The end of an era...

I have now moved onward and upwards...if you want to find me, i'm now here

Moonbathe

I wish I had ordered one of these....now the solar plum colour I wanted it in has sold out :-(

Leaving an oddmality tag for a more creative one...

Got tagged to list my oddmalities but seeing as i'm not odd ;) I thought instead I'd introduce my old but now new again hobby - jewellery making. The tagger bought me a home jewellery making kit for my birthday and I've been hooked since (no pun intended).

Was going to post this after I'd given it to you but I can't sleep and want to reply to your tag so her goes....


I made you this necklace using jewellery wire (any wire thin enough to thread beads or even thread itself can be used)









A close up of the design. I only used one piece of wire and twisted and knotted it at certain places to make the design.


A close up of my signature tag. The pendant thing says 'made for you'. Bought these when we went on a craft shopping trip.

One side of the necklace clasp needs to threaded and tied on to the wire before you start adding beads.



Hope you like it :-) oh and remember to acted all shocked and surprised when I give it you ;-)

PS: I'm hoping to add more things i've made, the good, the bad and the ugly things. Really can't seem to enable the comments section, so I might just move elsewhere....catch me if you can!

I saw this and thought of you...

Brooches......



.....more brooches


and MORE brochees


ALL for you Hema, I did try and buy you one but appranty they exchange money for brooches and I didn't have any at the time. JTM can back me up here my intentions were there....

The dawn of a new horizon...

From what happened during placement, new ideas I had back in April and speaking to several people about the lack of activities for Muslim youth,I decided to go ahead and organise a Quran circle at my house. After all what is there to lose?

With the blessing of my Dad and the help of a dear friend I know have book of Quran stories for children and lots of ideas for activities to do with them. I plan on starting it during the summer maybe a day or 2 every week at my house. SO if you have any siblings, cousins, kids loitering around your street send them to me.

For further information email me : email add has now disappeared you were too late DOH!

Edit post: Just received this email:

.... got a phone call today from a sister whose looking for soemone local to teach mosque kids at ***** masjid in rochdale the basics about islam in english... if anyones intrested in doing this over summer (in the evenings around 5-7 for as many days as they can spare) then please InshAlah Ta'ala let me know... or if u know of any sisters that might want to volunteer for such a task..much appreciated :)

Hmmmm do I go with my own idea or jump on the band wagon of this idea? With my own idea I'll be fully responsible (which kind of scares me) and I've already planned which stories to use and what activities to do. The other one will mean that all the responsibility won't be on my shoulders which is a mega plus and there will be more kids at a mosque then in my living room. However I know there is controversy about the mosques in Rochdale. I don't understand it but I do know it exits. Would that mean children who might come to my house might not go the mosque in question? its times like these I really wish my comments section was working....

Laziness told me not to blog

Last Monday I walked in to school worrying about lesson plans what I should have been worrying about was alot worst then kids popping balloons or drawing on themselves.

The school I was in was a catholic primary school which took on children from all faiths. No other religion (that I know of) was taught. On that Monday I sat through assembly. Started off pretty normal until they started reciting the lords prayer and a girl sat next to me obviously a muslim starts reciting it too.

This was then followed by a teacher asking all the children who had made their first holy communion to come to the front. She then went on to congratulating them - fair enough it is a Catholic school after all. Then she said something which shocked me more then the Muslim girl reciting the lords prayer, more then realising that said girl had not been told about her own faith no this was shocking. This teacher prayed that those who had done their holy communion would follow the in the footsteps of Jesus for the rest of their lives and those who were not yet believing in the holy trinity would find the light and start to follow Jesus. At this point I just looked around to see if anyone else was as shocked as me. Why was this teacher encouraging children from a different faith to join her faith? My eyes fell on the little Muslim girl again and I watched as she nodded her head at the teacher with so much sincerity I thought she would convert there and then.

The whole issue played on my mind for most of the day. A sad fact of life had surfaced and made me realise how many parents are ignorant about the schools they send their children to and exactly what is going on in schools. It's saddening to know that people are willing to send their children to a school without caring about what is being taught. The only thing that seems to be a priority is the distance between their home and the school.

After doing some research on the net I came across this its an article about Compulsory Christian Collective Worship and Christian Religious Education (RE) and what Muslims can do about it. The article has a letter which can be printed of and sent to the school asking them to withdraw their child from this worship.

Sometimes parents don't have a choice as to where to send their children due to finances or lack of transport BUT that is not an excuse to sit back and allow your children to know and to a certain extent follow a faith you don't want them to. We as Muslims seem to leave education at the front step of schools next to nothing is taught at home by the parents. Its about time we took responsibility for what we're doing to the youth. If you know of anyone who might not know about the rights concerning collective worship make sure you pass this on.

Final placement

Kept waking up, looking at the time and realising I had another few hours before I needed to be up. Finally it was time. The week has begun.

I'm a little nervous i'm team teaching three lessons today. The pre-visit lesson went well aside from a random photographer coming in who wouldn't stop taking pictures of me whilst I was teaching. This really threw me and I ended up letting the class out 10mins early! Hmm actually maybe it didn't go to well.

Today I'm team teaching drama, art and D&T. In drama it will be all about hot seating and freeze frames. In Art we're recreating Elmer the elephant but her patches will have drawings of zoo animals. and in D&T it's making paper mache masks well actually they'll just be putting the paper mache on to the balloons then letting them dry for thursday.

