xkcd
Friday, 24 February 2012
Tuesday, 21 February 2012
Newbie
Our new PGCE student started yesterday.
He's a chemist, but the Head of Science has given him a yr9 physics set to teach so he came to ask me for a text book. He seems so young!! The last PGCE we had (who got the job - YAY!!) was ex-military and in his 40s. The new guy is clearly fresh from uni and looks about 17. I feel so old! I suppose in a couple of years we really will have PGCE students who are young enough to be my children and I am not looking forward to that one little bit.
Anyhow, he seems really nice and I had a bit of a chat with him about making sure he gets his requests in on time etc. Be interesting to see how he does.
He's a chemist, but the Head of Science has given him a yr9 physics set to teach so he came to ask me for a text book. He seems so young!! The last PGCE we had (who got the job - YAY!!) was ex-military and in his 40s. The new guy is clearly fresh from uni and looks about 17. I feel so old! I suppose in a couple of years we really will have PGCE students who are young enough to be my children and I am not looking forward to that one little bit.
Anyhow, he seems really nice and I had a bit of a chat with him about making sure he gets his requests in on time etc. Be interesting to see how he does.
Monday, 20 February 2012
What we do ...
I don't know if you've seen the new internet meme which seems to have been all over Facebook the last few days. It's basically abunch of pictures illustrating what various people think your job consists of.
I've seen a couple of lab technician ones which made me smile, so I 'borrowed' them.
I've seen a couple of lab technician ones which made me smile, so I 'borrowed' them.
Anyone else got a good one?
Friday, 10 February 2012
Inspection over!!
I'm not allowed to say much until we get the full report, but all the stress and hard work was worth it!
Thursday, 9 February 2012
In praise of steam engines
Yesterday one of my teachers did an energy transfers circus. The kids had various things to play with - torch, dynamo, pendulum, solar cell etc - and they had to think about what forms of energy were involved.
As a demo I gave him our lovely Mamod steam engine, which went down an absolute storm! The year 9 pupils had no idea such things existed, and several of them wanted to know where they could buy one.
I couldn't believe they'd never seen one before, but then I was brought up by an engineer and spent numerous childhood weekends wandering round steam rallies (I highly recommend Tinker's Park) looking at the real thing. There's nothing quite like the sound and smell of a steam engine, and I'm so glad some of our students got to experience it even on a small scale. :)
I couldn't believe they'd never seen one before, but then I was brought up by an engineer and spent numerous childhood weekends wandering round steam rallies (I highly recommend Tinker's Park) looking at the real thing. There's nothing quite like the sound and smell of a steam engine, and I'm so glad some of our students got to experience it even on a small scale. :)
Wednesday, 8 February 2012
Inspection - Day 3
Another insanely busy one. Loads of practicals and lots of stressed out teachers.
To help with the stress, I bought a box of chocolates and put them out on the side in the prep room with a note saying 'For Stressed Physicists'. The chem tech stopped by mid-morning and eyed the chocs, asking 'What about stressed chemists?'. I told him that chemists need to look after themselves. I'm a meanie!
To help with the stress, I bought a box of chocolates and put them out on the side in the prep room with a note saying 'For Stressed Physicists'. The chem tech stopped by mid-morning and eyed the chocs, asking 'What about stressed chemists?'. I told him that chemists need to look after themselves. I'm a meanie!
Tuesday, 7 February 2012
Inspection - Day 2
We're fully in to the inspection now, and the teachers are getting noticably more stressed!
The H&S inspector yesterday seemed quite happy, which was a good start. He was particularly interested in seeing the radioactivity store and then chatted to me a bit about my science background. He was quite a sweetie really - fairly old with a huge shock of hair growing out of each nostril! I managed not to stare too much (I hope!)
Two of my teachers have been observed this morning. It mostly went ok, except that water started dripping from the ceiling in Lab 3 onto the kids while the inspector was in the room! That often happens when chemistry have their sinks in use upstairs unfortunately. I've put an urgent note in to maintenance, so with any luck it'll be sorted before any more inspectors show up.
The H&S inspector yesterday seemed quite happy, which was a good start. He was particularly interested in seeing the radioactivity store and then chatted to me a bit about my science background. He was quite a sweetie really - fairly old with a huge shock of hair growing out of each nostril! I managed not to stare too much (I hope!)
Two of my teachers have been observed this morning. It mostly went ok, except that water started dripping from the ceiling in Lab 3 onto the kids while the inspector was in the room! That often happens when chemistry have their sinks in use upstairs unfortunately. I've put an urgent note in to maintenance, so with any luck it'll be sorted before any more inspectors show up.
Monday, 6 February 2012
A fond farewell
We said goodbye to our PGCE student today.
It's been really nice having a physicist. They're usually biologists.
He's coming back at the end of the week to interview for our vacant teaching position though, so hopefully we've not seen the last of him.
It's been really nice having a physicist. They're usually biologists.
He's coming back at the end of the week to interview for our vacant teaching position though, so hopefully we've not seen the last of him.
Inspection - Day 1
All quiet on the western front - so far!
It snowed over the weekend, so everyone was a bit worried as to whether we would all make it to work today, but thankfully the roads aren't too bad and we all made it in 1 piece.
This morning we're expecting a Health and Safety inspection consisting of 2 inspectors, the H&S manager and the Estates Bursar. I spent some time last week making sure all my paperwork is fully up to date (especially the radioactive sources file) and I'm wearing my white coat so I at least look professional.
Fingers crossed!
It snowed over the weekend, so everyone was a bit worried as to whether we would all make it to work today, but thankfully the roads aren't too bad and we all made it in 1 piece.
This morning we're expecting a Health and Safety inspection consisting of 2 inspectors, the H&S manager and the Estates Bursar. I spent some time last week making sure all my paperwork is fully up to date (especially the radioactive sources file) and I'm wearing my white coat so I at least look professional.
Fingers crossed!
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