Hello everyone ☺ This is a happy and a sad blog today ☹
My time at Greenwich is over ☹ I have finally completed my PGCE which means that I am now officially done with Greenwich and pretty soon I will be moving home, which isn’t the best thing. I was hoping to move into my own place, but I am REALLY bad with money, so that never happened. I have loved my time at Greenwich and although I did spend most of my time moaning about all the coursework and the work load, it has been fun. It’s been four years of my life, I started when I was nineteen and I’m leaving University a twenty-three year old. I’ve grown up here, it’s been a huge part of my life, so it is very, very sad to leave. I have made best friends here so it has meant a lot to me.
I have learnt a lot about myself here as well. I’ve learnt that if you want to succeed you have to put in some effort and really go for it. I’ve learnt what it means to be myself and that if people have a problem with who I am then they’re not the right people for me. I have learnt so much about what it means to be a member of society and to get something out of life you have to put a lot in.
I’m not only leaving my course and my studying, I have also decided to leave the Enquiry Unit. I know I haven’t spoke about the Enquiry Unit a huge amount, but that is where I work. The Enquiry Unit has given me so much experience that I will take with me to any job, they have allowed me to write blogs, just like I am now, I have had experience in helping with training and helping with interviews and I am trained on a professional telephone system, phone system and emails. So I have learnt a hell of a lot that will definitely help me in the future.
But it is not just about the work, I have made so many good, close and amazing friends whilst working here. I know it sounds cliché but I have become friends with people I wouldn’t normally get to know in my everyday life and it’s really nice. I’m gonna miss it A LOT! But besides all this sad, I am really happy to be entering the next chapter of my life as a teacher, so it’s not all sadness and doom and gloom, it’s a happy sadness. Thank you for reading this and I wish you all well ☺
Love Terry ☺
Terry
by Terry, a student of PGCE Lifelong Learning Sector
Tuesday, 2 June 2015
Wednesday, 29 April 2015
Becoming a Teacher!
Hello everyone, sorry I haven’t blogged
in forever, I’ve been super busy with work, placement, my studies and obviously
trying to squeeze in a social life at the same time!
So in this blog I wanted to talk about
where my life is at the moment, in terms of me teaching and becoming an FE
teacher. The last time I blogged about teaching was way back in the distant
year of 2014, when I began my placement at Bird College. I can confirm that I
am still loving it and life at Bird is amazing, they are treating me well J Since beginning way back then I am now teaching five
classes all by myself. I am teaching three groups from the Pre-Professional
Foundation Year and two groups from the first year diplomas. They are all
really lovely and have helped my training experience to be a good one, I think
if I had really bad classes then I would be going bald and not enjoying
teaching at all, but they have made me feel comfortable in establishing myself
as a teacher.
Teaching at Bird College has not only
helped me to love teaching, but it has also re-ignited my love for Drama and
for Acting and Performing. I mean, what other lesson can you attend and be a
fireman, a pirate, a doctor, a politician etc. The thing I love about
performing arts is you can be whoever you want to be and you can escape the
real world, escape your life for five minutes and just be someone else. When I
was in college I had no problem getting up in front of an audience and playing
a part, but as soon as I had to get up and speak as myself and talk to people,
I became really shy. In my second year of college we did a production of Beauty and the Beast in which I played
Cogsworth the talking clock and this role included acting, dancing and singing
(I’m an awful singer by the way) but I didn’t care because it wasn’t me singing
it was Cogsworth, the old British talking clock. After the show as it was my
final year, I was nominated to stand up in front of the whole cast, technical
team and audience in order to give out all of the thanks to the various helpers
and I was more nervous for that than I was for the show.
I think throughout my degree I really
lost touch with why I loved performing so much as a) I didn’t get to do it much
and b) I didn’t really have a good time on the course. So coming to Bird and
imparting my knowledge on to these young adults has been absolutely amazing and
more than I could have ever dreamed of. I have three weeks left of placement
and I am going to be really sad when I leave as I love it there so much. The
students have really helped me to grow as a teacher and I have learnt a lot
from them, and I hope that they have learned from me.
Once this placement is finished I plan
to finish off the summer worker at the Enquiry Unit as part of the Clearing
team (which I have done for the past two years). If you are a current
University of Greenwich student and looking for work over the summer then we
are recruiting for Clearing Assistants, it’s a very good way to learn some good
office skills that can be transferable into almost any job, and you get paid
well. So all is good. https://jobs.gre.ac.uk/Vacancy.aspx?ref=JS0142-15. I hope to start a full time job come September, if
there is one out there for me.
Speak soon J
Tuesday, 21 April 2015
My Love for Musical Theatre!
Hello, hello, hello J If you’ve read the title, then you can probably guess
what this blog is going to be able, that’s right, my love for musical theatre!
First off I want to start by saying that I have recently gone to see a couple
of shows which included Cats and Matilda the Musical.
