Still working on it

I'm working as a Supply teacher (and supply LSA) at the moment - though obviously not being paid for being on school holidays.

I am still applying for jobs, and finding far too many schools do not even have the manners to send a no thank you email (I mean, how hard could it be?).

Many desperately need some good HR advice, as they don't seem to have a clue about how to write a job description, person specs are non-existent, and adverts often don't even say where the school is!  Given that they are relinquishing the support from their LEAs, this is maybe something Academies ought to have given some consideration to.

In this hiatus, I am also sewing up a storm, and have purchased a new sewing machine.  Perhaps I should tout myself as a textiles specialist instead of English....

I'm an applicant - get me out of here!

Oh my...., and gahhhhhhhhh!

Suddenly there seem to be lots of jobs to apply for, each and every single one wants my soul cut up into small pieces of information.

I hate application forms - they seem to nag at me like an Inquisitor.  If the boxes are too large, I feel I should fill them edge to edge and top to bottom.  If they are too small, I am obviously too expansive, too large, too OLD!  They take HOURS, even if I cut and paste - especially if I cut and paste.

The fact that I can access several LEAs works against me.  Each wants its own branded application form.  They are identical, or nearly identical, but not quite.  Different in small ways to catch out the recalcitrant cut and pasters like me - who are evidently supposed to enjoy retyping that almost-identical information as some sort of Herculean test of strength and endurance.

Next comes the personal statement - how can I fit my skillset square peg into the job-shaped round hole? Hammer it home with some well-turned phrases and explicit attention-drawing?  I could do with using arrows, highlighter and a laser-pointer.......

All this pales into insignificance beside the torment that is the interview - but I shall think about that another day.......

2011 Mantra: Decide - Commit - Succeed.

Thanks, diolch yn fawr, to lovely Welsh actress and Twitter chum, Rae Carpenter, for that one.  I'm a decisive person, it's true, but committing and succeeding have maybe been more driven by circumstance than anything else.

My immediate goal is to find a job, or jobs, doing the teaching thing I was destined for!  The good omens, if you believe in such things, are all there.

One omen (or maybe I started implementing my mantra early) is that I have finally finished and am using a patchwork quilt that I started as an undergraduate.  Time to close a door on the past, and move on.

I Love Phonics (that's not the Stereophonics, though Kelly Jones is a bit *thud*)

OK, I have been dismissive of Phonics for a (long) while, but it turns out I was doing so from a position of ignorance.

Today I started teaching teenagers with emotional and behavioural difficulties on a one to one basis, and found they responded well to the very basics of Phonics.  I also found I really have learned how to go with the flow whilst teaching, changing tack and picking up on opportunities as they present themselves.

I don't particularly like the DfES materials, but they do present a basic framework, and I have pretty much a free rein to use whatever I like.

The only way this could be better would be if I was getting paid!!

I'm an unemployed teacher, get me out of here!

I seem to have become obsessed with Reality Shows - including Strictly Come Dancing, I'm a Celebrity, and The Apprentice.  Perhaps I can disguise this obsession by claiming it is research for Media Studies?  No, you aren't buying that, are you?

My school placement is over *sobs*, and I am having a couple of days off before launching into full-scale job-seeking mode.  I have one more day at University, then I am officially an unemployed teacher.

I was talking to my mother yesterday, and she and I both said we had always considered that I am, and always have been, a teacher.

It's all a bit scary, to be honest! I haven't been to a proper job interview (except as the interviewer) for about 10 years, and I am not sure the ego is ready for the knockbacks!

Oh well, it is better than eating Kangaroo bits!

'All right Mr. De Mille, I'm ready for my close-up' - Norma Desmond

'Do I have to?' - Me!

BBC White City, 10:30 hours, lights, camera, ACTION!

Myself and several of the PGCE students attended a workshop during half term week on using film in teaching.  We learned experientially (with more guidance, I suspect, than 17 year olds might need) by 'scripting', filming and editing our own short programme.  Our keepers host and tutors for the day were Becky, Xav and Riz (spelling of names unknown, but guessed).

The group I was in, Sam Claire and Lauren, had a hysterical day filming a ridiculous satellite channel film piece about Hagrid's 'beard double'.  We also made a stop frame animation as the title sequence.  I never want to see it again but we had fun making it and learned a lot about using camera, microphone and editing technique.

It was part of a BBC initiative called 21CC - check it out -  http://www.bbc.co.uk/21cc/

Half-Term....and the Osborne Effect

I have been into my placement school to do some observation this week.  Of course, because half-term is upon us, it is a week of 'finishing stuff', and this led to the teachers apologising for dull or 'messy' lessons.  Really, there was no need!

I saw some very engaged pupils in the 'lower school' (some a bit fidgetty, but what else is new?) and some rather un-engaged 'Sixth Form' pupils, which I found unexpected and rather extraordinary.  I was thinking about it, and perhaps the national obsession with going on to Higher Education is responsible.  Young people who would by inclination be at work are engaged in A level study - to what end?

If places at Universities are reduced, what will this mean for the size of a sixth form, or the courses studied therein?  I fervently hope that it will result in an increase in the number of vocational courses being offered, and perhaps more realistic targets and expectations.

An A* is only worth anything when it is a rarity.....