So What Now?

Do you know what advert really bugs the crap out of me at the moment (apart from that bloody Aviva 'Green Army' one), it's this:

So, you're advertising for teachers eh? Must be a big shortage? Not bloody likely!

Last night I took another step on this long journaey to becoming a teacher. My first plan for teacher training was something called the GTP (graduate teacher programme) where you train on the job, perfect when you're in your 30s and need to earn money too. However, it looked to be too competitive so I'd shelved that idea when I had the bright idea to go into secondary instead.

So, a couple of weeks ago I'm browsing education vacancies when I come across an advert for the GTP. They're advertising? I wonder if there's a shortage now? So I put my name down and was invited to a meeting last night. It was run by a consortium for the local area and they have 20 places available for next September...324 of us turned up!

OK me thinks, don't let the competition put you off, someone's got to get it and you're a good candidate. That was until the woman who runs it started speaking. Her opening line was if you have kids, there's the door, unless you want to spend a year not seeing them. Er, what?! She said you had to work every evening and every weekend and so if you had a family you had to be prepared to not see them for 12 months. Sorry, I think I'm in the wrong meeting, I didn't realise you were signing up people for a stint in Afghanistan!

Why would they want to recruit people to work with young children who had no interest in spending time with their own young children? I know teaching isn't the cushy number people think, you don't get to work just school hours and I'm more than prepared for full time hours, bringing marking home etc; but to have no time for your own kids at all?

So, swift exit I make then spend the journey home contemplating what next? Why is teaching so hard to get in to when they're still advertising for teachers. I can't even get interviews for Teaching Assistant posts at the moment. So, my options seem to be:

1) Apply for a traditional PGCE next Sept where I have a 1 in 5 chance of getting on (not to mention the competition after it's complete for a teaching post).

2) Go and work in school unpaid (yeah, we've not got a mortgage or anything)

3) Go back to secondary and risk life and limb every day (er, nope!)

4) Go teach in prisons (which is infinately more appealing than secondary!)

5) Go teach in FE (but you need experience to get on the PGCE for that, but to get a job in FE you need experience in FE!)

6) Sack the whole thing off and look at a different career (answers on a postcard please!)

I said to Rob last night that I may aswell said I want to be a rock star, I think I'd have stood more chance!

Look What I Got!!

My very own bona fide belly dancing coin belt! Can shimmy till my heart's content any time I want now!

This Week I Will Be Mainly...

... doing pretty much exactly what I did last week!

Still on with the assignment but it's coming together. Have written the main body of the text so am just going through and adding more references. Then I need to write an intro and a conclusion, then it's proof reading, bibliographies, finding some poor sod to read it through for me (Rob, you know it's you!).

I will also be carrying on with the job applications, though it seems pretty fruitless. They just don't believe that when you've got a degree you want to go work as a TA for tuppence ha'penny an hour! But, I will keep trying. Tomorrow I'm going to a meeting to see about applying for a Primary GTP (Graduate Teacher programme) next September. It's where you do teacher training but on the job. It's very competitive but you don't know if you don't try right?!

On Saturday we have a wedding to go to, Rob's friend from work Rose. I also know Rose as she's a fellow heart patient so we've talked quite a bit. It was supposed to be an 'all day drinking, staying in a hotel' job as we're going with our friends Mandy and Nick. However, after yesterday's hangover (drinking with Gem's best mate Adele; should have known our Gem only has friends who can attempt to keep up with her and Dave!), I've decided a hangover 2 days before the biggest assignment of my life has to be posted off probably ain't such a good idea! So it's a 'save £50 on a hotel and drive' do now!

On Sunday, I have plans for this:

With the Autumn cooler weather coming in fast now, I decided to make Sundays 'Harry Potter Sundays' where we spend the with curtains drawn, get the blanket out and veg infront of a Harry Potter film. We started yesterday on film 1 and so have another 4 weeks until we're done (unless number 6 comes out on dvd before then) then I will change it to something like Toy Story Sunday. Was going to go for LOTR Sundays but the chances of either of my kids sitting through 4 hours of Orcs isn't too promising!

So there you go, hopefully a queitish week. Hope everyone else has a lovely week!

Back To A Bit Of Scrapping Normality!

I realised the other day it's been a long time since I've sat down and done a normal 12 x 12" scrapbook layout. In August there was the mini book challenge on UKS, plus a new love of knitting toys! Then this month there's been LSNED to do every day, plus I've been busy finishing off the wedding album for Gemma and Dave. So, in the midst of all that my poor 12 x 12 albums have been gathering a bit of dust!

However, yesterday was the Leeds Paper Dolls crop so I had a day of scrapping loveliness to look forward to. And, who better to take along to my favourite crafting place in the whole world but my favourite crafty lady in the whole world, Marie!

Marie's crop shut down a while ago so the poor thing's been cropless for ages, so she tootled over the hills for a day of scrapping. It's only the second time we've ever scrapped in real life (as opposed to chatting online whilst scrapping 60 miles apart!) and we had a fab day just doing layouts, drinking coffee and putting the world to rights!

Anyway, I decided to do layouts for my Antigua album. I really want to get it done as I can't think of anything worse than sat in the middle of a cold and rainy British winter scrapping white sandy beaches and blue seas!

I got three LOs done, first up the famous Antiguan cocktails:

Then Emily's idyllic Antiguan hairdressers:

And finally a classic Antiguan Hawaiin night (?!):

Thanks to Marie for coming over and playing out for the day, I hope you can do it again. And thanks to all the LPD ladies for another fun day!

The Wedding Album

Finally, after 3 months Gem and Dave's wedding scrapbook is finally finished. Enjoy!

So Doctors Do Give Out Good News!

So, I think it's fair to say that I don't relish visits to any type of medical person these days. In the last year or so I don't think any of the checkups have left me feeling overly positive, so it was with some apprehension that I took myself off to my GP's yesterday morning for a review of my BP meds.

With everything going on this month, I was not expecting my BP to be behaving (ask Ally Andbag how much I was whinging at the weeknd over my glass of wine that this could be the last wine I ever drank if they put me on more meds!).

So, I nearly collapsed on the floor when I had a fairly normal reading: 120/80! OK, not out of the woods yet (I need it lower than the average person at 120/70 to protect the stent allegedly) but a marked improvement on last month's 148/93! Hopefully that means that these meds are working, but I'm also wondering if a certain bout of healthy eating and getting my shimmy on at the local belly dancing class could be helping?!

LSNED Update

I've been keeping up with LSNED OK, just not keeping up with uploading pics! So, here's a slideshow of Sept 13th - 22nd!