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