Wednesday, April 29, 2015

iday

iday morning dawned bright (kinda) and early (very). As we were leaving the hotel at 6:30am, we had organised a take-away breakfast from the hotel the day before, without realising that breakfast in the form of an egg and bacon roll would be provided for us at the event. After eating our breakfast sandwiches (mine had grated cheese that managed to fall out everywhere... smart planning there guys), we hopped on to our bus, all of us buzzing with nervous excitement. The day we had all been planning for and stressing over for the past few months was finally upon us.

The bus ride was about an hour long, and gave us a good opportunity to observe the English roads and urban areas. I was struck by how flat and close everything was, and how little greenery there was besides the trees. We did, however, pass by a rather large field with some beautiful horses in it, and another one with the biggest dandelions I've ever seen. Finally we pull up outside our destination, the Hotel Russel. My gosh that building is beautiful! Such old-world charm, which is continued spectacularly into the foyer (think glorious amounts of marble), and still in to the function room where we were headed. We enter to find many large round tables set up with a variety of Engage Education merchandise, including the inevitable pens (never say no to a free pen!) and tea/coffee station - where many headed straight after signing in and getting their name tag. Attached to the lanyard that held the name tag was also a USB which contained all the information packs for each of the schools that would be present that day.

After (everyone else had eaten) breakfast, we were handed our schedules for the day, which included the schools we were interviewing with, the time of the interview, and the name of the consultant for that school. I had 8, 8!, interviews planned for that day, with a few 15-30 min breaks thrown in here and there. My first one was at 9am and the last one started at 5:15pm. Needless to say, it was going to be a very long day!

The structure of the day was well organised. About 10-15 minutes before an interview, the consultant for that school would come over to have a little chat with you. Topics were anything from the school itself, students, the area the school is located in, where you could live, what you're looking for ina school, what your subject preferences are, how you were feeling, etc. It was nice to have a quick run down with an actual person to supplement the furiously quick Google-ing and info-pack reading. Being completely honest, some consultants were better at this than others. Without going in to details of each specific interview, I will say that every single school sounded good, but I did have a few clear favourites. All of my interviews went extremely well (or so the consultants said), and I was told by many that the school would like to see me later in the week (where we would go to the school for a further interview, teach a lesson and have a tour).

By midday I was shattered. It is so mentally and emotionally exhausting sitting in a job interview that lasts 30-45 minutes. Try doing that four times before lunch. I am absolutely no stranger to job interviews, having had about 10 different jobs through high school and university. I know what's expected of me, how to carry myself, and how to get the interviewer to like me. I'm very good at interviews. That did not make this day any easier whatsoever. By the time lunch came around I was ready to collapse into a coma from the excitement and stress of it all.

Lunch was provided in the form of a buffet, which was kept restocked for a few hours to allow for people to eat around their interview schedule. The interviewers weren't given a lunch break though, so they had to try and fit some time in between interviews, which meant that some of the after-lunch ones started a little late (definitely no hard feelings there - they need to eat as much as we do!!). I ate some vegetable lasagne, roast potatoes, steamed broccoli, potato salad and a hot crusty bread roll, followed by a slice of lemon cheesecake. Also available were roast beef slices, fish stew, cold meats and cheeses, a variety of gourmet salads, and a few other varieties of cakes. (Yes I take note of the food, I love food).

After lunch were the rest of my interviews, but because I was so exhausted I feel like I let myself slip a little in them. Apparently that didn't make too much of a difference, but it was still a little frustrating for myself. By the end, I was literally sitting at my table staring off into space, with about three or four individual thoughts circling around my poor brain.

But the day wasn't over yet.

After completing all of the interviews, we had to order the schools in terms of our preferences. This was an excruciating task for me. There were about four schools I had a very hard time choosing between as the top of my list. After prolonged discussions with the girls and the consultants, I finally made my choices and handed in my paper. Now there was nothing I could do until finding out my matches the next day, and hoping that they schools I liked best also liked me as much as the consultants said they did.

