And I thought I was busy before?

Wow-ee! What a week! I feel confident in saying that even tho' it is only Thursday.

For starters, my class teachers has a little boy (who incidentally, as it turns out, managed to poke himself in the eye with his drinks beaker on Thursday with sufficient force to draw blood and to warrant a three hour stop in ED) who had been very poorly all weekend, so when their GP said to take him back to hospital, in case of further complications following his bang in the eye, she understandably went with him.

Which, of course, left me high and dry!

Thankfully, cover was found for the morning as we had an off-site activity (planting at a local park with the "Streetwise" council group), but it meant I had to lead the afternoon again (thankfully ICT and a story time) on my tod. Ah well - all good experience.

Turns out the little fella has gastro-enteritis (and a fairly bad bout, by the sounds of it) so my class teacher duly turned up again on Tuesday morning, back to a normal routine, so I got to observe an RE lesson and a literacy session on riddles (at Y2 they aren't very difficult, don't worry) then lead the afternoon for mathematics and another story time (yup, plenty of them, which is nice).

Wednesday was interesting again, however, as my class teacher's husband duly caught a dose of said g-e from their "little darling" which meant that my mentor (the head) had to take the morning session, then observe me teaching literacy after the break! Joy, oh joy! After feedback (best summarised with her quote "don't get me wrong, it was good - but we can make it very good") I then led science - an investigation into forces and movement - and my first ever "show and tell" (which was scary, but I escaped with only minimal maulings, thankfully).

This morning, still no class teacher - so the head once again stepped in and led the class in PE, then thankfully arranged for another teacher to come and assist for the rest of the morning (numeracy then break, followed by literacy).

*phew*

I was due to be "non-contact"this afternoon, which I had hoped to use for writing some of the assignment which is due in just under a fortnight, but after a quick meeting with my mentor I was "persuaded" to stay on the premises and catch up with the heaps of paperwork (lesson reflections, planning for tomorrow, etc) in which I had fallen behind.

The meeting wasn't bad - my mentor was concerned that I was lagging with the paperwork, feeling unsupported and generally having a miserable second placement. Thankfully I was able to then state my position and between us I think we both left the meeting content that the situation wasn't as bad as she might have feared.

I was able to mollify her further by pointing out that I knew I must have done better today as two of the children in my class came and gave me a hug at lunch time.

*sigh*

One week down - stress levels up

Well, that was the week that was... interesting. And a little, um, rushed.

It all started well, with an "inset" on Monday which saw me once more assuming a default position - in front of a computer! Tuesday went relatively smoothly - I had to cover story time at the end of the day, which went well (discipline is a lot easier at this level).

Wednesday was in college; a truly depressing lecture on applying for jobs. Basically, I need to be applying now and, in Nottinghamshire at least, the competition level will be high with some applicants being last year's batch of NQTs. Eep!

Thursday started well enough, the literacy lesson was okay (I missed out a section, but the children won't know as we covered it all in the plenary anyway) but the day ended with a particularly dreadful migraine. Ugh!

Friday was okay, I guess, with me actually managing to see my class teacher teach all morning before I then led the next literacy lesson and a further story time in the afternoon (as my class teacher had a review to attend in her role as SENCo).

So next week the fun begins in earnest!