top TV/movie guys I’ve noticed recently or still have a lurking preference for…

1. Have to say, though I don’t watch it, Bradley in Eastenders looks a sweetie.

2. Christopher Gorman, AKA Henry in Ugly Betty

3. Paul McGann (maybe in his 40’s but still has that McGann magic)

4. David Tennant: Hello doctor!

5. The guy who played Edmund in the recent ‘Mansfield Park’

6. JJ Field (Freddie in Ruby in the smoke and the guy in Northanger abbey

7. Colin Firth. Still lovely…

Top 6 films to watch when bored.

1. The Slipper and The Rose: a film I have loved since childhood. It has soooo much more meaning now. Beautiful music with lots of lovely flute,

2. I capture the Castle:

3. Princess Diaries1 and Princess Diaries 2

4. Any of the Jane Austen’s that were on recently esp. Mansfield Park

5. Singing in the rain: Lovely film, lovely sentiment, and I love the splashing in the rain. You know, Gene Kelly was very ill when that was filmed that bit!

6. The railway children: Can’t beat it, so beautiful. Either of them- the original or the recent one.

6 things I would do if I had the time

1. Learn Greek (I started so I’ll finish, but when, I don’t know)

2. Learn ballroom dancing. A lovely man called Richard taught me some once, I wish I had learnt it properly

3. Have some flute lessons or singing lessons- I haven’t had lessons for so long, and I really really miss them and wish I could have some.

4. Be in a musical: It’s sooooo much fun! I’m hoping we will be doing one at camp in the summer, but I am fluting so whether I could be in it or not, I don’t know.

5. Paint, draw…

6. Go to aerobics or something like that!

Top 6 chocolaty treats to cheer oneself up with.

1. Ben and Jerry’s Phish food

2. Green and Black’s Maya gold hot chocolate

3. Dairy milk

4. Chocolate mini rolls

5. Chocolate buttons

6. Wispa. The dairymilk bubbles is not the same!

So near yet so far...

I need to blog, because I will burst if I do not write or say outloud what I am feeling right now!
I don't think I can do this.
I have school tomorrow, and I am not ready. I haven't finished my planning. Well, I have all the planning done that I can do for this week, but it isnt very good. I don't have all my resources ready, I am scared of failing and worried and I know that my teacher is going to be really angry. She is fab and I don't want to disappoint her, or sell those kids short. I have tried, but I just get stuck. I am too disorganised. I am trying to use a different planning format using the weekly plan format. I don't feel like I am going to pass. Really. Ahrgh!
I miss my old tutor. I wish I had stayed for an individual session with my new tutor on Friday to tell him how I am feeling about this. I wish I hadnt spent 4 hours in the library photocopying resources which I probably wont use anyway. I wish I had phoned my class teacher to tell her how I was feeling and to see what she expects before now.
I am aimlessly wandering around on this planning. I need to go to bed and sleep, but I am worried and I feel I need to try and get something else done.
I have enjoyed very little of this half term, as I have spent most of it worrying. Why do I waste time like that?

I really want to do this well, but I keep screwing up. I keep wasting time. I keep spending hours looking for resources and not understanding what I am doing. I feel inadequate and a fraud for having been offered jobs when there are so many more people that could do a better job than me.

I feel like I am surviving on Grace alone...

*Sigh*

Seaside resources required sil vous plait!

Also, does anyone know any good songs to do with the seaside Obviously we have 'oh i do like to be beside the seaside!'. Anymore gratefully received!

Je deteste la Planning Anglais.

(Oooh tres exciting. Got another phone call from a head at a lovely school asking me if I had got a job yet? My goodness, being a musician really must be desirable for heads looking for NQT’s, am certain it has significantly less to do with my teaching ability. Am quite sure my class teacher is wondering why on earth I have got all these offers considering my terrible lessons so far… Anyone thinking of doing a PGCE, or looking for a job in teaching? Get learning an instrument now! Book a summer course, join a band/choir)

Decision made!

I actually received a third job offer from a school I know very well (the one I really wanted to teach at!) on Monday also, and though my Monday was manic and slightly confused because of trying to make a decision, I made it, and chose the third school!!!! I felt very sad about turning down the other two schools, as I think I would have been very happy at both (and the large school is an outstanding school with fantastic models of teaching) but I went with my heart, plus the fact I felt there is definitely potential for progression, and I know and like the school and I can walk there, but I don't live in the catchment area! Very happy! Very excited. But have to get through the next 7.5 weeks of teaching practice! Ahrgh!

Tomorrow I am going to teach my first numeracy lesson at school, and also my first KS1 guided reading. Should be interesting as my class are usually streamed into different classes for numeracy and literacy but aren't during my placement!!! Fear!!!!!!!!

Right, let me find those paracetamol that I need...

Seaside!!!!

