So Easy to Forget Sometimes...

Wow...the thought just came to me that I haven't written in a blog in quite a while.  I can't believe that!! Totally went fresh out of my mind with everything going on here lately. So I better start giving you the update...

...not much is new since the last blog so maybe that's why I haven't posted anything...hahahaha...no matter...Anthony and I have been super busy with teaching and have had some interesting experiences over the last few weeks.  Anthony has been teaching at Longhill High School just outside of Rottingdean and he seems to be enjoying it for the most part. It's starting to sound like the PRU he was teaching at for the previous few months in the way of behaviour management and the kids at Longhill High are definitely a challenge. Anthony keeps saying that the classes he has (all Math by the way) are the classes that nobody else in the school wants to even deal with. He laughs because the kids aren't that bad most of the time they just love giving teachers a hard time. Anthony has had lots of practice now throwing kids out of class, trying to stop kids from walking out of class and giving kids detentions so it's been interesting to say the least. Along with challenges come some good things and even though Math is the one subject Anthony wishes he wasn't teaching, he's doing quite a good job with it. He's even sat down and created a project for his students to do and get them moving around the classroom. The unfortunate part of this whole thing is that these kids Anthony has have had all supply teachers ALL year so for them they've just been working out of textbooks, learning nothing and wishing they were in any subject but math - so you can see why the attitude exists. I'm pretty sure after speaking with the Head of the Maths Department, Anthony got offered to teach these kids next year (starting in September) but obviously he's not a math specialist so I'm sure they'll have to fill that position with someone who is.  In the meantime, Anthony is coping with Math and trying to enjoy his time with the kids which takes an abundance of patience.

As for me, I am still at Portslade Academy 4 days a week (Tues - Fri) and am loving my time here at the school. They also have me teaching a little bit of Maths along with Science classes so it has been a learning curve for me in many ways. The funny thing is watching me try to learn a Math lesson 5 minutes before class and then get thrown into it. I have to say, it's not as hard as I thought mostly because I have Year 7 (Grade 6) with some Year 8 and 9 so it's not too bad. We were doing percentages on Friday and boy was I ever lost - all I could think about was my mother saying to me, "now what's 10% of..." and then trying to explain how to figure it out. You know, I should have listened all those years because now it's definitely come back to bite me in the backside! LOL...other than percentages, angles and perimeters, in Science, we are learning a lot of different things. To tell you the truth, I didn't expect Science to be all that interesting at first when I started teaching the subject, but now, I LOVE IT! There are so many experiments that we are trying and just the other day, I introduced my Year 7 class to Bill Nye the Science Guy!!!!! Hahahaha...I STILL can't believe that I did that but the kids LOVED it and the next class we had they asked if we could watch Bill Nye again...I haven't laughed that hard in a while. My Year 7 Science kids are definitely not an easy bunch to teach especially when I have to keep my eye on 30 kids at the same time which is pretty much impossible but I am trying really hard to keep the kids occupied and get them doing experiments which they are fond of for sure. So as a whole, I am loving this school and the kids and even though I have those really bad days, it always ends on a positive note.

So now you might be wondering, it's that time of the year where teachers have interviews for September so do Anthony and Steph have any prospects lined up? Actually, surprisingly enough, I got a call from the agency this week telling me that I have another interview at Hastings Academy for a Peforming Arts Job with Music Specialism interest. I was SO excited when I got the news and this weekend, that's all I've been working on is getting this whole thing together. You have NO idea how long every application form is - so brutal!!! But I hope it's worth it this time because this job definitely sounds like a dream job for me. I have to deliver a 25-30 minute lesson on vocal styles around the world and then have a 30-45 minute interview on top of that. I was overjoyed when I heard that I was doing a lesson on vocals - that is MY THING - so I hope that I'll be able to pull it off and hopefully make it to the next round. I don't know how many other candidates are up for the job but at this point I just need to focus on myself. The only downside to this whole thing is that the job posting is in Hastings which is further than Bexhill (1 1/2 - 2 hours train/bus ride) so it will be expensive if I have to do that but we'll cross that bridge once we get there (if this whole thing goes further than a lesson/interview). Maybe this is another door opening for a reason...not too sure and don't want to get my hopes up but pray everything goes well and if this is my open door that I won't let it pass by.  Anthony has been very supportive about this whole thing and he is very curious to see the outcome of it all so we will know Monday night after the interview Monday morning at 9AM. There have also been a couple of other Primary Music and regular Primary Classroom Teaching jobs in Brighton that I have applied for as well. I figured, I have nothing to lose so why not apply for the position so we will have to see if any of those work out. Everything is up in the air at the moment   :-|

Now as far as Anthony goes, he's been avidly applying for a few teaching jobs that have come of interest to him lately. There is a new school opening up in Hove that is a Christian based school and September is the first opening day of it all. Anthony came across a posting within the last couple of days for a PE job and he is super excited about applying for it. For us living in Brighton at the moment, it would be perfect because it would only be about a 20-30 minute bus ride from home so we don't know if this is an open door for Anthony or not but you never know what will happen. There have also been some other schools in Brighton - another PRU special education job posted which might be good for Anthony and again close to home as well as another PE job posting up near London (which is about an hour of where we are now). So many possibilities at this point because now is the time to apply for a teaching job!

Phew...well other than all of that teaching news, Anthony and I have just been enjoying a lot of the sunshine over the past few weeks including our long weekend last weekend so that has been lovely! It's definitely not as hot here as it is at home but I'm hoping when it does reach around 20-25 degrees that it will be really nice without the humidity - I will keep you all updated! Anthony and I have also done some fun things in and around Brighton - we helped some friends move (wow was that a big job), we met some new people from church, we've started up our Bible Study again (after our big break off), we found out one of our new friends is having another baby, we've hung out with our new Canadian/British friends, celebrated birthdays of new friends and just had the opportunity to enjoy life here.

Well that's about it for now - now that you've all caught up with everything that's going on here in the UK with us but if you wanna catch up some more, just email or facebook me and we will definitely have to set up a Skype call because I LOVE those!!

We miss and love all of you <3 <3 <3

Steph & Anthony xoxoxo