Broken Links Link

Apologies - My BlogRoll has developed a glitch in the past few days, which means that the ** (updated) marks are not appearing.
I've changed it, so that the updated blogs move to the top of the list, but it's not working at the moment. I don't have done all I can, but it seems to be an issue with BlogRoll itself.
(Blogs that do not have Weblogs enabled - Xanga, MySpace & LiveJournal - are now listed separately further down).

God bless!


EDIT:
The mystery seems to have been solved here. The culprit? Splogging!

Coast to Carols

This last week has been fairly busy as these things go...

Wednesday, my alarm went off at 5:45am, as I was being picked up to go visit my new school (46 miles away) at 6:30! Not nice. We'd left about 2 hours to do a journey that AA Route Planner said would take 1hr15. Should've been fine, right? Wrong. A combination of unfamiliar roads, the dark and me thinking that 'Take the 3rd exit at the roundabout' means 'Turn left', meant that we were about 20 mins late. Didn't seem to be too much of a problem in the end though. :o)
I met my new class. I'm in the Nursery class ["Foundation 1"], meaning 3 & 4 year olds, which should be quite fun. The kids are lively and I can see it being a definite enlightening experience. Generally, I'm quite looking forward to it, though. :o)


Since then, I've been catching up on sleep (a little bit), cleaning some of the house for the end of term, packing my life into containers for the 13th consecutive end-of-term, and lugging it on and off of trains.
I came home yesterday with a medium-size trolley case, holdall, laptop and backpack - I somehow managed to arrange things so that I had a spare hand for my ticket! Took the train to York, had an extended lunch-break there with Michael, and then caught a train to Stevenage where M&D picked me up (which was nice of them!).

Today has been the Christingle service this morning and Carol service tonight. For those of you who don't know what a Christingle is, it looks like this:

and all the bits represent different things...
The Orange is the World, the Red ribbon is Jesus' blood and the candle is the 'Light of the World'. The rest depends on who you ask... the four points are the 4 seasons or the 4 compass points and the sweets/raisins represent the Fruits of the Spirit or God's gifts to us (harvest). This site gives a bit more about the history. So in my church, all the children go out and make one and then they process back in with them lit later in the service... yes, we do indeed have 20-30 children stand close together holding lit candles! Nerve-wracking, but a really beautiful sight nevertheless.

Really need to go present shopping this week, as I've bought half a present so far, out of the 8 or so I have to buy. Hmm.

Oh well, nothing much else to say, so I think I'll go back to the jigsaw that I've been working on for about 2 years and see if I can get any more done. :o)

/out/

Update on my world...

Just to say I passed my essay with 61%

And I have somewhere confirmed to live when I'm on placement next term in Hull.

Yay!

Feeling Out of Placement

Is it really almost a month since I last posted?! Wow, it seems less than that.

Since then, I have taught 35-ish lessons (planned & evaluated), written 3 weekly evaluations... oh, this is boring. Basically, I now have a file that is nearly 2 inches thick, full of paper.
And I am tired!

I finished placement last Thursday, and had a tutorial with my supervisor, before catching a train to York to see Michael. Friday night, we cooked Corned Beef Hash, which was delicious and I'm not sure I've had since I was about 8. *yum!*
Saturday, we went to see 'Pipe Dreams' by the Riding Lights Theatre Company. They are a Christian group and the play/performance was all about the privatisation of water and some of the underhand things that different companies around the world are doing with regard to water supplies. It was very good and enjoyable.
Then we went to Evensong at York Minster and dinner at Gert & Henry's. So all in all, a lovely day.