*** CAN ANYONE RECOMMEND ANY GOOD BOOKS YOU READ AS A CHILD, OR HAVE SINCE READ ABOUT THE SEASIDE PLEASE?***

Please could you leave any suggestions in the comments box. Merci!

Teaching dilemmas...

I had an interview for a local authority pool on Friday. This is a thing where you get interviewed by some headteachers from the borough and based on this and their observations of you, you will either be recommended for teaching in the borough (and your details made available to all heads who are recruiting) or not. After what I felt was a rather disasterous interview with 2 lovely heads in the morning, I resigned myself rather pessimistically to being in the latter party. After all, I do feel a bit of a nightmare. But to my surprise, not one but two headteachers asked me if I would like to go and visit their schools with them. I was rather surprised but quite pleased (though a bit scared). So I went to the first one, a large 3-form entry school with a great music tradition, and enjoyed a school lunch with head and children, was shown around by the head and then had a short chat with the SMT. And after 5 mins, they called me back and offered me a job!! I asked for time to contemplate (I have till tomorrow, though I did ask if I could have until Tuesday). Then the Head dropped me to see the other school. And I had a look round, watched a fab class assembly, and after a 5-minute conversation, I was offered a job there as well! I liked both of them, and they seem to be well set up for supporting NQT's, but I dont really know what I should be looking for. There was a school that I really wanted to teach at, so I briefly went to see the Head there, to tell her my dilemma (and to remind her that I was interested in her school).
Now I dont know what to do. Which one do I accept? Do I accept either of them, or do I hold out for the school I originally liked, or do I like it because I know it and because they liked me? Do I take a chance and wait? I didn't really get a gut instinct thing at either of them, but then I did like them, and I hadnt seen a huge amount! What do I do? Am praying, but still as yet, not got an answer!

...Mud, mud, glorious mud

Lovely lovely weekend in the country was had!
However, why oh why do I never remember that camping in May will always result in coldness and rain. My rose-tinted glasses seem to be firmly attached to my eyes when packing for camping- I didnt pack that well! Was possibly the wettest and muddiest weekend I have ever had at camp, where it literally didnt stop all weekend. When I arrived, already drenched after a brief walk to Limehouse station laden like a donkey with camping gear and clothes (and school work), it was torrential. And I mean- psssssssssssssssssssssssh, it was relentless. There were several miserable looking people who had braved it. At this point, being somewhat of cheeky in nature, I thought, hmmmm, nope, I have no raincoat and only delicate shoes (what was I thinking!!!) so I hatched a plan...

...which was to put up my tent in the barn (well, I had 'happy' helpers who helped me do that). So there I was in the barn with said tent (the conductor looked at me, and didnt bat an eyelid) and then went off to eat dinner (yummy stuff) and lucky old me, just as I came out of dinner, the rain had stopped and with my kind assistant, we squeezed it through the door and pegged it down in the field. And just as I had hammered the last peg in, the rain started again. Nyaaaaaaa haa haaa!!!!!!! (sorry for the errant smugness, I just wanted to show-off share this wonderous insight into avoidance tactics for undesirable weather).

Despite the general shiveryness and coldness and not getting to enjoy walks in enchanted glades, it was truly a magical weekend. Aside from obvious things such as exquisite food provision and delightful company, I have wanted to play 1st flute in Mahler Symphony no.1 since I was 14. It was the first piece I ever played in a symphony orchestra on flute, and my first time at music camp, so it's kind of like I had come full circle and played the piece I most wanted to play. It was wonderful and I really enjoyed it. It's such a beautiful piece. I would recommend it! I have to say that I felt so wonderfully happy at the end of the performance, it's so fab to play a beautiful piece of music. I think my favourite Harry Potter quote certainly describes the feeling. Dumbledore says in the Philsopher's stone 'Music is a magic beyond all we do here...'
That was my last break before the freneticness of school experience. Here's to the next one!

I've just had another thought....

What about SUSAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!????
The Doctor's Grand-daughter, who he left on Earth after the Dalek invasion of Earth?????????????????????

"You are not alone..."

I cannot believe that Beeb are sacrificing Doctor Who for the sake of Eurovision! What is that about????? However, I really wanted to air my ponderings about the Face of Boe's final words to the Doctor. Who was he referring to? My friend Matt reckons it's the Dalek. I disagree, but then I haven't seen any of Doctor Who confidential.

Based on my knowledge of previous Timelords, I would suggest that it could possibly be the following:
The Master: The infamour renegade Timelord, last seen being swallowed by the Eye of Harmony in the TARDIS by Paul McGann's 8th Doctor. The TARDIS gave a sort of belch, and we presumed he was dead, but maybe he wasn't? He defied death several times. And he definitely wouldnt have gone to fight in the last time war, he was far too mean and selfish.

