Yellowtrampoline

Update

eleuthera40 — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 11:59:49 +0000

Well, I’ve been here for five weeks now, and it’s still going well. I’ve settled into the once-weekly mother watch routine, and have had no complaints of the food so far! Everyone’s lovely and friendly and helpful. There are still a few things admin-wise I haven’t got my head round, but it’ll get there. I’ve successfully navigated a major cleaning order, including filing of invoices, and managed to get some squirty bottle tops for free which looked like they should come with the bottles but didn’t. We have a new, currently temporary, cleaner, which takes the pressure off the rest of us somewhat, so I haven’t mopped anything in over a week! Before that I was mopping pretty much every day, which was fine, but I’m glad I don’t have to as much now.

I’ve observed lots of Rivers and Woodlands courses and some holiday activities, which I should start teaching over Easter. I’m teaching Rivers next week! And today and tomorrow I get to go and play with newts. Laurence is running British Amphibians and Advanced British Amphibians courses, and I’m going to both, the first to learn how to back up an adult course and the second for my own interest.

I have also learned three important things about the Forest. Firstly, that it gets a capital F, secondly, that a Forest doesn’t have to contain any trees, and thirdly that a Forest is an area of land set aside for use by the Crown. So there.

So, I might have failed to tell you something…

eleuthera40 — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 19:38:04 +0000

I have a job! Hooray! It was all very quick and sudden, and I only heard about the opportunity last thursday and now here I am 12 days later and two days in. It’s as a Hybrid Tutor in Epping Forest, and I’m enjoying it so far. Obviously not teaching yet as I need to learn how things are different here, but I’m settling in. So that’s good!

Hummmm, yes

eleuthera40 — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 22:15:45 +0000

Lost Generation

Tada!

eleuthera40 — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 20:14:35 +0000

Again, it has been far too long. I have still not given up on my yellowtrampoline, but life tends to get in the way a bit now, I’ve found. So what have I been up to? My job at Amersham was amazing, I adored it and the people I worked with. However, sadly there was not enough in the coffers to keep all of the trainees, and Teresa was the lucky one to get the tutor job, so after two extra months as a hybrid tutor (slightly more pay) I left the centre, and, of course, my new home and friends, Brownies, WI…
So now I’m back at home for a bit. I’m not as despondent as the last paragraph may make out, I promise. I’m fully aware that the tiny but perfectly formed centre at Amersham might one day have felt too cramped, and in some ways I’m grateful that I never got to that stage. In other ways, of course, I wish I was still there!
My job search has thus far borne no more fruit than a couple of interviews, and although that is a good start, it’s not a job, is it? The main, sometimes only, reason given for not employing me has been that others had more experience. But, if noone will employ me, how will I get experience?!
I’ve decided the answer lies in more applications, hopefully interviews, and Oxfam, so I’ve started volunteering in a local shop, about once a week.
So, there, I’m up to date. Back to the application grindstone.

Froggies!

eleuthera40 — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 23:52:10 +0000

WARNING – this game will steal your life away, but it is awesome

eleuthera40 — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 18:05:21 +0000

Viking Defense

Build up a defence system to protect your Viking village.

Play this free game now!!

Paper snowflakes

eleuthera40 — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 23:47:07 +0000

I might even get around to photographing the one I made so you all can see it too. I’m impressed with how easy it was!

Paper Snowflakes – More DIY How To Projects

Mon Dieu! C’est adorable!

eleuthera40 — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 22:35:20 +0000

Once upon a time… from Capucha on Vimeo.

If my website were a cloud…

eleuthera40 — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 00:31:44 +0000

yellowtrampoline.com as a wordle.net cloud

I like!

This one’s Nicki’s site. Nicki – you need to take a look at your comments, there’s something going wrong. Maybe upgrade wordpress?

I know of no other job where an item on your to-do list during a day in the office is to repair a treasure chest that’s been attacked by squirrels.

eleuthera40 — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 00:38:29 +0000

Gracious, I’m rubbish at keeping you all up to date. Sorry!

The job is still Awesomeness Incarnate, and I feel so so lucky to have landed a job I love, and where I get on so well with everyone I work with. There’s my Head of Centre Jackie, Tutor Jenny, Fellow Trainee Tutor Teresa, and Daisy, of course, Jackie’s dog. I live in a little house with Jenny and Teresa and Jenny’s cat Squish in a village about 3 miles from the centre. I’m helping with a local Brownie pack, and have joined the WI. (“What, the Women’s Institute? Aren’t you a bit young?” “Aren’t they the ones with the naked calendar?” and “I didn’t know you could make jam” are all apparently valid responses to this comment.) Life is good.

Anyway, back to the job, which I’m sure you’re all itching to hear about. I’m teaching so much earlier and with so much more confidence than I ever imagined possible. Even visiting teachers say I’m authoritative, and one even said that if I’d told her to jump in the pond she probably would have, although in hindsight that may not have been a compliment. We teach Reception (age 5) up to A-level, over the range of Geography/Biology topics. For example, urban studies in High Wycombe, downstream changes in the River Chess, Rocks and Soils, Energy and Electricity (the substation, see. One of our volunteers dresses up as Michael Faraday and tries to put knives in toasters and so forth. Cue thirty seven-year-olds crying “No, Michael, no!” in unison. I have yet to see this in action, but I’m looking forward to it.) Also A-level projects, Freshwater and Woodland Ecology and Barnaby Bear (awww! 5-year-olds walking round the woods is so Sweet!). Half term was fun, and I planned and ran a day rather grandly entitled “The adventures of Isaac the Newt.” We did a little treasure hunt (all the clues were in rhyme, of course) and a bit of pond dipping, and we made sock-newts (hooray! They worked really well, too) and as it had snowed rather heavily the night before, we had a bit of a run around in the snow and made a snow-newt too. What other job lets you do that?

If you think of anything else I haven’t mentioned, any questions I haven’t answered, please do comment, I like talking about work.

In other news, I turned 24 this week, and had a lovely weekend full of tasty food and wonderful people, all of whom gave me such perfect, thoughtful presents, so thank you all. Fabric bunting! A slow cooker! It’s all so exciting!

I should really go. It’s gone midnight and I’m teaching a birthday party tomorrow, more’s the pity. We’re doing a Pirate’s Treasure day with a bit of pond dipping thrown in for good measure. Assuming it doesn’t snow too hard in the night, that is.

Love to you all

S xxx