So sorry I've not posted up in while, as you might have seen from the last blog post (the blog takeover one) I've been in a hotel in North Wales on school placement. I was there for six weeks altogether (you might have seen the post about the first three weeks - face masks) but I had a week in the middle when it was half term. Well I've been back at university for over a week now so I felt it was about time I started getting more regular with my post - and as Dan and Leanne keep mentioning - featuring them a lot more ;)
Readers.. You might want to be prepared for a few more blog takeovers.. featuring Leanne especially.
So, in the second half of placement, we decided that we'd go out in Chester to break up the placement a bit and it was great going out with all fellow trainee teachers. I like how at university you have a whole network of friends, some who you only see on placement.
This is what sharing a room for a week can lead you too!
"The best thing about being shot in the buttocks.. Is the ice-cream" - just for you Hayley, if your reading!
So here's a selection of the photo's from our night out on placement :)
Enjoy!
Wearing rollers all day just to get ready to go out!
Just love this photo - I turned around and WHAM! photo was taken haha!
So this was just a quick update about my life, I'll be back soon to post a couple of reviews on exercise DVDs I've just purchased which I'm finding very useful at the moment! Oh, and the night we went to Chester, we made our own Harlem Shake video however, I am not uploading it here haha.. Its just too funny!
As you can probably guess from the post title, I'm having a bit of a stress out about my first university assignment. Having just come back off placement in Wales, its all been up in the air about what the assignment entails and how I need to set it out and stuff because obviously, I've never wrote a university assignment before. However, university haven't properly told us these things so I'm still crapping myself about whether I'll get it right or not.. I'm wanting to do well on this first assignment to boost my confidence for future ones. And yeah yeah, I know you'll all be thinking "well the first year doesn't account to anything, you just have to pass".. but I don't wanna be one of those people that only just passes. I like to exceed (I know that might seem big-headed haha).
Well having missed a week full of lectures, I've been filling my time up catching up with those lectures that I missed while in Wales but also deciding what areas I will write about in my assignment. I need 3 areas but so far I've got 4 to read about: Inclusion, Observation, Assessment for Learning and Behaviour (I know only education students or teachers will understand these areas haha). To get ready I went to the library at 10pm last night and got a whole load of books.. I'm pretty prepared for it now :)
These are all out the library.. 12 books right there!
Then my own personal collection of books.. I'll be using some of these too!
So last night was quite productive for me.. I've now got all these books packed in a box ready to take home next week.. However, I've just realised I'll need a selection of other books too, to keep up-to-date with all subjects and here portfolio task.
My course just got a whole lot more intense very quickly!
Well in order to cheer myself up last night, I made some paper Christmas decorations for my room to make up for my limited time at home before Christmas. I'm not feeling that festive as I'm not going home until the 22nd so I literally have a day before Christmas Eve.. I've not wrapped any presents or anything.. It just doesn't feel like Christmas..
Well here's what my desk area in my room looks like now.. :)
As you can see I have paper chain, mini Christmas tree and single Christmas card. The card has a cute story to it though, its from ones of the children in the class where my placement is in Wales.. It was so cute when I got it from her.. and look its addressed to Miss Stallard!
So cute! (for confidentiality I've cute the name of the pupil off)
For my university course, the aim of each section is to be reflective on your studies. Being a teacher requires the skill of being reflective upon everything you learn in sessions and any readings. It is an intense course and requires a lot of outside work on essential reads, being reflective (there's that word again) and creating journals. At the moment, I am doing the core subjects (Maths, English, Science, TTL and PPD) and my minor specialism (Music) as sessions, however I will be gaining more sessions after Christmas such as the foundation subjects (Geography, PSHCE, P.E, History, Music, Art, D&T, R.E and other I might have forgotten) and each of these require documentation of reflections of my studies. For example, in English and Music I am required to keep a personal journal where I can be as creative as I want (hopefully I will post some pictures of my progression in completing this) or a literal as I'd like. I'm not all that creative but as my chosen career is primary teaching, I'm expanding my creative side and attempting to make them as creative as possible, lets just hope they turn out okay.
So the idea of being reflective.. Still, to me, this idea is difficult to comprehend and I'm struggling to grasp the concept of it. However, I am trying my hardest and will make these journals as good as I can to gain the best marks I can.
I've found the following quotes fromhere which explains some aspects of reflective teaching which is what I'm aiming to be: a reflective teacher...
"Reflective teaching means looking at what you do in the classroom,
thinking about why you do it, and thinking about if it works - a process
of self-observation and self-evaluation."