Romana: Tom Baker's 4th Doctor Companion, a fellow timelord, who was left at the Warrior's Gate in E-space with K-9 mark-2, after the High council of Gallifrey had ordered her back to Gallifrey and she didnt want to go. I didn't think she could get back from E-space, so did she go and fight in the Timewar, and would the Doctor be able to sense her if she was still in E-space. After all, we haven't heard anything about her. And there are clips of the Doctor getting married. Could this be a bid to restart the Timelord race?

The Meddling Monk: Don't know much about him except that he was also a renegade timelord, who I have heard mention of in various Doctor episodes, I think he was in Jon Pertwee's Doctor's death episode, Planet of the Spiders, but not sure.

The Rani: Another renegade timelord who I am sure is far too selfish and powermad to have fought in the Timewar. Last time we saw her was when she was hung up by the Tetraps in 'Time and the Rani' when she tried to doublecross them. Could it be her?

Rassilon: The greatest Timelord ever, who had eras, seals, rings, and rods, and coronet's named for him. He didn't seem to ever die, having stopped President Borusa's power-mad attempts in the 5-Doctors. He was the greatest timelord ever. And they say that Rassilon can never really die.

Captain Jack: he's not a timelord I'm sure, but he was a time-agent, and we know he crops up again.

I think I'd like it to be Romana. Even before the Face of Boe thing, I meant to write in to Russel T Grant and say "But what about Romana??? She might still be alive, but trapped in E-space still!!!". But, hehas genius tendencies, so it will probably shock us all!
I'd also like an episode where they explore the TARDIS. Am sure that the younger generation would like to see that. I really liked the episodes where they were in the TARDIS in the old series: The Invasion of Time, Inside the Spaceship, Castrovalva and the such like. Maybe the Master could make a reappearance in the TARDIS. That would be exciting!

Looking forward to revelations!

Must go to bed, got to finish all my work before Tuesday's coursework deadlines! Yuck!

Vworp, vworp, vworp...

Ok, so I was getting tired of not being able to comment on people's blogs, so I submitted to the Blog will and changed to Beta. I haven't changed anything though. Hmmmmm....

Since I am here, I may as well say something. "Something".



Ok, I'll behave.

Well, I have had a lovely week, not without surprises and events. Having been joyous over Welsherella's wonderful engagement news, which was a fantastic thing to happen, I received some own news of a similar ilk on Tuesday- my sister phoned me whilst I was in the Uni library (having forgotten to silence my phone) to the wrath of those in the computer room. She asked me if I would be a bridesmaid for her, to which I had to let out an ecstatic squeak at what she was insinuating, since anything else would have possibly got me chucked out. So my big sister is getting married! I am soo happy for her!

Anyway, so this has been something I have been happy about, and but then earlier tonight, my mother phoned me from her boyfriend's house to say that her boyfriend had actually also asked her to marry him last Monday, but they were only telling people now as they hadn't wanted to steal thunder!

So in the space of two days, both my mum and sister got engaged! And then there was one!

In other news, I started my new school placement on Thursday. Year 2, in a lovely class, fantastic class teacher mentor. She is very organised which I hope will be good influence on me! The school is vast compared to my last one. I read 'The Kangaroo who couldn't stop' to the class, successfully managing to make them last through appalling Australian and generally Germanic accents. Have only got around 7 names so far, they sit in different seats for everything and are streamed for Numeracy and Literacy, so I have got to sort that out!!! Hmmm, can' t think of anything else to say, except something which I'll post seperately...

From a Village Station

Here's a poem I wrote as I was preparing the classic poetry stuff for the kids for school experience- should have been doing planning at that point, but was inspired. Was reading 'The Night Mail' and 'From a train carriage ' and was inspired to try to have a go at creating that train rhythm effect. Finally got around to putting it up. Whatdaya think?

From a village station

To be read starting slowly building up speed over the first 6 lines. Start to slow down gradually 7 lines from the end.

There goes the train, starting her journey
Steam starts to blow as the coal starts burning.
Building momentum, she gradually speeds,
As along the tracks, she faster proceeds.
Trees and Houses becoming a blur
As the dragon so vast sends near grasses astir
Huffin’ and Puffin’ she chugs along
Eating up the whole line to be sure before long!
By village, by stream, by fields full of sheep
Past the farmers, their crops, by gorge so deep.
There town, there valley, past ribbon-like road-
Flies the steam-belching carriage, a-carrying her load
On and on pass the hours, why, where have they gone?
The sun has a-flown from where it once shone.
“Are we there yet?” A score of impatient hearts cry
As they vainly familiar sites try to spy.
When the brakes are applied, it’s a sure exclamation:
“We are soon to be there, to arrive at the station.”
As she rounds the curve, the trees become clear
The sites are familiar, ah home must be near!
Yes now we are slowing, the beast she tires
The coal is now spent, and the flame it expires
As we shudder to a halt, and arrive at our aim
Hence I bid goodbye to the stationary train.

