That's all folks! (For now)

So it's official. No PGCE for me this September.

As much as Warwick seemed to have the best idea of how to select people, it was not an enjoyable day. The maths test was simple, but the English test... They lead you to believe that you'll be given a newspaper article to read and then write about - it turned out to be this report summarising the Cambridge Primary Review! I'm fine with making essay plans (I think I made a pretty good one for this), but when it's not Science or an area of expertise I tend to ramble when I start writing. When I can actually write... Writer's block is a pain in the backside, especially in a time limit!

I'd been fairly apathetic towards the whole thing anyway, so in a way once I'd got through the tests I was happy as I thought I could go home and get on with things. So when my name got called out to go through to the interview stage my heart almost exploded out of my chest - obviously I had to give it my best go, but I'd been so convinced I'd fail the English test I hadn't even thought about the interview. Let alone the group task...

Unfortunately for me, when it came to the group task I was put with two new people. All of my little table group from the morning got through - it would've made me feel a bit at ease if one of them had been in with me, but instead I was back to square one confidence-wise. We had to read a book and discuss why it was good for KS1 children. I've no idea about that age group, as I haven't worked with them and don't particularly want to! So I ended up following the other two people's lead; most things I thought of they said before I had a chance, meaning it looked like I couldn't come up with ideas of my own.

Despite all this I managed to stay pretty composed waiting for my interview - I still think I should've been the first one to go (they prioritised someone who had come from Harrogate!!), but I was made to go second. All I was worried about was the fact that I needed to get back home asap, as I was going to the ballet that night! Something that had been booked MONTHS ago - and I thought any interviews would be over and done with by May anyway...

Anyway. I may have had a calm facade but my mind was in a panic; I kept going blank when they asked their questions, and I felt like I was trying to be concise (a helpful thing when at work) rather than elaborate on my responses. And of course I thought of loads of other things that I could've said half an hour after the interview!

They said it was going to be a 3 week wait to hear back, but thankfully they only left it a week to reject me. As deflating as it is to fail three times, I'm definitely grateful they didn't keep me hanging for another fortnight - unlike Exeter! No feedback given, but as you can tell I had a reasonable idea of where I went wrong. And some solid advice given to me was to not ask for feedback if you know; why go through seeing it in black and white?

So now I'm approaching a crossroads again. My temp position runs out at the end of July, and I have to apply for what feels like my job. I understand why, but all this uncertainty does nobody any good! If I manage to get that job then that's probably a couple of years I can commit; looking into TEFL and OU courses during that time. If I do decide to go for the PGCE & teaching as my first career (I really do see myself as someone who will eventually have several careers) then application will be September 2013 at the earliest, for a September 2014 start.

Nobody prepares you for how hard it will be to get onto the course. It's all about how draining it is to get through the PGCE year - maybe the application process pales into insignificance once you actually start the work, I don't know, but I think it deserves a mention! It took me by surprise as to how difficult the whole process is, and I think that put me on the back foot from the start. As frustrating as it is to keep getting these setbacks, it's all a learning curve and I just have to learn from it and move on. You may not understand why these things happen at the time, maybe not even for years, but it will all become clear in the end!

What I need now is a bit of stability and a refocus. It'll work out eventually...

A taste of the rainforest - in Somerset

Last week saw the first (annual?!) Rainforest Day at my local first school - and, of course, I was invited!

Well. I say "invited"... More that I needed to spend another day in school prior to my next interview, and I desperately wanted to be involved in Rainforest Day - so just like that things were organised at the last minute! I was very grateful that I'd even been given my own slot during the day to run my own activity. I would've liked to have found something explosive & dramatic to do, but that's not the easiest thing within the rainforest theme! In the end I settled on a taste test.

The background to the day was an aim to raise money in order to sponsor an acre of rainforest; I was very pleasantly surprised to see how interested the whole class seemed to be in the subject. It really captured their imagination! So they all came in dressed as explorers and paid £1 for the privilege - think Indiana Jones hats & camouflage gear!!

First we made a start on the display: a board & a 'log' made to look like our very own rainforest. It started off like this (once we'd decided on the background):

The children were given the choice of making playdough flowers to decorate the log, or a variety of sheets with rainforest animals/insects/plants on them to colour in & cut out. Centipedes, millipedes, army ants, butterflies, flowers, venus flytrap, leaves, lizards, jaguars...