It's time for me to go please pray that the class take part in the drama, that they draw on the fabric and not each other and finally that they don't pop all the balloons.....now do you see why im nervous?

Back to English!

Hadn't realised I was writing in Hindi (previous post) till I looked up (haven't mastered touch typing yet) but when I did it looked so cool I thought I'd leave it as a post.

Anyway the net disappeared for an entire week! At such a wrong time too, so much has been going on since that I don't know where to start!

Let’s see my last post was me looking forward to being back at school. Wow seems so long ago. All the motivation and enlightenment i had felt then quickly disappeared when I got to school. Not because of the class but because of the group I'm with. They all wanted to go home and not bother with it and the effect rubbed of on me.

I know I shouldn't let people's bad vibes so to speak get to me but it really did and after some disagreements, last min changes and a tense atmosphere I'm now planning and delivering a pre-visit talk on my own.

I don't mind to much because I've fallen in love with the class. I really don't know how I'm supposed to decide which age range I want to specialise in, whenever I step in to a classroom be it a nursery, a year 1 class or year 5 I end up loving it so much so that I know that That’s the age I want to teach.....until I go in to another classroom.

Anyway back to the class there was only 4 girls in a class of 26!! Some of the kids were of that day. I'm guessing they were girls - not because girls are skivers but because there was hardly any! Thankfully my knowledge of Arsenal that I had learnt from the last placement enabled me to break the ice with them beautifully and we had loads to talk about.

The class was doing an art project on 'The Joy of Life'. They drew things which made them happy, some drew things just because they were easy to draw such as flowers. Never seen so many boys draw flowers! These were then cut and stuck on to cardboard which was then hung from a cardboard stage. We didn't see it through to finishing point but if some are on display I will take pics. It’s an idea I shall be using hopefully.

This post is getting long and very random. I wanted to talk about how my motivation fell from such a great height in detail, about the class in detail and about the work they were doing in detail but it all seems so long ago and I want to write about some other things.

I'll end this now before it gets too long!

थे नेट इस बैक वोव इम व्रितिंग इन्चिनेअसे

होव दो ई चंगे थिस? इट्स चंगिंग एवेर्य्थिंग ई राइट इन तो चिनेसे! थे कुल्नेस्स ऑफ़ इत अल ओह वेट थिस इस्न्त चिनेअसे इट्स हिंदी!

वहत थे हेल!!!!

School Tomorrow!

I've got the bee buzzing inside me feeling. The one which only being in a school can bring. I'll be meeting the class I've heard so much about for the first time, working with 5 other trainees for the first time and I'm going to be working with year 6 for the first time.

All the firsts are making me really excited and really nervous to. I'll be battling it out to stand out from the other 5 and try out all the exciting ideas I've spent ages planning. I've gone over the lesson plans and made sure there is a clear element of learning in there.

A book I've been reading opened my eyes and a talk about the Madeline issue and the countless number of children who are in similar situations to her, has made me realise that I've been the airy fairy 'I'm your friend,lets have loads of fun' type of trainee teacher for way to long. It really hurt when I realised this. Now however I've come to terms with it and realised I'm a trainee for a reason. I'm still learning.

My new aim is to be a teacher. In that I actually teach. I don't want to help mould another generation of sheep who follow everything they see in the media. I want to teach so that I create inspiration and motivation. Most of all I want to teach so that children become the shepard's rather then the sheep. They can think for themselves and make their own decisions. I want the children that I teach to achieve greatness and help this world out of the sorry state it's in.

Yeah, I know EXTREMELY optimistic aims for a wannabe primary teacher. Think I've been outside a classroom for too long. Hope this next placement doesn't lower my expectations to 'my aim is to get them to sit still for a lesson'

At the moment I feel abit like the cartoon pinky and the brain where every episode is to take over the world. Here it's to help change the world for the better...Insha Allah

Just do it....

I have an assignment due in tomorrow. We have to evaluate our presentation and talk about teamwork listing conflicts, strengths, weaknesses, how to resolve them etc.

I don't mind talking about my own strengths and weaknesses but feel bad writing about the conflicts we had as a group. It's like I'm backbiting yet I don't have any trouble talking about the conflicts with almost anyone who will listen. Just writing about it seems to feel like a sin. Ok maybe not to that extreme but abit like when your in primary school and fear being called a grass by saying so and so did or didn't do this.

I don't want to be a grass but at the same time I don't want to lose out on marks for not evaluating or analysing in enough depth. I'm sure non of the issues we had would ever come up if we were actual teachers rather then student teachers. We as in the whole group would be dedicated more and we wouldn't fall in to some of the pitfalls we did. Or maybe I'm just being too optimistic...so far I've just hedged around the true learning points but it sounds like I'm talking in riddles. Having been on the receiving end of reading riddles I know that can be annoying and it just leaves me wanting to know EXACTLY what happened.

I'll stop now seeing as I'm not making much sense. Think I'll just get on with it. Whatever will will be will be........(que sera sera)

Just in case you haven't noticed that's TWO posts within the hour ;-) I'm sticking to my resolution.

Me the great Auntie ;-)

Bounce and twirl it's a baby girl!!!

This actually was the balloon I took in to the hospital. :-)













Was supposed to post that up on the 3rd - the day she was born. I wrote a whole letter type of thing (hence the space) but re-reading it now it sounds waaaaaaay to soppy, so I've printed it and shall stick it in to a memory book I'm keeping for her.

