For God's sake...

This is mad! Inciting racial hatred? Aren't they doing that by the way they are treating her? Can we take seriously a country which still lashes people in public? Is it a crime to make a mistake?

What a ****ed up world we live in!

What the X...

I have never watched X-Factor before, but this year Larry & I have watched it from the beginning and have really got into it. With only 6 acts left in the competition, it is getting tough to decide who to vote for (at home of course, not actually wasting money on phone voting). Beverley has been one of my favourites from the start of the live shows. Apart from the fact that she is a Primary School teacher, she has an amazing voice and was a very strong contender. I thought she could win it. Until, that is, some people decided that talent doesn't really matter and voted instead to keep other acts in who really, in my opinion, should not still be in the competition. What were they thinking?

"If Beverley goes this week it will be ridiculous. If that happens, I will not watch it again" I stropped as I gasped in disbelief at seeing that Beverley was in the bottom two acts.

Well, that's it. I don't ever want to watch it again. I have no idea why it is called x-factor. It is complete xxxxxxxx. (Oh, maybe that's it!)

Oh, and to make matters even worse, someone's supply placement is just about to be cut short.

Driving Lesson

Thank you so much to the (rather aged) man in the (average) silver car, who pulled up alongside my car today to point out to me that my driving was substandard. You may have been somewhat confused at my blank expression and complete lack of response and could have been led into thinking I did not care. However, I do appreciate that you are obviously a caring person who wished to help a fellow motorist, even to the point that you thought you would drive quite closely behind me just in case I should require your help or advice. As someone who is committed to the education of others, I thought I would offer you my own words of advice. First of all, I would like you to think about your use of questionning. Do you think an open question like "Why didn't you use your indicators?" was more likely to get a response than a closed question under those circumstances? Secondly, while I admire your lack of expletives used as you shouted at me, I'd like to point out that the need to shout would be greatly reduced if you were to wind your window down. Oh, nice horn, by the way!

PS:
As this incident took place outside my new school, If by some freak unfortunate coincidence you happen to walk into my classroom with your child on the first day of next term, I would be very grateful if you would pretend never to have seen me before!

Who Nose...

Tried to do Christmas shopping today, but after spending a morning dragging Big J around the shops telling him to "put it down", "Leave that alone", "That's not a toy" etc... I decided to take a break for lunch and continue after we had eaten. As I sat in the car checking my mobile phone, I realised I had missed several messages from Little Z's school and one from Larry telling me that Little Z had fallen and hurt her nose and face and needed to be picked up. The last message was left at 11.50. I finally dashed, apologising repeatedly, into the school's office at 13.25. A trip to A&E resulted in us walking back out as soon as we had walked in as the place was full of people with more serious injuries who would undoubtably be seen first. A short car trip down the road took us to the NHS Walk-In Centre where the staff were helpful and friendly and where we were seen within 30 minutes. The result being that Little Z has cuts to her face which should heal in a week or so and a suspected broken nose which cannot be checked until the swelling goes down in approx. 10 days when we will have to phone for an ENT appointment which may then mean waiting another 2 weeks. In the meantime, she is more concerned with why people are staring at her,why she is not allowed to do PE for 2 weeks and whether she will still be able to do her ballet exam on 15th November.

An Englishman's Home is his Castle...

(apologies for taking so long to actually get this post finished & published)

A few months ago, my friend Sarah announced that she and her husband, Ben, were moving to Derbyshire. After staying with Sarah's granny for a few weeks, they have now moved into their new house, so we thought we would visit them on our way to Grimsby. We took the campervan and booked into Elvaston Castle (not a real castle at all!)campsite nearby to stay for the night.

After visiting Sarah & Ben's new house, we all went over to Elvaston Castle Country Park. A pleasant walk in the woods was the perfect opportunity for Big J to cover his lovely clean trainers and the bottom half of his trousers in two types of poo and some of his own wee! What a charming boy!

