Walking.

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Every time I go for a walk I discover yet another thing to think about before my big walk, which is TOMORROW. I've sorted out my boots, socks, leggings and a raincoat.

I bought a backpack with a bladder, which is like a water pouch with a long flexible straw. I've been walking with a water bottle so far, and reaching into a backpack every single time I need a drink (and it is rather often, I'm a thirsty person) is just not convenient at all. I've opted for 18L backpack, seems like an optimum capacity for the day. It holds my 2L bladder, a raincoat and a stash of food for the day.

It might not be the fancier backpack out there, and the packing solution is not the most efficient, but it will do, and I've grabbed it in TKMaxx for £20, so cheap and cheerful ;) But I'll probably upgrade to something better in summer.

Food planning is a complicated aspect of the day's logistics. My favourite snack is peanut butter and cucumber sandwiches: the nut butters gives good energy and the cucumber is refreshing. Dried apricots are a must, plus a high protein bar. Don't forget a banana. The worse possible thing that could happen is that I RUN OUT OF FOOD. That would  be simply tragic. So most of my backpack's weight will be snacks to get me through those 26.5 miles.

We're supposed to have perfect weather tomorrow, so I'm packing sun cream as well. I burn so easily that the whole day in sun without protection would be simply silly. At least it's not supposed to rain, it would be so grim to walk in the rain.

Last but not least, I'm packing a battery pack in case my phone runs out of power before the end of the day.

Tomorrow the day starts after 5am, because I need to pick a few people up from around Newport before making our way to the start of the walk. I'm not sure how I'll survive 14 hours that will follow, but let's hope for the best. I think I'll be too excited to think about the tiredness. 

I'll be posting walk updates tomorrow, so watch out for those on my Facebook page!

Going South.

I've dreamt of a trip to Ventnor for this entire half term and Friday was the day: I've finally managed to make it down South. The day seemed perfect: the sun was shining, storm Doris was long forgotten and I was actually awake enough to make it to the bus in the morning.

My destination was Ventnor Botanic Gardens and it takes quite a bit of willpower to get there if you don't drive. There is one bus going to Ventnor and it comes only twice an hour (which is still better than on a Sunday when it's once an hour only). But it doesn't take you all the way down to the Gardens. Oh no, that would be far too easy. Instead, you need to get off in the centre and then either hope that a community minibus will come some time soon (and it only comes three times in the morning, that's all), or that number 6 comes to take you to the vicinity of the Gardens. "To the vicinity", because the stop right next to the entrance is out of use.

The alternative is a brisk walk along a road with fairy tale houses. Not a bad alternative on such a beautiful day.

You really do need to keep going to get there...

Now, the Botanic Gardens were fab even at this time of the year. I was a bit worried, because it's only February and it's not a particularly good time for plants, but there were surprising amounts of greenery all around and I even managed to find some flowers!

Sadly, I haven't seen any kangaroos, despite multiple warning signs...

I'm not much into plants to be honest, in fact I kill them: I even have a knitted cactus now, because I actually managed to make a succulent die. So I didn't really appreciate the variety of plants in the Gardens, but I did really enjoy walking around and catching all those sunny spells while reading a book. The café is also fantastic, thumbs up for a comfy sofa and delicious organic tea.

Interesting facts: the Gardens are the home to the oldest palm trees in the UK (150 years they are apparently) and the microclimate in the Gardens is such that it is 5 degrees warmer there than on the mainland.

There isn't too much too do in Ventnor apart from visiting the Gardens (Ventnor Heritage Museum anyone?): I've mentioned Steephill Cove before (beautiful little place) but that's about it. However, there is a multitude of cafes and restaurants here. Cantina is apparently one of the best places for breakfast in the UK, so this will be my next stop.

Reading spot.

This is my little reading spot. I've discovered it on the way back from church one Sunday and now I go there pretty much every week to spend some quality me time reading. 

It's absolutely perfect, because:

1. it has a sea-view;
2. it doesn't require me to walk down the cliff to enjoy it.

I'm currently reading a bizarre book All that man is by David Szalay. I've read 100 odd pages so far and I'm not entirely sure what to make of it. It's definitely interesting, but the writing style is so different from what I am used to. Maybe it's just because I'm not used to reading novels in English. My experience of English-language literature is fairly limited: mostly to academic books and journals. It's definitely time to broaden my horizons.

The only thing that I need now is a big flask to take with me when I go there: the afternoons are getting really cold and even in my really attractive winter hat and red gloves I still feel rather cold on that bench. It's probably time for an upgrade of my outdoor reading experience.

Tissue mountain.

A week until half term, and my body seems to have given up. Waking up at 5:30am, long hours at work and little time for myself has taken its toll on me.

