Nice People Thread Number 11 - A Treasury of Nice People

CKhalvashi

tomterm8 wrote: »

To be honest I think you're better off teaching in an independent school anyway. Lots of people with QTS are either leaving state schools or wishing they could at the moment (years of no pay rises, more work, and worse treatment does that to you ).

The issue is that this is the case in most sectors.

I have QTS, but wouldn't go back into teaching in the UK. Abroad (Italy etc) where the conditions are much better, I would consider, however.

CK

LydiaJ

Generali wrote: »

Out of surgery and feeling pretty good. I'm quite woozy and I have a funny feeling that my neck is going to hurt a lot when the lical wears off (I had local and general anaesthetic). I've been prescribed panaforte, a strongish codeine based pain killer.

My throat hurts where they had a breathing tube down it and I am absolutely bloody starving.

All in all I'm pretty happy. Looking forward to a snooze on the sofa this evening.

Glad to hear things sound to be about as good as they can be for today.

silvercar wrote: »

Did you ever get QTS?

Yes. I finished the DPhil and then applied for PGCEs. I got a place, and then my school started realising that physicists are hard to find, and moaning that they didn't want me to go. So I got them to send me on a 2 year part time distance learning PGCE, a tiny course with about 20 of us in my year group, from about 5 subjects, all of us already employed in independent schools but wanting QTS. The "science" group was 4 of us - one each of phys, chem, bio and prep school science. I had a friend at my school who taught English who did the course as the same time as me, which made it much more congenial.

tomterm8 wrote: »

To be honest I think you're better off teaching in an independent school anyway. Lots of people with QTS are either leaving state schools or wishing they could at the moment (years of no pay rises, more work, and worse treatment does that to you ).

Exactly. Frankly I doubt most state schools would touch me with a bargepole. They'd take one look at my CV and see that my entire experience is in selective independent schools, and that I've very little experience of teaching chem and none of bio, and they'd conclude that I've spent too long in a rarefied atmosphere to cope with the demands of teaching "science" in a normal comprehensive. Moreover, I've spent 12 of my 17 years of teaching only working part time, and opportunities for part timers are much fewer and further between in the state sector. (To start with it was because I was finishing my thesis, and then it's been so I can spend time with my kids.)

My job is great for me. The school is very highly selective, so we're under a lot of pressure to get very high results indeed - sometimes parental expectations of these are realistic, and sometimes they're not so much. So it's not all a walk in the park, but it does mean I can use my strengths and not worry too much about crowd control. I don't have to teach any chem or bio at all, either, which suits me down to the ground. I've no reason to move. I can easily imagine staying in this job until I retire. If I ever decide to go full time, it would probably be possible to do it at my current school if I waited a bit for a bit of turnover to happen, but in fact I may stay part time indefinitely. I get widow's pensions that mean I only need a part time salary to have enough to live on.

LydiaJ

ukmaggie45 wrote: »

Or try this for the sound. Bit crackly - must have been recorded off vinyl. :cool:

I love Flanders and Swan - we used to sing The Hippopotamus Song to the DDs when they were little. I wonder if they will sing it to their kidliewinks!

I grew up on them too, and have them on CD now. I've introduced a few of my grown up friends to them, even if they hadn't known them when they were young, and some of them have got their children interested, but they don't seem to appeal to my own children.

Doozergirl

One of DS's classmates is coming your way in September, lydia. We'll know someone who knows someone who knows the other

Yorkie1

Oh, Flanders & Swann. What a nostalgia fest.

I too have a CD with their best hits on it. Must confess that the Gas Man Cometh is probably the one which springs to mind most often (after the Hippo song, of course).

Glad to hear from you Gen. Was thinking about you all today (and not in the michaels sense ). Look after yourself, get lots of roughage :eek: and zzz's, and don't tire yourself out trying to reply individually.

CKhalvashi

Now Yorkie has got music into my mind, I've had a quiet day in the office today, so looked into several Eurovision songs, and the more I look into the Russian song, the more I'm seeing a veiled message to Crimea. The 2 girls singing (who I worked with in 2006) don't speak English, which makes me wonder what is attempting to be played here.

Or maybe I'm thinking into things too much..........

vivatifosi

It will be an interesting voting pattern this year CK. I don't think Ukraine will be giving 12 points to Russia. It will be interesting to see how Moldova and the Baltics vote too. It's the proxy vote for desired closeness to Russia...

vivatifosi

Just finished the videos and quiz for week 3. Really enjoyed this week, probably the most interesting so far. Have decided to go for the harder track so have also submitted my first assignment (due I think in six days). Balancing two MOOCs at the same time is not easy. This is definitely my favourite of the two.

CKhalvashi

vivatifosi wrote: »

It will be an interesting voting pattern this year CK. I don't think Ukraine will be giving 12 points to Russia. It will be interesting to see how Moldova and the Baltics vote too. It's the proxy vote for desired closeness to Russia...

I think Ukraine will vote EU and Armenia, Baltics will vote Nordic and Balkan, and Russia/Belarus/Azerbaijan will stick together. Moldova has hated Russia for long time, Transnistria hasn't.

My thinking for top 5 is (1-5) Armenia, Hungary, Norway, Sweden and UK, and I think for the first time ever Russia will not qualify for the final.

CK

vivatifosi

I am deliberately not listening to the songs so that I only see the two semi finals in the week before the final. I think I mentioned before that we are attending the jury final in person. For anyone who doesn't know and is even vaguely interested, that happens the night before the actual final. It is a full dress rehearsal and is what the juries see in order to have their votes ready to be combined with their national votes for the actual final. The only bit you don't get to see is the voting at the end and it costs between 1/3 and 1/2 of attending the actual final. Plus tickets aren't like hens teeth.

CK, is the Russian song good enough to make the final and you think it will be a political vote that they won't, or have they fielded a weak entry? My colleague at work (the one who I constantly chat to about Eurovision, the Brits aren't interested) is from Hungary, so will be delighted to hear you're placing her national entry near the top.