We headed for Nottingham the following day, which was not enjoyable in the least. I love Nottingham and as the children have been following the Robin Hood series (yes, yes, I know it's not age appropriate!) I thought they would love to visit the castle. Yes, I am sure they would have preferred to visit the Robin Hood experience museum, but at thirty odd pounds for the family to get in, we decided the castle was more appealing. Didn't I realise they would be disappointed when they saw it and found out it was not a real castle at all, but more like a large stately home? Did I really expect them to get excited about an art gallery and some plates, bowls & cups? Well, yes, hindsight would have been handy (or possible just some forethought!).

A longer than anticipated drive finally got us to Seany's house - not a castle either, but the kids were happy to see Uncle Seanie, as were we, of course!

Despite the fact that we had (and still have) no money, we still managed to visit a windmill (Windy Miller was not in so we didn't get to see it turning, although I managed to keep Big J quiet for about 10 minutes by saying, "Quick, I just saw it move - keep watching!"); a zoo (of sorts) in Cleethorpes (no, not the Sunday Market!)although Seany said it was not quite like the San Diego Zoo or the one in St Louis and we also went for a long drive in the country in search of Alvingham Watermill which I remembered visiting as a year 3 pupil with my favourite teacher and thought Little Z might like to see as the one we had seen in Elvaston had not been working. We also managed to reach the Appleby's Ice Cream shop in Conisholme just in time.

Thanks Seany for another great break.

The Slippery Slope...

At Paulton's Park last weekend, Seany & I stood watching Little Z and Big J have their last climb, swing, jump, bounce and slide on the adventure playground before going home. We laughed as we remembered how a number of years ago, we had visited Paulton's with Little Z and had ourselves had a go on the biggest chute slide. I was signed off work with depression (no, let me finish!) and remember thinking at that time "I hope no one sees me enjoying myself!" It's a common misconception that depressed people have to be miserable all of the time.

So, anyway, I was reading Seany's blog this morning about the joke someone has cracked at the Tate Modern (no, I'm not mocking it, actually I liked the thought behind it) and having clicked the link to the news article about "Shibboleth 2007" I saw a related article entitled "Tate Modern Unveils Giant Slides". Now, that is something I would really enjoy going to see. I love swings and slides and never seem to have grown out of them (mentally, ok?) so I was very excited to hear what the artist had to say:

Artist Carsten Holler said his work, Test Site, was a "playground for the body and the brain". He says slides can help combat mental health problems.

(Source: BBC.co.uk)

What a fantastic excuse!

So, my plan is as follows:
New Job, New house, Big garden, Giant slide, not thought beyond that yet...

How to Get a Primary NQT Teaching Job

I cannot believe how hard it has been to get a teaching job. I know some people have not found it so hard, but I also know some people who were happy to apply for and accept any teaching job in any school and some of those people ended up very unhappy and soon moved on to another school or left teaching altogether. What I am talking about, is how hard it has been to find the right teaching job in the right school. Too fussy? probably. Happy? Yes! I am now.

But this got me thinking how it would be nice (good descriptive word!) to put something together which might help some of the Primary NQTs still out there searching for the right job.

I have put this together and put a link in "Teachers Cupboard" on the right. I am not pretending to have more experience than others, but just wanted to share what I have learnt on my journey. I hope you find it helpful.

Free Stuff!

Yes, I know that Northerners (should that have a capital letter?) seem to have a reputation among the southern folk for taking anything that is free whether they need it or not, but this free stuff is really useful, for teachers and other people involved with education, that is. Yes, I do like the fact that it is free and no I would probably not order some of it if I had to pay for it, but isn't that true about many things? Are there not certain things in life which are free and which we take willingly, but would probably not pay for. Enough about that now.

Anyway, if you are a teacher or LSA or TA or Parent or someone interested in school / education stuff, then have a look at this site. You have to register and then you can (within reason) order what you like. Some things are restricted, but I have been able to order most things I needed to. Just thought I would share my find with you.