First off I went to see Cats which I was
a bit sceptical about as it was a show entirely about cats and I didn’t really
know the soundtrack. Don’t get me wrong, cats are my favourite animal but I
wasn’t entirely sure about a bunch of adults acting like cats, it was just a
weird concept for me. However, it was a classic, so I thought I needed to see
it as it only had a limited season at the London Palladium. In saying all of
this, I really, really enjoyed it. It was a great piece of theatre and the
dancers were exceptional. Kerry Ellis who played Grizabella the Glamour Cat was
absolutely amazing! Kerry Ellis is one of my favourite all time performers
along with Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth.
Above are two pictures of me with Kerry
Ellis. The top one is when I saw her in Cats and the bottom one was when I saw
her in Oliver! The other show I went to see was Matilda the Musical and I have
got to say that this is one of the best things I have ever seen in my whole
entire life, it is hilarious, it is sad, it is dramatic. There were about 15
little kids no older than ten and they were all so amazingly talented, I
literally could not believe the talent I witnessed and it just makes my love
for musical theatre as strong as ever.
This is quite a short and sweet blog but
I just thought I’d mention what I’ve been up to lately J
Speak soon.
Monday, 2 March 2015
Getting Into the Swing of Things!
Hello everyone, sorry I haven’t been blogging regularly… I’ve been so
busy with getting back into the swing of things this year. A lot has changed
for me this year in terms of my teaching degree that I am currently doing and
my work placement. I will also tell you about what shows I’ve gone to see this
month J
So first of all I will start with my placement and what’s going on at
Bird College. I have now been given three classes that I teach regularly; these
are the Pre-Professional Foundation Year groups. As that is a lot of word’s
that you may not be aware of if you’re not in Education, I’ll just explain a
bit about them. These classes are people who have come to Bird College for one
year in order to be trained to audition for Drama Schools and Universities,
therefore, no work is marked and there is no criteria or curriculum. This
means… FUN! Yes, basically all I have to do with them is play games and build
their confidence, so all in all my job does not suck.
One thing I do love about working at Bird College is that the students
are so committed in being there and they are so much fun to work with because
they listen and they really take on board what I have to say as their teacher.
In some ways this scares me for jobs I get after as I won’t have had any
experience in bad behaviour from students, but I think I’ll be okay. As my
placement goes on I am being given more and more responsibility which is
amazing as I am beginning to really learn what it is to be a teacher.
Now all of that is out of way I can tell you about the show’s I went to
see in the half-term break. I went to see Miss Saigon, Memphis and Made in
Dagenham (again!)
As you can see from my lovely Instagram pictures above! Miss Saigon was
so beautiful in the way it was done, it was such a nice story and the music was
phenomenal, it deserved to win the 12 What’s On Stage Awards that it did.
Memphis the musical was also really good and once again a beautiful story told
through beautiful music. Also I saw Memphis with Beverley Knight who was
absolutely amazing in the role! Fun fact for you inter-racial marriage has only
been legal in all U.S. states since 1967 which I found quite shocking as it was
only 48 years ago. Then I went to see Made in Dagenham again which was amazing
as it was the first time I went to see back in the previews.
Anyways, hope you enjoyed my blog. See you soon J
Friday, 16 January 2015
Happy New Year!
Hello J Welcome
to the Year 2015
I can’t believe another year has passed us by. As
you get older these years just fly by and it’s not fair, I swear it was summer
like 2 minutes ago! As it is the New Year I thought I would do the standard
‘New Year’s Resolutions’ that I am bound to break before the end of January.
This year I spent New Year’s with my best friend and it was really nice, we
didn’t do much just drinking, listening to music and then venturing to a local
pub for the countdown. Usually I struggle to find one New Year’s resolution;
however, this year I had several. They were as follows:
To get fit and lose some weight: I believe this is
everyone’s New Year’s resolution. But I thought I would make it mine because I
say it every year and this time I want to actually stick to it, whether that
sticks… We’ll see! Secondly, is to start up my blog again. In September last
year I started my own personal blog (http://terryjordansblog.blogspot.co.uk/)
I started this just because I enjoyed blogging for the University and I wanted
to start up my personal blog where I do things like review the theatre shows I
go and see or films that I watch as well as blog about everyday life and
special events in my life.
My third New Year’s resolution was to get my head
stuck down and complete my PGCE without leaving everything to the last minute.
My next deadline is June 1st, so as soon as I begin Uni again on 6th
Feb I want to start gathering research for my coursework so that it is much
easier to complete when I need to. My final New Year’s resolution is just to be
happy, I am a relatively happy person anyway. I just want to be even happier J So I wish everyone
else will have an amazing 2015. I will leave you with one of my favourite
quotes of all time…
Friday, 28 November 2014
Placement at Bird College
Hello everyone J I know I haven’t
blogged in a while but here I am. Better late than never as I always say.
In this blog, I am going
to talk about the new placement that I have just started at Bird College, which
is a performing arts college based in Sidcup. I am in the fifth week of my
placement now and I am enjoying every second of it. As you may already know (if
you’re a regular reader of my blogs) I am currently taking my PGCE in the
Lifelong Learning Sector to be able to teach Drama/Acting to college students.
