Scattered thoughts

Here. Have some quizzes. I was bored this morning and passed some time.

( Love Profile )

( Which Brady am I? (and do you even care? ;)) )

( The Name of my Penis )

( Which drug matches my personality? )

( Which X-Man am I? (aka, do I die in X3? ;)) )

( My Simpsons personality )

( Which muppet am I? I am... )

( My personality! )

( Which Tarot card am I? )

( I am a candy! )

( What my sleeping position says about me )

( My inner child :( )

( My mood ring is... )

( What should I major in (let's assume I haven't already finished my degree... )

...In other news, I found out today that I passed my PGCE ;)

Thanks to everyone who wished me a happy birthday today :D

I would like to take this opportunity to introduce WA1, a 4k word essay due Wednesday - you will be seeing a lot more of this guy ;)

271 / 4,000 (6.8%)

*yawns*

Looks like an all nighter for tomorrow then...

Today I finished Uni early and was annoyed that I had to wait around for ages to see the councellor. Turned out to be a good thing(tm) as I decided to go home on the direct bus. Ended up paying for the ticket of a bus friend and her four year old daughter who otherwise wouldn't have been allowed on what was the last direct bus of the evening to Rough Common because she only had a £10 note and the bus driver wouldn't change it. She was really greatful. I was just glad I'd been able to help :)

Warm fuzzies. Mmmm :D

I have an announcement to make:

( clicky )

Firstly, CCUC has recieved confirmation that it will be a University before next year \o/

Secondly, CCUC has a much prettier campus than UKC.

Thirdly, I think the interview went ok. I hope it did anyway. I said all the things I needed to, though I can think of some things now that I should have said then it's no good beating myself up over it. I can't change anything now. I should hear how I did before the end of Easter...

Finally, a real travesty was revealed to me today: From next year in line with the rest of subjects PGCE students will pay £3000 tution to learn to teach. At the moment student teachers have their tution paid for by the state. Am I the only one who thinks this is quite ridiculous? If the government want more teachers in the classrooms then they are going to have to shell out some money for them.

Pfft. I so won't be voting labour at the next election...

Among the things I have been doing at my school placement is helping with lots of classes. I help in at least one class of every year group except year nine (no lessons on Tuesdays/Fridays). Today was my day with the tinies (years seven and eight)* and turned out to be great. Second period I was with a very low achieving year eight group (we're talking the lowest set) and I've been in a few lessons with them before. Typically getting them to learn or engage is like pulling teeth, but today they switched on and wanted to learn about Isambard Kingdom Brunel. They asked me for help and thanked me for helping them. They went away having learnt something and I felt great for helping them to achieve that.

Third period I helped in the year seven class. I've been helping with them for a while too and this class is completely different. They're still enthusiastic in a way that no other year group is. They don't quite have the secondary school jaded scepticism yet. Anyway, they've been doing a topic on Castles this term and the past few lessons they've been making a castle out of cardboard to help them remember the structure of a castle and what castles have in them. They did everything only being reminded of the scale of it sometimes. Today they painted it. Here are the results. Aren't they great? :D

( Castle! )

It was a very tiring but a very rewarding day, capped by a little boy (4 years old) coming in from nursery covered in chocolate (from easter chocolate related activities at aforementioned nursery) and giving me a hug and a kiss. I love that little boy. I shall treasure that chocolatey hand print on my white tshirt ;) He's so sweet! Why oh why do they have to grow up :(

Tomorrow is the scary scary thing. I have my interview at Christchurch. Am really quite scared now. I'm sort of prepared. I hope it's enough.

Feedback would be good on my idea for a source though. I'm supposed to take a source in and say how I'd use it to introduce a topic. My idea was for a picture like ( this ) to introduce the holocaust to key stage 4 pupils (14-16 year olds). (Picture here in original context) I'm thinking this picture could be used to start that topic with questions posed to the teenagers such as "Why do you think there is a pile of shoes here?" "How did they come to be stacked like that" "Why do you think their owners don't need them any more" etc.

What do you lot think? Is there a better way of doing this? A better topic/source I could use?

Any and all help appreciated :S

*for anyone not familiar with this style of naming year groups, year 7 is the lowest at a British high school, with the children in it being 11 or 12 typically

[edit] My watch strap broke this evening so I'm without watch. I feel all naked and horrid :( If anyone has a spare watch they want to lend me before my interview... ;)

I'd really appreciate it if you could all read over http://carina.org.uk/gttrstatement.html and see if you can suggest any changes, grammar and spelling corrections or additions I should make.

The guidelines on the application state that:

Describe briefly your reasons for wanting to teach giving the relevance of your previous education and experience, including teaching, visits to schools and other work with young people.

Do you think I've done this? How do you think I could do it better?

All help much appreciated :)