Thinner the cane the more the pain!

Today we had a Victorian theme at school. It was brilliant. All the children came in costume and so did the staff and role played being in a school. I thought that it was very realistic we had props and everything. We even had some canes that the teacher pretended to use. The children did Victorian lessons (some of the maths they were given to do even I couldn't do but that's probably be because i'm squiffy that way!), they had drill.

I was rather jealous. When I was in school we never got this level of involvment in our learning. We did work on the Victorians. I remember doing the research but we never got to do drama or anything like that, that related to the topic. It does make me happy to see that this generation is getting a better involvement in history. I have a great love of what has gone on in the past and I think it shows a lot about what is happenening now. Why we do what we do and how we do it. My gran never wastes anything. She scrapes butter pots clean and saves used wrapping paper. Not because she's a cleptomaniac but because she grew up during World War II. She had to skrimp and save and re-use everything she could and it's stuck. History gives us a window to the way we were and the way we are.

Hopefully what these children learned today will stay with them for a long time and won't be washed away as quickly as reading it in a boring book.

Things are on the up!

Today has been a new experience for me. I went into work to sort out all my details before I start work. Nerve-racking at first but then I just relaxed and I feel like I'm going to enjoy it here as long as I don't let my shyness take a hold.

I'm going to make an effort to try and talk to as many people as possible in the first few days and be as sociable as possible. I was getting really excited when I was reading about school discos and when holidays were and things. The one thing that bugged me when I was on placements was that I was never around to do those things. If there was a school trip then it was the week after I left, if there was a disco or some kind of after school event or weekend thing like a fete then I couldn't go because the taxi picked me up at a certain time and so I wouldn't be there and the school was very often miles away from home so I couldn't just pop back or make my own way (the taxi fare to one of my last schools was £100 a journey because they had to go so far out they expected the return fare as well as taking you out there because they were unlikely to get a return fare).

It'll be nice to be able to say oh I can stay and do a shift on the book fare or do you need people to do refreshments at the disco. I'll feel like part of a team rather than a spare wheel who doesn't know anyone or anything about the area. I'm not too familiar with the area at the moment but I think I know a fair bit compared to placement schools where I spent a month and didn't see outside the school walls.

The best bit of this is that I'll still be working in schools. Back in April/May time I thought that my life wasn't going to amount to much and that because I couldn't continue my PGCE I wouldn't stand a chance of getting to work in a school. Looks like things are on the up.