Its been a long time since I wrote here, so this won't, sadly, be telling anyone everything thats happened. I should be more prudent in keeping it up-to-date, but I should be doing that with my homework too and I haven't been doing that, either, so with rough comes smooth.
Actually, I might as well just write a smidge about what's going on in college right now. And that's the fact I'm low on the list of priorities for the tutors, to put it mildly. Partially due to having not worked towards a group assignment (thus "forcing" my only work partner do all the work), and not handing in much coursework (dammit! The intention was always there, but...I know me), the fact I hadn't done my CRB check before starting placement was a huge no-no, and a stunt that could've got me kicked off the course.
Lemme try and explain (mainly to myself so I know what I'm talking about). You're supposed to do a CRB check (that's criminal record...something check) before you start working with or around children. This I knew. But I also knew that time was of the essence. It was made clear to me in my first telling-off that If I didnt get my placement and start on November 5th, everything else was moot and it'd be worth nothing. So, I scrambled. I called my best mate's mom, who works in my old school, and with my name mentioned , it was sorted, and I was accepted in. No-one asked about a CRB. I was accepted because they knew me, and that's it. Excellent, right?
Wrong, of course...I got through my first day on placement fine. The teacher I'm put with is a real peach. Younger than me. Perfect body. Let's just say if I was a schoolkid in her class, she would definetly be my first crush. The kids in the class are 10, so they've gotta be feelin somethin. I know for a fact I was spending most of my time observing her and not really paying attention. Oops.
Anyway, things were looking great til I made an offhand comment in front of the teacher that my CRB hadn't been done. I should've made it out like it hadn't come back to me (it can take 6-10 weeks for that) and it was being processed. But I didn't. Big can of worms opens.
They immediately pull me out of placement, and refuse to let me go back until I show them the CRB is done. That causes problems, because the prototype I'd written up is actually complete (though I don't know the tutors don't know that). So I come in on my day off (thursday, since I'm not going on placement) to see the other tutor to get it sorted. She tells me she's too busy, so sends me to someone else, who is fortunately both extremely helpful and extremely nice about it. She explains everything, and the next day, I bring in all the proper documentation. Easy! I send it off, and I should be in placement the next week, right?
Wrong.
I'm told on wednesday that I can't go in til the school sends the college written proof that they will let me in the school as long as a CRB is pending. This is something they could've told me earlier in the week, and I could've had that prepared to hand in. So I send the school an email to send the college an email, and I'm supposed to get an email to tell me I can go in.
Except I send it, and I don't know whats happened next. Did the school get it? I should've phoned to find out, but it's too late now (being 3.30am) and so I'll get a day off tomorrow that I actually DON'T want (I want to go in to see that teacher, who may have had someone else put into her class by the time I return), and most likely, considering the attitude of my teachers recently, I'll find out the college said "ok then!" to the school and I was supposed to get in contact with the college to find out if the school had got my mail.
Confusing, and very, very annoying. Telling me off for not doing anything while also holding me back from doing something? Ironic. I appreciate irony, but in this case, I don't like it
Wednesday, 18 November 2009
Tuesday, 15 September 2009
College So Far
Ok, so it's only my 2nd day of college. It's going ok so far
Haven't quite got my timetable sorted - that could be a problem. If I have to do certain lessons (which I will HAVE to have in order to get to university - GCSE English/Science/Maths are ESSENTIAL. Oddly, I did GCSE English AND Maths on my first year of college back in 2000, but apparently they were the WRONG ONES. I hope that's not true - I've got English GCSE, just not either of the one's required (Eng. Language, and Eng. Lit). Which was annoying - I remember vaguely that back then, I was told "an English GCSE is an English GCSE"...how wrong they appear to be...idiots. Anyway...back to today's 2009 problems.
Without a timetable, I scribbled down the lessons I'd need to do in order to get the credits I'd need to get to pass the course, and my course tutor is working on working out a proper schedule for me, to hopefully give me a timetable of 16 hours a week, or under. This will mean I can still claim jobseekers allowance while going to college, since anything from 16 hours or below is part-time. This is a good thing for me.
However, because of the GCSE snafu, I might have to go over 16 hours. This will mean my jobseekers benefits will be cut off, AND the fee I'll still have to pay will be next-to-impossible to pay. This is a bad thing for me.
Now, onto college itself - I wasn't there for the induction day (too busy tripping over myself enrolling - and failing to do that, too!) so I didn't get to meet everyone in the class before we started classes. This is a bad thing - classtime isn't very good for getting to know people, and so I was left out of the social groups already forming...This is bad for me!! However, I got on very well. VERY well, in my classes. Of course, I was a little flustered with the confusion - this is basically a two-year course packed into one year, so they go from nought-to-sixty in a speed that would make Ferrari's jealous (if they didn't just look so darn good!!). A lot of information can be piled on top of you very quickly straight after introductions, so I did get a little flustered in the first lesson. I also didn't enjoy having to wait behind to speak to the tutor, while everyone else left, so I couldn't just latch onto a small group to make my introductions - they all went by the time I spoke to the tutor and when I did, it was for less than 10 seconds (she just shrugged), so I was left for 30 minutes walking around by myself - from one end of the college to another. I must've passed some of the same people quite a few times, so they must've been wondering what I was doing.