Oh and I intend on blogging more often so watch this space :-)

Hello Blog

I thought I'd start writing again seeing as hema tagged me. Now it won't stop hyperlinking grrrr!!

Anyway here's the top 5 words I use:

1. Silly (I don't like swearing)
   
2. Dammit (When silly won't do e.g. banging my head, when I'm trying to get out from under the table)
   
3. Jeeee (when mum's calling me to come downstairs which seems to be an awful lot these days!)
4. Thank you (That's two words so technically that's 5 words done? :-P )

Might aswell add a brief update:

I'm going to the zoo tomorrow. YAAAAAAY! We're going for a pre-visit to do a risk assessment. We've already cancelled out taking the kids to the bat house. 1 because we're all scared of bats and 2 because we're REALLY scared of what the kids might do. We've been told the year 6 class we're going to be with is lively, unique and interesting. That's politically correct for crazy, weird and random.....I can't wait!!

Our presentation will be on the 8th. We're all dressing up as animals for it. I would write down what I'm going as but I know some of you are so immature you'll never let it go! The presentation has to be as creative as possible and include a brief introduction on where we're taking the children, what kind of activities we have planned and how they link in with the trip. We have to carry out some of the activities with the audience, so basically they become our mock students. Only they much older, will probably listen and I doubt any of them will pick their nose as we talk :-)

That's pretty much it I think.
Wasalaam, goodbye and staaaaaaaaaaaaaaay SAFE!

Trust Issues

Due to constant nagging, comments are now enabled so come one come all, speak you mind.

See I don't have trust issues....yet



I just checked and it hasn't enabled comments, I seriously tried. If some kind person could show me how to do it again I shall be gratefull(ish)

New Ideas

I was talking to a friend earlier on about ISB after being directed to their web page I found that there are muslim scouts!

Don't worry I don't want to join the scouts I'm as the same friend said 'old' BUT what I do want to do is set up a similar thing where I live. I know the neighbourhood kids, all of them would benefit and I can spend time with them without looking like a saddo who has no friends her own age!

I've sent an email to one of the organisers applying for it along with it a string of questions about the whole organisation. Hopefully if I get the reply I want I can carry this out and make it my summer project.

I'm already planning activities and ways to go about them. I laughed at my dad's new 12 seater but now I see the many, many, MANY uses it can have. I could take them on trips, we could have picnics and instead of the kids coming over to our house/garden to talk to me individually we could do group circle time like at school! It would be such a fun way to learn about Islam.

I'm getting so excited it's scary...I need to get out more or maybe its just passion ;-) I'm sticking to the latter ;-)

The Girls

I came home to 2 unexpected packages today. I turned then over racking my brains trying to remember if I had ordered something but then I saw my address written in a spidery squiggle I instantly recognised it and ripped them open. The first was 'The Girls' by Lori Lansens and the other contained 2 of J.K Rowling’s finest...the chamber of secrets and the philosopher’s stone.

Thank you very much for posting. Was a beautiful surprise :-) I've already starting reading it and the first chapter had me giggling and then almost n tears towards the end....I know it's going to be a great read!

On another note some other girls will be wrecking the house tomorrow. I'm now looking forward to seeing all of you and providing you with great entertainment.....

Reading List

With all my reading time spent mostly on uni books, researching stuff for assignments etc. I've realised I haven't read for pleasure for awhile. So here's a list of books I REALLY, really want to read. I've cut it down as much as I can (I haven't added Harry Potter). I'm hoping some of you kind hearted people might get a copy for me. I'm not fussy about the condition it comes in either ;-)

So in no particular order here's my wish list book list:

1. Once Upon A Country- A Palestinian Life - By Sari Nusseibeh with Anthony David
2. Daddy's Girl - by Lisa Scottoline
3. kite runner -by khalid husseini
4. The Girls - Lori Lansens
5. Eats,shoots and leaves - by Lynne Truss

Just 5 books. I could name you so many reasons as to why I deserve them but I'm sure that won't be necessary :-)

I love you all very much ;-)

Full Moon!!!

Saw the moon from my window, it looked so beautiful. A perfect full circle of silver. Perfect oppertunity to try out my photography:


My first attempt...I got the reflection of my blind instead of the moon...









Second attempt...too much flash. Discovered my self timer whilst fiddling to turn off the flash!











3rd attempt: RESULT!! Although not as good as how it actually looked. I didn't manage to capture the angry black clouds creeping up to hide it nor the scattred stars :-(




One of my friends took pity on me and went outside to get this pic for me. It captures everything I couldn't. Thank you very much and you are now officially invited to join me on my quest to find and go to photography classes. ;-)

Photography

Is a hobby I want to pursue. Having looked at a number of photography related blogs and websites I've been inspired to give it a shot. (No pun intended) It will also get some use out of my camera which only seems to appear out of it's case on special occasions.

Here's a few picture's I've taken already. They are very amateur as I've never had any lessons in photography.Maybe I'll try and go to some with my fair lady ;-)

So here's some of the best one's I took in dubai:

This is of the Burj. Taken on the way to 360. I like the way it just dominates the sky.

I can’t remember the name of this place. I took it on the same night as the Burj picture. I love the way the last of the sun's rays shine off the sides and reflect themselves in the smooth sea.

