Commonwealth Day

Building on the ESDGC day myself and MAJ had been given the opportunity to take 4 pupils down to the Welsh assembly building in Cardiff to put up a display on the Environment – our future. The day also included a guided tour of the Senedd building and we got to partake in the questions to the first minister for Wales infront of the entire assembly. The whole day was filmed and will be turned into a promotional DVD.

The group was met by Peter Kellam, the Senedd’s head of European and International relations and Mari Wyn Gooberman, the Senedd’s head of Education. We were then given a guided tour of the Senedd followed by a buffet lunch during which Assembly Members and invited guests from all over Wales and the world viewed the schools presentations on the environment. Jacqueline Wilson, Director of Governance and Institutional Affairs Division of the Commonwealth Secretariat flew in to give an address on sustainable development. This was followed by a Choir performance by Cor Ysgol Pencae, introduced by Janet Ryder AM, who performed some traditional Lesotho songs for some delegates present from that country. The group was then taken to the gallery above the assembly chamber to observe questions to the First Minister, Rhodri Morgan AM from the other assembly members.

Once finished with the formalities we took plenty of cheesy pictures around Cardiff newly re-developed Bay area and spent the night in a hotel. The Kids really seemed awestruck by the whole day and appreciated the effort we had put into organising it. It really took some grafting on my part to secure the funding and make all the calls necessary but I’m glad to say that now, sitting on the train heading back North to Rhyl I feel it was all worth it. Now I just have to sort out the schools recycling programme once and for all – Just need the time! Trying to fit in teaching, running with a committed athlete’s schedule, climbing and all this extra stuff that the school needs but no-one seems willing to do is working me – but I think I need to be worked hard to be happy – makes me appreciate things.

ESDGC

Education for Sustainable Development and Global Citizenship. That’s right, another initiative being introduced to schools and another thing that I find myself involved in. Last week myself and a colleague arranged a day of activities for all the year 7’s (1st years to the Irish) to highlight the issues around sustainable development and their place in the world.

The local Sealife centre came in and gave a presentation on conservation and the importance of recycling with lots of examples of habitat conservation going on in and around North Wales. An African artist came in and worked with the children making African tribal masks and gave them loads of information on the cultural significance behind them, which they loved. Then a group called Europe Direct had a workshop with the children comprising various activities on the European union and it’s countries and languages. I’m not the biggest eco-warrior on the planet (but I do like to read about recent developments in renewable energy and waste management) but it’s really inspiring to see the results that can be achieved simply by putting in a little effort. Schools seem to be full of opportunities for good work to be done but a lot of these opportunities pass by without a second glance simply because no-one is willing to give some time.

Just another Sunday

Well another week has flown past and i've not really had a minute to myself! Really busy with school and work, Government inspectors are in next week observing teaching and learning standards within our school so everyone is wound up with that. Managed to make it to a climbing wall on thursday though and even found a project - a wall that has never been climbed features only - sad but it kept me busy! While there the owner, Ian, was telling me of a rockface he's found and wants to develop with routes up to E3 or something so i'm interested in checking it out with him sometime. Caroline was climbing well too and is ramping up climbing activity for a summer full of Goals on rock for both of us - looking forward to it already. Yesterday we had planned on making it out to Dinbren again and working the project but it was not to be - had to content myself with a fore-arm bursting session on the wall - just thinking about the project till i peeled off the small rungs, fingers twitching....Aaaaahhhh, it hurts sooo good! Today we've got another 10km race so we'll be hitting the road in about 30mins or so... i'll update on the results but to be honnest i'm kinda not feeling the flow this morning - tonnes of marking and planning to do for the comming inspection week!

Oh, plus i'm selling the house.... like i said it's been a busy week!

Oh, and i've set up the schools Duke of Edinburgh programme!

.....and i'm helping to organise and run the School's ESDGC (education for sustainable development and global citizenship ) day next week

.... and co-running the eco-council (involves setting up a recycling scheme etc...)

.... and i'm going to the Welsh assemby government in cardiff with a colleague and 4 school kids to attend a forum on sustainable development the following week!

Really busy!

#3

Hmmmm…. What else? Oh, yeah, interviews! Man they are testing me! I’ve never really failed at something. If I have, I’ve always made the changes and fixed it. These interviews are pushing me to my limits and I’m learning new stuff about myself as a result. I suppose I’ve never had to work hard for anything before – well now it seems like I’m working for everything – relationship, career, climbing, fitness, friendships – the one thing that keeps having to suffer for all these things is me – but that’s the thing that also gains so I guess it works out like a trade in or upgrade – I swap a piece of the old me for a new enriched me! Anyway – been on 3 full day interviews – came second choice in all of them with glowing feedback and essentially being told I gave a perfect lesson, provided a great role model both on paper and in person and aced all the interviews! The first one I lost to a local welsh speaker who knew half the staff of the school (… do I hear banjos?)… the second one came down to a split decision among the panel and they gave it to a friend of mine from my course (Linda) –basically I didn’t have the ovaries! It was comic though – I got a debrief from the deputy head that took over an hour – first thing he said was – I wanted you!…. the most recent one was in a nice school but I had been warned that they were looking for someone to handle the worse sets in the equivalent of Irish 4th, 5th and 6th year! They appointed a woman with 8 years experience – a real mean machine – that’s just not my style – again feedback was “you’re a great teacher but we don’t need a great teacher for THIS vacancy, we need crowd control”… Needless to say I’m getting fed up with having to explain to people that I’m a failure but the interviewers tell me I did nothing wrong and I’ve nothing to improve on. Slightly frustrating would be an understatement!

