So you think you're going to be an English teacher??

In one of the orientation sessions last week, we all found out that there is a high probability that we will end up teaching subjects and students that we didn't intend. This is especially likely if you are a science teacher of any description, as you will probably end up teaching Maths, at some level or other. Many teachers end up completely leaving the area that they specialised in at uni.

The idea of my becoming a Maths teacher is hysterically funny (my mathematical education came to a grinding halt once it reached quadratic equations. They sent my brain into emergency shutdown, and I never did get the hang of them. Still got O level Maths, though, so nya-nyah), but there's a good chance I could end up in Sociology, or History, or Art, Music, Drama etc., depending on the needs of the schools that are hiring new teachers (don't worry, Harry Potter is applicable in all teaching areas!).

In addition, we are now learning the new National curriculum, which will be coming into effect by the time we are graduating and (fingers crossed) getting jobs as real-life teachers (eek!). The teachers that we will be doing prac with most likely won't have had the benefit of professional development about the new curriculae, which will make things interesting.

Speaking of becoming a real-life teacher, at 8am this morning (Day One) we were told not to think of ourselves as students, but as teachers, and to imagine ourselves applying all these brand-new pedagogical theories in our own classroom. EEEK!!

Comments

Understanding my physical challenges: An analogy

So, I've been trying to come up with a way to explain to a non-disabled person what it's like to face physical challenges at work, as a person with a disability. My current workplace is very physically demanding, even for me, a wheelchair user with long arms, full reach, abdominal muscle control and good balance. After 2.5 years of just getting on with it, despite the inaccessibility of large areas of my workplace, I'm at a point where I'm having to say, 'Enough. I can't do it any more.'. My employer is struggling to understand what's changed. Why is my workplace 'suddenly' inaccessible? What has changed with my health, to make my work so arduous for me now? Here's my analogy*: Imagine that you are looking for a job in the field you have just qualified for. A new employer says, if you move out to our location, we'll give you a permanent job. You just have to be able to carry 10kg. Cool, you think, I can do that. I'll uproot myself...

Dear Cleaner, please don't wash my dishes.

(Warning: contains swearing. You'll see why, I hope.) Considering that I am constantly fighting with piles of dirty dishes in my little kitchen, you'd think that the first thing I'd want my cleaner to do is wash them. And I used to. But I quickly realised that although the dishes moved from the pile, through the soapy water in the sink and to the drainer, the vast majority of them didn't end up being clean. It turned out to be a great big waste of time - and a huge disappointment - and I had to wash the stupid things myself anyway. Mine aren't as pretty, but I do have a yellow bowl. So now I do them myself, eventually. When my cleaner comes, once a fortnight, I'll sit and do my dishes while he or she is doing the housework tasks I find difficult (rather than just annoying). I have also even been known to do a sink full of dishes in between cleaning visits, often in the middle of the night when I can't sleep, or when I have other pressing things to d...

Health vs Weight

I unexpectedly ended up at the Sporting Wheelies gym the other day, after avoiding it for about a year. I was going out to breakfast with a friend who also used to work there, and she detoured us on the way to drop in and say Hi to whoever was there. It was pretty early in the morning, so only the gym was open, so we went in and chatted to a few people. It was actually quite painless, despite my fears of humiliation and mortification. The Gym at Sporting Wheelies (that's not me!) The main reason I've been avoiding the gym there is not that I used to work there, but that I've put on so much weight over the past couple of years I'm too embarrassed to show myself there. I've also been avoiding other situations, because of feeling insecure about my weight and how I look. I've been steadily gaining weight for the past few years, and one of the reasons for that is that I've been trying to work more on my health than my weight. Since I was about 15, un...

Compostable Kate

Search This Blog