In pursuit of Health, Wealth and Happiness

Tete_en_l'Air

Yes we get to stay in the zoo all day so will both have our cameras out snapping away

Just had my email back from SCITT place with my placement school - it's the one I've already visited in the town I currently work in (it's a "nice", "good" school). I was hoping for something a bit closer to home as nearer schools were alluded to, but at least it's not farther I guess. And I can make a good estimate on petrol costs for my budget - argh I feel nervous now - it all feels a bit real all of a sudden!! Meeep!

I've also just enrolled on a summer course at work (two evenings a week for three weeks) - Learning and Study Skills, to get me back in the swing and maybe teach me a bit about time management I was thinking I could go incognito but apparently it takes place in my old building so I hope I don't know the lecturer (more to the point I hope the lecturer doesn't know my boss!)

And now I have to head off and find something nice to wear and meet a man I don't know in a town I don't really know - I don't know if I could be any more nervous about everything at the mo!! :eek:

Lara44

^^^ What Star said Those nerves are just excitement!

Kittikins

Yay, you've got your school placement sorted My pre-course work list came through and I think it's a lot less than people have been whinging about on FB, maybe it helps that I have DD so am already used to reading childrens' books, I don't have to go and explore where the kids' section of the library is as I'm in there at least once a week

How was the date? A keeper or a what a waste of timer?

Tete_en_l'Air

Hello! Who was whinging, a load of Uni students used to 6 lectures a week? I think as oldies we're a bit more used to hard work, although I'm still preparing myself for a shock.

Date was ok, better than the last one although he wasn't 6'2"! We chatted easily and he was interesting. He's also a teacher and was saying how much he loves it and how he'd encourage anyone to do it, so that was nice to hear!

Short and sweet, on my train to Luton- STAMPEDE!!

Lara44

Haha, little bit of fibbing about height! He sounds nice though Glad you had a good time. Enjoy Whipsnade!!!

Birdie85

Hello! Glad the date was nice, will you be meeting him again?

Hope you had fun stampeding! :T

Tete_en_l'Air

Hi girls LOVED the stampede, was great fun - need to get some animal photos up on Facebook/blog soon. As for the date, doesn't look as though I'll be seeing him again as he hasn't been in touch *rolly eyes* I think men are simple enough creatures, in that if they like you, they'll call, so I'm not going to obsess over it. Still I would have thought it had gone well enough to warrant a "Nice to meet you, hope you got home OK" text. Oh well... NEXT!

I went along to my first Study Skills class last night. Silly me thinking I could do something like that incognito in my own workplace. OF COURSE I know the lecturer and he is actually quite good pals with my boss :eek: BUT I'm hoping the whole student/teacher confidentiality thingies come into play here - I asked him not to tell anyway as I said it's still not certain I have a place (and my offer IS still conditional).

Anyway. I loved the class, it was so interesting and nice to be in a classroom environment again. I must admit I do do a lot of the stuff already without realising it (using numbered lists and bullet points to plan, say, important letters where I have a lot to say), but it really helps having the techniques highlighted.

We were asked what our main fear was when going (back) into education and mine is without a doubt the fear of falling back into my old ways of waiting until the last minute before doing work. I know how stressful it is to do this but because I've always managed to actually meet my deadlines in the past, it doesn't stop me from repeating old patterns But I'm aware that the ITT course is way more intense than a degree course and I just won't be able to do that anymore. Plus what if something urgent comes up like Gran is ill and needs a lift to the docs? I need to be able to take time out for things like that. Anyway, the upshot of the exercise was "You know what your biggest fear is. You know how to avoid it. So don't let it happen". Simple eh? Trying to implement this in life in general from today!

I'm pleased because the social thing I had planned for tonight isn't actually til next Tuesday so that's a huge relief as I'm busy all week from tomorrow morning until I go to London on Friday so at least I feel as though I can breathe a bit today, although I do need to do some washing and start thinking about packing etc tonight....

I've been in touch with the Head of MFL at 'my' school (:D) today about going and spending some more time there. She said it's mainly as an opportunity to ask any questions I might have, but since I've already been in I don't necessarily have to go. This is a huge relief as I was worried I might have to take a week off work or something, but I'm going to try and arrange to sit in on some Spanish classes on Monday (I'm off work anyway as I won't get home from London til late on Sunday. Not the relaxing day off I'd hoped for but makes things smoother work wise).

Whew. LONG update, it's all been go!

Kittikins

How exciting! Wish I could go to a study skills course, I'm a bit worried that I'm not going to be any good at the academic side of things, given that apart from my GCSE at evening classes 2 years ago, I've not really studied for, gulp, 19 years!! Holy cow that makes me feel old!!