Bird College is perfect for me as it specialises in my chosen subject, opposed
to a college that just offers Drama among thirty or so other programmes.
So first of all I will
just tell you a bit about what I am doing at the placement so far. Currently, I
have been put into three different acting classes, one of the classes are
looking at duologues, at the moment they are rehearsing scenes from A Taste of Honey by Shelagh Delaney,
which I studied in both the second and third year of my Undergraduate degree.
After Christmas they will be doing duologues from musicals, and during this
period the class will be split into two and I will take half of the class to
help them with their scenes, which is really exciting as I am a huge fan of
Musical Theatre. In the other two classes, they are just rehearsing plays for
their end of year performance. One of the classes are looking at 4.48 Psychosis by Sarah Kane, which is
one of my all-time favourite plays. Below is a poster of the show that was
performed at Royal Court in 1999.
As you can see from the
poster, it is quite a dark play, which is kind of why I love it so much. In
this class I have been given two scenes which I can design a lesson plan for
and complete as part of my teaching practice. My mentor from Bird is coming to
view me on 3rd December and then my Tutor from Greenwich is coming
to view me on 7th January. So that is quite soon, so I’m a bit
nervous, but I think it will be fine.
The other group are
currently looking at The Accidental Death
of an Anarchist by Dario Fo which is quite a funny physical farcical
performance, which is great. It is quite similar to Rhinoceros by Eugene Ionesco, which I directed for my third year
performance last year, in terms of the comedy and physical aspects of the
performance. A timetable has not been devised yet, but I will also be given
scenes from this play that I will direct as a part of my teaching practice.
Another thing that I am
really looking forward to in my placement comes in the summer term. Most of the
classes at Bird have their final examinations in March and the summer term is
left to the staff to create a scheme of work based on the student’s needs. I
have been offered a six week period where I can create my own scheme of work
and teach between 1-6 different classes the same scheme of work. Which I think
is amazing as it gives me a six week period at the end of the year to act as an
actual teacher.
That’s all for today, I
just thought I would talk a bit about my placement. Until next time, ciao J
Friday, 10 October 2014
Outing in Central
Hello everyone, I know I haven’t been blogging regularly, it’s been
quite a hectic summer with full-time work and then trying to get a place on a
PGCE and then getting a place and sorting out finance and somewhere to lives,
this list is practically endless. However, all that has calmed down now so I
have enough time to sit down and write my blogs.
In this blog, as you can tell by the title, I’m going to talk about a
trip I took to central. I began my day on Oxford Street with my friend Amy
(pictured below), where I visited a few shops. I did plan to do a lot of
shopping as I have just received my Student Finance but then I forgot that
going shopping midday on a Saturday in Oxford Street is not the best idea I’ve
ever had L
So in the end I managed to go in Primark and HMV before feeling completely
claustrophobic and departing to head to Charing Cross.
As I mentioned earlier I have just received my Student Finance and when
this happens it usually means I’m going to see a West End show… or two. I have
always wanted to go and see a Matinee performance followed by dinner followed
by an evening performance; this is exactly what I did.
The first show I went to see for a Matinee performance was Forbidden
Broadway, an Off-Broadway revue parodying musical theatre, particularly
Broadway musicals. It was created in 1982 and has spawned 20 different versions
of the show (West End being the twentieth). Forbidden Broadway took the current
West End shows and mocked them, the show was performed by four actors
(Including Christina Bianco who you may remember from her diva impressions for
the song Let It Go: http://www.mstarz.com/articles/17891/20130813/christina-bianco-diva-impressions-adele-cher-britney-spears-aguilera-more.htm)
. This show had me wetting myself, it was literally one of the funniest things
I think I have ever seen. I advise anyone to go and watch this, even if you
don’t know much about musical theatre then I still advise you go as you will
still find some laughs in it.
The second play I went to see was Speed-the-Plow at the Playhouse
Theatre in Charing Cross. As you may have heard on the news or on the internet,
this did star one of my favourite people ever… Lindsay Lohan. I was quite
excited and nervous about seeing this performance, I had heard mixed reviews on
the play, so I really didn't know what to expect. I did see an article on the
Daily Mail website that had gathered loads of reviews and made a report on the
show, quite a few Theatre reviewers that
I had studied on my drama course had rated the show quite high, so that made me
feel a little bit better about going to see Lohan’s performance.
In terms of the show itself, at first I did not rate the play at all.
The performances were great, Lindsay Lohan, Nigel Lindsay and Richard Schiff
all did fantastic in their performances but I just felt like the play itself
was a bit boring. However, as a drama student I thought I would still buy the
play text and give it a read as some times I find that the play is really good
but then a production of it could be quite crap. I was right, when I read the
text on the train home it was actually an alright play.
So that’s all that happened really. Obviously the highlight was seeing
Lindsay Lohan because she is one of my favourite people in the world. Speak
soon. J
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