End of 1st Term

I can't believe that's the Christmas holidays now, the last 5 weeks of placement have flown by. I'm really pleased with my placement reports from both my tutor and from the school. I'll miss the school and the children - I had a great placement there. The children performed 'Hosanna Rock' yesterday which was great. My favourite part of the day, however, was when they heard it was my last day and they started asking me to come back and visit them, and then one of them said "We've loved having you here". :-)

Now I'm tidying up my folder and writing up stuff for my e-portfolio - like my placement targets, wider issues, etc. And I'm packing for heading home tomorrow - and trying to work out how much paperwork I can manage to take home to catch up on some reading and get my patchwork tasks done (like a resource to make, evaluate, etc for Language and Drama and a game for Maths). The weight limit for baggage for the flight is definitely limiting what I can manage to take home with me!

I was hoping to get over to Arran last night but gave up in the end when Scottish Power failed to fix a navigation light at Ardrossan meaning the ferry was heading to Gourock instead. It was a horrible evening - wild, wet and windy and the ferry wasn't going to be getting to Arran until at least 9.30pm - and I was heading back this morning, so sadly decided not to go. So I've missed seeing my family before Christmas which is a big disappointment. But looking on the bright side, I'll be seeing Kye tomorrow :-) And I can hopefully do a bit of relaxing and catching up on sleep over the holidays.

I was seriously disappointed and needing cheering up as I was leaving Ardrossan harbour in the dark, wind and rain, so I decided to treat myself to chips. After my last experience at the chip shop in Ardrossan (top of Glasgow Road) I decided not to go there. I'm sure it used to be good - but last time I went there on my way back from the VHF course in Largs, both the fish and chips were so bad as to be inedible and I had to throw it all away. And the staff were very unfriendly too. So this time I decided on a very late tea when I got back to Ayr and went to the Wellington (which I had heard about before I even moved to Ayr - thanks, Lesley) - it's always good and it lived up to expectations. I was then so tired that I was in bed by 9pm - a record for me I think as with the amount of coursework and preparation of resources, lesson planning, etc I'm generally not in bed much before midnight. I feel much better after a good night's sleep.