Bad weather forecast over the mountains so Uni work here I come.
Finished my power points yesterday, just need to get some help inserting a sound file. Lesson plan requires a bit of fine tuning too. As my micro teach is an introductory lecture to the module my scheme of work will be the last thing to do. ( Yes I do have it roughed out in a note book)
Looking forward to my placement in Coleg Y Cwmoedd a week Monday.
'Hands on' teaching is going to be a steep learning curve but I  like a challenge.



 I hope the students turn up!!

That was the week that was!!!
Lots of ups and downs.
My next task is the 2nd micro lesson. I know what the scheme of work will be, I've run it by Nat and she thinks it sounds ok. For this week end though I am relaxing. We went for a meal at a Lebanese Restaurant in Cardiff last night.....really delicious!! After the early meal we went to see a production of 'Much ado about nothing' at 'The Gate'. The performance was a bit flat and the acoustics gave some problems. Nearly fell asleep twice.
Caroline is cooking today, we have friends coming over for dinner this evening. Really nice having a classically trained chef  as your fiancé (although I usually do most of the cooking).
Tonight its Asparagus spears with a balsamic and olive oil topping, parmesan shavings and Parma ham, followed by steak and ale pie with a stilton topping under the top crust.  All served with mixed roasted vegetables and roast potatoes. Dessert is home made trifle. Yum!!!!!!!
Tomorrow we are going to the Mumbles oyster fair.
Have a good week end everyone.

Awake early today so I thought I would share some thoughts.
Yesterday, myself, Aled and Tarun visited Coleg Y Cwmoedd. First impressions.......Good!
It is a 2 year old building with all the modern facilities you would expect. The staff we met were enthusiastic about their work but more importantly they were enthusiastic about us the student teachers.
I look to have bagged myself a class of Aerospace technicians from the U.A.E. who I will be teaching technical English to. I will also be teaching ESW and communications to railway apprentices. Right up my street, or should I say, down my track. They have been looking for someone with a rail background to contextualise their lessons.
A big thank you to Mandy and Nat!

Mmm........ just posted once but not loaded. Here we go again then!
Week 5 over. This week should have seen us all out on our placements for an observation week. As you all know, some of us had a week off instead. The upside to that is finishing the assignments. The down side is that we are a week behind the rest of the group.
Monday morning sees us back in Townhill campus, Monday afternoon a few of us are going to see our placement college, Coleg Y  Cwmoedd, Nantgarw.
Strange to think that this new institution that may be our "chalk face" was, until the miner's strike a coal face. It is built on the site of the former Nantgarw colliery and sits alongside the Showcase cinema, Frankie and Benny's, a ten pin bowling ally and many, many more delights.
I know the area well, I bought a house just a mile from there in 1979.

This is the last ICT session before our placements begin next week. (don't know where yet!)
Mixed feelings about going out into education world. Excited at the new challenge but feeling in limbo not knowing where I'm going. Oh well, what will be will be.
Today we have been looking at 'Delicious', a superb website/resource that allows a comprehensive search of subjects and has a save facility.
Brilliant!

Weekend over week 4 begins!!
Mobile technology. What experiences do we have?, good, bad, informed or uninformed.
Mmmmmmm...........
I started out with using a laptop in my then job as a building examiner at British Rail nearly 21 years ago. Some of my fellow PCET students weren't born then!!! Those were the days of floppy discs and no internet. We posted reports to the office, on discs, in envelopes. Hard to believe in these days of broadband. My next move up was to a Nokia 5800 music smartphone during my Access to H.E. course 5 years ago. Great for music but at the time, not for much else.
Year 1 at uni saw me purchasing a Kindle reader. (carrying all those text books back and forth then became a thing of the past). Year 2 at uni was the year I bought a netbook. Light, handy but a small amount of memory, so slow. I had the memory upgraded and it did sterling work for the next 2 years.
Year 3 at uni was the year of the Google Nexus tablet. I took it around Vietnam and Cambodia in 2013 and sent blogs of my adventures back for my friends to read.
I embrace new technology, it has helped me in further education and made life, mostly easier.

Week 3, day 4.
Another interesting day.
Finally got our power point delivered. Tom and Deb were fine, my bit was a bit lame though. Lesson learned there I think. (Could have jazzed it up a bit more).
We then had nearly an hour long presentation on digital learning from a man whose name escapes me (Simon?). Whatever his name he was brilliant. Sadly he no longer teaches in schools but judging by his enthusiasm and dynamism he must have been among the best in his field.
The use of technology he introduced to us for use in the classroom was a heads up on the direction things are taking. None  of it was innovative  software or hardware but the application of it was. Thinking outside the box as it were.
A warm welcome to Rachael who joined us today. I'm sure you will quickly find that we are a helpful and friendly bunch. Any problems, just ask.