By Kezzie

Cat in a Bucket?

Meet Katy

A weekend of bliss

Oh how nice it was not to do any planning this weekend! It was LOVELY! I read, I shopped, I had a leisurely lunch with friends, I watched my favorite film. I even found a little time to do some evaluation!!! A nice break before a week of essays!!! I felt HUMAN again! HURRAH!

Doctor Who?

So I have been watching some of Series 2 (10th Doctor) on DVD whilst eating my dinner (which was actually very nice- bit of an experiment- consisted of oodles of Thai Green paste, vegetable stock, brown sugar, tofu, broccili, courgette, carrot, and vermicelli vaguely copied from the tofu box idea based on what I had!)
Ages ago, Welsherella had a vote based on who's the best Doctor. I was not certain, but I stood in support of Paul McGann, who was pointed out as hardly counting as he had only had one TV outing (though many BBC novels, audio CDs and even a radio Show!). However, I have to say, I DO like David Tennant as the Doctor. He's got that lovely mix of vulnerability, insanity, humour, dangerous streak, and very cute!

One thing has puzzled me from the Series 2: In the episode 'The girl in the fireplace' with Madame Da Pompadour, I don't quite get the end. The Doctor speculates as to why the Clockwork robots chose to search through History for Madame da Pompadour's head to power their ship. At the end we see a camera span of the ship in space showing the name of the ship as 'Madame Pompadour II'. Now, I don't understand why. Are they showing that the reason is because the ship was named after her? If so, I feel this is a bit of a poor reason and rather an anticlimax after all the suspense of the mystery as to why they were after her.

If not (and I DO hope this is the case!) perhaps we haven't seen the last of Madame P- as she seemed to take to the idea of time travelling very easily. Perhaps SHE discovered a way of travelling through time, and the ship was something to do with her. Because we don't actually see her die or go- she is only seen going off in a coffin, and only on the word of the bereived King. She dies quite young.

Can't wait till the next series comes out! Now that LOST is only on Sky One (Big Boo hiss) there is little that I like on TV (though I do like Ugly Betty and Waterloo Road!)- Mind you, this is no bad thing!

The end is nigh

I think that Blogger is just about to hold me ransom for my blog. It bombarded me with something saying I had to change to Blogger Beta and said I could only skip this straight to dashboard once. What does this mean? Do I HAVE to change to Beta? I don't want to!!!!! I am happy with my old format!!!!
Hope I am wrong. I may post lots of meaningless waffly posts now just to make the most of it whilst I can....

Boo hiss, grumble grumble, whinge whinge, mutter, mutter....

Display!

One of our tasks was to create a display for our classroom. I puzzled over this for a while. Am not so good at doing large format arty things! Finally completed it today. Almost managed to display the whole class's work on one board. I went back to school to complete my guided reading task (as children were away...) which was actually great! We were writing a list of reasons why you shouldnt tell lies, based on what we had read in Matilda by Hilaire Beloc and our own thoughts, and every child wrote a page of reasons, and they said they really enjoyed the guided reading as it gave them lots of good ideas through the discussion. Wish I had had more opportunities to do Guided reading, as I can see the benefit very much! Hope I can write enough about it in my essay!

Anyway, so I went back to finalise the final touches to the display. It's not the world's most amazing display, but it's nice to have all the children's writing up, and I have now survived my first display (though to be fair, I didn't back the boards myself! Recycled the old backing!)
Here are ze photos. Whatdaya think?

The end of an experience

I finished at school today! This hopefully means no rising before 7 for a little while. Anyone who has ever talked to me on the subject knows my outspoken opinion on the issue of rising before 7am. It's wrong!!!!! 6am is the utter limit. Anything before that is unhealthy and to be avoided at all costs!

On the sad side, I am really sorry to be leaving such a wonderful school. It is truly a school that reminds me of how my primary school was- very cross-curricular and loads of musical opportunities.

