Seventeen x twenty four..

= CHRISTMAS!

It's very nearly that time of year where we stuff ourselves silly, drink till we're merry...very, and generally plod about. I can't wait!
Usually I don't look forward to this time of year, being over the age of 20 kind of means that you don't have much to play with on Christamas Day, and end up getting far drunker than you intended or fall asleep watching the Sound of Music, yet again. This year though, Christmas means time off school and uni, and I can't wait!!!

The only problem is, the shopping..
I have so far managed to do Christamas shopping for my nieces and nephew in just one hour!! They are sorted, but, of course, tkids are easy to buy for. Now I just need to find something for my boyfriend, my parents, my friends, my brother and sister, and of course, packs of sweets for the kids in school! When I'm supposed to find all this stuff, I have no idea, but hopefully, it'll be soon!! Not long left.

I don't really have antything of any substance to say today, but I had to post this because I'm so damn excited!! I don't go back till the 8th of January too!! Brillliant!!

Tonight I am going to see 'Happy Feet' with my boyfriend, my penguin desires will finally be fulfilled!
And that's it really, not much to say, all I do is go school, come home, plan lessons, sleep, go school, come home, plan lessons, sleep and so on. So not much to say!
Karen

Congraduations

Wednesday, 25th October: Karen finally has her graduation ceremony after months of waiting!
Some of you may not know, but pur lecturers went on strike, which meant that graduation had to be postponed from July till October. I've moaned and moaned about it, so it was nice to finally have our day.
It was a very long day, it started with me collecting my gown at around half 8 in the morning, and finished with me falling asleep at Mr Karens at around 11 and feeling rather drunk.
Our gowns were black, with pink hoods trimmed in white fur...doesn't sound very nice, but it looked alright once it was on. One thing is certain, it was heavy, and my little shoulders were buckling under the weight of it!
Anyway, once we had our gowns on and everything, we were free to do as we liked as the ceremony didn't start till 3! So went off to a little celebration mass where me and Emma were just laughing the whole way through it...her dads gay hands and a random lady warbling were our main reasons for laughing. It was still a nice service anyway. Then it was off to the library, here we drank lots of wine and mingled with our tutors before having a group picture of the years cohort taken - hat throwing moment! Yay! After this, there was still plenty of time before the ceremony, so we stayed in the library, and gave our parents a quick look at the really old books that are stored there.
Finally the time came to leave for the Cathedral.
This was 'fun'.....we were going in taxi's...waiting in the rain for a taxi....in cap and gown.....well, I'll let you think about that.
Anyway, the ceremony was great, not as long as I thought it was going to be, which was good, as it was supposed to be going on for nearly three hours. Luckily, it lasted about an hour and a half.
When it was finished, all the graduates paraded out the cathedral and were applauded by all the academic staff....almost brought a tear.....almost.
After the cathedral it was off to the Great Hall at Everton, where I drank lots of champagne and had some strawberries. The champagne went right to my head, and Emma and I did a stupid little dance to some random swing band.
Finally, it was time to head back to uni to pick up the car and go home.
Once home, we picked up Mr Karen, went for a little meal, where I had yet more drink...and then, as I said, I headed back to his, and promptly fell asleep : )

That was about it really, a great day, and well worth the wait!! Shame I haver to go and do some lesson plans and YR10 activities now......wish I was doing a degree again...8 hours a week at uni! Heaven!

Tagging...

Well, Laura tagged me...
I normally wouldn't do these things, but I want to waste some time before I drive back to uni so I will miss the traffic!

1. The last movie you saw in a theatre, and current-release movie you still want to see.
The last movie(x) film I saw was Clerks 2, it was good, very funny.....the one I can't wait to see, and won't be out for ages is Happy Feet.

2. The last movie you rented/purchased for home viewing.
Errrrr, really can't remember, may have been Sideways, but that is now lost forever in the Black Hole that is Simon's room.

3. A movie that made you laugh out loud.
Errrr, loads!

4. A movie that made you cry.
Erm, shawshank redemption..loads, I don't know!

5. A movie that was a darling of the critics, but you didn't think lived up to the hype.
Watched Brokeback Mountain last night, was that popular with the critics?! It was good, and a really good story, but I was tired...

6. A movie that you thought was better than the critics.
I say ignore the crtics anyway! Just because they don't like it........