The end of my first seven weeks in school is in sight, but I feel like I will crawl towards it rather than run joyfully into a brief freedom.

As the mountain of used tissues continues to build up in my bedroom, so does the mountain of work. I have my PGCE essay due in a couple of weeks, but it's hard to try to recover from the illness, mark homework, plan lessons, do some reading and sort out everything for school at the same time. Hopefully after half term life will become easier, if only because I will actually know what I'm doing. Though they did warn me that it will be tough.

I'm so drugged up with paracetamol and the like that I'm not sure to what extent I will be able to teach tomorrow, but hopefully by period 2 my brain will clear up a bit and turn into a teacher mode. At the moment it feels like a sponge or a mini whiteboard rubber.

On a side note, highlights from last week include using plickers with my lovely year 7s, TF conference day and carrot cake. Carrot cake is delicious. Conference was quite helpful, but I shall give an update on it once I have time (and ability) to put my thoughts in some coherent order.

Being attacked by a cold monster in my bed. Obviously.

Little gems.

Isle of Wight has a lot of little gems scattered around. I had an opportunity to explore some of these amazing places during summer, so I thought I would share my findings in case anyone still thinks that there is nothing interesting on the Island.

Shanklin Old Village

Walk down High Street in Shanklin past a ridiculous number of places selling fossils and you will eventually end up in the Old Village. It's full of thatched cottages, some of them dating back to 1600s I believe. It's rather unusual to have so many thatched houses preserved in the same place. Really worth a visit. I particularly recommend, the Old Thatched Teashop.

Why on earth would I recommend a pink teashop with a different colour scheme in every room which makes you dizzy? Well, because of the fairies.

In the garden behind the shop there is a true fairies heaven. It looks incredible. There are little houses, animals, and tens of fairies of different sizes. Even if the shop did not sell cream tea, it would be worth a visit just to see the fairies garden.

The Needles

Go to the opposite end of the Island and you end up by the Needles. It's a beautiful place with 21 colours of sand, an opportunity to take a boat tour (or a jet boat tour, which I don't recommend if you are not a fan of extreme adventures). Mr Magic and I had a lovely day there, sitting at the beach, eating frozen yoghurt, walking around and generally enjoying ourselves.

Carisbrooke Castle

One word: amazing. We were lucky enough to visit the Castle when a Medieval Joust was taking place. It was a such a great day, full of story-telling, falconry, medieval jokes and beautiful surroundings. I think we've been there on the hottest day of summer too, so I was really impressed with the knights in their shiny armour, must have been boiling hot in that!

Osbourne House

It might not be the most exciting place, but surely it's really pretty on a Sunday afternoon. The gardens are absolutely huge, there is an opportunity to sit at the seaside where Queen Victoria would have gone for a swim and a little cafe serves really nice cakes and scones. 

Steephill Cove

Apparently this is one of the most secluded places on the Isle of Wight. I can vouch for that: when Mr Magic took me there I thought I would kill him, because it's quite far out of Ventnor and it was at the end of a long day at the Needles. Anyway, it is a really picturesque place, worth a visit should you be down that end of the Island. Peaceful.

Wight Karting

I'm an extremely careful driver, so I haven't thought karting would be so much fun. But I loved the speed. Shame the track only has one place where you can actually overtake, but I wholeheartedly recommend it.

I still have a few places on the island that I would like to see:
Shanklin Chine Lumiere
Isle Jump Trampoline Park
The Garlic Farm - Garlic Festival
But these need to wait for half term or an evening off (ha ha).

3 weeks in, still in love with the job.

It's been quite on here again! Teaching is an immense time commitment, it turns out. I might be teaching a maximum of five hours a day, but when you factor in all the planning, creating powerpoints, finding resources, printing handouts, marking and attending meetings, you get up to an almost 12 hour day.

My working days might be long and there's always more work to be done than time for it, but I love every minute of it. (I think I've said it before, but I just want to emphasise how happy I am now)

I'm so glad that I've chosen teaching over any other career. It's the best job in the world.

I've experienced a lightbulb moments with my students, seen them being extremely proud of their achievements, I was called their favourite teacher and some entrusted me with their troubles and worries.

I wouldn't change anything, except maybe adding a couple of hours to the day so I can get some more sleep. The only day when I can lie in is Saturday, and I'm trying to make the most of it.

My other relaxation involves swimming, Zumba, watching crime drama, reading about Maths (though Mr Magic disputes whether it truly counts as leisure activity), and baking. Baking is a big one, my most recent creation is an insanely good chocolate cheesecake. I think I'm spoiling my housemates a bit too much with all these baked goodies, but at least I have people to share with: otherwise my waistline would not be happy with me.