The weekend before, Chris came up to North Yorkshire to visit us, which was very nice indeed. Friday night he stayed with Michael and then on Saturday, I joined them in the morning and we spent the day attempting to Christmas shop in York. Now, I didn't know until I was on the train there, but it was St.Nick's market that weekend, which basically meant, you could not move in the main street faster than a casual crawl. It was sooo busy! Managed to get most of what we were looking for, and I also found a wonderful shop that sells teaching resources ("I am not a teaching geek, I am not a teaching geek,...") but I think it was magic because when I tried to find it again, I couldn't. :o(
Saturday night, C & M came back to mine where I cooked steak & chips for them and a good eating & singing time was had by all.
Sunday was church (where C & M are now famous for being loud, good singers!) followed by a walk down to the beach, homecooked Thai Green curry and then they headed into town and then back to York/Reading, while I did more planning.
All in all, a good weekend!

Oh, I've found out where my next placement is...
Newington Primary, in Hull! I'm going to have to move there, as it's ~45 miles and it's impossible to get there by public transport for 8:30am from here. The OfStEd report (Oct 2006)describes it as "This average-sized primary school serves an area of social deprivation in Hull. A high proportion of pupils leave or enter the school part way through their education. The percentage of pupils claiming free school meals is much higher than average. When children enter the Nursery, their skills level is well below that usually seen. There is a higher proportion of pupils with learning difficulties and/or disabilities than in most schools.
Most pupils come from White British backgrounds and the school caters for a small number of traveller children. A few pupils of Eastern European heritage are at an early stage of learning English as an additional language. The school has experienced some staffing turbulence in recent years. At the time of the inspection, an acting headteacher and acting deputy headteacher were in post."
I'm in the Foundation Stage (Nursery & Reception). Should be fun. :o)

Anyway, less than 2 weeks until I go home for Christmas. Can't wait! However, for now I have plenty to do, so I'd better go.

God bless! xxx

An afternoon in the life of a Reception class teacher

The following all happened this afternoon, during a cut 'n' stick activity:

1. A child had lost their worksheet
2. Several children decided to see what Pritt sticks smell like
3. A number of children spontaneously started singing 'Baa Baa, Black Sheep'
4. A child had 2 worksheets (see no.1)
5. A child sneezed (big time!) and then just dropped the tissue open on the table
6. A child was talking animatedly while holding scissors
7. and finally, a child was eating the leftover paper.

Now, just to clarify, these are not things that are unique to this school/class, nor are they common occurrences here. However, today there must have been something in the water...!

Right, off to write more plans/evaluations/observations...

Submissive Play

Ok, well, since I last posted I have slept (a bit), eaten (a reasonable amount), gone to lectures (quite a lot) and written an essay (every other available minute!).

The essay was on the status and value of play in education. A topic which, until about 2 weeks ago, I knew precious little about. However, I had to write 4,000 words on it, so I needed to find out something. So I read. A lot! (& please can someone thank Denise for lending me all those books - they were a God-send... probably literally!). And stuck in many post-its in a teetering pile of books. And wrote, and quoted, and paraphrased, and summarised. And FINISHED!!
Thus, on Friday, I submitted my first ever essay, which stood at 4,353 words by the end (we could be 10% either way).

And yes, I did say my first ever essay - even my final project was only ~4,800! I did a BSc, which seems to put me very much in the minority on this course. I know of a couple of others who did Business, Environmental Sciences or Food Sciences. However, in general, most people seem to have English or Early Childhood Studies (or similar) degrees. Hence why we are being set 4,000 word essays (marked at Masters level), but being taught how to multiply fractions. Oh well.

Anyway, Michael's been down this weekend, but we've spent most of the time writing lesson plans & sorting out folders of observation proformas, as we're both on placement this week. I'm in school for the next 4 weeks, and he's in this week & then one day a week until Christmas.
I'm a little nervous about going on placement, as it means I have to actually teach. Yes, I know, I know, that is what I'm here for... but I'm still rather nervous about being in front of 26 kids and teaching them something they've never done before. Well, there's something quite exciting about that too, but definitely scary! This week, we're teaching them about nocturnal animals, reinforcing the concepts of '1 more' and '1 less' and on Wednesday, I'm introducing '/r/' (i.e. the sound made by 'r', as in 'rabbit').

