Wednesday 30 November 2011

Pickets, protests and no pupils!

I'll keep it short and sweet tonight, because it's been a short and sweet kind of day. Really it's zipped by in the blink of an eye and I've actually been fairly productive.

If you're reading this and living in the UK then you'll be aware that there's been a lot of public sector union strikes today. As I work in the public sector (education) it means that my school was affected. Many, many teachers and support staff decided to strike, creating picket lines outside of the school before heading off into central London to march against Government plans for pension scheme cuts. Put simply, today's strike action was brought on because they want people to work longer for no extra cash to pay into their retirement fund. This is scary because if I was a 12 year old the idea of being taught by someone who's 67 is frightening. Surely you can't still be in touch with young people at that age?

Anyhoo, many people went on strike, meaning that the school was unable to open to pupils, but was still open to non-striking staff, like myself, to come in and work.

This. Was. Bliss.

Obviously it can't be a very good sign if I prefer going to work when the kids aren't there, and it's kind of in my job description to work with young people and educate them, but fuck me, I managed to get sooooo much done! I think I've actually managed to plan a couple of half decent lessons, rather than cobble something together at the last minute. Generally I like to think I have fairly good bull-shitting skills when it comes to being put on the spot, but often the kids see through it and can tell when parts of the lesson are improvised and a bit lastminute.com. Now though, I'm prepared! Photocopying 'n' all!

Hopefully that'll make tomorrow a little bit easier before the end of the week comes and normal, rushed service will resume next Monday.

Oh and if you're wondering why I didn't strike, even though I do empathise with the union's cause, it's because I'm a) not in a union, which is probably bad and b) I don't earn enough to be paying into a fund. If there was something to sign in support though, I would. Not least because I know how demanding teaching is and the thought of doing that until you're nearly 70 is an exhausting idea, but also because David Cameron called the protests a 'wet squib'.

Now there's no need to get personal Mr Cameron and who in their right mind uses the word 'squib' these days? Could you sound any more upper-middle class and pretentious? Could you reaffirm anymore to your public that you're not actually thinking through the whole picture here because when you reach 67 you'll still be well catered for, resting up, and enjoying your overly comfortable retirement nest egg, while others are still having to go and slog their guts out to try to earn a half-decent pension and replace the money you're squandering so they may be able to enjoy those meagre last few golden years with some level of dignity.

So then, do you really think that when two million public sector workers march through the capital it's a good idea to provoke them by saying there will be no change? That these strikes won't be effective? I only hope that all of those union members working in the public sector have the fight and the backbone to see this through, and if it comes down to the wire of unions calling for workers to down tools for a longer period of time to show their worth and determination - reminiscent of the Thatcher strikes - then so be it; I'd support them to see this through.

It wasn't my intention to get all political, mainly because I don't always fully understand cause and reason enough to comment on political matters, but I think that the UK is in such a bad state at the moment - along with the rest of Europe - that something is going to have to break; something will snap and we're seeing it happen all over the world. We saw it happen in the summer riots and we saw more of it today albeit on a more peaceful scale, thankfully.

Uneasy and daunting times ahead.

RoseC -x-

Tuesday 29 November 2011

Interactive blogging

So, I know that sometimes it can be effort to read a full-length, intellectual and engaging blog like mine and and then have to think about a witty or insightful comment to leave in response, so I've gone ahead and made a response system even easier for you using quick response boxes. Because I believe blogging can be a form of active media rather than passive, I've put these handy little boxes at the bottom of each post with choice words that you can click to show what you think about a particular blog entry. At the minute they say something like, 'funny', 'whiney', 'interesting' and 'agree'. Simply click one and I'll know what you think of what I've written.

Well, when I say, "I'll know what you've written," that's not strictly true because it's anonymous. So if you're worried that you want to say I'm 'whiney', but fear that I may hunt you down in reprisal, then don't, because it won't show me your name or who's responded. I just thought it might be fun or interesting to see what my global audience reckon about what I'm posting.

