Another busy week

Well, I’ve fallen behind a bit when it comes to telling my tales and recounting my adventures so I will do my best.

When I last wrote I was off to Dundee for the match between the Stars and the Tigers. The game itself was largely no issue. The Stars won 6-2 and handled the Tigers with ease. However, for the first time since I have arrived we played on an honest sheet of ice. Boards, plexi glass, lots of seating…the works. Apparently Dundee had a brand new rink built a few years back so it looks brand new. I got to play a bit of the tourist and I bought myself a Dundee Stars scarf as a souvenir. We ended up getting home by 10:30pm and I crawled into bed and tried to get ready for school the next morning.

When Monday morning rolled around I was still pooped from my game in Dundee, but duty calls. So, I got up and headed off to school, through the pouring rain. As a little aside, this country has now rained for 3 weeks straight. And I don’t just mean a little drizzle, or a light rain, or even a steady rain…no…it pours…all the time…with crazy wind…so the rain actually falls side ways. Anyway, I went into my school and continued to help out in my class. I taught a gymnastics lesson on Monday, was asked only to help out on Tuesday and Thursday, and on Wednesday spent half of my day helping out a little p4 class. The p4 class was the highlight of my week. They are about 8 years old and really well behaved. One little girl, Iona, drew a picture of me. Check it out. She did a super job.

Well, Thursday came along and that meant that Friday was going to be spent back at the university doing some in service training. Friday was slated as an ‘expressive arts’ workshop, meaning art, music, drama, and just about anything the least bit artsy. So, I got to take a break from all my crazy planning and go and share a drink or two with some of the other Canadians suffering through this 6 week block. We all agree that this is about the hardest thing any of us have ever done. Friday was the expressive arts day and it was lots of fun. They always get us doing lots of crafts and my team is funny. I seem to always get paired with the ladies who are a little bit older, who have families, and are trying to get into teaching because they want to change professions. One would think that these women would be decidedly less fun than, say, the younger girls, but such is not the case. The women are a riot! They crack jokes with no end, and really enjoy giving me a hard time. It was a great day and loads of fun.

It has become the weekly tradition that on Friday all the boys in the flat wander down to the Chinese take out spot at the bottom of the hill. We all go down and have roughly the same order. We all get an order of chicken balls with either chips (fries) or fried rice and your choice of sweet and sour sauce, gravy, or spicy curry sauce. It’s a line up of 8 guys deep and we all want our chicken balls! The girls upstairs think we’re nuts…until they get one sniff of it and then they too are off for some chicken balls. Add in an 8 pack of pint sized Carlsberg beer (our new favourite) and we have the beginnings of a very relaxing evening. The side effect of our feast and a few cans of beer is that everybody is too tired to do anything…and we are soon all in bed. In fact, Ed has been in bed by 9pm each of the last 2 Fridays.

Saturday saw me get up early and go and down my grocery shopping. I tend to like going down early on Saturday because it allows me to get fresh stuff like bagels and such. However, on Saturday I was also supposed to go out with one of my team members for lunch. I was fully expecting just to go for a pub lunch or something, but when she met me at the train station she told me to hop in her car because we were headed back to her place. She took me back and I met her husband and two daughters, one of which is a student at my school, and had a nice Sunday dinner for me. It was super nice. Roasted chicken, oatmeal stuffing, roasted vegetables, the whole works. She then drove me back into Glasgow so I could head off for my hockey game in Fife.

The game in Fife was a joke. They were playing in a cross over pool with teams from the North of England. Billingham was supposed to be a top team down in England, but they were no match for the mighty Fife Flyers (widely believed to be the top amateur team in the UK) and were soundly drubbed 10-0. Yeah…I can assure you I did nothing but watch Fife destroy Billingham.

