Crazy stuff and long days.

Training to become a teacher involves a lot of fun activities. Such as researching squeaky puppets. And fun facts about pi. Making posters for my classroom. Planning classroom layout. Role playing a naughty child (this I'm doing all too well). Lying on the floor and humming. Presenting crazy lesson plan to the group. Making flamingos out of multilink cubes. Watching ridiculous videos on youtube (I highly recommend the one below, it's hilarious). Making paper tutus. Drawing gigantic circles on the pavement.

There are also not so much fun parts of my life now. Like waking up at 6am. Or having classes and workshops starting at 9am and going on until 7pm (or even 9pm). The paperwork which never ends. And piles and piles of important pieces of paper scattered around. Long post-lunch lectures. Wearing business clothing every day. 68 pages of Maths exercises.

The former definitely outweigh the latter. I'm having a fantastic time, this time in Leeds and I simply cannot wait for when I go into the classroom in September. I've learnt so much in the past weeks, it's incredible how much you can absorb. I now have a folder full of resources, tips, practical ideas and suggestions. I'm pretty sure that my first lessons will be disastrous, because you only gain confidence with experience, but at least I have an armoury of things to try out. I'm actually becoming progressively less worried about teaching. And I'm finally getting on the top of things I need to do (slowly, yet steadily).

There's only one more week left now and then a well-deserved break! Though planning will inevitably happen as well: I need to organise myself, create all my posters and such, but it will be a fun part. In the meantime, there's TF Impact Conference on Monday and Tuesday! There are a lot of interesting sessions, I'm in the process of compiling a stack of post-it notes with all the talks I want to go to, it's almost impossible to make a choice. I definitely want to hear about engaging parents- it's something really close to my heart since I've written an essay on it. There are also some sessions on motivation and leadership that I will try to get into. I really hope these will be useful and set me up for September.

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On a different note, Leeds is absolutely boiling this week. It's barely impossible to cope with the heat. Thankfully most of our lecture theatres and classrooms have air conditioning, so at least during working hours it's a little bit more bearable. I suppose it's nice that after two months of temperatures in the region of 10 degrees and rain it's nice to have some proper summer, but, gosh, I'm glad I live in a country well such weather is not that common.

I did it!

Today at 13:03 I've received a long awaited email with my examination results.

I'm super proud of myself, especially that I struggled so much during the revision period. But I did it! By hard work and thanks to an overflow of support from Mr Magic and all my friends. I wouldn't have done it without them. They've encouraged me, believed in me all the way through, even when I saw no hope for tomorrow, when I sobbed miserably in the library and refused to get out of bed. They were there for me all this time, even when I was super annoying and didn't want them around. I'm so blessed having such wonderful people around me.

A lesson from this? Never give up. It might sound like a cliche, but it's true. You might need people to carry you through (or push you through) certain parts of the journey, as it happened with me, but you can do more than you think. I'm probably nowhere near my limits yet. It is scary to explore them, yes. It might seem like you can never progress. But you can! With a little faith.

Another lesson from my exam struggle is that you need to be brave enough to ask for help. Ask around, ask as many people as you think is necessary until you get the support you need. Sadly people cannot read your mind and from personal experience I can say that hiding the emotional turmoil going on inside of you is relatively easy, so you need to reach out to people who care about you. Otherwise you will be left all alone. And it's really not the happiest place to be.

And so the university chapter of my life is nearly complete. Only graduation left now, that's at the end of the month, and it will be it. Can't believe how quickly the time flown by. It's absolutely incredible. But I'm ready to move on to another challenge.

I think I deserve a star sticker now.

Oh dear.

Teach First is a little bit like a hit and run, isn't it?

This comments has left us utterly perplexed. Are we driving the car and hitting our pupils? Or is Teach First driving the car and we are being hit?

Either option seems completely unsatisfactory.

If we are the one hitting pupils, then the data goes completely against this idea. TF teachers raise aspirations and improve achievement in their school. They are a source of positive energy and are not afraid of experimenting in order to push their pupils a bit harder. Yes, the programme lasts only for 2 years, but lives are changed for ever. And, statistically, 56% of us will stay in the teaching career. The rest will go on to do something else, but keeping in mind the vision to bridge the education inequality in the UK. You do not necessarily need to do it from the front of the classroom. Actually, we really need people in business and politics and other walks of life to address the issue in whatever way they can.

If it's TF driving the car, I don't feel like I'm being left without any help by the end of these six weeks (and we are 3 weeks in already!). There is so much support that I get. I'm really lucky that my school is really keen on having us and my professional and subject mentors are absolutely fantastic: always ready to help, share their experience or point me in a right direction. TF itself provides a number of people whose role is dedicated to ensuring that we are happy. I definitely won't be left alone.

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Across the last few days I've also heard a lot of comments about working on the Isle of Wight. I'm not sure what all these people are on about. I don't have any illusions as to the state of education on the island. It is pretty bad. But I think pupils there have a huge potential and are perfectly capable of achieving what pupils from the mainland are. It is just a matter of unlocking it. Of course it won't be easy, but not many worthwhile things in life are. Besides, it's such a beautiful place to live with so much to see and experience.

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Yes, last few days had a lot of challenging assumptions elements. I somewhat wish I didn't have this experience: it is distracting me from my main focus, which is learn as much as I can before September, start letting all those techniques sink in and practice using behaviour management. But it seems that the flow of challenges regarding my chosen teaching route will not come to an end any time soon, I just need to learn to live with that. At least this will make me constantly think about why I'm doing it and what I want to get out of it. It's definitely worth it, even if not everyone can see it.

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.