To be honest, I find it really hard to stick to my planning. Take this morning for example- I was observed teaching science and maths. I was originally going to do science until 9.45 and then do Maths until 10.45. Somehow, technology went wrong, well my interactive whiteboard stubbornly refused to close the current flipchart (a word of advice I will add to a famous adage 'never work with animals, children, or computers') which threw me and my timing went completely out. Somehow I differentiated really badly for the written task, which was about pollination (had I stuck to my original ideas it would have been fine- but I had to go and get worried that I would be repeating something that they had done already)- what was I thinking of- it would have been hard for ADULTS to do. They got horrendously confused in some pupils' case, and so my science overran. Then I went into the maths task (having done my mental starter during registration) and initially introduced a song about how to work out fractions of numbers which I had made up the previous night (realising that it is very confusing and since these kids work best in a creative, musical way, that was the best way to get it in their heads). I sang it through to them once. They laughed! I then sang the first line again with actions (it has a clap and forming letters) and asked them to join in. True to form, they picked up that first line instantly. Then as I sang the second line- the tune went COMPLETELY out of my head, and I couldn't remember for the life of me what it did- and went ahrgh!!!! At that point, my class teacher mentor came in, as she'd heard us singing and excitedly wanted to join in. She and my School mentor (the maths coordinator- eek!) instantly saved me by saying to the class- "YOU make it up with your own tune and movements!" which they were very excited about. So they went off into groups and worked out fab things (as I put the words on the IWB) and came up with some great raps. It was then a competition as all of them performed asking for my awarding of 'best tune'. I then pacily got them to apply it to a couple of examples- WITH SUCCESS!!!!!!!!!!!!! Unfortunately it was then break time, so I didnt get an opportunity to see how they got on with their fraction word solutions (not word problems dahling- has negative connotations!). So once again, we did not get onto the work, completed in another of my lessons. However, she loved the idea of the song, so that was a positive, even if she thought it would have been better by them creating it!

After break, admittedly had a little scary moment as the adviser to a v. high profile MoP was looking around and stood looking into the classroom while I was attempting to teach non-chronological reports in English. The majority of children were still on their note-making
Anyone who goes into teaching- be warned- teaching non-chron reports is hard!!! Attempted to cater for my EAL pupils by giving them a sheet showing them how to structure their writing, with an opening sentence for each sub-heading, but the majority of them didnt actually get onto it- still making notes! Grrrr...

After lunch, it was straight to the music room to do our writing of pieces about the sea. We listened to the first of the sea interludes from Peter Grimes by Benjamin Britten (Listen hereto Track 21). What an awesome composer, and this particular piece is amazing. The kids liked it and gave me some fantastic descriptions of what they could hear as they listened to it. To be honest- I don't think my composition project has been a huge success. Trouble in the group work was- it was just too loud to hear anything and I found it hard to actually make suggestions as they were composing, and move their learning on vastly. We went through a checklist for things they COULD use when composing, and they have composed 4 different pieces over the 4 weeks (experimenting). I hope that at least they have enjoyed having an opportunity to compose their own pieces over the last couple of weeks. It certainly gives me a lot to reflect on in my essay... It didn't go 100% though, as there was an argument between 2 girls over a violin...

Then we had assembly, and Jen and I, the other student were asked to come to the front and our school mentor thanked us and said that we were really part of the team now. Then our kids came and gave us a pile of cards, and our teachers gave us presents! I didn't expect a present from my class mentor!
As assembly ended, a large crowd of the girls came up and all hugged me saying 'Don't go!'. We went back to the classroom and I gave them cupcakes and a pencil rubber each. Then I asked them if they wanted to hear some flute, and I played them some Bach (about 10 seconds), then played The great train race and then Zoomtube (which considering I haven't played for at least a year!) which they loved, all bopping in time to the music. Then something very sweet and unexpected happened. One of the girls, a very sweet little girl, came up and gave me a bag of presents and asked if she could read the letter she had written to the class. She had written a letter saying how much she'd miss me and what a nice teacher I was. And then she cried- I was like 'ahhhhhh'. Then they all said nice things to me, what they had liked best and got many hugs from them as they went. One of the children asked me for my e-mail address so he could send me a copy of his completed non-chron report, which I was like 'Hmmmm, don't know if I should do that', but no-one was around to ask, so I wrote it down, hoping for the best. Then, mother of aforementioned girl came in and told me that the child really really liked me and was really upset I was going, and she doesn't usually become attached to people. Which was surprising really, as I am constantly telling her off for not having done anything (admittedly not in harsh way, usually directing her attention back on task when she drifts...). She then told me the reason she was late this morning was that she really wanted to get me a present and write the letter, so she did. (very lovely too- some beautiful picture frames and some BeneFit perfume). Then, as I was preparing to do some clearing up, the mother of another child popped back and asked if he could have my e-mail as he was crying in the playground because I was going. My teacher was there and so didn't say anything as she asked, so I presumed it was ok.

After that, I had a brief chat with my teacher, and my school mentor bought me a present in!

I had a look at the beautiful selection of cards the children had made me. One of the sweetest things was a poster of Rose and the Doctor on a motorbike (Doctor Who) which the girls had mounted onto a piece of paper and decorated with tissue paper flowers around the edge. They got the impression I like Doctor Who (well I have talked to them about it, and written Word solutions about Daleks in an army and Doctor Who books) and had responded accordingly. Then another child had made me a beautiful card with a lovely poem which made great use of simile (which I had done with them). Sooo lovely!