So, I'd better go and hunt for some pictures of nocturnal animals and have a think about how to explain 'nocturnal' to 3 & 4 year olds! Hope all is well in the rest of the world.

God bless!

Update of the Month

Well, I've been here a month and things seem to be going well. Life has been absurdly busy and the course is frantic, but I'm getting the hang of it.

The timetable for most days is 9:00am-4:15pm, with two 15mins breaks and 45mins for lunch. Mondays & Fridays are mostly Core Curriculum - Mondays are English (am) & Science (pm), and Fridays is Maths (am) & Early Years Education (pm). The other 3 days are mostly random, but are usually sessions on teaching techniques (planning, assessment, observation, etc), on assignments or on other subject areas (ICT, PE, RE, History, Geography, Art, Drama, etc).

I have been on a few placement visit days so far. The school is nice. Really small though (a class for every 2 year groups), which is taking a bit of getting used to. The whole school only has 4 classes! As I said before, the school is Roman Catholic, which is really nice. The children say prayers first thing in the morning, just before hometime and also say grace all together in the dinner hall at lunchtime. Have you ever been in a class, and a 4yr old child comes up to you and announces "We're playing 'Going to church'."? The whole ethos in the school is lovely and the older children (Yr5/6) look after the younger children really well. The placement is paired and my partner is called Sarah (one of 6 Sarahs out of 60 students on the PGCE course) and she's also a Christian - Pentecostal (at home)/Baptist (here) - which has been really nice too.

So far, on placement we've observed several lessons, as well as working with some of the kids. We also had to carry out a task for science, trying to find out the children's understanding of what constitutes a "living thing". We made a set of cards with a selection of pictures on them - cat, dog, bird, tree, flower, baby, rock, table, coat, bed, ... - and asked them to place them in two hoops, depending on whether it was alive or not alive. This led to a few interesting comments...

• Tables are living because they have legs.
• Kettles are living because they need water (& make noises)
• Babies eat, drink... and have dummies.

We have to plan a story session and also a music & a PE session each, plus a detailed observation/study of one child. Those don't sound too daunting at the moment.

Apart from lectures & placement, I haven't been up to much, tbh. I've seen Michael most weekends, which has been nice. 2 weeks ago & this weekend just gone, I went to see him in York, and the weekend in between he came here to Scarborough. It's been lovely to see him so often and it's helped provide a good break in what is a pretty frantic course. This weekend he's singing in Derby Cathedral instead, though, with Northern Cathedral Singers, and I'm staying in Scarborough and writing an essay. I have a 4,000 word essay on the importance of play in education for next Friday (3rd Nov) - oh joy! A bit nervous about that, but it should be fine... I think. :oS

So... I'm exhausted, but enjoying myself. Earlier today I wasn't feeling too well and I think I'm going down with something, but I'm feeling much better now. I'll be going to bed shortly, though, and I'm pretty glad I've got most of tomorrow off - I only have to be in between 9 & 11am. :o)
I'll try to update a little more often... God bless!


PS. I tried to update this last night, but it wouldn't publish.

It ain't grim up north!

Well, I'm here!
After ~5.5hrs on the road, including a stop for coffee & a lovely lunch at The Poacher's Barn pub in Osgodby, we got to my new house.


My new housemates (Kirsty, Kaye & Amy) are lovely and friendly. There's a lot of pink/sparkly stuff around, but I can cope with that!
The house is nice too, with lots of space. The kitchen's got loads of cupboards, but the freezer's pretty small, which could cause a few problems, but so far it's been ok.
At the moment, I'm sitting in the armchair by the window...


I've had a few issues with the "accent-barrier" so far, but I've met lots of nice people on my course and everyone's very friendly. In some ways, this place seems like another country/planet

I spent Saturday evening getting unpacked, etc. and on the Sunday, Michael came over and we went for a very nice (& cheap!) carvery lunch in the Leeds Hotel to celebrate 6 months together and then went for an exploratory wander around Scarborough.