Luckily for what remains of my sanity I happen to think everything happens for a reason – only after the last one, driving home, thinking about paying bills etc… I realized – I’ve never had to work like this for anything – this isn’t coming easy! I’m adapting, learning and I’m gong to apply this and more to my climbing. I got home in a grand humour and the freaky thing is, the next day – two positions popped into existence in my IDEAL two schools! They’re both in Wales and they are where I have always wanted to teach over here – I’ve not got them yet but it just highlighted that things can seem so futile when stuck in the middle of them at the moment things are happening but ultimately there’s a point to it all and plenty to learn along the way too.

Sad and hippy – possibly

… but it’s keeping me going for now and I like it!

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!

Roscolyn

Sunday i drove back out to meet the guys at the Roscolyn campsite where i had left them the night before - We packed up and hit the crag - this time a propper trad sea cliff. Yadda yadda... will write about this more when i can - here a pic of the best line we did - "Electric Blue" E4 - Nice!

Christleton again…

I got a surprise through my letterbox the other day in the form of an invite for an interview at one of Cheshire’s top schools – Christleton, a specialist Maths college. I prepared for it, went to it and didn’t get it. It came down to a split decision apparently between me and one of the other candidates. But with the entire fulltime staff currently employed in the department being male they chose to employ a woman. The feedback was all great – another Interview where they said I didn’t do anything wrong and would be hard pressed to improve my performance … but didn’t give me the job as a result of factors outside of my control.

It’s becoming a grind and it’s taking its toll on me – no denying it.

The actual teaching is great, I love it! It’s just the associated stress that precedes it that is bugging me. Assignments, reports, interviews, standards logs… everything that makes up the PGCE

It’s still raining in North Wales – seems like it has been all May!

Fingerboarding is keeping me sane, but only just!

This is my final blog as a 24 year old

Kev and Rob are over this weekend for some trad climbing action

…and I’ve caught a cold

Thoughts and Catch-up - Wednesday 18th April

Well I’ve hit the grindstone again – back to school Monday and back into the usual routine of working and training. I always feel like everything takes a step up a notch when you get stuck back into things after a couple of weeks lay of and rest. Our new weekly mileage of 55 miles seems to be holding up well and both Caroline and myself are still getting PB’s on the track and during our AM road runs during the week so we must be doing something right.

Also, I feel that my climbing training is going well lately. My hypertrophy training took a serious knock over the past few weeks with people coming over to visit and the training room being taken up with peoples gear and spare beds etc… but I feel proud of the fact that no matter what was going on I still managed to do a minimum number of hangs and pulls from the board every day.

I didn’t mention it in earlier posts but after the first couple of days cragging over the Easter holidays I managed to hang the smallest rung on my board footless for 20 sec for the first time – maybe I could have always done it and never tried or maybe the bit of sports climbing shocked my fingers into activating more muscle fibres – whatever! All I know is that I’ve noticed an improvement and it has opened up a whole new area for me to train. Since then I have been gradually adding sets of hangs and locks off this rung and the fingers seem to be handling the loading quite well. Also, using the larger rungs I can now consistently do sets of 15 pull-ups at a time. Now I want to keep targeting my finger training and further build up and work on my core separately – I know it’s just a case of deciding to fit it in and doing it!

For some reason I am managing the school workload better these days so more of my free time is actually free and I don’t have to stay up till all hours planning lessons. Caroline has an assignment due in this week but once that’s in I’m reserving my Monday, Wednesday and Friday evenings for cragging – I’ve had 3 7c’s suggested to me by the guy who wrote the local guidebook so I’m planning on trying to project them – Like I always say, the climbing at Dinbren is so hard for me that working these routes should really go towards bringing me on… only one thing worries me – a route I belayed Neal on, one that he found desperate, was suggested to me as an easy 7c – Gulp! Either it didn’t suit Neal and it’s alright or the other 7c’s are absolutely Brick hard!! I’ll post more on this when I try them…

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!

Phew!!!!!

Whats better than being given £300?!?! I now know for a fact that being sure you're going to have to fork out £300 for something that wasn't your fault - £300 you dont readily have to waste i might add! - and then finding out it was all a mistake and you dont have to pay anything! That is a nice feeling! Trust me! Phew!

This experience of trying to organise a fun adventure activity as a kind of thank you to the pupils i had being teaching has woke me up! not that it has put me off trying to do similar things for the kids in future but just to be extra careful about booking places and not to take their word that they're interested... I was nearly forking out for two empty white water rafts myself!!

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..