Paris

Well France was amazing. An incredible place and I was very reluctant to leave. It was rainy on arrival at Cardiff airport, there's a suprise!!! And it was straight back into planning for the term after Easter. The weather has been glorious the last few days but mostly been attached to the computer, my eyes are definitely going square, so not much opportunity to enjoy it.

Beginning to count down the days now, they seem to be getting fewer and fewer but not really at the speed at which I had hoped they would!

Vive la France!!!

Bonjour mon ami!

If you hadn't guessed (or been told by me, several hundred times!) I am going to Paris for the weekend. Never been before although I have been to rural areas of France (by ground and by air in an old French Army Lynx feeling very ill and looking green!) and am very much looking forward to having a break from: people under 4 foot tall, work and computer screens and am anticipating spending a few much needed quality days with the other half.

I speak no French at all, Emmet very little and we have quite a lot we want to do in very few days so it will not be at all restful and I sense more than a little arguing as we try and navigate just to the hotel!

The Easter break is long overdue for most of us and the last week has been on autopilot.

Happy planning and good luck in school next term. I have some great subjects to look forward to: the 60's and 90's, Africa, PE and the usual suspects of MMMS and Pie Corbett to impart to the darlings. Hopefully the sugar high will be waning after the mound of Easter eggs they have no doubt started to plough through already.

Wonderful weekend

Well a great weekend even if it has left me limping and aching! After having passed my unrestricted motorbike licence last month and not even seen a bike since I thought it was time to get back on and have some fun! I managed to get on a BMW Off Road skills course lasting 2 days. The weather held out just for Saturday and Sunday was glorious if a little nippy! I learnt a vast range of new skills and increased my confidence no end and fell off a few (well ok several) times! The course is to be recommended especially the women only course if you are nervous or have not got much riding experience (like me!) on or off road. It has rekindled my love of riding but the severe lack of money has become a serious problem so anyone with a bike to give away please drop me a line!

Other news! School today was great, the children were fairly hyper and I was thrown in at the deep end somewhat as the teacher was not feeling great. Only one way to learn I guess!

I am now trying to make head or tail of MMMS and getting to grips with the nuances of Pig Stewart! Wish me luck!

Shwmae

Well the last week in Uni. Can't believe it has gone so fast! A few assignments due in this week and Welsh oracy assessments. The non-Welsh crowd managed to scrape through with level 2's which we were pretty chuffed with, thanks to the tutors of course! ICT causing some issues as most people may have noticed that all the ICT suites are full of people trying to catch up what we should have been doing on a weekly basis and of course weren't! Another observation day in school tomorrow as we try and learn children's names and get a feel for the class, school, topics and generally prepare (or not depending who you are) for the 10 week ASP2. I was lucky enough to have a brilliant class teacher for ASP1 and the ASP2 one seems set to follow which is great.

The highlight of the last week was not Uni/school related sadly but did involve some of us meeting for a few sociable Guinnesses in Cardiff to watch the Paddys triumph on Saturday. It was a great day and no one got arrested, in a fight, ended up in a ditch or came home with a beer trophy. In fact we all behaved like responsible teachers which is a little sad!

Another week down

Well another week down. Only two weeks of Uni left before placement and the end. ICT was amusing, we tested some voting systems that schools could use and proved how poor our own knowledge is! We also wished Mandy safe travelling as she leaves for New York with the B-Eds-alright for some!!!

Friday was the highlight as several people made the effort to dress up for Red Nose Day. Adam did a sponsored silence. Anyone who knows him will know why he was so successful at getting us all to part with some cash to see him try and not say anything for the whole day. He managed to do it, fair play and raised a lot of money. Well done Ad.

Some costumes included cows, caveman, batman, chavs, Vicky Pollard, 80's monsters and a lot of pajamas and army uniforms.

Will get a total raised next week. (300 squids by the end apparently!!)
Today is sunny and there is rugby on so that's enough from me!! Will try and post vids and photos from Friday or checkout our Facebook pages for all the childish stupidity!!

More free stuff

The school forge site listed in the last blog does have some great software-just found one where you can build your own crosswords for any topic. Great idea!

Course wise all is well. Creative dance today. Exactly what it says on the tin and a bit of a shock to the system to those of us not used to threading our heads through our bodies spaces. Quite amusing all in all and any excuse to roll around and act like an idiot really!

We finished off with a dance centred around a "motif" of a monkey, very expressive but not sure how impressed the class was with our content or dancing prowess, applause was sparse to put it kindly especially everyone was busy rolling on the floor laughing!

We have all been given our ASP2 schools (well most of us) and are trying to find out as much as we can about them and the class/teachers we will spend 10 weeks with.
Only 3 weeks left of Uni which is a relief to most, a sad farewell to some.

2 directed tasks in this week as well - Art and DT and English and ICT coming up soon. We will hopefully be getting some tasks back as well.

As per request some useful free stuff that schools could use. This site has some free ebooks-
http://www.brainybetty.com/freebooks.htm

This link will give you some ideas for music for use in schools. Very handy for the un-musical like me!
http://www.brainybetty.com/soundsforpowerpoint.htm

On the whole Brainy Betty has loads of useful things that teachers could use, most of it for free.
This site has a lot of applications too:
http://www.schoolforge.net/education-software/educational

London

Sadly no gossip gleaned from the night out, everyone behaved themselves apparently. Down to London for the weekend for a job interview. Very long drive in my trusty steed Xixatuvi (15 year old Corsa), high point of journey-overtaking a Bentley!! Whoo hoo.

Very very sad to have missed Maths and Science lectures this morning but I think I should cope with the pain ok. Interview went very well, very informal and relaxed and my preparation was for nothing this time as I wasn't asked any questions about thinking skills, learning styles or P4C! However did talk about ICT, a lot, so thanks Mandy!! A few days off in London are in order catching up with friends. Had forgotten in the time I have been in Wales how dirty London is and I had to practice my "tube face" for the first half an hour on the train till I got it just right. Almost got run over several times by people and it nearly cost me more getting into Central London on the train and tube (12 squids)and parking in Wimbledon for today (13 squids) than it cost me for the tank of fuel to get here from Wales!

Well a very "interesting" day! A nose around the Waterfront Museum for History. Some good computer features going on, like a touch pad "space" where you just kind of wave your finger around in the air to select and move the cursor. Not as interactive as we had hoped and no artefacts to touch, try etc. Quick coffee then off for a little bimble around the marina as geography section. We all managed to follow the dificult and treacherous route to "viewpoint a" though it was touch and go for a few groups at one stage. Excitement, briefly, in the form of a very shaggy dog and for a milli second we forgot how cold, wet and miserable we were. Lunch time then making our way to St Pauls in Sketty. A beautiful church but eclipsed by the nutter vicar. He was actually very interesting if somewhat longwinded! Some great ideas for how to use a church in almost every subject and then we all disappeared at a fairly lightning pace!! Most of the course are headed into Swansea for a night out. I am at home ready for teddy!
Hopefully some gossip on the night out tomorrow!

Field Day

Well we are all anticipating an exciting day down at Swansea Marina. We will be covering Geography, History and RE in the National Museum and surrounds. Watch this space for an update of how it went and what the educational value of the visit was...

Welcome

Welcome!!!
As part of a PGCE course where I am specialising in ICT as a subject we are required to create a blog so here goes! We (the royal we) on the course have just finished our second assessed school placement. Most of us survived, although a few have chosen alternate routes at this point! We are now faced with 5 weeks in University which some see as a blessing, some as a curse!