So once we'd made a start on that, it was over to me for the food. Thankfully they were quite familiar with the names of a lot of the food I talked to them about to begin with - and most were more than happy to have a go at tasting the array of foods I'd brought in for them! They did a great job of filling in the sheets I'd made, asking them to come up with a description of each food (appearance, smell, taste, texture) - and a few of them even knew what most of the foods were! I think I got most areas covered with peppers (red & yellow), mango, grapefruit & macadamia nuts... Clearly not everyone was going to like everything, but I think I got a decent effort out of the whole class!

Finally for my turn, I got some volunteers (again, a surprising amount!) to do some blind taste tests. The banana and coconut were both easily recognised, but the passionfruit had them foxed! I did really enjoy running that whole session. It's a shame that I can't share some of the pictures here - they made some very funny faces!

I'd also devised another fundraising scheme over the holidays - 'Name That Lemur'! 100 names (50 male, 50 female) to choose from, at 20p a go. At the time of writing a reasonable number of names have been sold, but we're hopeful of raising a lot more money from it! And the great thing is I'm the only one who knows the answer...

After lunch myself & the wonderful TAs concentrated on sorting out the display, which looked a bit like this:


...whilst the children did some work on logging. They had a sheet with a storyboard of 6 stages of deforestation, which they had to put in the right order; thankfully most recognised that you had to look at the amount of animals as well as the number of trees at each stage!

They had also been learning about the primates that live in rainforests (especially those such as the beautiful orangutan, like my adopted Sen), so the last thing was to colour in pictures of monkeys & apes from certain parts of the world: South East Asia, South America & Africa. There was a massive world map on which we coloured areas with rainforests - the plan is to stick all of the primates on to show where they live.

So that was that! Another tiring & draining day over. Now to see what Warwick think of me...

Alka-Seltzer Rocket Man

So, Science Week has come and gone. In the end I decided to go for the simple fun of the Alka-Seltzer rockets!

Because film canisters are so hard to come by these days I had to wait until about half an hour before the experiments were due to begin to test out the methods... We had a choice between Alka-Seltzer + water and baking powder + vinegar - because I didn't want to get stinky vinegar over me before the whole thing started I only tested the Alka-Seltzer rockets, and that was less than inspiring. Not looking good early on! But no time to change things.

I've spent a lot of time with this particular class over the last year and a half, but they were very surprised when they came back to the classroom and saw me there in my lab coat! Naturally there were quite a lot of questions (mainly about exploding things!), and I think they were quite excited when I said I'd studied Science at uni.

To start with I decided we should stay in the warm and check how much they knew already; I was quite impressed that a few of them knew about carbon dioxide, and could tell me about how baking powder works. They were also pretty good at describing what was going on in the glasses when I tried the two combinations out for them all to see. So a promising beginning!

The fun part began when we went outside and did some demonstrations... Varying success, but it worked more often than not - and definitely got a few laughs when it took off quicker than expected!

The challenge that we set them was to get the rockets taking off as close to 60 seconds as possible. I'm not sure that they really understood the effects of changing the different variables - even when I kept asking if they were sure that what they wanted to do was right! They probably were just enjoying themselves too much to think about all the science going on! And if it gets them interested in the subject, then who am I to complain?

Before we froze to death outside we just had enough time to make a baking powder & vinegar volcano too!

The last thing they had to do was a brief write-up of the 'experiment'; some of them were more worried about drawing the rockets well than getting on with writing, but I'm quite capable of chivvying children along! Long words and everything!

It may have just been a short time spent in school (ideally I'd have liked to have come in on a few more occasions to see other experiments), but it was definitely worthwhile - and very encouraging seeing how interested they all were in it. Especially when one boy told me he has a chemistry set at home! There's a long way to go, but hopefully there's a handful of future scientists in Somerset...

Try it yourself! All you need is:

Alka-Seltzer tablets

Water

Film canisters (or similar)

Initially try filling the canister about two thirds of the way up, and add a quarter of a tablet.

Make sure you add the tablet quickly, put the lid on and turn it upside down.

Time how long it takes to lift off - and alter variables accordingly.

It's all getting a bit Chumbawamba round here...

Well most of you will know this by now, but 4 weeks ago I got my second rejection. That's right, my Exeter dreams are officially over!

I'm quite glad that I didn't let myself get too excited by how amazing the course was - totally intimidating, but so brilliant at the same time...

It surprised me at the time how little it seemed to affect me; especially when you look at what emotional background this was up against. I'd just had the week from hell at work (having to deal with a witch of a co-worker) and felt as if one more nudge would've been enough to completely tip me over the edge, but I had a little cry about it and just got on with things. Huh?!