Sunday was going to be my day of rest. I had my big evaluation coming up on Monday so I was going to spend the day making sure that I had everything all ready. Well, my plans changed in a hurry when I got a call from the Elite league. They needed a guy to work Sunday night in Edinburgh at the Capitals game and they wanted me on the game. I jumped at the chance and was on a bus going over to Edinburgh mid-afternoon for the 6pm start. Edinburgh was hosting Belfast and the game was quite good. Belfast won 7-5 in a bit of sloppy affair, but it was a fun game to work. Of course, it being my first game, I had to make at least one glaring error. The Elite league plays with touch icing, and I was fully aware of this fact, but there I was on my first icing call in my first pro game calling automatic icing because I just plum forgot. The worst part was, nobody said anything…until the other linesman pointed it out about 2 minutes later. Once I got that detail sorted out I fared much better. I’m optimistic that I might get another game before too long.

Last, but not least, was my evaluation today at school. I didn’t sleep much after I got home from Edinburgh and got up extra early to go into school so that I was all ready. Well, 10:45am rolled around and it was time to put all those lessons this fall to the test. I delivered my lesson as my tutor took notes. The kids were super well behaved…in part because Mr. Nicolson scared them with a threat of ‘dealing very, very severely with any non-sense’…and Robbie, the resident trouble maker wasn’t in class (he was off sick). After the lesson my tutor pulled me into an office and spoke to me for about 40 minutes. He was pleased by my actual lesson. He could see lots of good things happening. He wanted me to improve my lesson planning…not in that it wasn’t good, I just tend to mix up some of the things he wants to see in my lessons. Yeah having lesson aims, learning intentions, key teaching points, and lesson outcomes…when I swear that they are all really just the same thing…but they aren’t, so now I need to unmuddle them. At least I’m not the only person in that predicament and I can recover. He left and was sufficiently pleased to pass me on my crit (since its all pass/fail anyway…I’ll take it).

Anyway, that’s the week. It’s been busy. I’m pretty worn out right now. Its 3 weeks until I’ll be home for Christmas. I’m getting super excited. I can hardly wait.

Anyway, take care, from rainy, windy, Scotland.

Bruce






p.s. Here are a couple of photos so you can see where I live. Solid student housing. Very spacious...well...perhaps not.

Another week…another story

Well, the week is over. I’m officially two weeks into my teaching and I’m tired, but enjoying the experience. This week was busier in terms of the number of classes I taught…I had one day where I taught for almost the entire day, but the planning paid off and my lessons seemed to go well. I taught a lesson on static electricity, complete with balloons and fun experiments, but my class was a little rambunctious and we had tons of delays. Oh the joy of being 11 again. Next week is a little lighter in terms of teaching because I’m expected to go and see other classes in the school, so it should work out ok. I’ll probably spend the week working on my plan for my lesson on the 20th…which is when I will have my first formal evaluation. It might be a little stressful. I’ll be sure to keep you posted on how things go.

Otherwise, all my flat mates are now in placement too. This had resulted in a dramatic change in the attitude of our flat. Everyone has taken to planning and working pretty much as soon as they come home from school. In the end, we’ve all become dreadfully boring. No more mid-week parties for us. Thank goodness!

The hockey has resumed. I had last weekend off apparently and it was probably a good thing. I worked like a dog on my lesson plans and I think it has helped me stay on top of my paperwork. However, on Sunday I got a call from the referee in chief over here in Scotland. He was wondering where I was and why I wasn’t in Edinburgh. Apparently I had been assigned a game in the Elite league and was supposed to be in Edinburgh. The only problem with that is that no one told me I was on the game. So, needless to say I didn’t make the game and I’m slightly upset because I would have loved to have had the game. Come on…a pro game…even in the UK would be very cool.

Tonight I went back down to North Ayr to the SNL game. Puck drop was at 5:30 and pitted the hometown North Ayr Bruins (wearing Chicago Blackhawks colours) against the Dundee Stars (wearing blue, white, and red). The game was tight through 2 periods and was pretty chippy. I actually had stuff to break up for the first time all season. However, in the third period Dundee pulled away for the easy 6-2 win. After the game the ref was trying to use my work habits on the ice as motivation for my partner. Apparently the #1 problem facing Scottish linesmen is that they don’t skate enough after the whistle (I could speculate because the games don’t have any intensity to them) and Neil was trying to explain that he wishes all lineys work as I do. Great. Now I’m also a role model. Crap. Not really what I wanted. Oh yeah…check out the rink…small and weird shaped again. I’m still not used to the set up yet. Check out our sweet change room though. Complete with Sauna!! Ha! ODHA simply can't offer that!

