The last year
I really need to update what I've been doing the last year.
I think the last post I put in here was just after I came back from Tinkers bubble in January over a year ago!
After that I put a lot of effort into getting my PGCE application sorted and signed up with a cover teacher agency so I could get some experience. I got two interviews for PGCE's, but was unsuccessful for both, and that left me feeling a bit depressed. None the less I got a few English teaching jobs in the spring and summer, and have kept myself busy working since June.
Firstly, there was an English teaching job at Oundle boarding school, a very prestigious old-school school as it were. Here is the marble staircase up to the business studies area of the school.
The ESL company had hired the school for an English speaking competition - they had to give a variety of presentations, talks, debates etc, and we had to judge them in various categories. There wasn't much work involved to be honest and I felt as though the programme was a bit of a flashy but not very well thought out expensive holiday for the students.
When I got back my parents headed off to France for a holiday and I was left to look after the plants. I'd started growing a few veg including salad leaves and tomato plants, so I got some courgettes and cauliflowers going. I was also cycling everywhere as it was now spring. Then disaster struck... I was sitting in my bed reading something when the doorbell went. I jumped out of bed and my little toe got caught on my chest of drawers next to my bed. It hurt like hell and I felt a little faint as I limped to get the door. It was the delivery man delivering our organic veg box, and I asked him to put the veg down and if I could pay next time... then when he'd gone, I looked at my toe. It was sticking out at an angle. Not good, I thought. Although my parents were in France, luckily my parents gardener was in the garden and I asked if he would mind taking me to the hospital. While on the way, he told me he used to be a paramedic so this reminded him of those times. He dropped me off at the accident and emergency section and they exrayed my foot, to find I'd fractured the proximal falange of my little toe.
Heres a picture of what my feet looked like for about 6 weeks, with the brusing not going away.
It hurt to walk of course, and I kept it bandaged to the next toe for support. however, I tried cycling and found that cycling didn't affect it at all! Happy days, I continued cycling around going to bellringing etc.
Do you remember me saying I signed up for a cover teacher agency? Well, it took a LONG time to get all the paperwork sorted, including getting a Criminal records check for Taiwan and Australia as well as the UK. So it wasn't until May that I finally got some work with them. I had just had two interviews, one at the English school in Wheatley and the other at Wheatley park. I had just been told I didn't get the job at Wheatley park, when I got a call from the agency - can I do a cover lesson at wheatley park?! So I went in the very next day as my first time as a cover teacher. I didn't think my broken toe would be a problem, little did I know they'd put me on PE for a couple of lessons! The kids were doing long jump under my supervision, and after they'd all had their goes, I decided to have a go with my broken toe - to see how far I could hop :P I also did some cover teaching at Cheney school, and found it tough and a challenge - the kids mucked around as much as possible and I don't really have any experience crowd-controlling secondary pupils, but after the third day I seemed to be getting some kind of hang of it. I did a maths lesson where they all just had a load of sums to do, and I found a pack of cards in the room, so I let them pick a card after every 10 sums done, each card being between 1 and 13, and they could then add it to the score for their team. However I was starting to feel a little under the weather, and after eating lunch I started to feel very under the weather. I felt sick, dizzy and stomach pains. I carried on with the lesson (a science one) but was feeling too ill, and the kids started really mucking about. Half way through afternoon registration I felt so ill I told the teacher next door I had to go to the sick bay. Turned out I had some sort of norovirus. The next day was my birthday, and I spent a very grim birthday exploring the delights of norovirus.
In June I spent one week at Brithdir Mawr, another community. Most of my time was spent clearing a hedge of bramble and small trees, and weeding. The area was beautiful and I explored it mostly with a fellow WWOOFer - a 70-ish year old British lady who now lived in Spain and was touring around a little after her husband had died.
She loved foraging, even if she didn't know what a plant was, and I became bold and tried some of the things as well. Here we are exploring the coast line in pembrokshire.
Within walking distance of the community, there were lots of beautiful and diverse places to explore, for example the coastline above, but also a magical old oak forest.
Since this post has taken me 3 days to write (on the brief periods when I'm home) I'll post it now and I'll write about the rest later.