This baffled me because actually I was preferring the idea of Exeter in the end - the only thing would be getting to know a new city, but that's hardly a problem. I loved the setting of Bath Spa's Georgian style, but practically speaking Exeter's mock classrooms were much more helpful. It makes things seem a lot more real, which can be a stressful thing, but probably better for getting you into the mindset of teaching.

Call it pessimism or intuition, but I could see this coming. I didn't shine at my interview (at least I can mainly blame external forces for that!) and if bad things are going to happen they usually all come at once...

So I've picked myself up, dusted myself off - and starting all over again. (Cue for a song!)

It was between Warwick & Worcester for my next (and most probably last) shot; Warwick came out on top. Mainly because it offers a Science specialism, but also in consideration was that Worcester went from vacancies to no vacancies in the time it took me to mull it over! A bit further than I wanted to go, but if it allows me to pursue this then I don't mind.

The problem is my panicky, over-planner side is starting to come out - at this rate I'm not going to have time to sort out finance and somewhere to live if I get offered a place! And then what will I do?

Teacher versus Me

So I said I'd post the list of questions my advisor & I came up with as possibilities for my most recent interview...

Teacher

1. How have your studies prepared you so far?

2. Why do you think you will be a successful teacher?

3. How would you like the children to describe you?

4. Give an example of how you have dealt with a difficult issue.

5. Should schools provide extracurricular activities or leave it to the parents?

6. National Curriculum dimension of the course - how do you feel about teaching it all?

*A mention of teaching P.E. (as well as other subjects) in one question.*

7. How would you go about teaching ... issue?

*I had to do a short teaching exercise.*

8. What would you do in ... situation (e.g. identifying a dyslexic child in your class)?

*I was asked how I'd deal with misbehaving children in class.*

9. What are you not good at (to show self-awareness)?

10. Tell me about an experience with teachers/pupils that went well (how & why).

Me

1. Question about current educational issues/debates.

*Our written task was based around this.*

2. How will you make Science interesting/accessible?

*I was asked what I'd do to make it memorable & how to engage young minds.*

3. Personal statement based question(s).

*Three in total (musical instrument, learning Italian, Science/History interest).*

So I make that about 2 & a half to Teacher (out of 10 - so 25%) and 2 & a half to Me (out of 3 - 83%)... A resounding success!!

All very helpful suggestions though; please feel free to use this as advice if you're preparing for a PGCE interview at the moment. I'm in a mood for sharing someone else's wisdom!

"How was the interview then?!"

So, how did it go? Not awfully. Not 100% confidently amazing. Yes, I'm sitting on the fence! We don't find out for another couple of weeks so it's quite hard to gauge...

But here's how the day was laid out:

1) Short written task
We had to write about a current educational issue; its key points and how it would affect us as new teachers. Perfect, I'd been reading the TES as well as the BBC and Guardian websites for the past few weeks! Only... When it came down to it I just went blank. I sat there staring at the paper for a good five minutes before I started writing anything - and that's out of a total of 10 minutes for the task! But in the end I went with the story about the phonics tests using made up words, as that's the only story I could remember with any detail. Let's just say it wasn't my finest piece of writing ever.

2) Group scientific enquiry
We were given a bag of different sized balls and asked to come up with ideas about how we could use them in lessons. Here are some of the ideas we came up with together:

• Solar system - to show the order of the planets (My Very Easy Method Just Speeds Up Naming) & their relative sizes, planet orbits (drawn on playground or a child in charge of a 'planet' out on the field).
• Forces - gravity (Galileo experiment), speed & flying.
• Sounds - different materials making the balls make different sounds when hit; cross reference to Music.
• Exercise - use the football for an exercise/pulse rate investigation; catching/reflexes.
• Materials & their properties - identifying what materials made the balls, sink/float, bounciness.

I think I contributed a decent amount to that discussion (when I could get a word in) - I'm very glad I decided to read up on the National Curriculum for Science beforehand! At least helpful for some inspiration.

3) Individual interview

Well this I much preferred to the hideous group 'interview' I had at Bath Spa! A much friendlier atmosphere, a comfy chair - and proper interview questions.

