Highlights of March and April

During March the reality of life hit and I was no longer super enthusiastic about rushing out and doing all the tourist attractions during the weekend. Financially reality also set in and I realised that if I wanted to travel I would need to work every day! However it wasn't all bad below are a few things I managed to experience...

The Eagles in Concert:

Trish received two tickets to this. Ant didn't want to go so Trish asked me if I was interested. Not a huge Eagles fan but never one to pass up a new opportunity I said yes.

It was my first experience at the O2 centre and I was amazed at the size of the place. The O2 Centre is a huge 'tent' like structure in which there are at least 2 concert/sports venues numerous restaurants and cafes.

The concert was amazing and I was surprised how many of their songs I knew. A good night out.

I also experienced another famous London venue: The Royal Albert Hall. Ant, Trish, Kristen and I went to see the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra play Symphonic Rock. Lots of rock songs played by an orchestra.

The Royal Albert Hall is the most beautiful venue in the world! I felt like royalty just sitting in there! Unfortunately the Symphonic Rock concert was probably not the best one to see. There were several 'bus tours' there. The group sitting directly behind us sang, clapped and talked throughout the concert. For me the idea of going to the orchestra is to enjoy the music and having people chatting around me was quite distracting. I think I would like to go Vivaldi by Candlelight which I'm assured caters for a slightly more refined crowd!!

Easter Weekend was very different from New Zealand... it SNOWED!! Just lovely and so beautiful.

Ant, Trish and I have also been very busy completing The London Easter Treasure Hunt. This is a competition where you follow guided walks around different parts of London and have to answer questions or discover information as you go. We have done five walks and it has been a really interesting way to orientate myself and learn a bit more about my new home!

Sunday 6th April we again woke up to snow. It was quite deep and the perfect day to stay at home with a good book. However Amy had won two tickets to the Olympic Torch Finale and had asked me to go with her. We met at 2pm and had a coffee at the O2 centre. At 2.30pm we lined up and made our way into the ticket holders area.

We could see the progress of the torch on a big screen but they kept cutting the feed when protesters disrupted the progress of the flame. So all the 'good bits' were bleeped out!!! By the time the torch arrived at about 6pm our toes were frozen and we were ready to leave! As we exited there were a group of Free Tibet Activists who were doing their thing... and shouting right in their faces were some Chinese people screaming "Liar, Liar... It's all Lies!!" I don't quite know how I feel about the Olympics at the moment.

Interviews I have attended...

Wednesday 19th March

I had an interview at Lord's today for work over summer. I went early and had lunch with Trish in the member's dining room. At 2.45pm I met the head of the catering department and a few other 'prospective employees' at the Grace Gate. We waited till about 3.30pm (45minutes after instructed to be there) and then started the interview.

The usual introductions and paperwork then outside for some team building games. I must admit that my teaching experience came in very handy here... apart from the fact that I had played all the games before, I had an idea about what sort of 'attributes' they would be looking for - so I showed them!! During this time there were still people arriving and expecting to be included in the interview. At about 4pm they were told to come back another day!!! Only in England...

It was very interesting to see the differences in people... there were a few students looking for summer work but the majority of people were from outside Europe. The English were smartly dressed but the 'others' were mostly in suits and ties. One guy came in and I'm sure the only English he could speak was "My name is ________ and I want to work in the corporate boxes!" Unfortunately he was one of the ones asked to leave without a job!




Thursday 20th March

TimePlan had arranged an interview with a small Christian school. They didn't have a lot of information but it was a nursery teacher position and the hours would be either 10am-4pm or 11am-5pm. I was thinking "WoW!"

Anyway I arrived at 11.57am for a midday interview. I was slightly flustered as I thought I would be late. I shouldn't have worried as I sat in the reception area for the next hour and a half. Finally I was shown into the Minister's office. I was a bit annoyed to find that it was only him who I was meeting with as I had asked if the interview could have been Wednesday so I would only have to take one day off work. I was told it couldn't be as Thursday was the only time that worked for everyone!

The interview progressed... and it soon occurred to me that what I had been told wasn't actually what was expected. The teaching hours were 10-4 but I would be expected to be in the classroom from 8am - 6pm to supervise children who had working parents!

The school also wanted to employ me directly. This would have been dishonest as the agency organised the interview. When I asked why he said that the school was a private one and most of their children came from lower to middle class families and they would not be able to pay what the agency was asking. Slightly taken back I asked what they would be prepared to pay... and managed to keep my mouth closed when he said “£12000-15ooo a year."