By the way, I have also put a link to this on the right hand side under "Teacher's Cupboard" so you can find it easily in future.

I got a job!!!!!

Yippee! I actually did it! I got a job!

Thanks to fantastic feedback from two job interviews I went to last week and this week, (and a lot of hard work from me, I might add!) I finally got offered a job at one of the best schools in the city! I'm really happy. I had a super day starting with lunch with the children at 11.45, interview at 2pm and then story at 2.45. I didn't want to do any ordinary story, so we did a "rap" version of The Little Red Hen with the children using body percussion to provide the pulse to the rap. When I left, the children said they hoped I would be their new teacher. Aww!

Overload

Aaargh...two interviews this week...have I said something on application I won't be able to live up to?...am I really as good as I have told them I am?...I can't speak much French any more, what if one of them is a specialist?...don't know what lesson to teach...something on problem solving...I have no ideas...have done no supply yet this term...will I be out of practice?...got to practice answering interview questions...what year group was one of them for? HELP! Can't remember...Little Z's birthday next weekend...who is coming to party?...must chase replies to invitations...need to buy a cake...when will I get time to do that?...visitors coming next weekend...house a pigsty...no time to clean...less time to tidy...what about shopping?...Ballet wednesday...she can't miss as she has an exam coming up...extra ballet lesson Thursday to practice for exam...needs to take a CD for the music...she needs to practice at home too...she needs a hair net and some more hair grips and some hairspray...has Little Z done her homework yet?...Must remind her on Monday to ask her teacher for the other homework sheet as she only brought half of it home...what shall I do first?...so many things to do...is there time to write a post for my blog?... no!

Big Mistake...

Little Z was sitting in the living room reading her school reading book, Big J was sitting at the table finish the breakfast left over in the bowl from the morning and I was minding my own business in the kitchen. It was quiet. Actually, when I think back, it was probably too quiet.

Big J then appeared at the kitchen door with an "I'm going to have fun watching you get cross" expression on his face, showing me his hands which were covered with white stuff. Several times I asked him what it was, but all he did was smile and say "I put that all over my hands." What was it? Then the truth dawned as I looked across at where he had been sitting to see a Tipex bottle on its side in the middle of a white puddle. As I got closer, I realised the full extent of the damage: White splodges up the wall, white streaks up the glass of the patio doors, white patches on the dining room chair he'd been sitting on and a breakfast bowl (with no breakfast in) swilling with Tipex. Apart from that smell, which will probably bring me back to that moment every time I smell it in future, I really did not know where to start with clearing up the mess or how to start with discussing with him what he had done. I usually insist that the children clear up their own mess, especially where they have made it deliberately, but the Tipex had started to dry and just would not come off with normal detergent.

After much perseverance, we managed to clean it off the table and windows. The wall will have to wait until we decorate again. The bowl went in the bin. The boy spent the evening pealing the tipex off his fingers like PVA glue. Two days later, I am still finding Tipex in unusual places and am now being very careful when completing applications as I have no way off correcting mistakes.

So, at the end of it all, what have I learned? Well, I'm not sure. This morning I intercepted a 'hairspray incident'. Maybe I have learned not to let him out of my sight!

Thinking of having children? Are you sure?

Rock-a-Bye

Having always enjoyed a good sing song with my children, I was really pleased when watching Teachers TV a few evenings ago to hear that children from "musically alive" homes grow up singing and responding to music more freely than children from families where singing and music is not regularly shared. I thought it was quite common for parents to sing with and to their children and assumed it was only the children many of us like to classify as "disadvantaged" whose parents do not. But, after asking a few of my friends (not the disadvantaged ones, of course!) whether they sing with their children and make up songs as I do with Little Z and Big J, they all said they don't. I felt quite pleased with myself.