After school wasn't so fun. Realising I had a lot of marking to catch up on, masses of paper to gather, samples of work to copy, and my display to complete!!!! Eeek, it took soooooo long! And even now, the movable element (concertina cards with stories on them) are not completed, but I have to go back on Monday to do some Guided reading with my focus children (for English assignment- children from the group have been intermittently away...) and at some point, collect my 20 or so books about animals (used for non-chron reports) so I will need to complete it then! I also need to complete my marking... AHRGH!!!!

Despite the stress I have caused myself by my disorganisation and worrying, it has been a great school experience- I have learnt a lot.

(oooooh, this is way too long a blog- anyone still with me?)

Now is the weekend- I shall endeavour to complete my folder, and I might even take a swim!

Hurrah!

hmmmmmmmm

Oh dear! Am supposed to be doing a lesson plan....

Your Dominant Intelligence is Musical Intelligence

Every part of your life has a beat, and you're often tapping your fingers or toes. You enjoy sounds of all types, but you also find sound can distract you at the wrong time. You are probably a gifted musician of some sort - even if you haven't realized it. Also a music lover, you tend to appreciate artists of all kinds. You would make a great musician, disc jockey, singer, or composer.

What Kind of Intelligence Do You Have?

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!

Only 2 days..
Nur zwei Tag
Hanya dua Hari

I cannot believe there are only two days of School experience left. I have soo much left to do!

Before I started this course, lots of people would say to me, 'But you get so many holidays', and they still do, and 'Lucky teachers'. Teachers before that said, 'You need them'. I always believed and respected them for that.
Yet, I knew not exactly what they meant until this week. We are sooooooo ready for half term at school. Everyone- staff and kids are flagging and quite exhausted. There are sniffs, coughs,sneezes and (horror of horrors) nits... Thank God for half-term!

Admittedly, my 'half-term' will be spent writing essays (9000 words which is due on 23/2 and then an additional 8000 to start which is due on 31/3 and the irritating Pedagogy task...), but it will be in the comfort of my own home- with that beautiful and wonderful invention- The DUVET!

Survived my first real really practical experiment today! Setting up an experiment to test conditions needed for Germination. We are only testing one variable at the moment!

Tomorrow is a bit scary- I have to put up my display, which is going to be a feature of our Story-box stories. Rather than just displaying a couple of completed stories, I have got them to select their 'best paragraph' for display and I will put them up in an interesting fashion I hope!

Tomorrow, I have decided to scrap what I was going to do with maths and instead do word problems involving fractions and decimals! I'm writing them about the class, in a bid to get them comfortable with both elements (will also help my essay!).

Wish me luck- it's the final lesson of my music composition project- about which I have to write 5000 words! Interethting....

If I were King of the forest?

I'm being observed by my school mentor tomorrow to teach maths AND science in an 1 hr and 45 min slot. This will be a challenge.
a) she is the maths coordinator
b) I taught a DISASTROUS maths lesson this morning where the Higher ability got completely lost
c) timing is my bugbear, aside from 3 lessons today, I can't seem to stick to the limit!
d) not quite sure what we are doing in science yet. Well, Germination, but am still unsure of how we'll go about this experiment. However, I have cups, kitchen roll and hopefully some seed. (In a cupboard somewhere, I hope). Ho hum.
e) for above reason I will not be going to bed for a while and will be tres fatigued.

This week has been quite nice by comparison to other weeks. I had an observation from my uni mentor on Monday which went quite well, and she seems to think I have the class management thing under control. I beg to differ at times (she hasn't seen me when they are being horrid), but it's nice. I will hopefully have taught every subject of the curriculum this week, except for History which we don't do this term at my school and PE which I use the time to do my music project in. I will not go into the music project- can of worms! What was I thinking, getting 29 children to make sounds using sheets of paper, including tearing! And horror of horrors- my teacher observed me on it! Oh, I said I wasn't going to go into it- blauggh!
Wednesday was a nice sojourn into college for review of school experience and the recruitment fair. Despite earlier uncertainty, I persuaded myself to get recruitment packs for 4 London boroughs, and Suffolk!!!

Right, must go back to the slog...

Ooooh, I marked 16 literacy books this evening- my oh my it takes a long time- but I like doing it!

Big hugs and smiles of sympathy to all of you who are busy this week! Especial hugs to those with deadlines of the academic type!

Here's to the wonderful W word- Weekends!

I can't believe that Friday has come round again, thank the Lord, and it's so nice not to contemplate getting up at 6.35 (well, at least my alarm going off at that time- the first one anyway) today!

