Assemblies and all that jazz

I seem to have had no thoughts worth blogging of late... only thoughts of support work and whose facebook profile I can look at next!

Today I was at Ripley in Lancaster as a guest speaker, giving an assembly about my time in Africa. High School students don't give any instant feedback when you speak... no smiles, no laughs, no obvious sign that they are taking in anything at all in fact, or any indication that what you are saying is vaguely interesting - though maybe it wasn't! Quite a lot harder than any of my talks so far, but it was good to do it nonetheless I think. On my way in I did meet 2 old friends about to help out at the Year 10 spirituality day, though, so that was nice :)

The speaking tour continues

Last night Young Families (read my mum and her cronies - not exactly young families any longer) at church put on an evening with Emma Swarbrick - me talking about Kenya. We booked the meeting room and I got in touch with the diocese to borrow a data projector (let it be said at this point that Blackburn is THE most ridiculous city to drive around, I seem to view the cathedral from every angle in ever decreasing circles before actually making it to church house). I showed a DVD, my photos and I talked, a lot. Lots of people asked questions, some people asked difficult questions, some people asked lots of difficult questions, I didn't attempt to look more knowledgeable than I was. I enjoyed myself and everyone said it was interesting and well presented :) and they raised £70 for Education for Life - all good! Next stop Ripley St. Thomas. And today I was booked by one of my primary schools to do another assembly :) yey!

Being a TA/SSA/LSA take your acronym pick

I have recently started work as a teaching assistant, a stop gap until the summer before starting a teaching job in September. There are various pros and cons to the job, obvious cons being the rate of pay (doesn't even come close to being a supply teacher) and the obvious pros being the lack of responsibility - I turn up at 9 and leave at 3.15 guilt free.

I love the work that I am paid for - to support a particular child, he responds well to me and I can see how my supporting him in the classroom is enabling him to participate more fully in classroom life, but as he is currently in a reception class the opportunities for me to work one on one with him are not so easy to come by. Consequently, I probably spend about an hour of the day actually working with my specified child and another 4 hours cutting and backing and trying to find other ways of supporting other children in the class. There are already another 3 adults in the classroom, one of whom being the teacher, and the other 2 support assistants have been working there for a while. As a result I often feel at a bit of a loose end, everyone else seems to know what to do when the children are on the carpet and I seem to faff about trying to look like I know what I am doing when really I don't!! After 2 weeks I have learnt today that there is a list of jobs for us TAs to do when not working with the children, but even that I found hard to decifer! It's all about starting a new job and finding my feet I think!

Despite the enjoyment of not having to worry about planning or assessment or acceptable working hours, I am very much looking forward to having my own class again!

Red Arrow spotting

I saw them again, flying over Blackpool on Friday. Unfortunately I was driving at the time and couldn't pay them great attention...!!! It was cloudy though, so no loop the loop :( Seems they were doing a display at Whitehaven.

Interestingly, if you do a Google map search and select a satellite image of Blackpool airport you can see them in perfect parked formation! (The search takes you to an office just north of the airfield, scroll south slightly to see the airport.)

Theological worldview

I was curious about what this would come up with for me, it was interesting, and it said:

You scored as Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan,You are an evangelical in the Wesleyan tradition. You believe that God's grace enables you to choose to believe in him, even though you yourself are totally depraved. The gift of the Holy Spirit gives you assurance of your salvation, and he also enables you to live the life of obedience to which God has called us. You are influenced heavly by John Wesley and the Methodists.

Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan		71%
Emergent/Postmodern		71%
Classical Liberal		61%
Neo orthodox		61%
Roman Catholic		57%
Modern Liberal		50%
Charismatic/Pentecostal		46%
Fundamentalist		21%
Reformed Evangelical		18%

What's your theological worldview?
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Red Arrows

One good thing about living in St. Annes is the (fairly) regular visitation of the Red Arrows to Blackpool, even if only to use the airport. Many summer days are spent running out into the garden to see them fly by and land in a spectacular manner on hearing a loud aeroplane-like rumble. Today I saw them fly by in formation and ran to the front of the house in the hope of seeing them do a hoopla-loopla (which I have been assured is a loop-the-loop, but hoopla-loopla seems like a much better name), but they didn't, I think because it was cloudy. So they split off in a less impressive manner. The sad thing is that for the rest of the day, having seen them, at the even slight incling of a possible sighting I have to run to a window, only to see a passenger plane or a typhoon (grey and on its own - far less exciting). I did, however see them again - yey! And this time it was clear and they did a hoopla loopla to land! Our house is in a good spot for seeing them and one always flys right over our house after they split at the bottom of the loop. Fab.

Update: Just seen them again, 3 times in one day, I am indeed a lucky lady :) Sophie and I stood on the garden table and waved as 2 of them went right over the garden and over our heads. No photo though, there's not enough time to go looking for a camera!