Dinner was provided for us that evening, in the restaurant at the hotel. This is also an extremely elegant place. We were served delicious chicken and vegetables, with the best creme brulee I've ever eaten for dessert. We were all so shattered though, I felt like we couldn't truly appreciate what we were given. We were slightly delirious by the end of the meal, with a group of us dissolving into a fit of giggles over the name of the after dinner mint - Bendick's.

The bus back to the hotel was very subdued. I probably fell asleep at some point, I don't really remember. I came back up to my room and fell asleep very quickly. Some of the Irish and Canadian crowd went out for drinks after, and I really don't know how they did it!

Anyway, that was my experience of iday. Now on to the rest of the week, and securing myself a position here for the start of the next school year!

Monday, April 27, 2015

Day exploring London

This post is rather long, so if you get bored please feel free to bookmark it and continue on later :p

Last night I was asleep quite early due to the jetlag. Also due to the jetlag I woke up ridiculously early this morning. I managed to get back to sleep after a while, but I was still up and out of bed before 7. Our stay here includes breakfast, so I took my kindle and sat by myself in a corner of the dining room  and ate way too much food. I felt like I really needed it though, like I was still refuelling on proper food after the flight.

I met up with the other girls for our trip into the city. After walking out the door of the hotel, we realised we didn't actually know where we were going... The excitement was over-riding most other things at this point. After a quick conference with the receptionist, we wandered down the street to Watford Junction to catch the overground in to London Euston. By the time we got to the train station my face was numb and my ears hurt. We were a little excited and a little apprehensive with the realisation that the weather now is pleasant spring weather, and that our poor little noses will have to adjust to being so cold outdoors.

The train ride in to London was entertaining. It was so packed we were squished in standing up with the locals, which included two young gentlemen who were so happy and in such a good mood. My good eavesdropping skills (of the conversation happening directly behind my head) informed me that they had had an extremely good night the night before, and that they were in no fit state to return to work on Monday, because they would just spend 8 hours moving a mouse around and fake typing. They were laughing so often and so hard at their memories of the night before and their own wit during the conversation that they were crying. This, of course, set us girls off too, however a few stern older men among the other close passengers refused to be amused. I was on the verge of offering the two young men tissues, but I thought that might tip them over the edge completely given that they could barely stand from laughing so much. It was really nice to see people so genuinely happy.

Once in Euston station we transferred onto the tube (insert lame tourist excitement here), where I got a picture with a man who was asleep, sprawling across a few seats. We went across to Waterloo station, which in itself is so big there are shops and cafes, complete with a busker singing the song. From here we walked back out into the cold and over to the London Eye. Man that thing is huge. No way would you get me up there! But some fun Eye-hat selfies were taken, and the girls made the decision to come back and ride it when we move over here (the line was rather long). We walked along the river front (cue more famous-landmark-selfies), past the aquarium, and up to the bridge across to Big Ben. In a random coincidence, the entire bridge was closed to traffic due to a marathon happening through the city. This allowed us plenty of time and space to look around and take more pictures. We stayed and watched a bit of the marathon, and it really struck me how supportive the crowd were. Every time someone went past, every single spectator cheered them on (not just a polite clap either, there was a lot of noise and fuss made for every participant). I've never seen the like before, it was lovely!

 


We met up with one of the girl's friends who is living and teaching here now, and made the decision to walk over to Buckingham Palace. We ended up following the path of the marathon, so we got to see even more of it, and the feel of the crowd was electric. I really enjoyed looking at all the architecture along the way - so different to back home! - and we lusted over the units with their little courtyards and views of St James's Park. Through St James's Park we went, admiring the trees, flowers, birds and squirrels.



