The weekend away and my first day @ my new school placement!

Well, the past few days have made my mind feel blah! but now I feel ready to share :) Last friday I packed up my things in my lovely eeyore travel bag and set off in Jenny and Mark Gladman's car with my great boyfriend Ramone. The destination was Carrotty Wood in Kent and the reason for going was to have a weekend away with the older youth to have fun and hopefully deepen our relationships with God. I certainly did that! The weekend contained two altogether meetings involving worship and talks, my group was the second group where we taught everyone Guvna B's dance the 'kingdom skank' (which everyone got excited about learning something new,especially the adults lol)and I was very proud of Ramone who delivered a powerful talk. From both meetings we came to the conclusion that God is going to set the youth alight for him which makes me want to burst with happiness and fear at the thought. There was also three activities of team building where we had to play games involving team skills, swimming which was so nice to be back in the pool as it feels like it had been forever and finally, low ropes which was a series of ropes,logs and tyres which we had to cross. The night before the low ropes it had been raining therefore when we did the low ropes it was so muddy. I think I took home most of Carrotty Wood with me! lol Me and Ramone won first prize for getting the most covered apparently. When we wasn't doing outdoor activties, we were playing games like bananagrams and watching movies. One of the movies we watched was 'cool runnings' and three people in my youth, Ramone being one of them, especially became fascinated with it which meant we heard Jamaican accents throughout the whole weekend. So overall, it was a very beneficial trip for my relationship with God and really enjoyable to be with all the lovely people in my youth. One negative however was the complete flatness of my pillow..not great!

The monday back was my first day link visit in the school my placement is in. I will be going there every monday doing alot of first hand experience and observation. Unfortunately this means I've lost my day off now..doh! My school placement is in one of the year one classes in Chapel End Infants School in Walthamstow. I had never heard of this school before and as I am a natural worrier, it was very nerve-racking but I was excited at the same time. God has blessed me with a teacher who has only been teaching for three years therefore remembers what it is like being in my position so she is very willing to help. The class seems like a good class with not too many difficuly children which is a good sign as I will have to manage this class soon which I do my block placement of teaching them. I tried to get a feel for the school by getting involved in helping the children write about their holiday news, paint the towers they had made and assist them in the exploration of websites in ICT. It was very unusual to eat my lunch in the staff room because for many years the staff room was out of bounds for me and the teachers probably thought who is this alien?! Hopefully, the will begin to feel comfortable around me to talk to me. Also, I went to the staff meeting after school which I found quite boring as the information didn't apply to me right now but I knew it would eventually so I will still go to the next meeting. I am looking forward to the events that will happen next monday!