Autumn, season of mists and mellow fruitfulness. And assignments. Art assignments, RE assignments, Maths assignments, MA and PE assignments. I’m not sure if there is a collective noun for assignments, but I would propose a plague, a plague of assignments. If Pharaoh had been confronted with that straight up, there would have been no need for the messy water into blood thing (ugh), or, indeed, the plague of locusts (why is that the last of them? If it were me, I’d have been a lot more freaked out by the water into blood).
Generally feeling pretty positive about the course at the moment. Every potential teacher has to do three standardized on-line tests – Maths, IT and English. I’ve managed to successfully negotiate the first two of these. The IT one is trivial, and is really just testing your ability to attend the test centre at the allocated time.
The Maths one is a different kettle of fish, I know people who have failed this. On-line practice tests are provided, the main purpose of these appears to be to turn anyone who was nervous about this test into a total wreck. As with everyone else, I crashed and burned big time on the practice, but fortunately I still managed to struggle through on the actual thing. Possibly the best part of passing is that I can go around telling everyone how much tougher the real test is compared to the practice (small things, small minds…)
I had booked my English test (although they are on-line, you still need to do them in an approved test centre and book a test slot in advance). Unfortunately I got the wrong day so missed it. If it works on the same basis as the IT test then I failed. Fortunately, you are allowed to retake them.
Those assignments. I assume that they are timed to coincide with half term, so that rather than being in lectures we can spend all day in the library. Couple of problems with this. Firstly, children (I’ve a feeling I’ll be saying that a lot if I ever make it to being a teacher). In half term, if you’ve got children, rather then parking them at school all day, they are at home and tend to want you to entertain them. And they’ve got a pretty compulsive line in argument – they can scream.
Secondly, plague. This little corner of London has been inflicted with it big time, and the last thing that I feel like doing is trawling through academic journals on students and teachers attitudes to Maths. And even if I did feel like it, its not safe for me at present to be more then 7 feet away from a vacant loo.
Q. ‘O WHAT can ail thee, knight-at-arms,
A. The trots
Most of the Irish students have flown home for the week, I don’t know if they will have got a bulk discount. Irrespective, I’m sure that the last thing they will be talking about is the assignments. “Gathering swallows twitter in the skies” – isn’t it nice to be able to quote Keats. Clearly, I know nothing about Keats, or poetry, or anything at all really, but the internet can make a sensitive soul of any of us.
http://www.bartleby.com/101/627.html
http://www.bartleby.com/101/633.html
The road to Blackberry Hill 
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