"This may then lead to changes and improvements in
our teaching."
This has been a thinking post to any trainee teachers out there being asked to be reflective in their studies and teaching. I know this will not be useful to most of your reading this but the idea of being reflective has been confounding me since I began university so I thought I'd share it on my blog which is all about my life.
I know I'm getting a little crap at posting regularly but the past month at university has just been jam-packed with different stuff! In the past month I've partied, studied, created presentations, made friends for life and been on my first exemplar visit in a school as an official trainee teacher.
So lets start with everything that not related to the uni course :)
Partying
Everyone always said when living away at uni, partying is a big part of your life.. well it really is. I love the fact I can go out into town during the week and clubs will be just as lively as they are at the weekend. Personally, I'm not a big drinker or partier but sometimes you do have to let your hair down and have a good time, but also, I don't do it that often. In addition, now being a trainee teacher, I have a certain image I must uphold of professionalism and decorum. In that sense, I have been told that when I go into a school to have a placement or become a qualified teacher, both the children and teacher will google me. So I have been googling myself to see what sites or photo's appear and nothing too bad comes up; therefore, nearing the end of my degree I will have to look into closing down this blog :'( but its all for the good of my future.
Sport
If you follow me on twitter you will have noticed that I am now a member of the Edge Hill cheerleading team which is a great source of exercise. This is another thing I am having to fit into my schedule which currently isn't as full as it will be after Christmas. I am partaking in cheerleading on a Thursday evening 6pm-7pm which is Edge Hill's display team; this is the competitive team.. Although I did attend a rehearsal for that and it was VERY intense and as I hadn't done gymnastics in a while I thought it would be better to stick to the display team this year which will attend football and basketball games.. Things like that. I've never really been a big sports person but since coming to uni I've wanted to try things I wouldn't regularly try because uni is a new experience in general and the more I can get involved with the better!
Weekly Tasks
There are honestly quite a few tasks you have to partake in weekly such as shopping and being social with flatmates and people on your course. Shopping is a necessity to think about and I'd recommend setting a day when you do go shopping; personally, I don't go into Ormskirk to go to Morrisons, Iceland and B&M every week as there is a decent shop on campus that I can get weekly essentials such as bread and milk, however I do set the time aside to go to the campus shop. I never thought about these until I got here and how often my mum has to go to the shops to stock up on food that in the fridge or cupboard. The social aspect of uni is something you have to keep up with to as you need to get your own new group of friends; myself, have made friends with people in my cluster flat and people on other floors in my halls as these are those I will be around for the next year.
Oooh.. Something I nearly forget.. Calling family and friends! This is a bigggg requirement when your at uni because you need to not lose contact with your friends back home so I've been calling my best friend who's also at uni a lot and skyping my family regularly.. You need to make time for this!
So my uni course; Primary Education with QTS
Timetable
Currently, my timetable is brilliant! Mondays are quite tiring though but I can cope because the rest of the week is pretty relaxed. If your wanting to know more about my Mondays; well my first lecture is at 8am (I am so glad I live on campus) and my last seminar finishes at 6pm.. A looooong day! Although it only equals 7 hours worth of lectures which is only one hour more than a regular school day. Thankfully, after Monday I have Tuesdays off which is handy because Kitty, my flatmate, also has Tuesdays off so we normally just laze around or head into Ormskirk for the day.. Wednesday and Thursdays are similar as they both start at 2pm which gives me a fantastic lay in. In addition, I also have Fridays off which is extremely helpful for me because if I'm wanting to go home for the weekend it means I have all day to do it as I face a 4 hour train journey back to Doncaster.
Observing snails in Science - yes my course is soooo much fun!
Directed Reading and Tasks
Primary Education is a quite an intense course and requires a lot of work out of lecture and seminar time.. even this little into the course. To help you understand how much reading I have to do I normal have a chapter in one or two books or journals to do before the next session.. and I currently have six different lessons. However, an ongoing task which will be throughout the semesters (love that word) is to keep a reflective journal in each of my lessons to develop as a teacher myself. This is a tiresome and frankly.. annoying task but it has to be done and I am determined to do it well.. My English journal requires me to put in inspiration for a children's book I am required to complete at the end of the year. That means I have to be creative and I want that to be good! I will hopefully post photos of it either on facebook or twitter or hopefully on here nearer to the finishing and handing in time of it.
