Finished for christmas!

Wow, I cant believe how quickly the term has gone.Its been amazing...your PGCE guys truly rock. I miss you already. The highlights are many which include those timepiece nights, OAA (swing, swing) but the top four are;

i) Learning the Haka for the legend himself- Will katene
ii)The day of dance- group 2 till I die.
iii) sports day/ swimming gala- i will never be able to erase the memory of the illuminous green speedos
iv) PGCE christmas dinner/ BOP- especially memories of Carole (aka- big c, caza, filfy gorgeous) bopping away after a few too many, and the 'Darcy shuffle' in action....again.

Good times.
Many friends made (love you Q3 guys), much learnt.Wish i could do it all again.

I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a successful 2009.
Mucho love and God bless

Lou xxx

Half way through

Many of you are aware that I have begun teacher training at univeristy of Exeter (at last)! I cant actually get my head around the fact that we are already half way through our intensive university training before we are left to placement in schools for the rest of the academic year. Crazy! Ive loved every minute and made so many great friends. Im going to miss it, but just about feel ready to hit 12 weeks followed by yet another 12 weeks in school. Bring it on!

Busier than Iv'e ever been..but always time for a good book!

Sorry for the lack for posts, but it has been crazily busy.

I have been meaning to shre my expereiences of a book which has been my bed time reading for the past 4 weeks- 'The shack'. Now you may well have heard of this book, had friends who have read it, or seen it on the local Tesco bookshelf. I have resisted reading this book for quite a while because (a) I wanted to finish reading my previous book, 'Schooled'- a book about the private school system in Manhatten, and (b) because I was foolishly sceptical of it due to the amount of publicity. Silly me! How wrong could I be?! This book is amazing. Its one of the best books I read in a long time and I throughly recommend it. The bonus is its not very thick... and believe me you cant put it down!

There are many things that have touched and challenged me as a result, one of which I will discuss now. The idea of God as 'Papa' is quite special and so personal that it stares you in smack in the face. I have have considered God as 'Father' for a long time but this highlighted something different. The level of intimacy that God desires with me (Mack in the story) is so much more than I humanly thought possible, but thankfully through this book it has brought me into a place where it has broken my stereotypes of what I THINK God should be like, to actually allowing him to be my 'Papa'. Its radical I know, and some may be reading this thinking ' What on earth is she on'? I encourage you to read the book and experience a change of thinking and heart... I guarantee you will meet with your maker!

Thought I'd post a photo up here for you all. In september this year I had the privilage of representing GB in the World Junior Powerlifting Championships. It was so inspiring to be part of... and I came 6th!

My very first blog!

Well...Welcome to all those who are reading. This is indeed my very first post. It has stemmed from a webdesign workshop which I attended today as an optional part of my PGCE course. For those of you who are not aware I am obviously crazy as I am embarking on a career in teaching. They do say, " Those who can't do anything else..teach"! Well... Im not so sure about that. Teaching has been a life long passsion of mine, so i feel excited at the prospect of going into work everyday and being faced with something different each time. Although it's easy to complain that I have lesson plans coming out of my ears (and the rest) I am really enjoying and thriving learning all about what and how to teach. I look ahead with anticipation to getting into schools. I will let you know how it goes. Wish me luck!