It's been quite a nice week all in all- God has eased me into my school experience, with only having to teach some of the time because of maths week events, which is such a relief, as I am sure it would have been a lot scarier otherwise. The planning is still quite hard and is taking a while. However, I am feeling a lot more positive at this point. My teacher was right- she said I had to get my confidence back, and she has been incredibly supportive this week, encouraging me, and helping me if I got stuck. Literacy got easier as the week went on- a lot of the children found classic poetry quite difficult to grasp, but as they got used to it, and tried writing their own, it somehow became easier. I did make several faux pas though. I suspect, I will really start to get on well with it, just before I have to go back to college (and do the horrid essays- yuck!) I have two weeks left, and an observation on Monday- I am going to be doing story boxes with the children on Monday as a way in to story structure, bit of a gamble, as I havent tried it yet- or planned it yet, but the school wanted every teacher to try it with their class before the next staff meeting which is Tuesday, and I would like to try it as I think it is a really good approach to structure, especially for EAL children, as it is visually and orally based, good for certain learning styles.

I have discovered, that I like marking! I wish I had spent the afternoon (when I was just mostly in watching the maths quiz) marking all the science and literacy books, as it would have been good to get it done and I would have done something more useful than observing.

Interesting music lesson earlier- it didnt quite go as planned- but I managed to get the class all humming random notes like sirens. I thought it sounded beautiful though I dont think they appreciated it! We didn't get on to spending a large amount of time on our vocal pieces, nor did we have time to review them, which was the important part, but I am hoping that I will have much food for thought for my music specialism essay. It's quite a hard thing to 'teach' composition to 9-10 year olds- not least, trying to get them to stop the squabbles and egoitism over their ideas, it's important for them to learn to be able relinquish their ideas.

To be honest, I will be quite glad to teach some 'normal' maths as opposed to the maths week stuff, and to try and get back to the normal timetable. I am teaching fractions and decimals this week, so think I may come across some misconceptions. We have a school experience review day on Wednesday back at college, which will be an interesting experience, though I am very sad to be missing yet another of my class's music lessons: I will only have been in 2 of my class's proper lessons over the two experiences, and the music teacher is such a great inspiration and I wanted to learn more... Here's hoping summer placement has a great music teacher like her- or I will end up at one of her other schools!

Anyway, I intended to get some work done tonight, which I haven't really, but am going to go off to bed so I can get up early(ish) to get a headstart with all the planning milarkey.

Oh, I chose the homework tasks for the kids this weekend- Task 2, is to record all the water usage in their house for 4 days in a nice table (for Geography), and Task 1 is:

THE NUMBER TWO HUNDRED

See how many new words you can find in the phrase above (cunning literacy and tenuous numeracy link). No repetitions of letters allowed and only standard English dictionary words allowed. Any one want to have a go and this and see how many words you can find- I think I found about 40ish thus far.

Kezzie's blog smile of the week award goes to Welsherella for making me smile as per usual- happy pink fluffy flowery blogs- hurrah!

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeekend!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooray!!!!!!!

It's so nice to think that I don't have to get up at some unearthly hour tomorrow!!! Admittedly, I have a rather immense amount of planning to do, and some evaluation and write-ups, but fandabidobilously more sleep!!!

Am just watching Ugly Betty for the first time. I'm really liking it so far. It's horrid to see how shallow and unkind people can be but I'm sure and hoping that it'll be a Cinderella story!
I also did something I decided never to do again two years ago. I feel quite ashamed. I watched Big Brother. I'm not one to comment on things in the media, because I tend to avoid the media like the plague. However, it's been hard to avoid the whole 'Jade' situation that has been going on. I couldn't possibly comment on the whole racist situation because I haven't been watching it, though I've read about it, but I do feel that she is perhaps a prime example of the young British 'do now, think later and not think of the consequences' girl? In a time when people want the here and now, people really do not think about the consequences of their actions and will just lose it and say hurtful things and do not take the time to try to control their initial impulses and emotions and just go for it. It's a hard thing to do, but I do feel it's a very important thing to learn. I know I too like most of us, can be horrible, unkind, selfish and awful in many many ways- and because I know that, therefore I can be changed, and change- but it is a conscious decision. I feel sorry for Jade, especially when she started to think about her previous actions. I really hope that she can learn something from this situation and hope that things turn out fine for everyone.

On a lighter note, I intend to try and get lots of my planning done tomorrow, which will make me feel much better about next week. If I am a good girl, I will go down to the charity shops down the road to see if I can find any cool board games! I was very pleased last week as I found the 'London Game' which I played at Rach's house at one shop, and I hope to find Pictionary somewhere!!!! I can't wait till the Easter holidays when I can play some games!

...and all I ask is a tall ship, and a star to steer her by

Hello! It's almost a week through Spring term school experience. I am really rather tired!!! It's been an interesting week, with doing cross phase in different classes. I have decided that nursery isn't quite as scary as I first thought, and Reception can be absolutely lovely! I have seen a variety of different music classes, which has been interesting. It did however feel quite uncomfortable going back to my own class after not being with them. I taught music and art today, despite feeling rather yuck! Music is a special class I am doing for my project for my assignment, except that I wanted to do a composition project about the sea, to see how I could get them to consider their composing process more. Except they did the sea last year. We are still doing it, but I am unsure of how it will move their learning on. Maybe I should swap to doing a gamelan project for the last three weeks? At least I know they haven't done that. It was a bit manic with 30 children in a small room composing pieces- it was manic and the kids were CRAZY as they had been all day because of the wind and weather. They created some beautiful pieces, and I was impressed considering the aural carnage that was going on in that room at times!!! I thought music was the one subject that I would find easier to teach, but I guess I was wrong.
Art was equally manic- we were looking at containers, and of course they were being pedantic about detail- though it was good for them to think about containers- and I hope when we do something practical, they might be a bit better behaved.