This is a picture taken from my sister’s apartment looking down on sheikh zayed road. I like the blurred cars it reminds me of how quick life passes by.

Plannning a plan

This is going to be a boring post so if you want to read something abit more interesting oh I don't know lets say something about me and 3 others watching semi clad men fighting over 'earth and water' and what happens when u run up a down escalator then proceed to this blog: http://www.justatemporarymeasure.blogspot.com/

For here there shall be nothing more but a plan of what lessons we are planning to teach during the excellence and enjoyment week:

Music:

1a, 1b: 'We're going on a bear hunt'
3a: Listen to animal sounds. Can they be identified. (Starter activity)

PSHE:

2a: Debate about whether or not zoo's should be allowed. Courtroom style or snowballing. (Link with drama role playing in a courtroom?)

PE:

6a: Dance: Observing ways in which animals move, moving in this way. Make this in to a dance.

Art:

I'm getting bored of this, will edit at another time. Meeting with school tomorrow at 2.45pm

Inclusion

My next big assignment is on 'inclusion'. Think I might enjoy this one alot more then the last one. I've started it early to after much reluctance I resisted the temptation of loitering around in the sunshine with my fair lady and headed for the library...all the way in Didsbury!

I've decided to look into how I would include EAL children and children with behavioral problems, boys in particular, into my lessons. As I can relate these issues directly to my placement and they are both issues I am genuinely interested in.

For background research for the behavioral problems I started reading a book called 'What about the boys - Issues of masculinity in schools' (Wayne Martino and Bob Meyenn) the chapter I read was on 'Cussing matches' which are 1 on 1 challenges where each boy takes it in turn to insult the others 'momma' the first one to make the other crumble in to tears or lash out is the winner. Alot of this is normally done during playtime and dinnertime but sometimes it can spill over into the classroom.

According to the book its a way for boys to show their heterosexual masculinity and is normally shown by the more boisterous boys who are normally a part of a group. This was the case in my class however after one incident of it spilling over in my class they never tried the cussing matches.

There were afew boys who weren't a part of the group this was because they had been left out because of language barriers or learning needs (boys can be just as nasty as girls) so when during a spare few minutes before playtime the children were telling me what they had been up to one of the boys who is just learning english put up his hand. Me thinking it was a good chance to include him in the conversation got the rest of class to quieted down as he spoke:

Shyboy: Miss I have joke
Me: Go on then (beaming to myself at his confidence in speaking in front of the class)
Shyboy: Yo mamma's so fat I eat my corn fleks in her belly button

It's magic........don't you know?!

I had a really emotional post going through my head Thursday night.I was stressed out about an assignment and almost cried but by Friday I had handed it in and nandos made me forget how crap it was!

Now I've just remembered it and it's starting to annoy the hell out of me. Apparently only our assignment grades go towards the degree classification. How friggin stupid is that??!! How can an assignment show how well you teach it?!

What annoys me the most is that I know I can teach better then I can write assignments...

I just had a tee hee session and now all the pent up anger which I was going to regurgitate here has magically vanished......I want to buy them all broAches ;-)

5 weird things...

I got 'tagged' by hema (http://hemasphere.blogspot.com/) to list 5 weird things. Although if we were to play 'tag' for real as in the world that exists beyond the computer screen i doubt she would ever catch me.

So 5 weird things hmmm:

1. Im double jointed in my fingers and can bend them in ways that shouldn't be possible. No I will NOT show you. Trust me its weird.
2. I HAVE to to carry around those small tubs of vasaline. I don't function without it and if god forbid I forget it I end up buying another one. For the last week or so I've been picking up a bag realising its not big enough to hold my stuff and using this other big one.The same bag everyday. Every time i do this i seem to transfer vasline tubs in to the big bag. Today I had 6 tubs of the stuff in it! hmmmm wonder if I can sell them on on ebay...
3. I 'collect' bags. (Donations are always appreciated to this worthy cause)
   
4. I've screamed at least once through every film I've watched.
   
5. I have conversations in my head. No this doesn't mean I talk to myself, I simply replay past funny moments and they are as vivid in my head as when they happened. This does from time to time lead to me laughing when I REALLY shouldn't but hey it keeps me entertained and smiling.

Hmmmm re-reading that it sounds like I fit in to the 'freak' category well and truly. I tag EVERYBODY reading this. (email me when u do it)

Trip Trap!!

Apprantly the teacher liked my idea and there's a good chance we will be going to the zoo.
That's the trip bit.

Now for the trap bit....there's a chance we might see snakes.....

The last placement

Only have one more placement left to do for this year. All based on creativity! It's just a week towards the end of June. It's also the most complicated one, not your box standard go in teach, let's see if and how well you survive.
This one has to be done in a group of 5. We have 2 day visits before the actual placement and then we're in for a week. No core subjects are taught...its all just foundation subjects.Oh and whilst we're there we have to organise a trip which is enjoyable and produces excellent work afterwards.
Our school has a budget...so we've been told. After the meeting today with the school I'm not so sure. We had to submit ideas for the trip and creative ideas we had for lessons. I chose 'Chester Zoo' Spent the PE lecture coming up with creative lessons. Which included:

• D&T linked with Art: Make a patchwork quilt in the shape of Elmer the elephant. Each child contributes on their patch they draw/paint/scribble their fave animal.
• Art: Before the trip do drawings of animals they think they will see. Evaluate their drawing to actual animals. Include some observational drawings.
• Music: 1 of the LO's for this is to analyse sounds. A software I've used before includes animal noises. Involve puppets in some way and waa la! Pure excellence and enjoyment - for me anyway.
• PSHE: Debate weather or not animals should be kept in a zoo. Do this in a countdown style awarding points for good views etc.

