My past month...

Well, I did pass my PGCE. So I'm now a qualified teacher. Yeep! That's a little bit scary. And before you ask, no, I don't have a job yet. If anyone knows of a school near York wanting an Infant Teacher, please let me know. ;-)

Other than that, I've spent the past month covering across significant distances across the country, largely by train. Between June 29th and July 28th, I will have travelled 2,167.9 miles (according to Google Maps).

This includes Dave & Marie's wedding (pic taken at CU Ball last year),

Chris & Rebecca's Wedding

Dave & Zoe's Wedding
(Don't have any pictures)
Tim's graduation
(Don't have any pictures)

Also, I will be helping at holiday clubs in Macclesfield and York, as well as attending Sam & Rosie's Wedding.

I have got to learn to drive!

Just to say that, barring throwing a child out of a window or something,...

I HAVE PASSED MY PGCE!!!

Where did May go?

Last time I looked, it was April. May has disappeared and now it's June. Yeep!

Well, this week was half term and I've done a fair bit of work and a reasonable amount of sleeping. It's been rather nice. I've written half term plans, weekly evaluations for the past three weeks (backdated - shhh!). I've been shopping a few times. And tried to figure out where I have to be when at the end of June and throughout July. It is a complicated process, including finishing school placement, going to 4 weddings in 4 different places in the space of 5 weekends, helping out at a holiday club in Macclesfield for a week, plus perhaps finding a job and maybe even a flat. Oh, and eating/sleeping/etc, might feature in there somewhere. Maybe.

In other news, my old laptop has been gradually going senile over the past couple of months and finally got to the point where it would not reliably charge or indeed stay on, it was getting slower by the day and various other features were falling by the wayside. So, I used some of my TDA bursary and bought myself a shiny new one (Dell Inspiron 640m). After a few hiccups, it has arrived and I've just about installed everything that I need at the moment. It's very shiny and light. It's also got Windows Vista, which is proving fun now I've got used to it. Still need to get a few things (photos, music, etc) off the old one, but I'll do that when I've received the replacement for the faulty (2 month old) power cable that I've sent back, when the old laptop might stay on for more than 10 minutes. When I've done that, I will set about 'refurbishing' it so that it's in a fit state to pass on. :o)

Anyway, ought to get back to work. Lesson plans don't write themselves, ya know. Nor do formative assessment records, schemes of work, task analyses, ...

I'm hiding...

from my lesson plans! (I've got 2 to write for tomorrow, plus 4 to write evaluations for from Friday and today).

I've been on placement for a week now. It seems to be going well. I've got used to the class, learned their names, and mostly figured out what happens when. There are only 21 of them, which is nice, although a couple of them are quite capable of making it feel like a fair few more than that!
I've taught a few activities this past week, including teaching Year 1 (age 5-6) to subtract by counting back and to recognise & name 3-D shapes from pictures, plus teaching the whole class about symmetry and how to use the shift key and space bar when typing.

This past week or so, the theme has been Minibeasts... Creepy-crawlies or bugs to most people. Thus, we've been learning all about bees, snails, worms, beetles, ladybirds and goodness knows what else. Tomorrow, as a special treat, I'm going to be taking in my housemate's giant African land snails (~6-8 inches long!) to show them.
Last week, we went on a minibeast hunt in the playground and came back with 3 ladybirds, 6 snails, a dead bee, 3 slugs, 2 worms and 4,000 woodlice (ok, that might be a slight exaggeration, but they're slow and easy to catch!). The children were unable to catch the pigeon or the crow!

The week before (May 4th), I wrote 4 essays in a week (2 x 2,000 and 2 x 1,000) which in total amounted to 6,140 words. I was rather proud of myself for that, although it might have been a good idea to have started a little earlier. Never mind, it'll be a while before I have to write another one, if ever. Maybe if/when I do a Masters?

Anyway, my lesson plans are calling... Will post soon.

Check this out...?

Life has generally been ok for the past few weeks. I had a good break over Easter, including a day in Reading including visiting the Chaplaincy (of course), followed by a couple of days when Michael, Chris & Rebecca came to visit St.Albans and 'did' a City Tour that I got from the Tourist Information office for free. It was really good, incorporating St.Peter's church, the Clock Tower, the Abbey, Verulamium Park, the Watermill, Fishpool Street and then back into the centre. The weather was perfect for us. After the tour, we then came back home and had tea & cake in the new garden room, which was very fun and really rather twee too. They also came to both the Maundy Thursday Communion and also the Good Friday Reflection, which was lovely too.

Since then, I've not done a whole lot of anything remarkable. Went for a curry at the Spice Hut with Mum, Dad & Tim last Thursday and had my first ever biriani.
Came back to Scarborough on the train last weekend. It was busy, but quite an easy run.

This week's been ok. I've been in lectures everyday. Some of them have been interesting and a few have been useful.

Next week, I go into my next placement school for visits (Hilderthorpe Infants, Bridlington). Until Tuesday, I was under the impression that I would have a Year 1 class (age 5-6yrs), but on phoning the school the three of us who are going to that school discovered that we actually have mixed Year 1/2 classes (ie. age 5-7yrs in each class)! Not that it really makes much of a difference, but it would have been nice to know. I have 'Pink' class (all the classes are named as colours).