First Exemplar Visit
Being in a school again was great! That feeling of helping out the children in simple everyday tasks was brilliant and really reminded me why I am doing this course and where it will lead me in 3 years time. As a means of confidentiality I will not disclose the name of the school I went to for my visit but I will comment on it anonymously. The school my tutor group visited was in the outskirts of Liverpool and was a junior school which was a new thing for my as I've always worked within Primary schools where all years were in one building. This was an outstanding school and was truly demonstrated while I was there why it has been rated that by Ofsted. I spent my morning in year five and the afternoon with year three; both of which were a pleasure to be with but at the same time I did feel like I was treated like a teaching assistant and not a newly trainee teacher. However, I know can't wait for my next exemplar visit (in November) and my preliminary placement (2 weeks in November) all before the big six week placement in January. I always learn best from experience within schools so I am glad that my course is fully packed with as much experience as possible; unlike some other universities I'd seen.
Feel free to message me with any queries about Edge Hill University or Primary Education in general
In my opinion, starting university is like starting a clean new slate just like when you start Primary School and you don't know anyone or if you move schools. However, uni is a lot different in making friends than Primary School as at primary age your a lot less picky and definitely less bitchy about people. My personality is that I'm quite shy, well a lot more than 'quite' but there goes; I am so surprised I've managed to make friends so quickly! I'd been speaking to one or two before moving to uni so that was just a case of meeting them but I've quickly made friends with people in my flat cluster and in my tutor group on my course, Primary Ed.
The moving in experience yesterday filled me with so many emotions! The act of leaving home was so emotional, I had all my family there as we're such a close family and it was just full of tears, hugs and sobs! I did compose myself enough to enrol in uni and end up looking at least half decent on my Edge Hill unicard:
A very flattering photo on the unicard..
Well I know you will all be eager to see pictures of the room I'm staying in on the Edge Hill campus. Well, your all in for a treat because it is awesome! In my room I have an en-suite bathroom (more like a wet room), a TV/Computer in my room which I am currently using as a television, there is a fridge in the wardrobe which I'm using mainly for booze haha (although I don't have much) and a 32" television in the kitchen.. S'all good!
So avid readers, as you may already be aware, I am heading of to university on the 23rd of this month. Getting ready for the big move or any move is a stressful time and this isn't different for me and my family. Since finding out I had got into university it has been a sea of shopping, packing and panicking. I'm not going to lie to any of you sixth form or college students reading who want to attend university, it isn't cheap. You may also be thinking, "obviously, its £9000 for tuition fees now" but all the things you have to buy to live.. and no, you can't just steal everything from your parents.
Well he's my staple checklist:
1) Organise all essential documents: when moving away to uni, you need to make sure you have all the documents you'll need for jobs or placements or more importantly, enrolling. The most important documents you'll need are exam certificates, passport and/or driving license for ID, student finance docs, university confirmation and spare passport photo's for university ID cards.
2) Stock up on cupboard foods: the main foods to get are are pasta/spaghetti, tinned foods take ages to spoil so there useful to have, alcohol is a definite for freshers week - lets get MESSY!, I've also purchased a student cookbook that has a list of essential foods to take to make lots of easy, quick dishes. Although, I'm a little apprehensive about cooking as I've never done it much as home.
3) Personal Items: university accommodation is a little bare when you arrive so taking items to make it your own will help it feel more homely. I've purchased a few posters as I don't really have them in my bedroom at the moment but in addition, printed out photo's is good to put up round you room to remind you of your friends and family back home. Currently, I have some photo's framed and the others ready to be stuck on the walls. Oh, remember your blue/white tac to stick the things up as you have to be able to take them down when your contract ends in summer.
4) Take a printer: universities do have printers in their libraries but who knows if they will be free when you specifically need to use them to print out assignments to be handed in. Therefore, having a printer of your own is ideal in that situation.. Most rooms come with a desk so it can be just put to the back when not needed.
5) A USB Stick: need I say more? Back up documents so you always have a copy of ongoing assignments with you and you'll never worry about losing them if your laptop suddenly combusts (haha, lets hope not!).
Last but by no means least...
6) Clothes: people may say they don't but its a fact that people judge others from the moment they meet them, just from their appearance. Therefore, making a good first impression is a must, if you like me, you only dress up to go out at night but I will make an effort for the first couple of weeks at university so I can make that good impression. I don't mean dressing all fancy all the time but just taking that extra time to spruce up a little. So think about packing things you don't usually wear but would like to try something new, for people on placements.. smart clothing is a necessity! You need to make an excellent first impression there! Oh almost forgot.. dressing up outfits are fun! I can guarantee there will be dressing up events at your university and taking part will start up conversations with new people and they won't feel alienated that their the only ones dressed up and your not.