• Asked about Bath Spa interview & if they gave me reasons for their rejection. Torn between lying (saying no) and telling everything - in the end I just mentioned the "purpose of education" thing, and how I didn't know where they got that from.
• Why go from Human Genetics to teaching Primary Science? Basically for me that's because I'm not a lab person! Learning is my passion and I want to encourage that in others.
• What will you do to engage young minds in Science? I said I'd like to make it an event, do as many [fun] experiments as possible to make it memorable - as well as showing a practical application so they know it is relevant.
• What are the downsides of teaching? I started with the route into it - getting onto a PGCE course is competitive, and the course itself is very hard work. Once you get into the job you have to consider the pastoral side as well as teaching.
• A little bit of 'teaching' - explain day & night using a globe. After a bit of a false start, it was basically day = light, light shines on country means it's daytime, the Earth spins as day goes on, when the UK is on the opposite side to the light it's night, night = no light. I actually turned the globe clockwise and pointed out that I didn't think I'd turned it the right way, so my interviewer did some teaching as well! (From what I heard back from my fellow interviewees they managed to confuse themselves about that a bit too!)
• How would you deal with misbehaving children in a lesson? Somehow I came up with a few suggestions: make something of it/draw attention to the child, ignore them (stop reinforcement), write names on the board (indicating later punishment), ask them to go out of the classroom and talk to them later... My interviewer suggested getting them involved - a much more positive way to deal with it, and something I should really have thought of, given the education psychology books I've been reading!
• Personal statement related questions - piano playing, learning Italian and interest in History & Science.
• Asked if I'd done any regular sporting activities - helping at a school or otherwise. Well, I've not done any regular sport since college when I played squash (more into the cheaper option of running), but always loved competitive team games at school so no problem in teaching them.
• Where do you see yourself in five years? I don't like these kind of questions - I'm not one who tends to plan that far ahead! So obviously I said "teaching". Settled eventually for "probably around here, given debts & money issues, not minding being in a big or small school".

And that was it! All done by about 11.30am. Back home for lunch!!

Happy Interview Eve!

Tomorrow then.

I'm definitely nowhere near as anxious as the last time, but I have been full of cold for the past few days - and still coughing now! Oddly enough, in some ways I think it's actually helped. It meant I didn't spend the whole weekend madly reading and making a ridiculous amount of notes (and generally working myself up into a frenzy); I relaxed and rested myself up instead. The only thing I did was a leetle bit of reading - this week's edition of the TES, and the BBC & Guardian websites. Quite easy to do when you have a cold! Admittedly I probably shouldn't have put myself through work the last couple of days, but the feeling of guilt at landing my colleagues in it would make me feel a lot worse than a poxy cold. Besides, I would've only got bored and not really gotten a huge amount better! So better to keep going as normal!

Getting nervous now. Not debilitating or anything, a healthy amount, but more in my usual style of not being bothered to go (well I will have to get up at 6.30!) and thinking about the prospect of mixing with a load of people I don't know. I'm not the best in social situations such as this, but I am getting much better! That's another reason why the group interview at Bath Spa was so unsuitable for me - shyness & an uncontrollable group dynamic don't mix well. Oil & water I'd suggest...

So what have I done to prepare? It's for a Primary Science specialism, so I've given myself a rough idea of the KS1 & 2 Science curriculum - hoping something from it will come up in the "group scientific enquiry" which I shall be participating in tomorrow, but I've been given (hopefully reliable) tactics in the event of something completely leftfield: aims & inclusion. Seems simple in theory, doesn't it?! I've also tried to keep up with recent educational news (aforementioned sources), not that much major has gone on in the Primary side of things - but I'm ready should they want to talk about calculator use or phonics tests! (I think...) I've thought of potential questions and attempted to answer a set of questions suggested to me; I'll post the list after the interview and tell you how many were anticipated between me & a working teacher!!

I also went back into a Primary setting for the first time since September. It may only have been for an afternoon, but it shows that at least I'm trying to fit that in along with the responsibility of work. We did maths, literacy & a bit of PHSE, so quite a full schedule for a couple of hours! Also still trying to come up with the perfect experiment for National Science Week... And finally I had a proper sit-down chat with my Sixth Form advisor on Friday - to give me some reassurance as much as anything else! I remain hugely grateful for all the support I've been given so far.

That seems about it... How these 3 weeks have flown by! I can't really believe that it's tomorrow! And despite the continuing cold & coughing I have been instructed to sparkle - and definitely NOT to go for the sympathy vote! Repeat to self: I am resilient, I am resilient, I am resilient...

"Questions of science..."

I have a small request to make of you, dear reader... Do you know of any KS1/2 friendly, but spectacular, science experiments?

As long as there is a bit of the science behind it that the children can understand then that's fine - otherwise all you could end up doing is melting ice cubes or something!

It's National Science & Engineering Week in March, and the local school is partaking in it once again - so I've offered to go in and run one or two experiments for some (or all - eeks!) of the classes. I've raided my trusty 'How to Fossilise Your Hamster' book and come up with some potential routines, but elsewhere doesn't seem to be coming up with the goods...