I've just emailed 2 lovely schools local to where we're moving to asking for 2-week placements before my course starts properly - fingers crossed one of them gets back to me and says YES. Another school I called were lovely, and said that ordinarily, they would have loved to have me, but they will have 2 GTP students starting so don't need the extra workload....

I've also moved my laptop onto the kitchen table rather than slouching on the sofa, in the hope that it'll get me more in the mood to do more preparation work! I do have a fair amount to get organised but watching rubbish TV and catching up on this website seem to fill my evenings instead at the moment.....

When I remember where I stored it, I'll email you an interesting document re: teaching standards - apparently we're going to know them inside out by the time we qualify!! Hope it will help

Kepp

Hi Tete, think I'm all caught up with your diary now!

How exciting how everything is coming together for September, I really admire how you decided that you wanted something and then went after it with everything you have

The Whipsnade run sounded like so much fun - my friend and I are registering for the Colour Run 5K tonight. 5K will be enough for me!

Good luck with the dating too. As I picked up my OH on Gumtree I'm all for online dating

Tete_en_l'Air

Kittikins wrote: »

How exciting! Wish I could go to a study skills course, I'm a bit worried that I'm not going to be any good at the academic side of things, given that apart from my GCSE at evening classes 2 years ago, I've not really studied for, gulp, 19 years!! Holy cow that makes me feel old!!

When I graduate from this course (if!), it'll be ten years since I graduated first time around - can't believe how fast it's flown! Made me feel old when one girl in the class was worried about getting back to studying after taking one year out after her A-levels! :eek:

I've just emailed 2 lovely schools local to where we're moving to asking for 2-week placements before my course starts properly - fingers crossed one of them gets back to me and says YES. Another school I called were lovely, and said that ordinarily, they would have loved to have me, but they will have 2 GTP students starting so don't need the extra workload....

Any word yet? Fingers crossed!

I've also moved my laptop onto the kitchen table rather than slouching on the sofa, in the hope that it'll get me more in the mood to do more preparation work! I do have a fair amount to get organised but watching rubbish TV and catching up on this website seem to fill my evenings instead at the moment.....

I need to get roganised myself. One of the tips on Monday was to have a dedicated work space if possible, away from distractions. I'm seriously considering deleting the time-drainer apps (Facebook and Twitter) from my phone come September.

When I remember where I stored it, I'll email you an interesting document re: teaching standards - apparently we're going to know them inside out by the time we qualify!! Hope it will help

That would be ace thanks! They seemed pretty common-sense when I read them before but I guess it's all how they apply in the real world etc. Once I have access to Blackboard I'll see if I can download the materials from the study skills class to send you

beccie wrote: »

Hi Tete, think I'm all caught up with your diary now!

I need to catch up with yours - I bet it'll be more exciting!

How exciting how everything is coming together for September, I really admire how you decided that you wanted something and then went after it with everything you have

Aww thanks I've always said, half the battle is knowing what you want to do and it's so true.

The Whipsnade run sounded like so much fun - my friend and I are registering for the Colour Run 5K tonight. 5K will be enough for me!

Just had to google this and it look AMAZING! How did it go??

Good luck with the dating too. As I picked up my OH on Gumtree I'm all for online dating

Gumtree?! Now there's an untapped resource....

Just popping in to get some opinions about my notice period really. As I have two weeks' holiday to use I was going to tag that onto the end of my service here so that I get two weeks off before starting my course, whilst still 'officially' working up to the end of Aug.

To avoid a situation where work make me take the holiday money rather than the time, I was going to give six weeks' notice so that I can 'officially' leave mid-August if I have to in order to get my two weeks' break.

We were talking about holidays this morning and my manager is taking pretty much the whole of Aug off, part-time colleague is taking almost four weeks off Aug-Sept and other FT colleague is taking the last week in August off, before going 'flexible' and working only four days a week from September. So me handing in my notice on 22nd July means I'd leave 3 1/2 weeks later and gives them five weeks' notice before that week at the end of Aug when there will be no-one at all in the office.

I'm considering giving my notice on 15th July which would be 7 weeks' notice before my 'official' finish date and actually more than four weeks until my last day ... I guess I'm having an internal struggle because on one hand I thing sod them, let them be stressed over it but on the other I feel like a bit of a sneak. I think over the summer hols in a uni and taking into account all the other holidays people are taking (my manager mainly) will make it impossible to get anyone in before I leave anyway, and at least I can feel all saintly because I've given more notice than I need to.... But then again if I were going to an actual other job it would be four weeks' notice full stop.

What would you do, if you haven't fallen into a coma after that?!