Since then, I've been on campus everyday. Monday was intro lectures, etc. in the morning and registration in the afternoon (1.5 hours in the queue!). Tuesday was introduction to placement procedures & admin stuff, plus an ICT (computers) induction, followed by an introduction to the play workshop that we're now doing until Fri morning. It's a group presentation based on/following on from the book "Bear's Adventure". I'm working on an activity book as a follow on activity, with textured pages, lift-the-flap bits and velcro stick-on bits! I've spent the afternoon cutting out shapes and painting simple pictures of beach stuff (red bucket, green spade, purple ball, yellow sun, blue towel...). So, yeah, so far it's been loads of fun.

I start on placement on Nov 8th, although I have a few visits before. I found out today that my first placement is in St George's RC Primary. On a direct bus route from the stop that I can virtually reach whilst still touching our front gate! Not bad. :o)

Anyway, I ought to go to get some dinner. Kirsty & Amy are going to Scarborough Fair tonight (yes, really!), and I might go with them. I do have to be on campus at 9am again though... Not sure. Mince & beans on jacket potato for tea. :o)

Hope all is going well in the rest of the world!

Off to the seaside...

I've been on school placement for the past 2.5 weeks, shadowing teachers at Wheatfields Infant School. I've spent time in Reception, Year 1 & Year 2 (ages 4-7), plus an afternoon in the nursery. It's been a bit stressful and hard work, but I've really enjoyed it and I do think I've made the right choice doing this course/job. There have been cute moments ("It's ok 'A', I'll look after you" - said by 4yr-old when child was crying when his mum left), difficult/frustrating moments (6yr-old having a tantrum and refusing to do anything), amusing moments (tail is now spelt 'tayow' and one child had visited Scarborough when she went on holiday to Devon!?), rewarding moments (child 'getting' adding for the first time) and times when I've felt really good about something that's happened (I've given out 2 stickers over my time there to kids who'd been working reeeally hard - and they looked so proud). :o)

But now I'm done. Tomorrow morning, I (once again!) have to pack my life into boxes, load it all into the car and move it all into a new place. I've posted pictures of my room already. I have 3 housemates; all girls and all education undergrads (I think). I'm feeling quite nervous, but it should be ok. And I should get to see Michael on Sunday, for the first time in a month (woot!). :o)
The house has wireless broadband, so I should be online some of the time, but I'm in lectures 9am-4:15pm every day, and when I'm on placement I'll be busy even more. I'll try and keep this updated quite regularly, and i'll try to put some things on Hat Mitre when I can.

My stuff needs to be in the car between 8:30 & 9:00 tomorrow morning, so we can be in Scarborough for lunch. M&D have arranged to hire a car so that they can both come up and see where I'm going to be, etc, as I couldn't get all my stuff in either of their cars and still have 3 seats available. And on that note, I better go and start packing!

/out/

Filing & Teaching Practice

Last week, I spent an absurd amount of time attempting to sort out my bedroom as it was starting to overflow with stuff that I'd just never got around to throwing away. I've filled a crate & a binbag with paper & other rubbish respectively. Included in that is my 2002 UCAS directory and June 2003 bus timetables!
I've rejigged my room a bit, and I even found my desk! :o) The main prompt for this was that I had never really unpacked after moving back from Reading and given how small my room is going to be this year, I need to work out exactly what I need and not take any extra! So far, it seems to be going well. :o)

Since Thursday, I've been on teacher shadowing placement at my old primary school, as I have to have 10 days experience in Foundation Stage & Key Stage 1. I've been in Reception in the mornings (nearly 5 years old), but they go home around lunchtimes, so I've been in Year 1's in the afternoons. I've supervised painting, ICT (computers), playdough, numeracy and several other things too. And it's been a lot of fun and I'm really rather looking forward to starting my course now. Plus, Michael's & Chris' pre-course placements seem to be going well too, so all is good there as well. Woot! :o)