Basically if there's some kind of explosion or pretty colours involved I think it will catch their attention! My current favourites include the cola & Mentos bottle, a vinegar & baking soda bag bomb and the mind-bending effects of synaesthesia.

Obviously we can't be going completely mad; I'll have to source the apparatus after all! I just need something fun, repeatable, good value and exciting. Not asking for much, surely?

Any ideas PLEASE feel free to comment with details of possible experiments. Thanks!

Here I go again...

So you may or may not have guessed from the title that I have another interview. Congratuwelldone me.

But, exciting as that is, I can't let myself get overwhelmed by it all again - that was part of my downfall last time I reckon. That and the ridiculous group 'interview'!

Thankfully this time round I have an individual interview to look forward to. Something I'm a lot more comfortable with; I'm not great with interviews (my success rate is far from healthy) but at least when I'm on my own I can have some kind of control over the situation. For example, if there's something I want to say I don't have to physically gag someone to stop them from saying it first!

As I'm going for a Science specialism this time there is a "general scientific enquiry" in a group that will be observed. I've tried to work out exactly what this could be but I'm drawing a bit of a blank - any suggestions would be gratefully received! I've looked into the curriculum so it could be something from that, equally it could be something ridiculously simple like melting an ice cube...

My colleagues are being as supportive as ever. I really couldn't have been given a better place to work! Not too keen on the timings though: I'm somehow in charge of organising the Year 12 Parents' Evening, and that's on the night before my interview. But being given 3 weeks to prepare is very generous, so I really must make the most of it this time!

But so far the signs are all good. When I first saw the news I couldn't keep the smile off my face - and reading the description of the day actually did make me feel excited. I've not really felt nervous yet, unlike when I got the invitation from Bath Spa (10 minutes of excitement followed by hysteria), so that's also good.

The longer this process goes on, the more likely I am to try & give up or get bored - so I'm determined to do my best to get on this course. Otherwise what am I going to do?!

A real mixed bag!

Well I'm sure there are a few avid readers of my (thus far 3) posts... You'll be wanting to know how the interview went I suppose? Unless you've heard from me already. Or you only stumbled upon this by accident and don't know why you're still reading.

Let's go back to that Monday. It was a bit of an investment to go, so if it had gone hideously then I may just have given up then & there!

But I got what I wanted and had the interview first; a group interview in which we were given a teaching-related article to lead a discussion on. I was under the impression that it would be current educational issues - mainly because that's what it said on the information sheet we were given - but the articles were from over a year ago! Not a helpful start. But my immediate reaction was that it could've gone a lot, LOT worse! I didn't manage to follow the tactics I'd set out for myself, but I hadn't sat in silence or completely frozen, which is always good. And the assessments were fine, especially the Maths - I know that's my strong point, but I really didn't see why people were saying it was so hard when I found it RIDICULOUSLY easy! But there you go...

And now we come to the reason why it's taken so long for me to write. I got a response a lot quicker than I'd expected, and that was never going to be a good thing - I've been rejected. Sad face. It affected me a lot more than I ever anticipated, it means that much to me. Partly that and also the stress I went through in the days leading up to the interview... It was all for nothing!

It's a very bleak time, and the timing was not great - just over a week before Christmas. It's a miracle I was in the mood for family get togethers at all! But through the support of friends, family & colleagues I'm over it (although it does still grate at me) and ready to move on to the next challenge. My application has been sent to Exeter, and I await their decision (to interview or not to interview?) with bated breath.

I haven't, however, quite got my head around the reasons Bath Spa provided for my rejection: "Your response to the reading task did not indicate a satisfactory level of understanding of the article You did not demonstrate awareness of the purpose of education and the structure of schooling." Got that? No, me neither. Let's break it down:

• I accept the first reason - whilst I know I did understand the article, my nerves must have got to me and given me blabbermouth disease. I do remember that happening! So that's fine.
• I wholeheartedly object to the second part. How can someone who's had over 5 years of experience in Primary School volunteering not know anything about what education is for and how schooling works? And that's without going into the years and years of schooling I've experienced myself first-hand. This was and is the main source of anxiety for me coming out of this interview experience; it is an entirely unconstructive, negative, soul-sapping comment. Though I'll perhaps wait until I'm actually teaching to make a riposte to that! As tempting as it is to answer back...

But aside from that, I'm taking the positives of another life experience - and how a group interview works. For a shy & generally quiet person in an unfamiliar environment, I think I did well. Wherever my next interview may be (please be Exeter, please be Exeter!) I would really like a 'proper' interview - although at least I have an idea about the group situation now, if needs be.

Checking Track every few hours is not doing me much good. A watched pot never boils and all that...