Not long after that I left and rang TimePlan who were just as horrified as I was.

28/4 - I got back from Turkey to find a message on my phone from the Minister asking me to come in for a second interview with the head teacher. Mmm a month late and several thousand pounds short, mate!!




Wednesday 2nd April

I had done a few days supply work at a lovely friendly school in East London and noticed that one of the Reception teachers was pregnant. I asked TimePlan to keep an eye out for her job.

On Monday, TimePlan rang me and asked if I was available for a 3 day trial at the end of this week. I said yes and consequently spent the last 3 days of this term with the teacher preparing to take over her class.

The teaching assistant, the teacher and I were very surprised when on Friday the Head Teacher told me that I would have to go through a formal interview and observations before I could get the job!! We all thought that these 3 days were preparation for me taking over next term!

Unfortunately I could not teach for the first week in the new term as I was in Turkey. When I arrived back the school offered me a week’s trial. I accepted and duly turned up every day. I approached the Head Teacher on Thursday and asked if I was going to have anyone observe me and his answer was “Oh yes, better get onto that”. The next day the Deputy Head came and watched me take a maths focus for about 20 minutes. She walked in and walked out without even speaking to me. To this day she hasn’t spoken to me about what I was doing or what she observed.

On Friday afternoon the Head Teacher popped his head into my room after lunch. “Could I see you for a minute please Stephanie” I left my class and once I stepped out of the room he said “Can you stay till Christmas?” “Yes” “Do you have any more trips booked?” “No” “Ok you’ve got the job”. Then he walked off! I slightly surprised went back into the classroom and continued the afternoon.

Those of you that keep in regular contact will know that I finished up in this job at the end of the school year (July) and am not staying on till Christmas. This was not because I hated the job but rather that I found the ‘employment policy’ of the school somewhat underhanded. Initially I thought that ‘trials’ were just the way things were done over here but have since found out they are somewhat unusual.

One day on my way to staff meeting I was approached by another supply teacher who was teaching in the Nursery, when she started she was told that her job would probably become permanent as the previous teacher had left. She had not heard anything about whether she was back in the New Year or what the situation was with her job, so she approached the Head. He told her that both she and I had applied for the permanent position and we were being observed to see which one of us was more suitable! She was shocked but I was bowled over! I told her I had no desire for a permanent job and had not applied!! It costs a school about £4000 to buy a teacher off the agency and employ them permanently – I am not in a place to make that sort of commitment to a school. What had happened was the Head (in his usual ‘organised’ manner) had employed several new staff members and then found that he didn’t have enough positions for them all!

Further research uncovered that we were both being observed by other staff members and reported back on. I felt that this was not the sort of school I wanted to work in and solved the problem for them by saying I would not be back in September.

Things certainly do work quite differently over here!

Not dead yet...

Although I have had a few emails questioning my current status!! I didn't realise people were actually reading this! So another bulk effort to get it up to date! Good thing I've kept a diary!!

March:

Got "the bird" in Brick Lane.
I was posing for a photo and as I was smiling nicely a girl came up and said, "You want this?" I turned to look and saw she was holding a dead bird by one foot! In my completely gobsmacked state I couldn’t utter a word! Without batting an eyelid she placed it on top of the nearby rubbish bin and walked off to her equally as 'conscious' looking boyfriend.

Columbia Road Flower Market

Icy Iceland

19th - 22nd February 2008

So much for Greenland being ice and Iceland being green!!!

When I arrived it was snowing. Beautiful light fluffy snow. I took the Skybus to my hotel from the airport and the journey went over a large lava flow. The ground looked just like chocolate pudding that had cracked and been sprinkled with icing sugar. It was really lovely.

After checking in and checking out my room, I went for a walk downtown as it was too late to do anything 'touristy'. Unfortunately the Northern Lights tour that I had booked was cancelled due to the bad weather. I went back to my hotel and had a lazy night doing codewords and reading.

After breakfast on Wednesday I went to the Settlement Museum. This was a very interesting place; it is the oldest remains of a Viking home ever found in Iceland. It was discovered by mistake when the building above it was being extended. I had my photo taken with a Walrus - it was only a teenage one and would have grown to be at least 200kg heavier!

