Pheewwww!

Well I must apologise for my lack of blog entries over the last weeks, it has been the most outrageously busy time but I feel bad about my lack of commitment to the bloggage.

The primary placement ended very well, I thoroughly enjoyed teaching the little rascals and really got a lot of valuable insight into what good teaching is all about. Of course this placement was interspersed with sub warden training and moving house as already discussed!

So now the new hall is all open and full of fresh faced little students, the block are ringing out with the sounds of music I don't understand and an adolescent meta-language to which I have no access. I'm sure this is all good preparation for the rigours of classroom life and I have certainly been practising my teacherly delivery on a few of this year's freshers. I will say, though, that it is good to be back at university during fresher's week as the buzz is really something special; it feels like a friendship is being made every minute as glimmers of recognition and understand flash accross the faces in the bar.

Of course moving in 600 students to a site about the size of a commuter-town tesco's on one day in torrential rain was not without its issues but we got there in the end. Like any new house we have paint to dry out, showers to tease out of their temprementality and unco-operative kitchen equipment. The vibe here is great, though, and so I'm sure that once we are through these teething weeks it will be a great replacement for its former occupant.

As for me, well I guess I'm a bit new now too. I'm starting to really get into the idea of being a teacher and although I'm not without my nerves about the upcoming placements I am genuinely looking forward to getting in front of the class. The course so far has been pretty intense with lectures every day and oodles of reading to be getting on with most nights. I guess it's understandable that we have a lot of skills and compentencies to master as we are educating the next generation but in paper work format it looks even more scary.

The people on my course are really nice, lots of eager young educators. I'm pleased to say that we all seem to have exactly the same anxieties and fears and I guess we'll help each other through. Of course this means that I am genuinely getting the first year experience as we all swap tales about our former lives board switching to the chalk face.

Anyway it is my duty night and I've got to go and look for some sewerage....