I went off to Southampton for a call back day and it was so nice to catch up with other Mathematicians doing TF and share ideas. It's amazing how many different things can be done to influence your teaching and in how many different ways I can organise my classroom, my teaching and my planning to be a better teacher for my students. I will try to incorporate some things I picked up yesterday. My most recent changes include challenge questions incorporated into slides so that my most able year 7s feel stretched enough. I also need to reconsider how I store my mini whiteboards. another teacher just taped it to the side of the tables and I might do it as well  to maximise desk space, but this requires some preparation.

It seems like I'm making a progress and everything is slowly coming together. Behaviour is improving, my planning does not take ages and students are getting more engaged. Life is good.

Found in a train toilet on the way from Portsmouth.

Back to school.

I've survive my first week in school! Although survive might not be the best word to describe my experience, since I've actually loved every minute of it.

It was a really busy few days, filled with running around to sort my classroom out, trying to get my IT equipment to work, frantically printing out stuff for classes I forgot about, learning how to use SIMS and a thousand different little bits and pieces that I need every day to get through those few hours of the day without a major hiccup.

My classroom has undergone a little transformation: the tables are in rows rather than pods and some stuff gone up onto the display boards. I'm doing my best not to clutter the room, I know that it can be difficult to concentrate if you have a lot of stuff going on on the walls around you. So I'll try to keep it simple. I have a few quotes about mistakes around the room, I want my students to embrace making mistakes.

I've taught six lessons and met four out of five of my classes. It's amazing how much you learn on the job. I now know where the more naughty ones sit, that there are a few who try to go by without doing any work, so I need to give them a little nudge. I must say that children constantly amaze me. In my first lesson with year 7s, we had a discussion about whether there is the first (or the last) number and whether one is a prime number. Not bad for a bunch of 11 year olds. I've also taught them how the binary system works and was surprise how many of them really wanted to learn, persisting until they've understood the process. I must say that my year 7s seem to be very different from some of my year 8s who just give up when they see something unfamiliar. I really hope that I will manage to change it during this year so that they start to love the unfamiliar, embrace challenge and stretch themselves.

If I were to describe my levels of tiredness now, I would say that it's like nothing I've experience before. It's probably because I actually need to be attentive every single moment of the lesson: no drifting away, thinking about what to cook for dinner or any such thing. Just full attention for a full hour when I have the students with me. Emotional investment also comes in here. I care so much and want my students to succeed so badly, that it drains energy, especially when something goes wrong. And, my word, so many things went wrong in the last couple of days. I had to send pupils out of my classroom, stop the entire lesson to have a serious chat about attitude to work and I've almost lost my voice trying to be heard over their chatter. 

It definitely feels like a learning curve, but I know it will be absolutely amazing. There is no better way to spend your time than to educate young minds.

First visit to the Isle of Wight.

5:50am start. And I'm not joking. This is how early I had to wake up in order to catch a 7:30am hovercraft to Ryde.

Though this very early morning was definitely compensated by the exiting things happening all throughout the day. We've been blessed with great weather and some very exciting stuff going on all through the day.

First, it's been quite an experience to be on the hover. I would compare it to an aeroplane. It's a bit bumpy, but 10 minutes of the journey flied by and before we knew it, we were on the island! For my very first time.

Second adventure of the day was the trip on the Island Line train. Well, it's really two old underground coaches. Traveling on it feels like a ride on a rollercoaster. It's brilliant and the views of the countryside are beautiful. I quite like the perspective of taking it every day for the next two years.

And I've finally visited the school where I will be teaching and it's fantastic! The facilities are great, the staff is friendly and helpful and apparently the children are very amicable too. So I believe I will have a fantastic time there. We've been taken for a drive round the local area to get to know it better by two lovely local councillors. Now I know where the best playground is, know the story of most of the derelict buildings round there and I know where the most beautiful beach on the island is.

I'm due to meet my Maths mentor on Monday and I'm really excited about that. I really want to get my hands dirty and get some serious work done. I need to learn so much, from simple practical stuff about where the loos are, through the layout of lesson plans, schemes of work, behaviour policy, to departmental meeting times and so on. It will be a great two years. Or maybe more. I can see myself staying on the Isle, it's so beautiful and just already feels like home.

In the afternoon I've visited Shanklin and I've absolutely fell in love with it. It's small enough to be cosy, but at the same time there are plenty of shops and cafes, the beach is just round the corner and apparently there is a charming old town here as well. I have a lot of exploring still to do, yet to visit the beach, but I've found a nice cafe for a morning coffee on Saturday and I now know my way round the centre of the town. I can imagine myself living there. Definitely a serious contender.

I'm really happy after today's trip. It just feels like a dream come true really. Maybe living on the Isle of Wight is a bit crazy, but, well, life needs to be crazy sometimes. Tomorrow is another day of exploring the island. I'm loving my life.