So... why the hell have I started a weblog? ►

◄ The case for practised sartorial inelegance...

Well, I got onto the PGCE course I wanted (Secondary English taught @ the University of Wales, Aberystwyth for anyone unfamiliar with me). At least, I think I want it...nothing you can read or talk about can actually prepare you for facing thirty teenagers you're directly responsible for, but fortunately I have at least some limited experience of this from college (although I was never actually trying to teach them at the same time as casually making sure that no-one was killing anyone else)... :D

I've recently sat down and read through the National Curriculum Online Inclusion Statement, and I have to say it's a good thing that I'm an English student used to incredibly long and meandering sentences. This document (hopefully) doesn't need to elaborate to the extent that it does. In fact, the phrases "act inclusively, value difference", "plan >> action >> evaluation" and "access and challenges for all" seem to cover most of it. However, I suspect that those without five years practise parsing business jargon and academia might spend more time dissecting the verbosity than thinking about the content, which is hardly productive.

I'm also struggling to find anything on-line specifically pertaining to English as it's taught in the Welsh strand of the National Curriculum, or any printed volume. I have a feeling it may come to phoning Galloways in Aber and trying to mail-order the thing over Summer, although it's reassuring to find that various official-looking PDFs and Word docs are floating around. 8)

Furthermore, I've gotten off my arse and ordered a second-hand Compaq Armada 7400 from SterlingXS... this is because I'll probably only be in Aber for a small part of the course; the rest will be on placement elsewhere in Wales, thus I really can't take a desktop PC with me. It's nowt special (300Mhz, 64Mb, 6.4Gb, 13.3", etcetera), but it'll handle basic word processing and also enable me to use my digital camera (which is nothing more than a cool toy in terms of resolution, but is still a very cool toy) and my good ol' ZIP drive...

So, now I'm just waiting to hear back about accomodation; need to write to Dudley LEA regarding the grant currently being offered (because the teaching shortage is becoming truly endemic), and hope that Extra Personnel find me something bearable as Summer employment. That's my plan, at least for the next few days. :)

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