As you can see they all very lame. My other idea, the cheap and simple one was Manchester museum. We can pick any one of the areas there and that's enough to go on.

Also just for this placement we have to do a presentation, an assignment and then plan every damn lesson as a group!! Someone please get me one of these:

Picture perfect

Stress levels are high, deadlines are around the corner, life changing decisions need to be made and I'm back to wasting time. Bad habits die hard.
Spent about half hour or so going through pictures from college days to the present day. Reminiscing days gone by.

Only ones I can put up are the ones taken from my nursery placement. Looking at these reminded me I have to decide by the end of this year weather or not I want to teach children aged 3-7 or 5-11. The only reason I don't want to do 5-11 is because that will rule out ever working in a nursery. This wouldn't have been such a hard decision had I not had such a brilliant time during the nursery placement.



Role Play Area:
Does what it says on the display. This was the area where the children let there imaginations run wild. Whilst I was there it was a baby clinic. All I did was play the Doctor part. I checked the dolls and told the children about feeding, changing, bath time. Everything a 4 year old 'parent' would need to know.
Incidentally there were some 'awwwww that is so cute!!' moments.





The Home Area:
It tasted This was the place in which, for the first time in my entire life not one not two but 3 cuties made me a full english breakfast. It tasted plasticy.

Was amazing they really got in to the role and we had quite afew 'Itsh in the oven, itsh burn all over!' moments. Again the cuteness factor here hit the roof.


The Quiet Room:
Was quite from time to time. We had singing time, milk time, circle time, birthday time and story time in here. I loved every minute of it. Apart from the first day!






Sand and Water Area:
Only place where the children could get in trouble. A number of 'accidents' the best being a doll drowning and the water mysteriously turning to mud at the same time as the sand disappeared. We never did find the culprit...they all had sand in their pockets and had been in the baby clinic that day. Babies really know how to cover their backs!



These pictures always remind me of innocence, laughter and freedom. What I wouldn't do to be four again....*BIG SIGH*

Hot Fuzz

Once again should be managing my time better but having sat through a 3hour lecture and gone over some group work I think I deserve a break!

So here in pictures is what I did yesterday it has nothing to do with teaching but hey it's a good way to waste some time and LOOK like i'm working hard.

We went to the sushi bar in selfridges...

I ordered this. I also used the chopsticks...

for the 1st bite but the had to use the above...

It seems I have non of this so called aquired taste, simply because I didn't want to taste this:

or this:

or this:

I did try this sponge cake with rasberry sauce and some of the chocolate fudge tho

But the best bit about it was...

Oh and we watched Hot Fuzz - very funny and gory!

The end!

So many things so little time....:-(

Currently I'm supposed to be doing an assignment on speaking and listening but just remembered a line I read in a book...'You should never start something you don't intend on finishing'. With this in mind I've decided to leave the assignment for now (haven’t started it yet) and finish of the post I started afew days ago. Last Tuesday to be precise.

First day back at uni, well first day of lectures I was in uni yesterday. All through the lecture my mind kept going back to school and I kept thinking things such as 'ooo it'll be playtime now' and 'It's close to dinner wonder if **** has been exited from the class yet.' Then during a lecture (and practical) on teaching dance in PE I kept giggling to myself as I remembered some of the funny things the kids had done. Thought I'd write them down to cherish for as long as this blog lives. So in no particular order here goes:

• There's a kid in a different class he's only been in the country a few months and is just learning English, he so unbelievably cute! He's recently learnt the word 'broccoli' and that’s all he ever says any question you ask him from doing the register to a times table question all he will say is broccoli. I ask him questions just to see him grin at me and say 'broccoli' then nod as if he's given me some really wise words of wisdom to ponder over.

• Whilst reading 'Charlotte's Web' to the class I said the word 'pig' the majority of the class put their hands over their ears and went 'tauba tuaba'. I tried explaining it wasn't a bad word but they weren’t having any of it and kept telling me to say P-I-G instead. Just for the fun of it I read a line and said P-I-G instead of pig and then got the giggles. The kids really couldn't understand why such a serious issue was making me giggle so much.

• We had a further education visitor in. She was there to talk to the kids about uni I have no idea as to why seeing as half of them didn't know what uni was. For one of the tasks the kids had to make a dream weaver and write about what the dreams were. A long winded activity to ask 'What do you want to be when you grow up?' Anyway the kids get on with it and we have a few doctors, some nurses, a vet, a mosque teacher and then 'Miss I want to work in McDonalds' I looked at her thinking she hadn't understood the task. 'This is for when you grow up, what do you want to do then?' Pauses for awhile and then in a serious tone if I don't work in McDonalds I want to work in WHS'

• A boy in my class used to always dance even when he had to sit on the carpet. Whenever I told him off he would look up at me and in an american accent say 'My baaaaad!' Every time he did it I had to try so hard not laugh.

It's all good in the hood

I've decided I’m not a very good blogger, simply because I don't blog enough! Everyday of this week something has happened which I want to keep some sort of keepsake but by the time I get home, finish planning, chatting on msn etc I'm too tired.