I think the last post I put in here was just after I came back from Tinkers bubble in January over a year ago!
After that I put a lot of effort into getting my PGCE application sorted and signed up with a cover teacher agency so I could get some experience. I got two interviews for PGCE's, but was unsuccessful for both, and that left me feeling a bit depressed. None the less I got a few English teaching jobs in the spring and summer, and have kept myself busy working since June.
Firstly, there was an English teaching job at Oundle boarding school, a very prestigious old-school school as it were. Here is the marble staircase up to the business studies area of the school.
The ESL company had hired the school for an English speaking competition - they had to give a variety of presentations, talks, debates etc, and we had to judge them in various categories. There wasn't much work involved to be honest and I felt as though the programme was a bit of a flashy but not very well thought out expensive holiday for the students.
When I got back my parents headed off to France for a holiday and I was left to look after the plants. I'd started growing a few veg including salad leaves and tomato plants, so I got some courgettes and cauliflowers going. I was also cycling everywhere as it was now spring. Then disaster struck... I was sitting in my bed reading something when the doorbell went. I jumped out of bed and my little toe got caught on my chest of drawers next to my bed. It hurt like hell and I felt a little faint as I limped to get the door. It was the delivery man delivering our organic veg box, and I asked him to put the veg down and if I could pay next time... then when he'd gone, I looked at my toe. It was sticking out at an angle. Not good, I thought. Although my parents were in France, luckily my parents gardener was in the garden and I asked if he would mind taking me to the hospital. While on the way, he told me he used to be a paramedic so this reminded him of those times. He dropped me off at the accident and emergency section and they exrayed my foot, to find I'd fractured the proximal falange of my little toe.
Heres a picture of what my feet looked like for about 6 weeks, with the brusing not going away.
It hurt to walk of course, and I kept it bandaged to the next toe for support. however, I tried cycling and found that cycling didn't affect it at all! Happy days, I continued cycling around going to bellringing etc.
Do you remember me saying I signed up for a cover teacher agency? Well, it took a LONG time to get all the paperwork sorted, including getting a Criminal records check for Taiwan and Australia as well as the UK. So it wasn't until May that I finally got some work with them. I had just had two interviews, one at the English school in Wheatley and the other at Wheatley park. I had just been told I didn't get the job at Wheatley park, when I got a call from the agency - can I do a cover lesson at wheatley park?! So I went in the very next day as my first time as a cover teacher. I didn't think my broken toe would be a problem, little did I know they'd put me on PE for a couple of lessons! The kids were doing long jump under my supervision, and after they'd all had their goes, I decided to have a go with my broken toe - to see how far I could hop :P I also did some cover teaching at Cheney school, and found it tough and a challenge - the kids mucked around as much as possible and I don't really have any experience crowd-controlling secondary pupils, but after the third day I seemed to be getting some kind of hang of it. I did a maths lesson where they all just had a load of sums to do, and I found a pack of cards in the room, so I let them pick a card after every 10 sums done, each card being between 1 and 13, and they could then add it to the score for their team. However I was starting to feel a little under the weather, and after eating lunch I started to feel very under the weather. I felt sick, dizzy and stomach pains. I carried on with the lesson (a science one) but was feeling too ill, and the kids started really mucking about. Half way through afternoon registration I felt so ill I told the teacher next door I had to go to the sick bay. Turned out I had some sort of norovirus. The next day was my birthday, and I spent a very grim birthday exploring the delights of norovirus.
In June I spent one week at Brithdir Mawr, another community. Most of my time was spent clearing a hedge of bramble and small trees, and weeding. The area was beautiful and I explored it mostly with a fellow WWOOFer - a 70-ish year old British lady who now lived in Spain and was touring around a little after her husband had died.
She loved foraging, even if she didn't know what a plant was, and I became bold and tried some of the things as well. Here we are exploring the coast line in pembrokshire.
Within walking distance of the community, there were lots of beautiful and diverse places to explore, for example the coastline above, but also a magical old oak forest.
Since this post has taken me 3 days to write (on the brief periods when I'm home) I'll post it now and I'll write about the rest later.