Interactive blogging all the way. Let the revolution start here!

Hope to tick-box here from you soon.

RoseC -x-

Thursday 24 November 2011

Frazzled

It's been a frazzling, full on and frustrating sort of day. Sometimes working with young people can be really rewarding and make you think, 'shit yeah this is totally why I enjoy doing this job!' and then there are other times where you feel like you're literally smashing you head against a brick wall and would probably have more fun scooping your eyeballs out with a teaspoon rather than stand up in front of a class of unruly, hormonal teenagers to try and teach them the finer points of English grammar. Today was one of those mixed days...

For example the morning was pretty awesome. There was an overwhelming sense of satisfaction as a year 11 student managed to muddle his way through a presentation with only a maximum of five swear words.

Also, is it wrong to play drum and bass to year sevens? Like, it was nothing hardcore, or offensive, and they were doing posters. I mean it was so totally unoffensive that it was a remix of Adele and she's completely not offensive in anyway in her songs. I'd go so far as to gamble that she'd be a parents' favourite and there'd be nods of approval from parents that I was playing Adele in class, even a remix!

I've found it really useful to put music on in lessons. It works positively in many ways:
  1. The kids think they're getting a treat/reward for working well.
  2. It fills the horrible silence in my room that comes with only having a small group of three or four, so it maybe doesn't feel as intimidating or pressured for them.
  3. I get to control the music and so we only put on song we all agree are good, thus giving us an education in popular culture and good music as well as English.
Although I try to put on classical because it's good to talk over and soothing, the kids complained it's a bit depressing. Sing along pop songs are banned (too excitable) so remixes are the way forward because they're a bit more uplifting and you can't really sing along. Too many jumpy bits (not technical terms). Genius.

Unfortunately the rest of my day was pretty 'meh'. I may have said this before, but I'm sure working with pupils that are literally half my age - or younger in some cases - has aged me. There are some lessons where the whole hour feels like a battle; there's no winning, or loosing this battle, it's stalemate because you know you have a duty to do and no matter how shitty the kids get it's still your job to try and educate the little...argh...darlings.

I'm too young for stress like this - for bags under my eyes, that sick feeling in the morning wondering what's going to kick off next. Can't I still be so young that I cause stress to my parents? *Sigh*

RoseC
-x-

Tuesday 22 November 2011

In the company of strangers

These days it's not often that I travel around on public transport thanks to me currently being cycle obsessed. Yesterday though, I had the pleasure of making my way around London on the snaking Tfl system of buses and tubes and honestly I can say that it was indeed a pleasure.

Usually trudging around central London during rush hour is a nightmare, but thanks to the confidence and sociability of two strangers they made my journey an interesting and heart-warming one because they were willing to to be chatty after what could have ended in short, abrupt interactions. Now, I'm not one of these people that tars all Londoners with the same anti-social brush; I've lived in London long enough now to know that if you smile, or nod a 'hello' at someone it's not often that they'll completely ignore you. It may only be a grunt or nod back in acknowledgment, but it's there. I'm not overly surprised at having a chat with these people on the tube and bus, what shocked me was how open and comfortable they felt talking to me.

The first was a young woman - probably also 20-something - in a bright green curly wig and tiara.

Instant thought = nutter.

She looked lost though as she tried to decipher whether she was on the right branch of the District Line; this is a confusion I usually find myself faced with on the DL, so felt her angst. Offering to help her with my handy map I was met with a bit of a frosty, "What? Eh?" and for a split second I thought 'Shit, talking to the crack head in the green wig probably wasn't a good idea, no matter how kind your intentions Rose!'

Turns out she wasn't a crack head and actually really nice (although a bit quirky) and for the next four tube stops we discussed everything from eating etiquette on the tube, whether hummus was pretentious, her friends wasted art studio and that she was wearing a green wig and tiara because she didn't have a bag to put it in and hadn't washed her hair in over a day. Natural answer then is to obviously wear it and solve all the problems in one go. So not a nutter at all; she was just being practical.