7. Favorite animated movie
Ooooooooh, Spongebob!! The Lion King has to be in there aswell, as do Shrek and Shrek 2, Ice Age 2 aswell, haven't seen the first onme, but the possums in this one are grrreat!

8. Favorite Disney Villain.
Lets see......oooh, I really don't know!! They're villains, you're not supposed to like them!

9. Favorite movie musical.
Sound of Music, Moulin Rouge, does Dirty Dancing count...?? Life of Brian aswell, there's some singing in that....

10. Favorite movies of all-time (up to 5).
There's far too many to choose from, so I may ignore the 5 limit...
Drop Dead Fred (and then we'll poo her all over the table)
Dirty Dancing
Chicago
Moulin Rouge
Jesus Christ Superstar (70's film version)
Shawshank Redemption
Chocolat......

and loads more, but I can't think of them right now...I'm supposed to tag others, but I only know Laura :(

I should probably get going to uni now, going to print off my class lists
Expect an update within a week maybe, I should be doing more teaching stuff then...
But I also may be drunk a lot, so don't be too hopeful or expectant...

Karen

Pinch, Punch...

First of the month!

Where the hell has this year gone?! It has gone so quickly! The speed that time seems to pass with these days is really quite alarming. You remember those long summer holidays from childhood...they go so fast now! What happened?!

Anyway, two weeks of school placement complete...all is going well.

Trying to write an assignment on "the nature and purpose of RE in the school curriculum....all not going so well : (

Otherwise, I've not been up to much over the last month, had a good night out in Liverpool with my friends, woke up next morning with a face that looked like a pair of Y fronts. Don't ask.

Got very drunk this week round at Mr Karen's. I cannot remember a thing...oh well

Apart from that, nothing, because I have no money!! My bursary should land in my account this Thursday though, and in turn, make me the happiest woman alive!

Erm, that was this months whistlestop tour of my life

Karen x

Back to School

So tomorrow is my first day in my first placement school. I am both excited and nervous as hell!
For obvious reasons, I cannot reveal the name of the school, but I'm quietly confident that it's going to be a nice environment to work in.
We're in schools on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, and then in uni on Monday and Tuesday, it's going to be strange not seeing all the lovely people on my course everyday!

Anyway, enough about schools, because I think we all had more than enough of it when we were at school ourself!

So, in my last post I said that Mr. Karen had made it to Canada alive, now I bring the good news that he has made it home - and in one piece too...isn't he clever!! He had a really good time, doing such great things as climbing the CN tower to see nothing but clouds, eating in a jungle themed restaurant and finally playing around with Linux and other such technical stuff that I don't understand. It's nice to have him back anyway : )

In other news, I read a piece in The Independent last week about certain laws in Pakistan. Basically, a chance for the rights of women in the country to move ahead greatly has spectacualrly failed due to the ruling party in Islamabad giving in and sticking to Sharia Law. What this means is that proposed changes to 'rape' law in the country will now not happen. So, when a woman is raped, she must produce four male witnesses who will confirm her account, otherwise, if she reports the rape without these witnesses, she herself risks being charged with adultery.

There is some hope, with the Law Minister Mohammad Wasi Zafar stating that "If there are four witnesses it will be tried under [Islamic Law], if there are not, it will be tried under the penal code"

What worries me more is that the article showed a picture of women belonging to the MMA Party, protesting against the proposed changes to the law.......

WHY?!

It's sad that women should agree that one of their counterparts could go through such an ordeal and then have to face the prospect of jail herself just because the assault upon her was not witnessed by 4 other men......???

I'd link to the article here, but I'm afraid the site does not provide free access to the whole article.

Maybe Bertrand Russell was right when he said that a religious education can hold people back in some ways....

However, I am still on the path to becoming an RE teacher so I have to disagree with some of his points....wish me luck for tomorrow.

Karen x

Avoiding......

...uni work again!!


Yes, I have reached the second week of teacher training! These two weeks have mainly been for admin purposes, sorting out registration and such like, but tomorrow, we have a presentation to do that is related to an area of our chosen subject - RE.

I decided to choose Sikhism as I have some knowledge on this but am not concrete in it, therefore, doing the presentation should help with that. The thing is, the presentation is only 5 minutes long....you may think that this makes it easier, but NO! It just means that we have to make decisions about what should be inluded, what should not and what kind of tasks can be incorporated. Also, we have to do it as if we are in front of a class of Year 7's (11 yr olds), so we have to try and get the pitch of it right too.

