The question is…

It’s Tuesday now, I’ve just spent far too long Blogging and I’ve a 3000 word piece on “the pedagogical value of questioning” due in on Thursday

Yes, It’s still raining (which is actually a good thing because I don’t want to go cragging as much – but I still do of course)

Update

I am noticing a pattern here …. Dave makes it to sanctuary of weekend and manages to post prolifically on Monday – life sweeps Dave off again – blog remains untouched – Dave makes it to another island of peace and cycle repeats.

Well here is what happened last week – it’s been another one of those! Again! YES, I know – I’m beginning to think I’m just making it up aswell!

After my fix of climbing last weekend I was set for a good week – I managed to get some long needed trad climbing in and even got to check out two new venues while doing it. Resulting in me having dusted off the trad rack and tested the systems on routes up to and including E5 – results? All systems are go – everything felt easy and more importantly, it felt good!

Right then – Monday…. Cant really remember Monday other than I was a bit tired.

Tuesday – Tuesday morning began with the usual 6am 5 miler before work – feeling good. Work passed as it does – then I got home to find 3 missed calls from an unknown number – I return the call and get through to a school. A school looking for a maths teacher! I have been head hunted – sweet! They want me in for a tour of the school to see if I would consider working there so I hesitantly agree before rushing out the door to the Athletics track for a Tuesday night lung bashing. I swear that was the closest I’ve come to heaving on the track – perfect conditions just make the training harder! I get home and call my university mentor about this school thing and she informs me that another school had gotten intouch with her asking about me! It was a head hunted double whammy! Grand!

The next day some wheeling and dealing takes place and the result is I view the first school on the Thursday and go to the second school on the Friday (prior to an interview 10 days later) – a nice short week! Both visits went well with the schools being at opposite ends of the spectrum regards finances and achievement – but saying that I could happily work in either – I’ll post agin when I have some concrete news on the job front.

Thursday track training was another killer but it marked the first full weeks worth of training I have done now in just under a month as a result of interviews, deadlines, assignments and people visiting. 55 miles, 2 track sessions, 1 UK fell championship and a long Sunday hill run (15miles). Back on track!

Busy Week

I wasn’t trying to avoid you or anything – it’s just that I’ve had one of those weeks – after the lads were over for the weekend it was just a case of taking a deep breath and putting my head down and ploughing through it!

Monday I had one of my 3 official observations from the University – so needless to say I was shattered, totally unprepared and managed to (in typical Dave style) wing it! Brilliant! I got a glowing report! Woo hoo!!! Then things get busy again – no time to enjoy the moment! Tuesday is a real shit day – I’m teaching all the lessons and some of them bomb good style! The first time I felt frustrated or stressed with teaching actually! I was really pissed off! More with another member of staff then with the kids actually but that’s dealt with now… Chill Dave… Thursday, Caroline had an assignment due in so we wrote it together Wednesday night – all night! Got to bed at 5:40am!!!! Up at 7!!! Needless to say I wasn’t well so I went home sick at 9:30… just as well because I had an assignment twice as large as Carolines due in today!! Classic!! So after putting my dead down and typing like a lunatic I finished it yesterday evening with just over the 4000 word mark – exhausted!! Then had to chop a couple of 100 words out to squeeze it into the word limit!

But now I’m good! Oh yeah!

Off now for 2 weeks – going climbing – loads and loads of climbing! In fact I’m gonna climb like a mad monkey as often as possible – Whey hey!! I’ve managed to pick the one 7c+ (5.13) around that completely doesn’t suit me whatsoever, its great!

White Water

Well i finally finished the pupil enrichment activity i thought up over a month ago - brought half a dozen Pupils from my Maths class out for a mornings white water rafting - now there was 6 happy kids!

What does white water rafting have to do with Maths? Nothing much - but it's a fun day out! Tink took a swim while we were playing in a drop and she went under the raft before being hauled back in - hardcore for a wee one!

I learned a fair bit organising this and would like to do plenty more of this sort of stuff in the future - but i need to do more rafting myself - that was hard work paddeling an 8-man raft full of kids that couldn't really put much power into their strokes! Jacked!

Organisation

How crap am i at organising anything???? I'm doing this PGCE course (thats a teacher training course) and i have been struggling to keep up with all the planning, writing etc... that needs doing outside of school hours. Basicially, i do too much outside of my work life to be able to keep on top of it all. So where does that leave me? pretty screwed actually - i either back off the training or just knuckle down and type whenever im not working, driving, eating or sleeping. Not much of a life is it? the only light at the end of the tunnel is that hopefully it'll all be worth it when i am working as a teacher and can climb and run all summer long :) The most frustrating thing is that i am actually really interesed in the philosophies behind alot of the learning theories ... but i just dont ever seem to have the time to explore them enough. Ah well - such is life...

So I've got to arrange and take these teacher tests - Pain in the arse but no biggie. Have to type up more of my lesson plans complete with self evaluations - Long and boring and pretty urgent. And i have to do more reflective writing. Haa... maybe this blog thingey will keep me tipping over on the reflective writing front so that when i come to typing some academic reflections i'll already be switched on and can just channel the flow of waffle more easily or something - or maybe im just typing this as a way of avoiding doing any real work... Hmmmm..