My second convo was completely at the other end of the spectrum and came about after a crazy man on the back of the bus started banging around and getting angry, dropping the C bomb all over the place. I'm not completely sure what spurred his anger, but it may have been because he dozed off (think he was high) and missed his stop. He then somehow thought this was the drivers fault so stomped his feet around a lot. Proper London nutter really.

Anyway, it was after this 'chap' got off the bus that I exchanged a glance and sigh of relief with an older, Asian gentleman also on the bus. "Glad he's got off," I said with a smile and comically roll of the eyes.

"Ahh that's nothing, he's just a bit strange. I've been in this city long enough to know there's stranger," he told me and it was from there I knew there was no going back and a convo had been struck up.

It was quite endearing as I basically just sat and listened and was happy to let him talk to me. He told me about when he arrived in London at 18 from a worse place - I didn't dare pry more and ask where or what - that he'd managed to get a job in London but after one day in Hastings got a job up there as a chef and liked it so much decided to move there. He went on to tell me about where he'd worked, the people he'd come across, the tough times with money and housing he'd had when younger and how now he's ended up in London again but would like to move back to Wales where it would be a bit quieter for him.

When I had to ring the bell for my stop he looked truly disappointed that our chat was coming to an end. It's so easy to forget sometimes that there are people in this massive metropolis that ironically have no one to talk to. That they're a bit lonely and they just want to offload, even if it is to a stranger. I find it really endearing and I hope that I have many more journeys when I get to enjoy the company of strangers.

RoseC

Monday 21 November 2011

The most organised EVER!

There aren't many occasions when I allow myself to feel smug and sit comfortably upon my high horse, but after this weekend I am totally going to bask in my awesomeness.

"Why the cockiness Rose?" I hear you cry. Well, it's because it's the middle of November and I'VE ALREADY DONE MY CHRISTMAS SHOPPING! Boom! Thank you to those that are nodding in awe and giving me a slow clap because you appreciate how unorganised I usually am and know that Christmas gift buying is annually left until the week before X-Mas, but this year I've actually got my arse into gear. Winner.

Sorry to those of you who are now grimacing and cursing me thinking, 'It's only bloody November, what's she playing at? Grumble, grumble, grumble...' Well, usually I would agree with you that all Christmas related things should be limited to the month of December only, but I've had an overwhelming urge to just blitz the fucking lot of it this year! And blitz I have!

Granted, it's been intense and the shock horror of seeing my first HLTA pay cheque dwindle into nothingness as it gets spent out on everyone is pretty startling (is that how parent's always feel?), but I feel all warm and glowy that I've managed to sort Christmas mostly from the comfort of my own bedroom. I did attempt Oxford St on Saturday with the boyfriend and even coaxed him into thinking that going around Hamleys on a Saturday would be a good idea. It wasn't. Our trip in there was short lived, empty handed and I think I can count myself lucky that I'm still in a relationship.

So, while I'm feeling all formidable and indestructible, I'm wondering what hardcore thing I can tackle next? Christmas dinner shopping? Decorating the house? Compiling the Christmas card list?! Ha, yes I think the latter is it. Come 'ere you fun-size charity Crimbo cards, the festive season has definitely come early!

RoseC -x-

Thursday 10 November 2011

The distinction of analytical philosophy and personal complex discourse (eh??)

Can somebody please switch my brain off for me? It's starting to hurt my head!

My first week in the post of Higher Learning Teaching Assistant is drawing to a close and it's left me feeling shattered. Not only is it the constant energy exerted in every lesson when working with young people - which I'm used to from being a TA - but it's the jump in the work load; all of the planning and preparation that's needed before the lesson is knackering because once you start thinking about what you need to organise and do for a lesson, and then start thinking about the next lesson, and the one after, then all of next week, and so it quickly snowballs into the enormity of what you need to get done between now and Christmas and it becomes impossible to turn off.