I should be preparing it now, but I really can't be bothered....ah well, my friend Emma said it only took her half an hour once she decided what to include.

Well, it seems that all I do is complain about uni, so some good news......
Mum and dad go on holiday tomorrow, so that means I have the house to myself - yippee!!
It also means that I'll probably be bored as hell, but hey, I guess I'll actually do some uni work then!!

Other good news, my better half made it to Canada and is alive and well!! He was last night anyway, but then he was going to have some Jack Daniels so who knows?!! He's back on Monday, so he can provide comfort for me, as we have our first placement in a school starting next week!

Guess I'll have to get used to only being able to go on holiday in the school holidays....you know, when it's more expensive and everywhere is busy busy busy : (

Oh I've also had fun this weekend shopping for 'teacher clothes'! Obviously, we have to dress in an appropriate way, but it's so hard for me to find pants that are short enough for my lil legs!! Why are petite ranges more expensive....when there's less material used?!!

Anyway, best get on with "Why is Langar so important to Sikhism?"

Karen x

ps....joke of the day......

Victoria Wood: He had a sex manual, but was dyslexic. I was lying in bed and he was looking for my vinegar : )

Forms, fifteen year olds, and flying to the moon.

Yesterday was my first day as a trainee teacher *arghhh*...
Well, there's really not a lot I can say about it, as it seems that these first few days are mainly for admin purposes, which means that it has been very boring and I struggle to stay awake!
I'm really not very good at sorting out all this personal admin either, forms for fees, forms for bursaries, forms for registration, forms for records of previous experience...the list goes on. I find it hard to do one of these froms at a time, if I get stuck on one, I move on to the other - only to get stuck on that one too. Therefore, I end up with a lot of half filled in forms lying around when really, they should just be a small five minute task.
Anyway, away from all the admin, it seems like the course is going to be one hell of a year. When I say that, I don't mean it in a good way, I literally mean, a year of hell.
Despite this, one positive of going back to do this course is that I get to see people I have spent the last three years of my degree course with, and also get to meet lots of new people - all coming to teaching for such varied reasons.

Today we looked at "What makes a good RE teacher" and it's made me realise the qualities an RE teacher requires that say a maths teacher doesn't.

Oh dear, when choosing this subject, I chose it simply because I found it very interesting. I neglected to think that a lot of children don't enjoy it, and also that a lot of children will be affected by the sensitive issues discussed within RE. This isn't putting me off the subject, it's just an aspect of it that I never really considered fully. Will I have children comong and asking me for advice, purely because I am an RE teacher? When I talk about bullying in a class, will there be children sat in front of me who are suffering because of bullying at that very point in their lives?
This is just stuff for me to think about really and to take into consideration when I am planning lessons etc..

And in other news.....something has come up which really has left me with a lot to think about!!

I don't want to go into details here, because I'm really not the kind of person to write about very personal stuff on a random web page, and also because I don't really know the full details yet, and nothing may come of it.

All I will say is that whilst keeping in mind certain things that my head tells me, my heart seems to override it, and I know what is important to me.

Erm, that is all for now, I really should fill the other half of these forms in, and go and get my passport type pictures took in one of those stupid booths, and write my profile, and sort the fies into some coherent order...................

and then maybe, just maybe, go the pub for one little drink...


Karen x

Nice People...

So as I said, I have been reading this book of essays by Bertrand Russell and one of the chapters which has kept me entertained is entitled, 'Nice People'.
I'm not going to write a lot about this chapter, mainly because I should be doing work for uni... but also because it's a very short chapter. Another point is that quite frankly, Russell is the expert...not me!!
Anyway, he starts the chapter by saying how he intends to write an article in praise of 'nice people'. He then goes on to describe the typical 'types' of people that may be considered nice, and then follows by stating the role he believes these people have played in shaping the world. If you want to kow about that, then you can probably find the essay somewhere on the net or get hold of the books yourself.
What I really liked about this chapter was it's closing words....
"The essence of nice people is that they hate life as manifested in tendencies to co-operation, in the boisterousness of children, and above all insex, with the thought of which they are obsessed. In a word, nice people are those who have nasty minds."

