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

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 1^st, so as soon as I begin Uni again on 6^th 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…

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 3^rd December and then my Tutor from Greenwich is coming to view me on 7^th 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

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

A Change of Career!

Hello everyone, sorry I haven’t been blogging in a while; I’ve been so busy with life! This blog is going to explain why I’ve been so busy J

Firstly, my summer full time job is now over and I’ve gone back to part-time which is quite sad. I had such a great time over the summer and I met a lot of great people and formed bonds with people which was lovely. In my last blog I posted a picture of Team Denise, those people are amazing and I love them all. It feels weird now that I am working and not seeing them every day, as I just said, it is really, really sad.

As I also stated in my last blog, I had just applied for a PGCE Lifelong Learning Sector to teach Drama in Sixth Forms. Looking at the title I bet you can guess that I received a place on the course which means a big career change for me.

If you’ve read my other blogs then you will know that my dream job is to run my own theatre company or to be a television of film actor. So why the sudden change? Well, I have always had a thought in the back of my head that I would like to go into teaching and I feel that I can do it now whilst I’m still young(ish) and still learning the way of the world as it is so much harder to leave education and then get back into it years down the line.

I am currently in week four of the course and I am enjoying it quite a lot. I do admit that there is A LOT of work and it is scary to look at all the assignments I have to do, but I can tell that they’re quite fun assignments. As I come from a Drama background I am new to all the Education terminology, for example, I don’t know any Theories of Learning or any Theorists and that is what one of our modules is all about. So I’m currently trying to get in some extra reading and some extra study hours in order to get up to the standard of the other people in my class who have an education background.

I am quite looking forward to what lies ahead and I shall keep you posted on any updates. Speak soon J

The End of Summer 2014!

Hello everyone J Sorry I haven’t been blogging lately, work has been soooo busy and any spare time I have is spent sleeping.

So first of all I will start with Clearing 2014! I have had the best summer ever (which is odd considering I literally worked all summer). Work has been so fun this year, mainly because I got the role of Senior Clearing Assistant, so I was given a bit more authority than I’m used to. It was been so fun helping others and imprinting my knowledge onto them.

One thing that happened at work was the annual Theme Your Team! This year I was put in Team Denise and our theme we chose was ‘MEXICAN FIESTA’ and the outcome is photographed below.

I am the one in the middle with the RED HOT CHILLI PEPPER outfit. As you can see we are all the coolest people ever. Theme Your Team this year was really fun and although my team didn’t win… We were still the best team ever! It was such a good day as well because everyone put in maximum effort to pull the theme together which was lovely to see.

Also, lately whilst being in full time work mode, I have also decided to apply for the PGCE Lifelong Learning Sector to teach Drama. I know it’s a bit of a drastic career change but when I thought about it and took the course into consideration, I began to like the idea more and more. I’ve decided that I really want to pursue a work placement within my old college because I get on really well with the tutor there and I know how the school works so it would be perfect for me.

As I write this I have just complete the Literacy Test and the Interview for the course so the next blog I write may be my last ever blog or a blog saying yaaay, I got a place.

Anyway, until next time J

Human Tetris!

Hello everyone, hope you’re all well! J

As time goes on I find it harder and harder to write this blog as I am working full time at the moment and barely have time to venture out into the world and have a social life. However, a few weekends ago I had my friend’s birthday weekend which can only mean one thing… ROADTRIP! I hopped into the car with my friend Michael, who you may also know as a blogger for the University, and we drove up to Surrey to stay at her house for the weekend.

You may remember in one of my previous blogs I did talk about this trip, well here it is. Myself, Michael, the birthday girl Claire and our other friends all arrived in Surrey on the Saturday in order to start the celebrations. On Saturday, we didn’t really do much it was just a case of catching up and chilling in the sun. Our summer activities included playing Badminton (I came second, I don’t care that it was only three people, second is still impressive) as well as playing board games such as Uno and Cluedo. I will admit that it was my first time playing both of these board games and I had a blast, Cluedo is my absolute favourite (I knew it was Reverend Green with a Spanner in the Conservatory).

After game night we then woke up very early on the Saturday as we were heading off to Church… But not Church as you know it. Basically there is a club in London called The Church Bar, which is only open Sundays from 11am until 4pm. So it is really bizarre being inside the club and having a drink and then coming out and still having the evening to do what you want.

Another amazing aspect of The Church Bar on this particular Sunday was that they were breaking a world record attempt of the largest game of Human Tetris! Which was purely amazing, they had several different Tetris sized costumes that we could purchase to take part and become Guinness World Record Holders. It was actually a really good time and I enjoyed myself, I haven’t been out with these people in so long and it was lovely to see them again and to obviously celebrate one of my best friend’s birthdays. Below is a picture of us in our Tetris costumes. I’m the one in the middle with the yellow Tetris block.

Sorry, it’s only a short one but as I said, it gets harder to have a social life when working full time, but I do try. Until next time J