So, I guess it is no wonder then, that yesterday after singing a couple of songs with Big J (ones he knows from nursery) I started singing wind the bobbin up, he does not join in, but instead bursts loudly into, "TF TF CH, TF TF CH" (come on, use your imagination, I am doing my best phonics effort here!) "We will, we will rock you!" He has been singing a few well known Queen songs for a while now and although I think it is quite sweet, I always thought that most children must do the same and that it isn't really anything that special. Now, I am not too sure how common it is. Actually, I don't care too much either.

I now take him to Mini Maestros conveniently run by a friend of mine. It not only gives me an opportunity to spend some time with Big J and therefore not feel so guilty about putting him into day nursery all week, but has also let me see him in a different way. I expected him to be very outgoing and loud, singing and playing instruments confidently. However, he was much more reserved and hardly joined in at all the first week. I'm really glad he has a quieter and calmer side to his personality. This will certainly be useful when he starts school next September.


Interesting song fact:
Did you know that the Grandfather Clock got its name from the song "Grandfather's Clock"? If you are as sad as me and want to know the words to that song (unless you are even sadder and can remember them all!) you can find them here. (Which is also where I found out that interesting fact) There are more verses than I remember, must have day dreamed a lot in music!

Too quick to judge?

Okay, I thought it was only fair, having spoken to Little Z's teacher after school today about something which was bothering Little Z, that I should now update my blog to say that actually I found her very friendly and helpful. Maybe she was having an off day the last time I spoke to her (although I have noticed the "attitude" on more than one occasion). My previous remarks were not unjustified, but I must speak as I find, and today I found her to be very pleasant.

Teachers on teachers...

Do teachers always think they can teacher better than their own children's teachers?

What about non-teacher parents? Do they also think they could do a better job?

Lots of the children in Little Z's year have parents who are teachers. Many are experienced teachers who have been in the profession for a long time. So, what do we think of Little Z's teacher?

Well, to be fair, I cannot pretend to have polled them all, but many of us feel that although we have no complaints about her actual teaching, her manner is abrupt and she is not at all approachable. I don't like the way she talks to the children or the adults, which worries me, as Little Z needs a teacher who she can give a hug to when she feels a bit insecure. This teacher is about as huggable as a lamp post!

Harsh? yes, I suppose so, but I have not told you the name of the school or the teacher's name.

It would be interesting to consider this again at the end of the year to see whether my opinion has changed. Let's call it a formative assessment!

Will I share the results of this assessment with her? No, but I will have a few questions when I get to speak to her at "Meet the Teacher" evening.

I know teaching ability is obviously important and the fact that she is doing loads of good stuff with the kids and has a fresh & modern approach, as opposed to some of the older, set-in-their-ways teachers Little Z has had previously, is a really positive thing, but personality is so important and being able to respond to children's social needs as well as their academic ones is crucial. Oh dear, I feel like I am writing my personal statement all over again!

When is parents' evening? Get the Prozac ready!

A week in the life of....

Do I have too much time on my hands?

Mon 3 Sept
Took Little Z to INTECH, the Science Centre, for the last day of her summer holiday. INTECH was a lot of fun for both Little Z & I and highly recommended. Science has never been my strong point and having forgotten a lot of what I learnt at school but still being expected to teach it to children, it was really good to be able to have the opportunity to experiment with all the interactive exhibits.

Tue 4 Sept
Little Z started Junior school. On the same site as her infant school, but nevertheless a different school and still slightly daunting for her. She got on well and her new teacher seems very pleasant. I am pleased to hear the class do not come in on monday morning to sit down and write in their weekend diary, but do thinking skills exercises and that the teacher regularly does "brain gym" type exercises with them.

Most of my close friends know what I did on Tuesday and have advised me strongly against doing this again. (Nothing sordid, just don't want to upset anyone by posting about the details.) I decided I have enough friends and so does my son!