Anywaaay to redeem myself I’m going to write up what has been happening....

Tuesday something of Feb:

its a few days before world book day and ALL the staff from teachers to cleaners have to dress up as a book character. Thursday will also be the day I get my final observation the decider of weather or not I pass and how well I pass.

For once I decide to do something abit early instead of leaving it till the last minute. I decide to get my costume sorted. Went by the 'Abracadabra' (costume shop) yesterday but it had been closed so I decide to ring them up today.

Abracadabra man: Haaaaaylo abracadabra here how can I help?

Me: Hi was wondering if I could reserve a red riding hood costume? I went by yesterday but you were closed

AM: Yes, we're closed Sundays, Mondays. Is it for book day? We have a few left but they're going fast so I won't be able to reserve anything.

Me: Erm that’s ok I guess, I finish at about 4. Will you still be open around that time?

AM: Yeah we're open till 5. I'll try and keep one aside for you but can't promise anything.

Me: That's fine. (Hang up)

Day goes on teach a few lessons. Do some acting with a puppet (a story to blog about at a different time) pretty soon it's time to go Abracadabra. I explain to Dad where I need to go, he parks up outside I go in.

Me: Hi, I rang earlier asking for a red riding hood costume.

AM: (Looks at me abit funny) so you did love. We have one left.
(Manages to locate it beneath a pile of fake hair and wands)

AM: Might be a bit short...

He then pulls out a red mini dress with a huge slit on the side with those cheap looking criss cross things, the tiniest cape and fishnet stockings. My jaw drops, I stare from him to the costume

AM: It comes with a basket too

Dad walks in

Dad: You forgot your purse in the car.......Is that the cape it looks abit short?

Me: No Dad that’s the dress lets go.

I've never been so embarrassed in my life!! Why the hell would anyone think that something from a fairytale should be converted in to an outfit fit for a porn star!!

Thankfully I was able to get some red material from an asain shop and my sister-in-laws mum made me a gorgeous cape out of it. By Thursday it was all good in the hood...

The kids who dressed up looked so good and pictures are gorgeous...ones of the children anyway!

I love it when a plan comes together

Was up at 5 today to do planning. I've reverted to doing them all in the morning the ideas just flow so much more better and by the time I get to school I’m fully awake. This however also means that the most of the planning is in my head. I do have some stuff typed up but not on the official 'planning sheets we've been given by the uni.

We started 'sound' today. The key objective was for the children to understand that we hear sound because of an object or material vibrating. I had done a proper plan i.e. used the uni planning sheets in the morning but for some reason I don't seem to write down the actual plan just a vague overview.

Just before dinner I was told that I would have 3 other teachers in my class during science. I wasn't too worried about my written plans; no-one really reads them word for word anyway. I was going to stick to the plan in my head. I was more nervous about teaching the class whilst these other 3 teachers are there. By the time the lesson started I thought sod it! I'll use the teachers in my lesson. It's not often you can have a teacher per table so decided to make the most of it.

The lesson went brilliantly the extra teachers were impressed too. One of them commented on how confident I was.......yeah right!! Inside I was really nervous thinking they were going to turn around and say 'we weren't here for you to use us' but the kids really did benefit and that’s what matters the most at the end of the day. Besides since when did it take 3 teachers too observe a lesson?!

Tomorrow’s agenda:

The final's for the talent show. People who made it through:

'Bop to the top' boys
Belly dancing girl (who I think is too young to do some of the moves she was doing)
2 girls from my class
Skipping girl and I can't remember the rest. The break dancing kid didn't make it fortunately...I wasn't the only teacher who thought he was hil-ari-ous! Thank god!

Bop to the Top

Bop to the top!

Mentor walks in to classroom from staffroom
Me: Anything on the whiteboard?
Mentor: We ALL have to dress up for world book day and come in as some stupid character!
Me: ha ha, think I’ll come in just to see that, when is it?
Mentor: 1st March
Me: 1st? March? that’s the day I get my final observation?
Mentor: (looks in dairy, mimics my laugh) yep sure is!

Now I have to actually make an effort to impress my tutor and show that I’m wholeheartedly taking part in the wider school community grrrrr!

In other news, todays semi finals of the talent show had a performance imitating 'bop to the top' form high school musical.

I was trying to paste the video from youtube here but it keeps telling me it'll send it shortly, shortly has passed and still no video so look for 'bop to the top' yourself....then imagine 2boys doing it....

Bop to the Top

I saw this being performed at todays semi finals of the talent show....

The age of innocence...

This morning it felt like a life time had past since I stepped in to a classroom by the afternoon it felt like I had never left the classroom. The kids have grown up so much its amazing and freakishly scary at the same time.

4 weeks before when we were doing the highway man the boys couldn't even bring themselves to say the word 'kiss'. Today during ICT we used a program (which I recommended and the school have got on trail :D) called kar2ouche. The software provides everything you need to write a story using a storyboard. The task was to come up with a storyboard about a myth using just 6 screen shots.

The boys managed to get the characters to kiss......They actually had a knight and a princess embracing with their lips locked.