I had a bit of a giggle at the people sitting on the park benches along the paths, underneath the hug trees - they really were like scenes straight out of a movie or tv show! We also had a giggle at a duck who decided to be very offended by the other ducks standing near-by, to the point of chasing them away (ducks are ridiculous when they're cranky!). The area around Buckingham Palace was also closed off and re-directed for the marathon, but we found our way through. It was a bit disappointing to discover the truth behind the stories that the guards are inside the gates now, but we did manage to get some pics anyway (yet more selfies!). It was so surreal to be standing in a place you see on the screen so often. The Palace is so beautiful and so mysterious - we all resolved to go for a proper tour when we're here later in the year.



Back through St Jame's we went, over toward Piccadilly Circus. This was a different path to the one we took in, and included patches of apparently-random daffodils that were popping up here and there amongst the lawn. Out into the street, with many an excited exclamation at various buildings (including The Ritz!). We had a (not quite so) quick stop in Fortnum and Mason for a bit of shopping (any of my friends will tell you of our love of tea!), where I bought a cute little tote bag. This tote bag is in fact a 'bag for life', meaning that if it gets damaged or worn at any stage in the future, I simply take it back and they replace it with whatever design is new at the time! A very handy investment for when we live here I think!

We stopped for lunch at Jamie's Diner, which is dinosaur themed and adorable. The food was really good (I had the beef burger, sweet potato fries and a vanilla milkshake with strawberry syrup), and the rest was well deserved. From there we went on to Trafalgar Square, which was unfortunately packed with the aftermath of the marathon. We didn't get too many tourist-y photos here because it was so busy, and we decided not to go in to the museum. At this stage we figure we need to head back to the hotel to start preparing for the actual reason why we are here - our day of job interviews tomorrow.

The friendly dinosaur companion of Jamie's Diner

Overall it was a jam-packed day (I almost bought some jam from Fortum and Mason too lolol), but we got to see a few of the main sights and had a very good stretch of our poor transit-tightened legs (over 15000 steps in total!).

Tonight will be prep for tomorrow. We were meant to have some sort of briefing this evening, but we've received no information about it, so we will head down into Watford for dinner later on. Tomorrow we will be up and out the door by 6.30am for a day of interviewing with schools, trying to impress them enough that they want to hire us. Wish us luck!

Sunday, April 26, 2015

Watford

Watford is pretty much what you see on tv when you see 'England city'. There's almost no grass to be seen, but what it lacks in grass, it overcompensates with bricks and concrete.

Driving from the airport out to here was a fun experience. It was foggy and rainy, and to be honest didn't really feel like we were in another country. We could have just been in Canberra (as my colleague pointed out). The road system is a little different, better organised in my opinion, and the trees were different, but it's just another semi-urban drive, complete with roadside cows in one area.

Being in Watford itself is also just like being in another city. It still hasn't sunk in that I'm on the other side of the globe (except for the jet lag, which is starting to settle in nicely now with the continued head ache and the feeling of an over-tired toddler who wants to do everything and nothing at the same time). The hotel we are in is lovely, even if the walls are a bit thin. Bed is comfortable, shower is hot, window has an adorable view of the other brick-and-concrete buildings.

While I napped this morning the rain stopped and the sun came out, which was a pleasant surprise. We went for lunch and some shopping at the intu centre, which is huge. After finding a few nice pieces to supplement my interview-appropriate wardrobe (can't forget what we're here for!), we go for a wander through the surrounding streets. There are so many places to have a bite and a drink! We're here for a week, but we could eat lunch and dinner out each day and still not try them all. In particular I want to go to Tinseltown Watford American Diner, which has 50 different milkshakes (!!!), and possibly the local Aussie bar for some giggles.

Back in the hotel room now for a rest before dinner, which may just end up being at the attached restaurant depending how energetic we feel.

Tomorrow was going to be a trip to the Harry Potter exhibition, but the only time we could get in would be 4pm and we have a meeting in the evening. So instead I'll be heading in to London City to do some good old tourist-ing! I will attach pictures with my next post, or you can see them on my Instagram account (but only after I get back to the hotel... free wifi and all!).

My first long-haul flight, and in to Watford!

I'm sitting here in my room in Jury's Inn, Watford, with happy sunshine streaming in through the window. My head is pounding, I'm tired as hell, but I'm happy to finally be here in England!