Wed 5 Sept
Took Big J to Southsea's Blue Reef Aquarium. Big J walked for over 3 miles to and from the Aquarium to where we parked, which is not bad at all for a 3 year old. During the walk as Big J showed my how to crawl along the promenade like a wolf, I understood how he is going through a pair of trainers every 3 weeks. The aquarium was good, but quite a lot of money for the amount of time it took to get around. Big J liked the sharks best of all and has not stopped talking about sharks ever since. I confirmed what I already knew, which was that Portsmouth is a rip off tourist city. Each time I have been there, I have been intentionally short changed or overcharged by someone in the tourist trade. Next time I will go to Bournemouth instead where the tourist traders are more honest.

Thu 6 Sept
Went to a friends for lunch. That sounds like she made me lunch. In fact, I went to her house and made lunch for both of us while she did some DIY work which she should have been doing while we had been chatting for over an hour on the phone earlier.

Visited some friends in the evening and the weather was so lovely we sat in the garden. They have a lovely garden. Big J liked it so much he watered the flowers, which we only found out when he emerged from the other end of the garden pulling up his pants and saying "I've done a wee!" I am so proud.

Fri 7 Sept
Went to another friends with some exercise equipment she wanted to borrow. Didn't intend to stop for lunch, but did. Didn't have to make the lunch myself.

Seany went on his holiday. Well, at least it should keep my mum out of the pub!

Mr Motivator

No, Not that awful guy who made me turn the TV off every morning, I am referring to Ralph Marston. Never heard of him? Well, depending on where you are reading from, I am not completely surprised.

A few years ago, during my own "difficult" time in my life and hopefully the most difficult, I looked everywhere in desperation for help out of the deep dark smelly pit I had fallen in to. I have posted about this time in my life before and am not about to start whinging about how hard life is and how I have had it harder than anyone else, but I want to share with anyone who is interested, something I found back then and which helped me through.

On my search for help, I found a website by Ralph Marston called The Daily Motivator. Have a look for yourself. (I have also put the link in "The Quiet Area") There are several presentations to make you stop and reflect, to encourage you to be positive and to help you through difficult times.

This morning, while sorting through some papers, I found some of the little motivational cards I had printed from his site, which had been helpful to me back then and it made me wonder whether the site still existed. It does (obviously). Although I was not visiting the site in a desperate search for help this time, I read todays "motivator" and have printed it (with permission of course) because it is very relevant to my current "battle" to eat healthily and lose weight.

I am 3 weeks in to my plan, which has got to be a record, but with a bit (okay a lot) of help from "Gael Lindenfield", I feel like I am going to stick at it this time. I have only lost 2 pounds though in 3 weeks and although I am staying focussed on my goal, I cannot help feeling a bit disappointed and demotivated. Reading the Daily Motivator reminded me that although some of my efforts will not bring results, I will benefit from them. Good point. Even though I am not losing weight, I must be healthier for eating more healthily and getting more exercise.

Thanks, Ralph!

Room

Many months ago, I blogged about how Big J had taken to sleeping on the floor of his bedroom so we had taken his bed out of his room and put a mattress down for him to sleep on. I think he quite liked sleeping on the mattress on the floor and it certainly made it easier when we went camping as he was already used to it!

While attempting to clear out the garage, I came across Big J's bed and thought maybe it was about time he stop sleeping on the floor.

We assembled the bed. It wouldn't fit! The bed he used to sleep in was a child's bed. This was a full size one and just an inch too long for the space we wanted it to go into. Bum!

We had already broken the already flimsy wardrobe by moving it. Now we had to move it again. Larry was getting frustrated to say the least with my constant flow of suggestions as to how to solve the problem and it was getting closer to Big J's bedtime. It was looking increasingly like Big J was going to be sleeping on the floor again.

Finally, we managed to find a place for the bed, the wardrobe and the toy box leaving just about enough room to swing a goldfish.

Tuesday saw a necessary trip to The Range (Hardware etc. store) to buy some storage boxes to go under his bed. These replaced the toy box which is now going to take the bed's place in the garage (I'm sure there is some kind of logic here?! Please let me know if you spot it!) We also found a cute pop up storage panda, which we filled with all his soft toys. At last we could see some floor space.



