Jumping on the Bandwagon...
Day One - Introduce yourself...
I guess a photo is a good place to start. This is the best recent photo that I have. It was taken a few months ago, in my Stornoway house, just after I had gone back to dark hair for the first time in almost 6 years.
My name is Caroline Grieve. I have a middle name, but I don't like it in combination with my first name, so I choose to keep it quiet. I was born on the 15th October 1986 into a working class Scottish family. I say working class cos that's where we're banded, but I can't really complain. My parents had to work really hard to make ends meet but we never wanted for anything.
I grew up in a village just outside of Dunfermline in Fife, and I had a happy childhood when I was really little. We were in the countryside in my village, and I can remember long summers spent climbing around in trees and running around in hay fields or on the rope swing in the woods. You know you grew up in my village if you were chased by the tramp in the woods at least once.
I went to Queen Anne High School, and I can't say I loved my school days, but I didn't hate them. I did hate the people who I had to see every day though. I was heavily bullied from P6 til about S3, and it rattled my self-esteem down to minus-numbers pretty quickly. However, I did have a small circle of good friends who saw me through. We hung out and had a laugh in class, we went to gigs, we met up on weekends. I was lucky to be so close to such good people.
I left high school with 8 standard grades (fives 1s, two 2s and a 3), an intermediate 2, 4 highers and an advanced higher.
It was in my final years of high school that I started to realise I wanted to be a teacher. I thought I wanted to teach primary school. In fact, I was desperate to be a primary teacher. I applied to every uni in Scotland offering primary teaching courses, but my maths ability wasn't good enough, so I didn't get in. That's always bugged me, because I got a 3 in maths at standard grade, and quite honestly I don't think you need much more than that to teach basic numbers to small children. But whatevs, I digress. I didn't get a place on a primary course, and I went into panic mode. I managed to get into an English Studies course at Stirling uni through the emergency 'UCAS Extra' scheme. It was the best thing that could have happened. Being dedicated to English, I realised that I loved it too much to dumb it down for small kids. Suddenly I knew I'd found what I really wanted to do - English teaching became my goal.
After uni in Stirling I took a year out from Education and then went to Glasgow to do my Post Graduate Diploma in Education. I wasn't outstanding at teaching in the early days. In fact, I was pretty bad it. I got by - nothing more. It's odd though, because as I left uni and went into my probation year something clicked. It all started to work. I could do it. I don't tend to brag, but I know now that I'm a good teacher and the early difficulty was just a wobble due to inexperience, and I'm proud of that. My achievement in reaching my goal is something I'm very aware of. It's kind of defined who I am now. I'm someone who reaches their goals. I'm a young professional. I'm a teacher. I say it to myself sometimes because I can't believe I made it.
I guess a photo is a good place to start. This is the best recent photo that I have. It was taken a few months ago, in my Stornoway house, just after I had gone back to dark hair for the first time in almost 6 years.
My name is Caroline Grieve. I have a middle name, but I don't like it in combination with my first name, so I choose to keep it quiet. I was born on the 15th October 1986 into a working class Scottish family. I say working class cos that's where we're banded, but I can't really complain. My parents had to work really hard to make ends meet but we never wanted for anything.
I grew up in a village just outside of Dunfermline in Fife, and I had a happy childhood when I was really little. We were in the countryside in my village, and I can remember long summers spent climbing around in trees and running around in hay fields or on the rope swing in the woods. You know you grew up in my village if you were chased by the tramp in the woods at least once.
I went to Queen Anne High School, and I can't say I loved my school days, but I didn't hate them. I did hate the people who I had to see every day though. I was heavily bullied from P6 til about S3, and it rattled my self-esteem down to minus-numbers pretty quickly. However, I did have a small circle of good friends who saw me through. We hung out and had a laugh in class, we went to gigs, we met up on weekends. I was lucky to be so close to such good people.
I left high school with 8 standard grades (fives 1s, two 2s and a 3), an intermediate 2, 4 highers and an advanced higher.
It was in my final years of high school that I started to realise I wanted to be a teacher. I thought I wanted to teach primary school. In fact, I was desperate to be a primary teacher. I applied to every uni in Scotland offering primary teaching courses, but my maths ability wasn't good enough, so I didn't get in. That's always bugged me, because I got a 3 in maths at standard grade, and quite honestly I don't think you need much more than that to teach basic numbers to small children. But whatevs, I digress. I didn't get a place on a primary course, and I went into panic mode. I managed to get into an English Studies course at Stirling uni through the emergency 'UCAS Extra' scheme. It was the best thing that could have happened. Being dedicated to English, I realised that I loved it too much to dumb it down for small kids. Suddenly I knew I'd found what I really wanted to do - English teaching became my goal.
After uni in Stirling I took a year out from Education and then went to Glasgow to do my Post Graduate Diploma in Education. I wasn't outstanding at teaching in the early days. In fact, I was pretty bad it. I got by - nothing more. It's odd though, because as I left uni and went into my probation year something clicked. It all started to work. I could do it. I don't tend to brag, but I know now that I'm a good teacher and the early difficulty was just a wobble due to inexperience, and I'm proud of that. My achievement in reaching my goal is something I'm very aware of. It's kind of defined who I am now. I'm someone who reaches their goals. I'm a young professional. I'm a teacher. I say it to myself sometimes because I can't believe I made it.