I raced back to my hotel and was picked up for my Gullfoss and Geysir tour. We had a really nice tour guide and he was very informative telling us lots of stories on the way.
Our first stop was on the edge of the Eurasian and North American Plates and is where the Viking people had the Parliament. They imported a huge stone that they stood upright and when they stood in front of it and spoke it bounced the sound off and so it could be heard by everyone. It was snowing really hard here and to look at the scene, you had to whip your head around and back quickly so that you didn't get too pelted by icy snowflakes.

Our next stop was the Geysir Field. It was a little disappointing if you have seen Rotorua. There were 2 geysirs - but only one was active and a mineral pool that was a beautiful blue colour. The geysir was very explosive going off about every 5-8 minutes.

Before... wait for it...

Boom!!!

The third place we went was my favourite. It was an amazing waterfall. If you look really closely at the first photo you can see a really interesting ice and snow 'sculpture' to the right of the waterfall.
This one is taken from the top of the hill... it was extremely windy!!!

After this waterfall we went to a not so spectacular one but it did have an interesting contraption going up the side... It is a Salmon ladder- so that the salmon don't have to get up the waterfall!!

Our final stop was a huge crater. This was formed by a flying rock/lava bomb from one of the many volcanoes on Iceland. There have been several concerts here - they put a boat in the middle and people sit and stand around the edges.

After the tour I went for a drink with a couple of guys - one was an Australian teacher. It is one of the good things about travelling by one's self - you have to talk to people and try to meet new people or it would be a very lonely trip.

On Thursday morning I had a coffee with Lisa and some of her friends who were also holidaying in Iceland but were going home today. Then I went to the National Museum of Iceland, it was a very concise and interesting history of Iceland.
There were some interesting pictures and displays made out of sweets. I asked one of the guides who told me that they were made by blind children who used smell and texture to create scenes.

After this I went to the Saga Museum which was my favourite museum in Iceland. It was the story of the early Vikings. There were lots of life sized models and it was extremely well presented.

It was also the best place to see the city of Reykjavik, it was a beautiful day. It reminded me a lot of New Zealand - in particular down south around the Queenstown area.

After waiting 20 minutes for a bus back to the city, a little blue me had another wander around trying to find The Settlers House. After walking around like a real ‘tourist’ with map in hand, I asked someone who told me it was closed!! No wonder I couldn’t find it!!! Instead I went back to my hotel and lazed around before finding out that the Northern Lights tour was going ahead – Yay!!!

I was quite excited as this was what I had come to Iceland for. As the bus picked me up it started snowing but on arrival at the tour company they told us that it was a small flurry confined to the coast. The guide was quite certain that we would have a great show tonight – the lights were listed as ‘moderate’ a step down from their most active and the weather inland was forecast as clear. A recipe for a good show according to the guide.

We travelled for about 2 hours out into the centre of Iceland, all the time peering out the bus windows trying to spot the lights. After a toilet stop we drove a little further till there was no ‘light pollution’ and got off the bus. I’m sure the temperature at this point was about -100!!! Even with my sleeping bag coat and thermals on, I was shivering. We waited about 20 minutes and the guide told us how the lights are formed. They are solar explosions! The particles are slightly magnetic and so are drawn to the top and bottom of the world, the oxygen and nitrogen particles are attracted to the North Pole giving the lights there their distinct greeny-blue colour.

Anyway, after what seemed like a long wait the guide jumped up and down and got excited – a light had appeared. Now I don’t profess to be an expert in the field of solar explosions but the tiny finger length blue smudge that appeared was not quite what I was expecting. It got brighter and faded again for a while and eventually disappeared completely. We saw nothing else.

My recommendation: Don’t get too excited about the Northern Lights. If you’re brave enough it may be better to do your own research on the net, or ask a local and hire a car to do the trip yourself. I certainly felt very ripped off by the tour!!

What we should have seen!!!

I crawled into bed at about 1.30am and was woken at 4. Packed up and was on the bus to the airport at 5am. Arrived back home around 1pm and was so ready for bed!!

Spring in Greenwich

Saturday 9th February

Today started off with a coffee at a bookshop with Ant and Trish. I left them to read the papers and went off to explore. I found a lovely surprise outside the Maritime Museum.....

The National Maritime Museum

Spring has arrived!!!

The Maritime Museum was well worth the visit. It was really interesting and well presented. There was information on the history of sailing in the United Kingdom and also lots of science displays on the ocean.

I then visited the Queen's Palace. I didn't really enjoy this as it was more like an art gallery of maritime paintings rather than a glimpse into the way of life in past times.

The Queen's Palace.


