End of an Era

Well, tomorrow my baby girl goes off to College for her Taster Day, preparation for when she starts her Painting & Decorating Course in September.

This is a huge step for B. She has been out of mainstream education for 6 years now so there are lots of challenges ahead for her.

For the most part, she has so far handled it all pretty well. We've had the drama of not being able to find workwear small enough for her size 6 frame but we did eventually find a boilersuit that fits her about 95%! As anyone reading this, whose child suffers with the dreaded oversensitivity to clothing, knows only too well, not only did we have to find something that fit but something that wouldn't send her into Sensory Overload. For the last 6 years we haven't had much issue with clothing, mostly because on those days when it was an issue, she simply stayed home in her pj's!

She has to be there for 9am sharp tomorrow morning and this is another huge challenge! I know some of you will be smiling here too, knowing how Time and SPD are not the best of friends!

College is a big deal for most of our teenagers. A new environment where they are encouraged to make their own decisions instead of being told what to do and when to do it, can be a daunting prospect. Add SPD into the mix and it can be an incredibly stressful prospect.

She even said to me the other day, that she wondered what she was thinking, could she really pull this off, could she actually do the Course? My reply? You don't know until you try and if you don't try, you'll only regret it later. Just think, if you can pull it off... the world is your oyster! And if you can't... well at least you gave it a damn good try and we'll just sit down and have a rethink, it's not the end of the world.

Wish us luck
Till next time
B's Mum

This could be the straw that broke the camel’s back

Forgive me for digressing from the usual theme of my posts but I have to get something off my chest.

Last night I think I may have wasted 3 hours of my life… and unfortunately I’m probably going to waste another 3 hours every week for the next 11 weeks!

How? I have been teaching at the local college for the last 4 or 5 years (can’t remember exactly). I got involved in teaching as a way of passing on the knowledge I’ve gained in 21 odd years in graphic design. Our ‘hopelessly out of touch’ Government decided that all non-qualified teachers have to do a PTLLS* course by 2010 or give up teaching.

This course is supposed to prepare us to teach!!!!! From what I saw last night I’m not sure I want to teach anymore. No wonder our kids are leaving places that are meant to prepare them for a career with no idea of what they’re doing…

I don’t want to be turned into an academic. I don’t want to waste precious hours of my life filling out paperwork in triplicate. I just want to share my knowledge to help prepare people to work in the graphic design industry. I don’t want to think until my head feels like it’s going to burst.

At the moment I’m not sure I’m going to see this course through. I’m not a quitter, I love learning, my head is full of ‘stuff’ that I’ve accumulated over the years but this just seems so far removed from what I do and how I do it. I’m not perfect and I’m not the best teacher in the world but I get the result I set out to achieve.

OK so rants over, I’ll get back to some real work.
Till next time
’B’s Mum

*PTLLS – Preparation to Teach in the Life Long Sector