If I think of anything else before moving away or while there I will blog about it as I want to be a source people can rely on! University is a daunting process for anyone but for people that don't know where to start, its even worse. Follow me on my journey to and during university.
The final thing I want to add to this blog post is a YouTube video by a friend of mine, listing the things she has for university already. I sat watching this while eating my lunch today and thought it was a good idea for advice for budding uni students..
Check out her YouTube channel here for more videos.
It is official; I can think of myself now as a success. I have passed all four of my A-levels and my Extended Project Qualification, that means I have four A-level grades and one which equates to an AS-level. I am so proud of myself its unreal! If you've read my blog post previously about surviving A-levels and how I felt throughout and possibly mentioning how I would have changed my sixth form experience, you'll know I was quite sceptical about reaching the university I wanted and getting decent grades. I feel as though because I sailed through GCSEs and got into sixth form I felt like I was intelligent and could get to university potentially quite easily. However, getting results throughout sixth form made me ponder whether the reality of university was out of my grasp.
16th August 2012: or as it was known on my Twitter timeline "Judgement Day". I was absolutely dreading this time even since before finishing all my summer exams so when it actually came, I was waking up every hour and not wanting to drag myself out of bed in the morning.
So how the day planned out: The Full Story:
Once I woke up and got dressed I continuously checking Track, Twitter and Facebook. I saw friends and schoolmates of mine saying how they'd got into university and copying there congratulations message off of Track to Facebook which was getting me increasingly more nervous about not hearing from my firm choice but my insurance choice had changed to an unconditional offer so I did, thankfully, have some prior knowledge before collecting my results of what to expect. Seen as though there was nothing else I could do I went to school unaware of all the confusion I'd have later on in the day. On collection of my results and bringing them home to open, they were a little lower than I would have liked in all honesty but I did pass them all but I also knew from seeing them that I had just missed out on the conditions that were set by my firm choice, Edge Hill University. Presuming this, I got upset which made my mum upset as she knew I was disappointed in myself which is something she hates to see but all of a sudden, I received an email from my insurance choice, Bishop Grosseteste University College, Lincoln. This email stated I was being removed from the accommodation application there due to not accepting there insurance offer, this caused a lot of confusion as I hadn't done anything new on ucas and wasn't able to accept or decline anything of ucas. Therefore, I was required to phone up and ask what the hell was going on, BG Lincoln then informed me that they had receiving confirmation from Edge Hill that I had been accepted there although I hadn't see anything. Next, I rang up Edge Hill to see what was happening as BG required the knowledge to either find me accommodation or give my room to somewhere else. I then got told by Edge Hill that I was on the borderline of their requirements so they needed more time to reconsider and see if they were going to give me the place anyway. There was hope. Although, I wasn't about to get all my hopes up and think I was going to where I originally wanted, I just thought, at the end of the day, I'm into university no matter what.. That was something to be extremely proud of as I am the first one in my family to move away to university. So I was going to be waiting up to another week to find out which university I'd be at.. The waiting game began.
So me, Chris, Chloe and Zoe went off to town to party in celebration of us all getting into university and making something of our lives!
So, the next day, the 17th August, I woke up at midday which is pretty bad for me but I hadn't gotten in until 4am according to my mum and I was overloaded with notifications on my phone as it had been on silent: texts, bank updates, emails and facebook notifications. I was chronologically going through them all, ending with checking my five new emails. The first one UCAS Track Update Notification. Oh my bloody god I thought and my stomach was doing somersaults waiting for it to load up on my phone. I finally got onto and the welcome screen displayed:
Congratulations! Your place at Edge Hill University (E42) to study Primary
Education with QTS (X120) has been confirmed.
Yayyyyyyyy! I'd done it! Gotten in! I literally screamed and ran into my sisters room and she was all like "Whats happened?!" as I'd just woken her up with my scream haha. All my family are so proud of me and I'm so proud myself. So its confirmed, within the next 3/4 years I will be a fully qualified teacher with my own class, in charge of approximately 30 children. That's a daunting thought though! To top it all off, I got my accommodation confirmation which said I'd gotten my first choice in that too! The best accommodation at Edge Hill; en-suite, fridge and tv in room, 42" tv in kitchen, locked cupboards in kitchen. I will be living the uni life to the fullest!