I was just shocked so shocked I can't even remember what I said to them. Whatever it was that I said must have made them feel abit embarrassed because when I came around again that scene had disappeared and was replaced with the knight having a battle with a fiery dragon. Much more normal for them. For awhile I thought I had imagined it. There’s no way these same boys who point blank refused to say the word 'kiss' could possibly be showing their characters snogging each others face off. Their innocence couldn't disappear so easily. I decided to believe that.

I believed they were still innocent until the end of the day when they had to copy out the meanings of the spellings they had to learn using dictionaries. The boys soon discovered that on page 661 there was a word which began with s and ended wit x. This really made me just stand there. Completely gob smacked. I opened my mouth to say something along the lines of 'Stop being silly, and grow up' when a flash back of my A2 English language class came to mind. At the age of 18 (twice the age of what these kids are) I quite distinctly remember studying old english and along with the rest of the class looking through the etymology for rude words in old english.

That memory caused an irremovable smile of my face. These boys will most likely be doing the same thing with dictionaries for the rest of their schooling....guess some jokes never get old and innocence doesn’t last as long as I thought it did.

How time flies....

Wanted this blog to have some sort of record on my teaching progression but life is moving quicker then ever before. Too many things are happening which I wish I had the time to write about. Actually I wish I had a pensive like Dumbledore's in Harry Potter so that I could sieve through the hundred and one things racing around in my head and be able to relive some moments, go over some things in more detail, experience things again...hmmmm if only!!

I'll use the rest of my time on this PC wisely and put this blog to use, quick update on teaching and life:

Had to quit teaching practice a week early to go Dubai. I'm due back on Monday...I'm dreading going back. Even tho it's only been a 2weeks (week I missed plus half term) it feels like I taught a life time ago.

Dubai was brilliant. I learnt and experienced more things in this 1 week then I have in the rest of my life. (The exaggeration is very slight I really did experience and learn alot) This 1 week is the reason as to why I'm craving for a fictional and magical pensive.

Time is up
I did add some pics of dubai, they haven't appeared tho.....oh well

If you can't beat them...join them!

During assembly the year 6's sit on the benches, its an unsaid rule. Happens in almost every primary school across the country. At my school the rules have changed because the year 6's couldnt sit still and would refuse to join in with the assembly so now whichever class has earned the most assembly points (awarded for how the class enters and leaves, how much they join in etc) get to sit on the benches.

Today the year 5 class i'm teaching now and the class I taught last year won the right to sit on the benches. I was beaming with pride...even tho I had nothing to do with them earning the right but what the hey, having them respond to my stupid grin with an equally silly grin was worth looking stupid over.

As we were walking back I spoke to one of the boys from my last years class. He talked to me about Arsenal's game over the weekend and their 2-1 victory. This got me thinking maybe the boys i'm currently teaching will respond better if I have something in common with them. So being a glory seeker I am now an official Arsenal fan. I may never watch them play - live or otherwise but I WILL go out of my way to find out scores and learn players names for the sake of getting on with the class.

It did actually work the boys talked to me for alot longer with hardly ANY giggling from the boys who were not part of the convo....think i'm making progress! Still sometimes wish I had last years class but this class is growing on me and i'm really starting to like them and the baggage they come with.

Back to planning.....

One minute in my head...

So much 'wow' factors have happened over the last few days that I want to keep a memory of. Rather then go in to great detail about them all, I'll just make brief(ish) bullet point notes about them:

• Writing in first person from a female point of view is hilarious especially if the female in question is in love - according to the boys in my class...They had to read and act out the poem the next day twas hil-ar-eous! Actually that whole day was.
  

• I've started to get on with the boys!! Before whenever one of them would talk to me the rest would giggle and wisper 'you fancy miss' now that doesn't happen as much. 2 of them still go abit red when I talk to them randomly think they scared of being told 'You want to marry miss' the rest will start a converstation with me now instead of avoiding me...FINALLY.

• Treating them like mini adults works SOOO well! Instead of saying things like ' *insert name* your still talking, this is your second warning..' I say '*insert name* look I've told you once to stop the talking you know it's rude, if you can't sit quietly go back to your seat or chose another place to sit' by giving them an option and speaking like I would with an adult they respond soooo much more better. I also say things like 'Do me a favour and hand out these books' as opposed to 'You can hand out the books because you were sat beautifully through that.' (3 WOW factors for this, seeing it work is so much more diffrent then writing about it.)

• As I was walking down a creepy shortcut after school too meet a friend, I walked past a man taking pictures of a building and another young man. I went passed them both got half way down the creepy way and the young man ran behind me and said 'Excuse me, sorry I saw you walk down this way and just felt it was my duty as a muslim brother to tell you it's not safe to walk down here. There's another way its abit longer but its safer...' he then went on to tell me about the other way. Who says gentlemen are distinct?! (have to admit I did get abit scared when he first came up to me, suppose stereotypes have more of an impact on me then I thought!)

• Same day as the above I had forgotten my phone. I got in to town and waited around for my friend for ages but she didn't show. I walked home and got a call turns out she had been upstairs in the library waiting for me. I felt really guilty for not going up there to check and forgetting my phone....REALLY wanted to see her to. Wow factor here? How much we (well I) rely on technology! How did I meet up with people before?! Now its set a time, when it gets closer to the time ring and find out the place or in my case ring to get directions.