The flight here was my first long-haul flight ever. It consisted of 1.5 hours to Sydney, then 23 hours to London with a 2 hour stop in Singapore. The flight to Sydney was ordinary enough, except that I was with Qantas and in a plane that had entertainment screens (not something I would normally encounter for such a short flight). We were served a quiche lorraine for lunch, and unfortunately mine was undercooked to the point of not being able to eat it. But that's ok, it was only a short flight anyway.

Once in Sydney I transferred by coach to the international terminal, where I'd never been before. The check-in system was efficient, and gave me plenty of time to wander around the duty free shops there (not that I bought anything at this early stage of travelling! Except my favourite Dior mascara...). On to the plane I went, through first and business class and right down the end to economy. I was seated in the middle section on the aisle, which meant a bit of extra stretch room for my long legs (which consequently got stepped on more than a few times by the man in front of me who needed to stand up a lot). Next to me was a film and tv producer Stuart, who worked on Priscilla Queen of the Desert and I Will Survive, as well as with the BBC. On the other side of him was a lovely lady who had just finished spending time in Aus to help out a friend with tongue cancer. Together the three of us had a dinner of chicken curry, worked our way through too many bottles of wine and made too many jokes that resulted in rather loud laughter, but no one else seemed to mind our fun. I also managed to watch Maze Runner inbetween our antics - I liked it, but I could tell how it had been adapted from the book poorly (haven't read the books yet though). An hour or so before landing we were served lunch (??), which was a chicken and cucumber roll, and did well to ease my wine-filled body.

By the time we got to Singapore for refuelling, I was feeling pretty shattered. This would have been around 3am at home, and travelling really does drain you. Rather than wandering around Singapore's amazing airport like I'd planned, I stood in a nice little corner and stretched out my legs with some ballet moves while waiting to re-board.

Back on to the plane we went, back to our same seats, minus Producer who had transferred to another flight. We had another meal soon after take off, this time I chose the beef option. Not too long after dinner service the lights went out and it was sleep time. Needless to say this didn't work too well. I watched Night at the Museum 3 during and after dinner, and by the time it finished I think I was over tired. Not to mention the fact that it's virtually impossible to get comfortable (says the woman who can fall asleep pretty much any where, any time). I dozed on and off for the next 6 or so hours, but never really fell in to a deep sleep. Crying babies, reading lights and conversations didn't help too much either. At about 3am London time, 3 hours before we were to land, I gave up trying to sleep and started on the Divergent series instead. A few chapters in and I'm enjoying it so far. The lights come back on about 2 hours before we are due to land, and a 'full English breakfast' is served. The eggs in this were inedible, and a slightly green colour, but the rest was rather nice. By this stage I realise I am well and truly dehydrated, but my poor time-travelling body doesn't like the thought of any more liquid in my stomach, so I stick it out until landing.

London Heathrow airport is HUGE! Never did I think I'd have to walk for 5 minutes, hop on a short train ride, then walk another 5 minutes to get from the terminal to the baggage collection, going through customs along the way. The customs official questioned me thoroughly over my purpose here, securing a job etc, but was very friendly.

Once I collect my bag I go outside to find my driver. I walk up and down the loooooong line of driver with their little cards. I can't find my person. I freak out. I almost cry. I'm completely shattered from the travel and this just puts a gigantic downer on the "I've just landed in England!" thing. I'm trying to figure out what my next move could be (with no phone, internet not connecting to the free wifi...) when I see him about 50m away from the rest of the crowd, down by the shops. I am so relived it hurts.

We wander around a while trying to find the other two Aussies who are here for iday, and after grouping together we head to the car and out into England.

Friday, April 24, 2015

Time to fly!

So I'm sitting in the boarding lounge ready for my 27 hours of transit. I've never flown long-haul like this, so it will be am adventure!

I'm ready with more entertainment than I could possibly need, and I have the great ability of being able to fall asleep anywhere anytime, so I'm not too concerned about the 23 hour leg if the journey. I'm sitting on an aisle seat, so I just hope the person next to me doesn't need to get up all the time.

