Gearing up for the final term...

Again, it's been a while since the last post.

So, what have I been up to? (Apart from becoming infatuated with Pinterest. Mostly to fuel my current wedding obsession, but I think this is now ok!) The final weeks of last term seem so long ago now, a blur of Alice in Wonderland activities, an in-weekend, a triathlon, a sport relief mile (more on that later), an easter feast, a hat making competition.... and tomorrow, the start of my final term at Hazlegrove.


So Sport Relief. I must admit I'm not much of a runner, so offering to help with the reception class seemed like a good idea. At the time. This was my Facebook status that afternoon... 

Hazlegrove 1 mile 'fun'-run this morning. Offered to run with reception and ended up with a 5 year old renowned for being a stubbon perfectionist... took no more than 2 stides from the starting line and 'No, I dont want to do it'. 10 minutes of crying and dragging later, off he sprints (suprisingly fast), a minor tumble in the mud... literally 10m from the finish line he realises he didnt run the whole track, stops dead, 'I want to start again'...NO!

So I thought maybe I should do it properly, and with my dad as company, ran 3 miles for sports relief the following week. Like I said, I'm not much of a runner, I get bored, and self conscious, and dont like going out in the rain, and can't run 5 minutes from my house without encountering a massive hill.... not fun.  But hey, it was for a good cause, we raised just over £100 between us and got some company for my lonely Race for Life medal from last year...
 

As well as a spurt of energy and exercise, I had a bit of a shopping spree over easter. The bulk of spendings went on this, my new friend, a Nikon D3100, my most expensive impluse buy, ever.

I didn't take photography at A-level and so, don't know much about DSLRs, but with the help my sister (who does do photography), and the manual, I'm getting there.... these are the first few shots I took the afternoon it arrived. (Also happened to be the most gorgeous day of the Easter hols, so I spent the entire afternoon attempting to top up the tan!)

 

The BBCs documentry Sex and Sensibility: The Allure of Art Nouveau, fuelled my love of Art Nouveau, and out came the sketchbook and canvases. Although this time I wanted to combine my love of textiles, and began to embroider the canvas, which I will paint later (on reflection, I should have painted first!). Here's how it's going...

 

So it's my last term at Hazlegrove before starting my PGCE in September, scary! I was given a checklist of things they want me to do prior to the course, including observing some GSCE lessons at a state school, which I did just before Easter and made me realise I DEFINITELY need to wear heels when I'm on placements, or I WILL get mistaken for a student...

Another requirement was to 'adapt a commercial pattern for a garment'. So here is my first home-sewn garment which isn't fancy-dress or a fancy dress!

Next up, my sisters bridesmaids dress for my wedding next year. Am I crazy even considering making all 5 bridesmaids dresses whilst doing my PGCE? Yes, I think I am!

Plays, Paintings and PGCEs....

I know it's been a while since the last post, but hey, I've been busy!

Straight after the Christmas holidays (which now seems forever ago) we were into the year 3/4 production of Wind in the Willows, making hats, masks, props and scenery... a lot of work but we got there and am so proud of the children. A few photos can be seen here.

Also, got an interview for a pgce course at Truro.... and got in! (on condition of observing some ks3 classes and being able to pay for it!) A bit of a suprise there I must admit... but am looking forward to getting back to learning and the student life, and most of all, Falmouth :)

Hot on the heels of the year 3/4 production, the year 6's are gearing up for Alice in Wonderland, which everyone is excited about and I know it's going to be amazing. Have already made a giant Alice sign, the Mad Hatters tea party chairs and am on number 5 of 8 giant playing cards... We'll be taking a bit of a break from our environmetal art project in class to make some mini 'Mad Hat Boxes', inside which will hide some pretty wacky cupcakes, also very exciting!

In between all of this and my regular duties I've actually found time to paint, and rekindled my love for vintage art nouveau posters and produced a few copies...

 

(Sorry, not the best photos!)

And now its half-term. The first 5 weeks of the year went so quickly, and I'm already half way through my year of artist-in-residence... Hopefully more weaving will happen soon, but for the moment my senior textiles club are infatuated with the loom....

First weaving project

After weeks of waiting for enough wool to arrive (then realising its all slightly different shades!) my first woven scarf is complete!

Warps measured....

onto the loom...

threaded heddles...

ready to weave...

halfway... 

and finished!

Ok so I got in a bit of a pickle with putting the warp on and the edges aren't exaclty straight, but for my first project, I'm rather proud of it! Just needs to be washed and it's ready to wear :)

First lesson...

10/11/11

After a busy morning of helping with my tutors assembly (about remembrance day, so moving i actually welled up) and pre-prep break (entailing cutting up 120 pieces of fruit and delivering it with boxes of bread and milk to the classes in a stylish tartan granny trolley), I finally taught my first ever art lesson!

Over the next half term, we will be looking at and making our own environmental art, and this weeks lesson was based on the work of Andy Goldsworthy. We looked at a sample of his work and discussed how and where it was made, what we like about it etc then went outside to make our own. (Yes, I had tested this on my art club a few weeks ago). I was so impressed with how excited and engaged the children were with the topic and they all worked really well, even those I had worries about.

I've now taken 2 groups with 4 more to go before I can move on to the next lesson, but it really is rewarding and I'm really enjoying it! Even if I cant go a day without being called Mrs instead of Miss and Beach instead of Hill, but we'll get there.....

Dresses and ducks

 

Textiles club- getting busy designing dresses and accesories for the fashion show project, very exciting!

The highlight of my week however, was being given a toy duck and asked to make a 'special' version of it as a prop for a year 7 play. Having never made a stuffed toy in my life I guessed my way through it, but am quite pleased with how he turned out, and have had dozens of  'can i have him?' and 'can you make me one?'s, from staff as well as the kids!
I am now on task of making Daddy duck, who is at least twice the size, not as cute and cuddly but I think more comical...

Birthdays and bonfires

3/11/11

I tried to keep my birthday quiet. No such luck. But having the entire boarding community sing happy birthday to you, a lovely cake from the kitchen staff and a card signed by all the boarders was worth the embaressment of trying to drink my morning tea whilst the whole canteen was mid song.




Art club was spent making pipecleaner and sgraffito fireworks, inspired by the display the following night, which was one of the best fireworks displays I have ever seen.

Chestnuts roasting on an open fire

Back to reality.
After a half-term break of relaxing/completing teacher training applications, I arrive back at Hazlegrove and straight into work.

Wednesday afternoon was spent with the year threes (both classes at once!) making clay sweet chestnuts. They really enjoyed themselves working in clay and I was very impressed with their efforts, which were rewarded with a bonfire, marshmallows and chestnut roasting outside.

A great welcome back.