• The class assembly this week was by the year 3's about poems. Some of the poems they read were entitled 'One mintue in my head' Try this if your reading set a timer for 1 minute, now concentrate on what you think about. Once the minute is up write down what you thought about. Now turn that in to a poem. Now that you've read it through give it a try!! Here's some of the things the kids wrote: 'Why are elephants fat? Who will play with me today? I hope we have chips for dinner. Who's sat behind me? Why is America taking over? I can smell cheese' Those poems made smile it just showed how problem free their lives are alhamdulliah. I tried it but the places my thoughts went to are not waht i want to blog about!
  

On that last note I'll wrap it up and finish
Now on to planning how to teach fractions......

Behaviour Management

This year i've had behaviour problems (from the children, i don't personaly have behaviour problems) that i've actually struggled to control. This is pretty new for me and by admitting 'i struggle to control some behaviour' is almost like admitting to defeat, like i'm not doing the job properly. I feel I have to justify why im not able to control SOME behaviour. I know I can control alot of behaviour but some it seems I will have to work on.

The behaviour problems i'm struggling with are:

• 2 hyper active kids who can not sit still. It's not just something they do in my lessons but in lessons done by the class teacher too. Admittdly it is alot more in mine then in his. I wouldn't have to much of a problem if they were just keeping to themselves and getting out of their seats but no it can't be as simple as that. The 2 of them have to go around disturbing anyone and everyone and thats the thing I can't deal with.
• A small group of boys. The 'cool' boys. Need i say anymore?
• The last one is the amount of time they taking changing activities. It takes them a good 5 to 10mins to put their books away and come and sit on the carpet.

I've only been teaching 3 days and I know the problems are there because their trying to see how far they can push me, how much i'll let them get away with etc.

I had to exit 2 people in the first lesson I taught. I made an example of one one of the pupils I exited to show that im not giving just empty threats, which I later felt abit guilty about. The law had to be laid tho, I guess.

When I taught during the day visit they must've thought I was doing this as a one of and gave me an easy ride. Ever since they've realised im going to be teaching them 60% of the time for the next 6 weeks without their normal teacher being there....the problems have started in bucket loads.

The first few such as the children moving about and not sitting in their correct carpet place. I dealt with. I doubt they'll ever try that one again.

Things such as 'but sir lets us...' were complty destroyed by me saying 'Well it isn't sir teaching you its me, so your going to have to stick to these rules....'

Noise levals i've been able to control by firstly trying to shout over them kinda worked but not aswell as I wanted it to. Yesterday I counted down from 10 worked abit better but I was still shouting over them as i counted down and today I used a powerpoint timer on the intractive white board....RESULT! I didn't have to do any ok i did very little amounts of shouting.

Now I need to figure out how to deal with the top 3......

Time for a cup of tea me thinks...

After learning to put up pictures I realised the saying can't be read on the poster! I also can't log in to my blog unless I click on the 'forgotten password' link, it then emails me a link which leads me to my blog....strange. Anyway the saying thinga majig:

'Far away there in the sunshine are my aspirations. I may not reach them, but I can look up and see their beauty, belive in them and try to follow where they lead.' (Louisa May Alcott)

Aim for the moon and if you miss at least you'll be amongst the stars. (author: i dunno)

All i've been doing for the past few days is planning, planning and more planning...only trouble is it's just getting done in my head rather then on the pc which is where I need it! Anyway last night as I got in to bed I looked at this poster above my bed...

The saying on the poster is:

This made me think of my future plans, which i started thinking about in mid-term, daily, yearly plans like my teaching one's! I didn't make a new year's resolution so i'm gonna write my thoughts from last night here...which are kinda fuzzy seeing as almost 24hours have past.

Yearly plans:

To become a better muslim by adhering to the rules on modesty. This I know is gonna be a slow process seeing as i'm so attached to clothes. So by the end of the year all jeans shall be banished from my wardrobe. This includes the one's from mango and esp. the miss sixty one's.

Mid-term:(teaching doesn't have monthly plans so i didn't plan my goals for months)

To get all the kids in my class to learn their times tables. I was helping out on the lower ability table during a maths lesson. The oral and mental starter was to write down factors. For every number that came up they had to look at the 1 times table to see if 1 was a factor of that number. I want to change this.

Daily:

To pray at school esp Asr prayer. Im in a school which the student population being mostly muslims, the staff know we pray 5 times a day so what the hell is stopping me from doing this?!! (rhetorical question)

Can't really remember the rest I thought up. Guess one is enough for each of the headings.

Oh and I learnt to include pictures properly without fiddling about for ages......just in case you hadn't noticed ;-)

I'm back at ********* primary! home...sweet...home.

Today was the first day visit and i felt like a celbraity as soon as i walked on to the playground at break. The yr 3's i taught last yr all came and hugged me and kept asking me 'where did you go?', ' do you remember my name?', 'will you be teaching us again?' and the number 1 question of last year....... 'what's your REAL name miss?'

The year 1's i taught last year (now yr 2) remembred me but wernt as clingy as the yr 3's. They've grown soooo much!! They still play with the same friends as they did last yr.

This welcome left me with warm fuzzy feeling i used to get last year. I can't wait to start teaching and getting this sort of reception from the yr 5 class im with this yr.

I felt abit shy around the yr 5's which was really weird! but after what happened during playtime i'm gonna make them like me as much as the yr 3's and yr 1's....time to start planning fun oral and mental starters. The tiger in the box game i made up last year is DEFINTLY going to be used again this year.

For the rest of the day my face was like the one above...yep i looked just as silly as that!