Anyway, on a more personal note, what a busy weekend!!!
Saturday afternoon saw me, my boyfriend and some friends heading off to Daresbury for Creamfields. Well, we arrived in the area a bit early so went with my plan of going to the pub. There, we had two pints, which meant that I was quite drunk* before we had even got into the arena. After a very long walk, we got into the Creamfields site and yes, headed straight for the bar!
Anyway, the drinking carried on, Mr J lost his phone....doh!.....and then we decided that as we had paid money to see them, perhaps we should go and watch some of the acts. I enjoyed the Zutons, although they were playing a lot of material from the new album, so I didn't know a lot of the songs. They were still very good though.
Unfortunately, we missed most of the Goldfrapps set, we got there as the last song was being played. Then the Prodigy were next - now don't shout at me, like a lot of people have...but I didn't enjoy their set that much....
The bass from them was amazing, it rippled right through the ground, but it seemed that that was all I could hear. Ok, they were good, but they just didn't get the crowd going as much as they could have in my opinion.
Afterwards we drank some more, headed to a tent with some random DJ on...I don't know who they were, I'm more of a guitar girl to be honest...but I enjoyed it in there! I danced my little ass off!

We got home at 4 in the morning anyway, I threw up - kind of inevitable!!

Sunday was my aunty's annual bank holiday BBQ, but of course, after the previous night, no alcohol passed my lips and I kind of sat there for most of the day in a bit of a daze. When I got home fro there though, I dragged my friend Laura to the pub quiz...much against her will I think, and we got a miserable 12 out of 20 : (

Monday was the final day of the Mathew Street festival, so we headed there and saw a brilliant band called Amsterdam......http://http://www.amsterdam-music.com/home.html...if you want to know more. There was great atmosphere around Liverpool, despite it being freezing cold. I think next year, I may have to go to the Mathew Street festival on the other days too, instead of just the Monday.

Amyway that was a long, rambling blog, but it meant that I didn't have to read the chapters in this boring book about teaching in a secondary school for just bit longer.....

Karen

* 2 pints might not sound like a lot, but I am incredibly small and lager has bubbles!!

Good day to you.

I have been reading a book on and off for a while now - 'Why I am not a Christian' by Bertrand Russell. I bought it after my last exam at uni, as I realised that I could now do some real studying instead of just learning random pieces of information that would get me a god mark. Anyway, his style of writing is quite easygoing, and the book is just a collection of essays. This is why I have found myself picking it up and then leaving it for a few weeks before I return to read another chapter.

I have written about this previously on another site, but I'd thought I'd post it again here. It seems more relevant to me now that I am embrking on my teacher training course in about two weeks. Anyway, heres the passage that I like...

Russell, B.(2005 reprint) Why I am Not A Christian. Routledge Classics: London, Pg 40-41.

"With our present industrial technique we can, if we choose, provide a tolerable subsistence for everybody. We could also secure that the world's population should be stationary if we were not prevented by the political influence of Churches which prefer war, pestilence, and famine to contraception. The knowledge exists by which happiness can be secured; the chief obstacle to its utilisation for that purpose is the teaching of religion.
Religion prevents our children from having a rational education; religion prevents us from removing the fundamental causes of war; religion prevents us from teaching the ethic of the scientific co-operation in place of the old fierce doctrines of sin and punishment. It is possible that mankind is on the threshold of a golden age; but, if so, it will be necessary first to slay the dragon that guards the door, and this dragon is religion."

Now, I am hoping to become an RE teacher at the Secondary level, yet I agree with some of Russells's points! I find that I can agree that religion has been a cause of many many problems in the world, but what I cannot agree with, is that teaching children about relion somehow stunts their imagination, or understanding of the world. Of course, I must remember that this essay by Russell was first published in 1930, when the world was a different place. Maybe all of his points were quite valid back then, but the world has changed so much, as has Religious Education.

Religious Education now is not about doctrines, or learning rules and laws by which we should live. Rather, it is about understanding different people and their differing views and faiths. It is about realising the similarities and differences in cultures and religions and appreciating both. I believe it is important that children are still taught about religion, it is still one of the major things that influences the lives of people around the world everyday and so, cannot be ignored.

I have also ust finished reading a chapter in the book entitled 'Nice People' and it has kept me entertained, so maybe a post on that soon.

Karen

x

Hi, I'm Karen, this is just a quick blog to say Hi!!

All I want to do with this blog is write about things that interest me, so I might write about the things I have learnt over the past three years at uni, and maybe throw a little gossip in every now and then.

That is all!

Karen