The road to Blackberry Hill

I’ve given presentations before, lots of them. So what’s the big deal about giving a presentation to a couple of lecturers and a bunch of students fresh out of college, all of whom have to do presentations of their own, and none of whom have any idea about presenting. Surely they’d be all so wrapped up in their own inadequacies to spend any time focussing on mine.

Well, a few things. Firstly, I had to present on something topical and relevant to teaching in primary schools. Now, I’m not claiming to be Mr Presentation 2007, but if anyone asked me for any advice, I’d tell them to stick to something that they knew something about. I wasn’t even aware that it was possible to have anything topical to say about teaching in primary school. And secondly, and most importantly, this really mattered. For presentations in my previous life as an IT manager, what’s the worse that could happen? People fall asleep or I get rotten eggs thrown at me (or, in the case of conferences in the more upmarket Parisian hotels, more like lightly scrambled eggs with black truffles).

 But this time, entry into my chosen vocation depended on it. Ever since hearing about my impending redundancy from the Eastern Edge of Reason Bank (EERB) a few weeks ago, I had been planning on realising my long held dream of becoming a primary school teacher. I’d spent my first 2 weeks of gardening leave helping out at the local school, and hunting for teacher training places. On calling my local college, St Martha’s at Blackberry Hill (within walking distance of my house – no more commuting! Actually, Blackberry Hill is a strange name for the place, there is no hill and no obvious sign of any Blackberry’s) I was told that in somewhat unusual circumstances some places had become available. Apparently, an unusually large number of entrants had fallen pregnant before the start of the course. I didn’t ask what the normal number was. I was also told that interviews were starting in 2 days time, so if I wanted to be considered, I needed to get my application in that day.  

Anyone who has ever completed one of these forms, you have my sympathy. They require digging out all my exams passes (amazingly, I was able to track down my ‘O’, ‘A’ and Degree certificates from 20 years ago) and blocks of text explaining why I wanted to be, and would be suitable for the life of, a primary school teacher. It was also noted that the use of language, spelling & grammar would be carefully scrutinised. For prospective teachers I can see the sense in this, but for someone who has been working in IT for 20 years, with people from all over the planet, the position of an apostrophe in a sentence was the least of my concerns. I persevered, ideally I would have liked to have had a week to complete and review the form, I did it in 8 hours, finishing at 6 in the morning. 

I think I must have caught the recipients on a particularly good day (or is that bad day?), as I was offered an interview. The invite came the next day, the interviews were in 2 days time, and, the first I had heard of this,  I had to give that presentation. 

To be continued …