This morning, after hearing some banging from Big J's room, I anxiously called to him to ask what he was doing. "I'm Hiding in my polar bear!". So much for buying a cute storage solution. He thought it was a tent! No sooner do I put the toys into the panda, than he has taken them all out again so that he can climb into it.



And the floor space has gone again! Oh well, easy come, easy go!

Harry Potter

Larry and I practically gave up spending time alone together when we had Little Z and then made things worse by having Big J. We have no social life and couldn't afford one even if we wanted one.

As the summer holidays are here (and almost gone again!)and I have lots of teacher friends now with nothing to do (hee hee!), I decided to talk one of them into looking after Little Z for a few hours (would I find one crazy enough?) so Larry & I could go to see Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. It didn't take long. My friend Sarah, probably the busiest of all my teacher friends, who is trying to sell her house, buy another house and do several other things besides, agreed to look after Little Z (did she know what she was agreeing to?). So, while Big J was still at nursery and Little Z was playing with Sarah's rabbit, Toby, and making cakes etc. Larry & I went to the Odeon at Leisureworld.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix has been out for quite some time now, so we were in one of the smaller auditoria, but we did not expect it to be full so thought we were likely to be able to sit where we wanted and have room to move our arms. It seems many others had the same idea. It was full. We did have a choice of seats, but it was limited. The seats were quite comfortable, though and if it was not for the teenage couple sitting next to us who evidently thought they were in a café and it was okay to talk (not even about the film for goodness sake!!!) in normal voices throughout the film, we would have really enjoyed it.

The film was good. As a fan of Harry Potter, I would not say it was brilliant, but I liked it. I think it was fairly true to the book, although I don't think the scene with Sirius in the Department of Mysteries was as big and exciting as it could have been. Somehow it didn't quite meet my expectations. Parts of the story which I thought were important had been omitted or changed, which disappointed me. I think if you have not read the books you will enjoy the film more than if you have read them. Either way, I would still recommend going to see it if you haven't already.

Expecto Patronum.....


What would your Patronus be? Find out here.

Be prepared though. Apparently mine would be an Amoeba! How glamorous!

What will he do next?

It is difficult in todays world to shelter our children and protect them from things we don't want them to know about, at least yet. We try our best to teach them about the dangers and to teach them right from wrong. It is different from when I was a child. Children have access to so much and seem to know about things they are not ready to know about. I find that even if I stop Little Z watching something on TV or on a DVD that I don't think is suitable, there will be someone at school happy to tell her all about it. I am glad however, that I can rely on the adult members of my family not to teach my children to do stupid things like run into the sea, for (randomly chosen) example...



Or can I?

Thanks, Seany! It might have been a long time ago, but he remembered! :o)

Having said that, we did have a great afternoon.

On Saturday Little Z, Big J and I discovered Holly Hill Woodland Park and liked it so much, we went back with Larry today. We were all fairly muddy by the time we got back to the car, so will shortly be investing in some walking boots for Larry and myself. Little Z's wellies kept her feet dry. Big J's wellies, although okay for large puddles, didn't really meet his needs today.

Berry Nice!

I have not been Blackberry Picking (or Brambling as we used to call it when I was little) since I was about 13 years old. "That can't be very long ago", I hear you say, but you would be surprised. It is quite a few years ago now. Anyway, enough about me feeling self conscious about my age, after cycling at the sports centre, Little Z and I walked home with our bikes (she is not ready for the roads yet, despite her insisting she is!) and spotted some brambles near our home.

We took a tub each and went out to pick some. I was amazed at how many more I seemed to pick than Little Z. In fact, I could swear that at times, the number of blackberries in her tub were decreasing rather than increasing!

Once we had picked all the ripe ones we could reach, filling my tub and strangely leaving Little Z with about 15 in hers, we had a healthy and free dessert for after dinner. Healthy is one thing, but free is even better. I shall be going back again this week and hope no one else gets there first!