When I land in London it will be 5.30am and probably about 5 degrees, so I'll be pulling out my beautiful new Portmans coat from my suitcase before leaving the airport with my driver! Not entirely sure what I'll do for the day (1 out of my 1.5 free days for the week) but I'll try stay out of my hotel room until bed time so I can hopefully adjust a bit to the time difference. Perhaps I'll go shopping...

Obviously won't be able to post again until I'm there, so wish me luck!

See you in London!

Wednesday, April 22, 2015

Being a Writer

So I read back over my last three posts and came to the realisation that I can't write any more :/

I used to be a fairly decent writer, and I put that down entirely to my Master of Communication degree. An entire course was dedicated to editing, and every other course obviously had a large focus on writing ability (at least the courses I did, some other focused on speaking skills etc). I wrote blog posts (see my old blog), articles (one was even published in Scientrific, the CSIRO children's magazine), endless literature reviews, etc. I was writing almost every single day, and publishing/handing in written work at least three times a week. All of the constant writing and criticism (self and otherwise) really did hone my writing skills. Of course, after a five year break, my skills have become quite rusty.

Working as a teacher, there's not a whole lot of actual writing that I do. Comments on student work usually takes the form of extremely short sentences, circling and arrows; lesson plans are dot points; PowerPoint presentations are often written in simpler language to make it easier to digest. If the students are expected to read a text, it is almost never one I have written myself (and yes, sometimes I get annoyed at how poorly the text was written). And yet, I find myself frustrated at the lack of writing ability of my students. Many of my seniors cannot form a proper paragraph; many of the juniors struggle with simple sentences. It took me a fair while during my first year to get used to the fact that these students haven't really been taught to write well. It took me even longer to realise that letting their lack of skill slide benefits no one, even if it does shorten the marking time by a factor of 10. How can my students possibly learn to write well if I never model it for them? If I never spend time showing them how to improve? If I constantly simplify texts to make them easier to read or more enjoyable? (Insert rant about over-crowded curriculum and the absolute lack of time available to dedicate to such a thing)

So I guess I will take this blog as an avenue to redevelop my own writing skills. I will try and remember how I was taught to write well, and figure out a way to incorporate that in to my teaching. If I figure something out, I will share it here in the hopes that it will be useful to other teachers, or parents, out there who would like their students to write better.

And I guess I broke one of the first rules of writing - have a purpose. This post doesn't really have a purpose, it's more just me sorting through my thoughts, I hope you don't mind!

Monday, April 20, 2015

Finding a teaching job in London - iday

So my move to teaching in London was in part fuelled by the ease of using a recruitment company. The one I went with is called Engage Education. I remembered speaking to them at a Beginning and Pre-service Teachers conference organised by the Science Teacher's Association of Queensland (STAQ) (who I am currently a member of the Executive Council for).

They have a program where they are able to send a handful of Australian teachers over to the UK for iday (I will be one of 7 - not sure if it was 7 this trip or 7 in total since they started including Aussies). You go and interview in person with schools who the recruiters believe match up with you, a day of curriculum PD, and the chance to go and visit some of the schools you like and possibly even teach in their classrooms. By the end of the week you sign a contract, and that's that! You come back to Aus with a job and a mentor at the school you will be teaching in. This program is obviously quite appealing - the best part of iday is that the only things you need to pay for are some meals and possibly the hotel wifi. Yes, they pay for your flights, accomm and transport so that you can find the best possible job available at the time.

To be a part of this program I had to complete a few application forms and do a recorded Skype interview. This info then gets sent over to the UK branch, who decide if you're worthy of being selected for the next iday. Apparently part of the reason I was attractive to them is because I am a science teacher, not a PE + science teacher. Science is my first teaching area, and it is apparently quite rare for them to have interest from people like me.

For me, this whole process will be happening this week. I fly out on Friday, and will be taking part in 6-8 interviews on Monday. This will be my first trip over to the UK, so the whole thing is terribly exciting!