But I didn't buy anything!!

After having a sandwich and lemonade (I must remember that Lemonade is not Sprite here!!) for lunch I wandered back through the grounds of the Maritime Museum and up to the Royal Observatory. I didn't have my photo taken on the Prime Meridian line but did cheat and brought some postcards!!

I then walked back through Greenwich park which is SO beautiful. It is a place that I am going to go back to when the weather is a little warmer. It is only about 10 minutes walk from my house!!

Teaching in London

Teaching here is certainly very different to teaching in New Zealand. Supply (relief) teaching is also very different from having my own class.


Some differences I have noticed are:

The noise!! I will never complain about chatty Middleton children again - there is never any silence in a classroom here.

The children are very affectionate, even with a supply teacher they hug you and grab you and the younger ones often want to sit on knees.

The accent. I did a spelling test in one class and said the word 'cheque'. The children just looked at me blankly and I had a moment of panic before the Teaching Assistant started laughing and said 'chaaack' and the children smiled and got back to the test. I have since found out that the best way to achieve an English accent is to elongate your vowels!

There seems to be a sink or swim approach - I haven't seen a lot of differentiation for different groups and I have experienced a regular programme as well as 'relief teacher work'.

Locked schools. They are really more like prisons, with concrete exercise yards and high fences. There is very little play space and no grass. I was talking to another kiwi teacher and she told me she had an English child come over who spent the first 2 weeks of break times lying on the grass!! The really bad ones have swipe cards so that you can't escape from your section of the school!!!

This really bugged me....there is very little storage for resources. They are often on trolleys in the hallways or crammed into the photocopy room. No systems or any form of organisation.

The inspectors 'mark' you on your wall displays when they visit the school. Everything has to be absolutely perfect and hence there is little children’s work displayed. They have to be changed at least once a term!!!

SMARTBOARDS are in EVERY room - I'm loving them and may be taking over your classroom Michele when I get back!!!!

Most classes have Teaching Assistants for most, if not all of the day. It's great and they are really well trained - so it's like having another teacher in the room.


Some moments I would rather forget:

Breaking up a 8 boy fight in a year two classroom!

Teaching in a year four class and being punched and sworn at, quite viciously. The teacher next door (also year 4) had a broken arm, I asked her how she got it and said that it was broken when she was breaking up a fight the week before!

Yelling at the top of my voice and not being able to hear myself over the noise the class was making.


Some nice moments:

Arriving at a school to find there was a trainee teacher in the room - I was there for legal reasons only and did almost nothing all day!

Covering teachers having meetings one day and not starting till 9.30am!!


I hope to add more as I get more 'experienced'

Blobbing in Scotland

On Tuesday 15th January I went up to Scotland to see Sarah. I've decided that I really like to travel on the train! It's so much easier than flying and if you're not in a hurry it's really relaxing It was SO good to see her again - and she had some exciting news... Her and Dan are engaged!!!

For the rest of the week I lazed around and explored a little bit of Glasgow. Sarah and I did an extensive amount of shopping - the sales here are amazing, 50-70% off about three quarters of shops.

Sarah, her flatmate Lora and I went to see 'PS I love you' on Wednesday night. What a sad movie but a nice one (if that makes sense?!!?)

On Friday, after Sarah finished work we caught the train to Edinburgh. I got my first taste of Scottish culture when we went to a Ceilidh (pronounced K-lee) which is a traditional Scottish dance. It reminded me of folk dancing but it was all done at fast forward speeds!! Everyone is sweating after each dance and lets just say some partners are less desirable than others!!! It was a lot of fun and I'd love to go again.

Saturday meant more shopping and a wander around Edinburgh. We didn't visit the castle but had a nice time wandering and had dinner at a lovely vegetarian place. Cocktails followed at TGI Fridays and so it was another late (or early!!) bedtime.

Sarah and I went with Dan to church this morning and after having Carrot and Coriander Soup for lunch (which is incredibly delicious) we had a nap and a lazy afternoon. Dan drove us back to Glasgow and on the way we drove past this huge fire -still not sure what was burning but it was like the size of a residential block!

Dan and I couldn't talk Sarah into pulling a sicky on Monday, so she went off to work and we went to an Art Gallery and Museum. It was really nice to get to know the guy one of my best friend is going to spend the rest of her life with.

As a final 'party' we went to a Scottish restaurant for dinner. Yes I was brave enough to try Haggis - it really wasn't too bad - in fact it was really yummy!!!!