Half way to term break... settling in...

Well another few weeks have passed in Milton Keynes, they seem to have flown by, but I fell progress has been made to settle in both at school and the city. Only 3 weeks till mid term break so I'm considering where I should travel to. I have been making an effort to get out and meet people.

School wise most exams are over, snow days seem to be behind us for now. So i’ve been able to start teaching new topics, which is helping to settle my classes and the teaching is easier than motivating students in revision (like my first 2 weeks).  Really looking forward to next Tuesday which is a ALD (Alternative learning day), on this day the science department is running a day where all the Y11’s will be split into groups of about 10 and will spend the day making a horror film trailer.  I hope I’ll be able to upload my groups trailer (with their permission) after the day. We have worked out how to make realistic fake blood and wounds. :D

The city...  I’ve posted a couple of video’s on youtube (& facebook) of the city. Learning my way around the area more and more.

I’ve been out with some of the teachers here. There is a social group who go to the nearby pub on Fridays. Nice to get to know people more outside of work. I have also found a local church (MKCC) and more importantly a small group who get together weekly, they are a great bunch of people (with excellent humour) who are more interested in sharing and enjoying the time together than following any set program or plan. There are also a few teachers in that group from other schools. I’m also discovering how multicultural Milton Keynes is, most of the population has moved here from elsewhere, very few people are “native” Milton Keyneians, one of my flat mates was actually born here though, only person I have met so far who is “native”.

Things i’ve learned...

Seize the moment. Sometimes we have the best intensions to do things but never do them. Actions are far more important that intensions. If something seems like a good idea or you know you should do it, then just do it. Do not get stuck saying “When this happens then i’ll do it” for example “When I have a desk in my room then i’ll do some school work” or “Once things settled down at work then I’ll spend more time with the family”. If you are passionate about something then get into it and do it. And certainly there are more important things than that like friends and family. Life is short, grab hold of the now and do what is good, don’t put it off.

Best intensions don’t mean a thing unless you act on them. Live in the moment and enjoy what you are doing everyday as life is short.

For all my teaching peeps!!!

Just thought i'd fill you in on what i've figured out with teaching here & what it is like for me.

This is how it goes...
The school works on a 2 week time table (Much like Mt Albert, way back when I was just a young thing, Tehehe), 6 periods a day, although monday and friday have 5 with the fifth being a tutor class for an hour (Form Group) in which they do stuff like health etc... Wednesday 5&6 is an elective short course, anything really from chess playing (For Scoll-dog) to creating a Doctor Who monster, teachers seem to get randomly assigned to these, unless you put your hand up to take something in particular.

I have 10 different classes on my time table to teach. Really i only teach 8, 2 are support (I go support another teacher in their class). So I have 2 x Y13 Phys doing A2 level, 2 x Y12 Phys doing AS level, 2 x Y11 Phys doing GCSE (one doing triple science (more science like doing phys, chem & bio seperate) and on double (doing a more general science course)), 3 x Y10 Science (2 of these are support ones) and 1 Y8 science (School starts at this level i think?). Seems a lot, but My year 13 classes have 6 and 8 students in them, my Y12 have 11 students each i think (haven't seen them all yet because of snow days). Y11 classes are about 25 so a bit more normal.

The Y12's and 13's are in the 16+ unit which runs along side the school, they do courses there a bit like uni work and come across to the normal school to do classes when it fits the teachers time tables.

This is the kind of cool bit, I see most class 2-3 times a week, this isn't all the science they get, they are with other science teachers for another set of periods, each teacher doing their own topics, usually their speciality subject. Even my Y13 physics class has 2 physics teachers, we teach different topics within physics each. Seems an excellent idea to me for general science at least, can't see the point so much for physics only senior course.

Seems we have 5 technicians to a teaching staff of 10 ish as best as i have been able to count so far. Orders must be done a week in advance, but they will come and set things up etc...

Relief is simple, they have a massive independent learning room with about 200 computers in it, you set a research task or something along those lines and they go and do it, so as a teacher you never have to do relief and their are no relievers in the school, just permanent staff in the room. You can also book out some computers for a class if you want. The science department also has a small room with about 15 computers in it.

All staff computers are portals, ie; your "personal desktop" is stored on the server, you can pull that up onto any machine around the school with all your work, email and student management thingy. You can also pull it up at home, haven't tried that yet as i only just got my new laptop.

That's about all i can think of for now, sorry to all my non-teaching peeps, probably wasn't that interesting...

The first steps of change...

I find myself in Singapore airport, killing time... A good a time as any to start a Blog. First 9 hour flight went well, didn't get much sleep as we fled the night, staying in daylight till after we landed. Now it is 9:45 local time and sleep still hasn't taken hold.

God bless the Singaporeans for their free Internet at the airport, even if it is in 15 minute chunks. Have walked the whole airport now, used many of the free computers. Done some window shopping, pretended to be interested in things to keep shop assistants busy.

"They" say "change is a good thing", but it isn't easy to take the step. Not sure what the future holds exactly, but I know i needed the change and I'm sure England will be a good base for it. A little excited for what England and all my travels hold. A little freaked by what the job will be like, I hope the students are even half as great as the ones I've left in NZ & the staff are as fantastic as the lot at MAGS. A little saddened to leave so many friends (old & new) in NZ, keep in touch & I'll see you on the flip side.

Bless you all, thanks for your good wishes & support.