Anyway...the first day was going ok UNTIL my science class at the end. Specifically, it went well until the very END of science class, when I noticed a name on the register. L*** M******* (I wont write the name for obvious reasons). I thought I must've misread, but sure enough, even my bad eyesight had picked it up right. I turned round, and there he was - a lad I worked with (briefly) in my last job in the UK. The same lad who sided with the boss who assaulted me (however you want to describe it - it was assault!!). The same lad who, as reward for keeping quiet about what he did see, got a payrise. Actually - he didn't see anything. But he said he saw the boss running down the road after me while preventing me from stealing property, so I couldn't press charges...Wasn't happy. Still not happy. I want to change classes, but unfortunately, it's a merged class - he is in his group, I'm in my group, but for science class, the people who need to take it are merged into the one class. Dammit!
The second day was much better. I always enjoy English class. We're studying what should be an incredibly boring book (Talking Heads by Alan Bennett), but I love analysing books. Well-written books can have such depth...I'm always at my sharpest in English class, so I was answering questions and giving opinions like some question-answering, opinion-giving whirlwind!!
After the delfation from science class on Monday, my 2nd day was much better. Hopefully I'll be able to get over my scheduling problems and sort out the science-class thing...
See ya in another update
Haven't quite got my timetable sorted - that could be a problem. If I have to do certain lessons (which I will HAVE to have in order to get to university - GCSE English/Science/Maths are ESSENTIAL. Oddly, I did GCSE English AND Maths on my first year of college back in 2000, but apparently they were the WRONG ONES. I hope that's not true - I've got English GCSE, just not either of the one's required (Eng. Language, and Eng. Lit). Which was annoying - I remember vaguely that back then, I was told "an English GCSE is an English GCSE"...how wrong they appear to be...idiots. Anyway...back to today's 2009 problems.
Without a timetable, I scribbled down the lessons I'd need to do in order to get the credits I'd need to get to pass the course, and my course tutor is working on working out a proper schedule for me, to hopefully give me a timetable of 16 hours a week, or under. This will mean I can still claim jobseekers allowance while going to college, since anything from 16 hours or below is part-time. This is a good thing for me.
However, because of the GCSE snafu, I might have to go over 16 hours. This will mean my jobseekers benefits will be cut off, AND the fee I'll still have to pay will be next-to-impossible to pay. This is a bad thing for me.
Now, onto college itself - I wasn't there for the induction day (too busy tripping over myself enrolling - and failing to do that, too!) so I didn't get to meet everyone in the class before we started classes. This is a bad thing - classtime isn't very good for getting to know people, and so I was left out of the social groups already forming...This is bad for me!! However, I got on very well. VERY well, in my classes. Of course, I was a little flustered with the confusion - this is basically a two-year course packed into one year, so they go from nought-to-sixty in a speed that would make Ferrari's jealous (if they didn't just look so darn good!!). A lot of information can be piled on top of you very quickly straight after introductions, so I did get a little flustered in the first lesson. I also didn't enjoy having to wait behind to speak to the tutor, while everyone else left, so I couldn't just latch onto a small group to make my introductions - they all went by the time I spoke to the tutor and when I did, it was for less than 10 seconds (she just shrugged), so I was left for 30 minutes walking around by myself - from one end of the college to another. I must've passed some of the same people quite a few times, so they must've been wondering what I was doing.
Anyway...the first day was going ok UNTIL my science class at the end. Specifically, it went well until the very END of science class, when I noticed a name on the register. L*** M******* (I wont write the name for obvious reasons). I thought I must've misread, but sure enough, even my bad eyesight had picked it up right. I turned round, and there he was - a lad I worked with (briefly) in my last job in the UK. The same lad who sided with the boss who assaulted me (however you want to describe it - it was assault!!). The same lad who, as reward for keeping quiet about what he did see, got a payrise. Actually - he didn't see anything. But he said he saw the boss running down the road after me while preventing me from stealing property, so I couldn't press charges...Wasn't happy. Still not happy. I want to change classes, but unfortunately, it's a merged class - he is in his group, I'm in my group, but for science class, the people who need to take it are merged into the one class. Dammit!
The second day was much better. I always enjoy English class. We're studying what should be an incredibly boring book (Talking Heads by Alan Bennett), but I love analysing books. Well-written books can have such depth...I'm always at my sharpest in English class, so I was answering questions and giving opinions like some question-answering, opinion-giving whirlwind!!
After the delfation from science class on Monday, my 2nd day was much better. Hopefully I'll be able to get over my scheduling problems and sort out the science-class thing...
See ya in another update
Saturday, 12 September 2009
Beginning Boring Blog
Unfortunately, my more interesting days are behind me. All my travelling is finished. For now. So a blog seems somewhat of a pointless endeavour. However, I was told for a long time I should write my stuff down. So this is only the introductory one to get me into it:
Nothing to say, really. Just thought I'd say - worried about college. God knows how I'm gonna sort out the mess. I can't even write about it if I wanted to - I can't make head nor tail of it anyway. I could try and write it down, but...why bother confusing us all? All? Yeah...coz so many people are reading...
Nothing to say, really. Just thought I'd say - worried about college. God knows how I'm gonna sort out the mess. I can't even write about it if I wanted to - I can't make head nor tail of it anyway. I could try and write it down, but...why bother confusing us all? All? Yeah...coz so many people are reading...
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