Tomorrow I’m off to Dundee. Game time is 6pm and I’ve been told that the rink is very nice. It’s a big game between the Dundee Stars and the Dundee Tigers. These cross town rivals are usually good for a few fights so maybe tomorrow will be interesting. I’ll post some photos of the barn up in Dundee.

Otherwise, that’s life for me over here is Scotland. Not overly exciting, but very busy with school and such. Don’t be afraid to give me a shout if you’ve got some cool news…I haven’t heard much of anything from back home in ages, so an update would be cool. I’ll be home in just about 4 weeks…which means I have loads to do before I come back…and that I’ll be home soon. I’m getting pretty excited.
Anyway, take care and I’ll talk to you all soon. So long from Scotland.

Bruce

p.s. Here are a few more pictures of the folks around these parts. Mark is on the left, Mick (Michael from France...but we get it wrong on purpose) is in the middle, and Jaime and Rob are on the right.

My first week in placement

Well, as everybody should be aware by now, I am over here in Scotland to do my teacher education so that I can be a full fledged teacher and hopefully have a career. As part of my education I have to spend a whopping 18 weeks in placement over the course of the 36 weeks of studies. In my placement I am expected to get experience about teaching, planning, and assessing so that I can perform the job at a professional level when I’m all finished. Up until now I had been going to my placement school for a Thursday and Friday for a few weeks, but starting this past Monday I am at my placement school everyday of the week until Christmas. It’s a daunting challenge, but one that I’ve been looking forward to.

The week went by very quickly. My typical day now looks like this:

6:30 am – get up, have breakfast and prepare lunch
7:20 am- leave to head off to train station
7:27 am – buy train ticket and cup of bad coffee ( No Tim Hortons for me :( )
7:40 am – climb on train
8: 08 am- arrive at Hillfoot station in Bearsden
8:25 am – arrive at school
9:00am- class begins
10:30 am – Play time
10:45am Lessons resume
12:15 pm- Lunch
1:00 pm - Afternoon begins
3pm- Class ends for day
4:15 pm- Depart school for train
4:30 pm- catch train back to High Street
5:00 pm -arrive back at my flat
6:00 pm -dinner
6:45pm – Start planning for tomorrow and plan basically until bed time
11:30pm- Bed time

I have never spent so much time planning. The University makes me fill out paper. My school makes me fill out paper. I figure I need to fill out paper! It’s a bit ridiculous. However, to anyone who ever says that teachers don’t work hard I will now officially have to fight you because it’s a lie.

On top of planning all the time, I also find that I am perpetually exhausted. I wake up tired, I’m tired all day, and I’m tired when I go to bed. It got so bad this week that on Friday night I went to bed at 10:30pm!! Good God!! I slept soundly (including right through the guys across the hall taking our light bulbs as a prank) until 9am. On Saturday night I was in bed by midnight. I didn’t even stay up long enough to listen to the opening faceoff of the hockey games! I must be getting soft in my old age. Hopefully, as I get more accustomed to the routine and the pace of things I’ll get better and won’t be so tired all the time. It would be nice not to be a zombie all the time.

The other guys in my flat will be starting their placement this Monday, so it’ll busy around here in the mornings. There will 7 teachers leaving here every morning…and it will be busy in the evening as everyone struggles to cook and work. It’ll get a bit hectic for sure.

The only other thing that is starting to get me excited is that it is 5 weeks until I come home for Christmas. I’m really looking forward to the break. 5 weeks feels like it is SOOOO far away, but when I think about how quickly this week whipped by I realize that it’ll be here in no time at all.

Anyway, that’s all from Scotland for now. Take care and don’t be shy to fill me in on all the stories back home.

Catch you later,

Bruce

p.s. I usually put up some pictures...so this week I'm putting a few pictures of people who I live with here.

Ed and Martin , Steve , Melissa,

Kendall