This weekend, Chris & Michael are coming to visit. Chris is staying with Michael tonight, and then they're both heading over here tomorrow night. We're going to Whitby on Saturday, including a Kate Rusby concert, which I'm really quite looking forward to. :o)
As part of this, though, I decided I really ought to get some food in to feed them, so after lectures, I walked down to Tesco (a mile or two). I did lots of shopping, buying packed lunch things for next week, as well as dinner for tomorrow night. I decidd to treat the guys and selected a bottle of Thatcher's Katy, plus a bottle of local ale (forgot the name). When I got to the till, however, the woman asked for ID. Well, I don't have any. She wouldn't believe me (citing 'company policy'). So, no ale/cider for me. That might be a good thing in some ways thought, because I then realised quite home much I'd bought. I had my backpack, but it still had in it everything from college, so I put a few things in there, but also 4 carrier bags. Which I had to get to the bus stop. The bags had better ideas, and the bottom of one of the bags started to split and a bottle of squash made a solid attempt at a bit for freedom (failed). God bless the angel who walked past and offered me her carrier bag (which I declined, but only because I'd got to the bus stop). I got it all home and have been trying to do some work ever since. Getting there, but very slowly. Should get some more reading done, before I go to bed soon-ish.

Generally, life is ok though. God bless. /Out/

Whatcha lookin' at?

I was just looking at the list of things that people were searching for when they ended up here looking at my blog.

Here are a few of the things that led here:

• story books enid blytons collection for 6 or 7 class
• nick baines+easter friday
• strawberry font
• Nativity-cross-stitch
• sally bridgstock
• jibe productions
• "jibe productions"
• Nocturnal animals Lesson plans
• bill bryson notes from a small island car petrol station commentary about
• bridgstock
• presentation it's not grim up north

Now, some of those make sense, but some of them are really quite odd!

Anyway, I'd better get on with something more constructive now...

Train to the King's Cross

Here is the story of the end of term and my trip home for Easter:

On the last day of term (Friday), I handed in my essay on behaviour management. As of Thursday morning, I had written about 1,200 words. By 4am on Friday, I had written 4,100. However, there were birdies singing when I went to bed!

That weekend, Michael came to visit. Sunday afternoon, we headed back to Michael's in York to begin my journey home for Easter.

Monday was Michael's 23rd birthday. However, he wasn't very well, so it was sort of postponed until Tuesday.
So, on Tuesday, we went to see Amazing Grace and really enjoyed it. We then went home and had steak, saute potatoes and roast butternut squash for dinner, before heading out to meet a friend of his from Macc at the pub. A good time was had by all.

On Wednesday afternoon, I headed to the station to go home to St.Albans. I caught the train to King's Cross (although I was getting off at Stevenage), sitting opposite a middle-aged man with a very nice Dell mini-laptop.
We got talking. He asked me where I was going, and told me that he was a barrister and was on his way back from Middlesbrough, having won a court adjournment because his witnesses couldn't agree on their story.
At this point, I was doing number/word puzzles based on the DaVinci Code. (the relevance of this will become clear).
At one point, he asked me if I was going on holiday this year. I said that I was going to the Greenbelt festival. He'd never heard of it and it took a little bit of time to establish that 'Christian Arts' was not a person ("Christian as in the faith, not the name").
He told me he used to go to church when he was younger, but hadn't been in a long time. I suggested that he go for Easter and (to my surprise) he agreed that that was a good idea!

He then noticed the DaVinci Code puzzles, and asked me what I thought of the book. I confessed I'd not read it but that I'd like to. He told me I should. Having established that I was a Christian, he asked me why I thought that the Catholic church/the Vatican/Opus Dei had put so much effort into countering the DaVinci Code. I said I thought it was because the issue was very important and that the church believed that they had the truth and that potentially people's souls were at stake.
The conversation rapidly progressed on to why I believed what I do, what evidence there is for any of it (made slightly complicated by the fact that he wouldn't accept the Bible as evidence), what 'truth' is, and a whole bunch of other questions. I focussed on the resurrection, and did my best, but I was tired and only had an hour. Plus, he was a lawyer!! Anyway, in the end, I gave him my email address. On 1st May (approx one month from the conversation) he will re-ask his question on what evidence there is for Christianity and why I believe it, and he wants a reply.

And then Dad picked me up at Stevenage station and drove me home.
Not much has happened since.

Brief Encounter

I have several posts planned, but I only have very limited 'net access.

I'm back in St.Albans now.

Will post in more detail soon, possibly including:

• Finishing that essay


• The Northern Lights trilogy that I just finished reading


• The guy on the train yesterday that I ended up discussing Christianity with for over an hour

Also, I haven't forgotten about the Nick Baines post I promised long ago. To date, the time has not shown itself...

Stitch and time...

Just a quick check in regarding the world of me...

I am in the process of writing a 4,000 word essay. It currently stands at 1,519 words, but it's starting to flow, so that's good.
Title is:
“A teacher or practitioner will be a more effective manager of children’s behaviour if s/he demonstrates and promotes positive values, attitudes and behaviour underpinned by theories”
Discuss with regard to observations & experiences from teaching practice as well as theories/literature.

Not the most inspiring topic ever, but it's getting there.

Oh, it's due in at 3pm tomorrow! :oS


In other news, I had a mole removed from my arm this afternoon, so I now have 2 stitches and a rather large plaster on my arm. It's quite sore/tender, but not too bad really. I've never had stitches before. :o)

Also, I'm planning on being in Reading on Wednesday 4th April (just under 2 weeks away) with Michael, Chris & Rebecca... so if anyone fancies meeting up for a Shakeaway & a trip to the Chappy, drop me a comment/email and we'll see what we can arrange.


Better get on... this essay won't write itself, more's the pity!

Biscit out of contact

Quick message, whilst attempting to write this wretched essay...

For those of you who still have my biscit email account on record... Biscit has gone bust so that address is now defunct.

My email address is now sally [dot] bridgstock [at] googlemail [dot] com.

/Out/.