I try my best to leave work at work, but as I'm chopping my vegetables and tossing the spaghetti I find thoughts of innovative and exciting ways of how to teach verbs and clauses to a class of struggling students, creep into my mind. There is no off button. It's constant. Even when I did try and turn my mind to more sociable and relaxed thoughts last night, it wasn't long before I was engaged in a deep conversation about the finer points of media semiotics, structuralism and the effects on wider cultural ideology with a teacher-friend of mine for a lesson she needed to plan for today. Not exactly what you'd discuss in leisure time. My first thought this morning was also about work; about a fun mix and match sentence game I'd dreamt up and whether I'd have time to quickly put it together before the start of the lesson. Unfortunately I didn't.

Now why can't I be this creative when I'm trying to conjure up pitches for articles?!

Teaching has aged me. Only two weeks into the job and I already feel like I've added on five years. There's clear evidence of this too, as I sit here typing while listening to Radio 4 and I got way too excited today about getting 100% brushed cotton pillow cases and a bed sheet. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think you're average 25 year old gets excited about such trivial things and I literally have no excuse or explanation about the abomination that is being under the age of 40 and choosing to listen to Radio 4!

 It's definitely hard to be young when you're working in education and the people you're working with are literally half your age or less.

However, the weekend is near and I shall make it my aim to both switch off - banning all thoughts of teaching and strategies from my mind - and reaffirm my youthful gaiety and complete lack of responsibility and disregard all respect for authority. In short, I plan to regress. Of course I plan to do it in the most mature way possible (at a wedding reception) and taking full advantage of all of the benefits of being an adult (propping up the bar).

*Sigh* Just one more day to get through, and now it's time for me to head off and fall asleep dreaming of verbs, nouns and complex sentences, or perhaps if I nod off to Radio 4 as they discuss philosophy, religion, cultural discourse and the death of God through analytical philosophical rhtoric (or something?) I may subconsciously pick up some extraordinary knowledge with which to bamboozle people.

Night all.
RoseC -x-  

Sunday 6 November 2011

Red wine ramblings

I'm really feeling like I want to blog tonight, but I have no idea on what subject or what about, which is frustrating as there are a number of topics and amusing and/or interesting anecdotal incidents that have happened in my life over the last few weeks that I could write a witty or interesting blog post about. These could range from my creative splurge - a complete out pour of creative ideas that had me up writing until two in the morning - , my worst nightmare of getting lost in a large field, or my nerves and excitement about taking my first class next week.

All of these wonderful and possibly interesting posts that could simply spill out of me at any moment as I log onto my blog to write, but now that I'm here I find that there's nothing that wants to come out. I wonder if it's the bottle of red wine I've consumed this afternoon/evening that seems to have numbed my brain and dumbed my senses; we can definitely deduce that I'm in a comfortably numb state, which I think is important right now as I've been deserted by everyone in the house, and the impending doom that a firework is set to crash through my window at any moment as the kids outside 'play' at setting them off on a busy terraced street, fills me with apprehension. I'm thankful then that the bottle of red seems to have taken the edge off this fear and coupled with the jovial face of Michael McIntyre I feel that I'm in much more of a subdued state and ready to deal with any highly dangerous situation in an action-hero, slow-mo type sequence.

Fear aside, there are some benefits I suppose to having the house to myself: I have complete control of the TV, I don't need to do my washing up straight away because there aren't another four people needing to use the kitchen, I can fart when and where I want, hell I could even stroll around the house naked and not need to worry a jot because I'm here on my own and it's my prerogative! For all you know maybe I am indeed nude right now, jotting down all these red wine induced thoughts and enjoying the liberties of being alone...

Luckily for you though, and for the housemate I currently hear unlocking the deadlock of the door, that I am indeed clothed. Long gone are my days of public nudity - or at least for now - and so any rude inferences you may think you have gleamed about me from this post, you can now delete from your memory.

Ahh the joy of random red wine ramblings, and with that I bid ye good night!

RoseC -x-