In maths this morning I was working with a small group who didn't get ordering negative numbers. It was so sad- at first two boys who didn't get it, really got it when I told them to think about a thermometer, and one went on to do most of them right. Until we got to negative fractions. And then all went wrong- two very hard concepts to get hold of- combined! They did NOT get it!!! We tried number lines, we tried talking about mirrors, we tried the thermometer approach- I am going make a big thermometer to go on the wall at the weekend if I can!!!

Next week is Maths week! Which means a lovely disrupted timetable as usual! Aren't I lucky! However, the maths coordinator is a GENIOUS! It's such an inspired idea, to get them enthused about maths- we've got all sorts of fun challenges happening, and in our classes, we are going to be doing investigative work. And each class is studying a number for the week. I have 200. Which frankly, ISN'T the most interesting number in the world- I'd prefer 1000! But I now know that the Mayan civilisation or something or other started in the year 200! We are going to make a number bonds tree on Monday morning. I am going to get them to write sums on leaves and string them up on a fake tree! Which frankly will take a while to do. But it's an idea at least!!

I am still feeling very uncertain about this still. I really feel that I don't feel I will be able to do this in September. But I am going to see how next 3 weeks go and then see what happens. I will try my hardest to really teach them in the best way I can and see what happens. If you are in the habit of praying, please pray for guidance for me to know clearly either way, whether I should continue along this path. Oh, and that I get loads done this weekend!!!

I feel like this blog's become a big moan-fest! But I just wanted to write somewhere. The deepening gloom that was threatening to overtake me last week has manifested itself in a feeling of deep misery. I have spent every lecture and every look at a text book and every glance at my School Experience Guide feeling absolutely overwhelmed and unsure of ever being able to do this. Surely that isn't right. I know that everyone is feeling horrid about the course at the moment, especially after the bliss of Christmas Holiday. I just don't seem to be able to snap out of it. Yesterday I meant to come home and do work, do reading, prepare for school experience etc. But after dinner, after talking to a friend to did the course 2 years ago on the phone about the English assignment, I just did not know what to do, and read my school experience guide which was horrendous and looking through my directed tasks from last term made me realise that I had not done half of them. Mid-term planning has been hard, working out how to do containers with Year 5, trying to research for my essays. So I got nothing done last night. Even my specialism music day today filled me with fear at my assignment. My tutor is right when she says I need to get some confidence, believe I can do it and stop worrying, and I know that I should, but when I feel everything is telling me I can't do it, I just despair. I can't even think of original engaging activities for my planning.

However, I do realise, that it is a very small thing, it is not a life and death situation, it is just I am not coping with thng very well and a little perspective is important. But oh how sweet the sound of giving it up sounds!

A compliment for Saturday Morning...

I went to the local library this morning to take out some books for my class for when we write our non-chronological reports on animals, and also books on places of worship and the water cycle for RE and Geography respectively. As I took the large pile up to the issue desk, the 'rather youngish' looking girl behind the counter asked me, in a very kindly and caring way:
'You must be doing a school project with all these books?'. I remarked sort of, saying that I am a trainee Primary school teacher at which point she looked horrified and apologised profusely for thinking I was at school, saying 'But you look so young!'. At this point, I was highly amused and quite pleased! How old did she think I was*?

(*This reminded me that one of the girls in my class thought I was 18 when I first came into school.)

2 days left...

....As Friday, my first day back looms, I am filled with a sense of dread and foreboding. I have been unsuccessfully trying to do my mid-term planning for the next four weeks at school and quite simply failing miserably! I have loads of material my teacher has given me, and yet I just don't know how to implement it, what to do.

I also have 2 3000 essays to write. They are on Maths and English. I have done Professional Issues and most of Science (well still got a lot to write, but am already over the word limit-oops). If only I could keep my new years resolution about not getting worried and putting things off because I am scared of them... It's ridiculous, I am 25!!!!

If anyone ever randomly reads this who is doing a PGCE, bear in mind, your emotions go up and down every day, and it can be quite scary, though I am trying to remember it can also be fantastic! Can I be honest and say how sweet the thought of giving it up is, but I don't want to do that...

Am sorry if this is depressing. Want to vent somewhere on something that wont get ratty with me!!!!!!!!!!!!!