I have another interview. This one at a distance of 44 miles away from Cambridge ... *sighs* I'm signed up to this teaching recruitment company and to say they mess me around is an understatement.

Job 1 - Still miles away BUT looked good and relatively get-to-able ... they put me forward for the post without my confirmation and then send me the interview pack. "Interviews for History and PSHE Candidates" ... yes and the conversation goes as follows:

Me: "I am NOT a history teacher, my PGCE, hopefully, is in English with Drama"
Her: "Well you have a degree in English and History I fail to see much of a difference."
Me: "I'm going to be an NQT who has trained in English ... I have nowhere near enough experience to teach my own subject brilliantly yet, let alone another."
Her: "Okay so I'll tell them you refuse."
Me: "No, you tell them I am unable because you put forward a wrong candidate."
Her: "Yes yes yes."

Job 2 - Random phonecall at 8:55 in Kings Lynn. Note to self it's probably closer to York than to me. She gabbles the details, I miss most of them and then confirms and hangs up. I rang back and shes "away from her desk" yet again. I hear nothing else ...

Job 3 - Until the afternon when she rings back with a job in Thurston ... 40-odd miles away but fairly do-able ish
Her: "The interview is with Year 9 on poetry."
Me: "Where is this place and is it get to-able by public transport."
Her: "You will need to take the train from Gloucester and go to Cambridge and change from there"
Me: *incredulous* "Yes I am aware of that, I mean where is it in relation TO Cambridge and how far is the school from bus stops/train stations?
Her: We'll sort something out.
She hangs up and I hear nothing else. So I MAYBE going to Cambridge on Monday. Maybe. I have a lesson planned just in case.

( Read more... )

It was comical

So now I have to go and half-pack a case and hope for an ice pack and fuss from K-chan

The interview went. I don't really re

member it all too clearly, other than that I was so nervous my hands were shaking and tapping on the table as I tried to talk.

However they did ask me to select a book for Year 9 (woo asked me it last year) and I picked Wuthering Heights and gave my reasons why (good book, quite eerie with a good sense of mystery, the Yorkshire dialect, strong characters that both boys and girls and get on with, also scoope with creative writing because a lot happens 'off stage'). They seemed okay with this and then said "anything more contemporary?" and I picked The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime. Just my luck ... the guy said he hadn't read it and that died on its bum. Pity, because its a fantastic book to do with Year 9, especially with those who aren't as skilled in literature as their cohorts.

They also asked me how I taught Macbeth to my Year 9 ADHD boys. I said that I wrote a brief synopsis of the play beforehand and had them watch some scenes from the film. Then, when they approached the text, they weren't so daunted and knew that there was plenty of gore, madness, blood and guts coming up.

They also asked me about my Year 7 class and what I did with them. I couldn't tell what they thought really, it was difficult to judge it.

They also didn't ask for my multi-racial essay. Instead they asked all three of us at the interview for an essay on and I quote "some piece of writing about a teacher you admired, or what has inspired you to teach English, something about what makes a good English teacher." ..... huh ... I remember doing something like that in Year 8 or so. I felt a bit cheated.

However they did say "Do you have any questions?" and I couldn't think of anything and then they (the two guys who interviewed me) said "Anything you'd like to draw our attention to." I said yes and wanted to draw attention to the work I had done with Societies. I mentionned animesoc and how I helped found it and that we were still going strong. They then got into the spirit of things and asked me "What does Dougsoc mean?" I answered with a grin and then they asked about Tech Diff. How on earth do you make Technical Difficulties sound cultured and interesting without it sounding like a group of students arsing about on the radio ...

The guy's closing question was "Who's your favourite Doctor Who?" and I answered Christopher Eccleston "because lots of planets have a North" and he also asked who i would like to see as the next Doctor Who ... I said Stephen Fry, because then we'd have some fun literature-themed episodes

... Gary and Tom, yes you may kill me now.

Visting Nanny tomorrow and Aunt Jo. Stopping off at the comic shop en route to avoid paying the delivery fees with Amazon and can pick up various birthday presents for people in one big shot. Lot easier. Needless to say, mommy isn't overly keen on me doing a runner inbetween stations *note to self, get fold-up skakeboard to make it faster*

Hoping Nanny has a line of sanity tomorrow and not going to tea with various Majors and Generals.

Here endeth the lesson

Preparing for interview. Lal lalalalla

Gone on a website to ask for some general advice and play on the forum for a bit, gathering some pointers and whatnot.

There are two people on there asking for pointers on Secondary English PGCE interviews at Cambridge and their posts are abysmal. Not full of standard typos like I do (my head goes faster than my hands and my fingers fudge up and I can't be bothered to check) but wrong definitions, terrible grammar and don't get me started on punctuation.

I dread to think what kind of English teachers these two will be ... and if Cambridge have accepted them, maybe I'm better off.

School office picky-nicky tomorrow, I'm bringing fresh tayto salad :D

Also have shiny new suit, shiny new undertop, shiny shoes, lovely foundation, perfume and a haircut tonight to look goregous for next week.

Well ... I've never managed gorgeous yet but I'm hoping for acceptable.