I will post updates of what happens while I'm there (or when I get back), so stay tuned!

STAQ - http://www.staq.qld.edu.au/
Engage Education - http://www.engageeducation.co.uk/

Saturday, April 18, 2015

Why teaching?

This is a question I get asked a lot. I get asked by friends, relatives, students, interviewers, hairdressers, shop assistants, etc. Basically anyone I talk to about my career asks me why I chose it. I know this is probably a natural progression for such conversations, but the way in which I'm asked this question gets to me sometimes.

A fair amount of people ask me like I'm crazy, or they look at me like I'm stupid. As much as it upsets me, a lot of the time people will look at me or make me feel like I'm a failure because I chose to teach instead of doing pretty much anything else with my life.

So I figured I'd explain here, publicly, why I chose to become a teacher. A high school science teacher at that.

I assume some people think that I am a teacher because I failed to get a job as a scientist, or that I'm not good enough to be a scientist. This is not the case. The reason I became a teacher, first and foremost, is because it is the job that I want to do. I am doing this completely by choice - I am smart enough to get work where I please with the right training (and no this is not bragging, I just feel like a lot of people assume teachers aren't smart enough to get work elsewhere...) No, I didn't always want to do this. I wanted to be an artist, astronaut, archaeologist, biotechnologist, science communicator, then a teacher.

My first university degree was a Bachelor of Science, with a major in Plant Science, or Botany as it used to be called. During this degree I did a few extended lab projects and worked with the CSIRO as a lab assistant for a year. I absolutely loved learning, but it took me a long time working in labs to realise that I didn't really enjoy actually doing science work. I discovered that I did, however, really enjoy talking to people about science. I enjoyed explaining things and helping people to understand about the world in a way they hadn't before. I enjoyed seeing what I call the 'light-bulb moment' - that precise moment when a person finally and truly understands something that they didn't know before.

At the end of my science degree, I decided I wanted to be involved in science communication. At this stage I didn't think I'd enjoy classroom teaching, so I toyed with the ideas of science journalism/writing and informal science education (think science centres, outreach programs etc). After talking extensively with people in the industry, I realised I would need another degree to even be considered for such work. This eventuated in a Master of Communication in Science Communication. Throughout this degree I inadvertently targeted all the assessment items that I could (except for my other GM controversy blog) towards science education. I loved it. I loved it so much that by the time I got to the end of that degree I decided I wanted to actually just teach science. After working full time in a well paying, comfortable, easy office job that had nothing to do with science or education, this was a somewhat difficult but easy decision to make. 

So, back to uni I went to complete a Graduate Diploma in Secondary Education. I did better in this degree than my past two. I don't know if it was maturity or interest that fuelled it, but I did well, really well. It was easy. I enjoyed doing the readings, assessments, practicals, all of it.

The first few times in a classroom were nerve-racking, but I felt completely at home at the same time. This was, is, my job. My thing. I love it. People tell me I am very good at it. I just honestly feel comfortable doing this job, comfortable in a way I haven't felt in any of the other dozen or so jobs I've had in the past.

It is not easy. It takes up far too much of my personal time. I cry, I laugh, I rage, I stumble, I excel, I enjoy (almost) every single moment of it.

That's why I teach.


New Adventures = New Blog

Hello interwebs, long time no blog!

I realised it has been almost a full 5 years since I did this type of thing. Granted, the last blog was for uni assessment, but I think I'd like to try it for a more personal/professional type thing. As it has been such a long time, it will take me a while to get used to this again, so forgive me if I do it all wrong.

I am a high school science teacher, and we are moving from Aus to London in a few months. As such, and based on my personal interests, this blog will probably be about the move and life in London, teaching science, science communication, and other random things as I find them interesting enough to talk about them.

As always, my thoughts and opinions are my own and are not endorsed/reflective of any corporation I may or may not be involved with. Also, if you don't like what I post, you are welcome to not read it :)

Emily