GRG's Miscellany

I've finished my PGCE, finally. I've also finished the two-and-a-bit weeks of my first teaching job. So far, it seems like I'll be able to pull through an NQT year, which is a refreshing feeling. I'm liking my new home town, too. It's refreshing rural, and without the commuter mayhem (it doesn't even have a railway station!). Especially pleasing is the amount of time I've been able to put toward coding. I've made some important progress these last two weeks, and hopefully that can continue. I'm still trying to stay focussed on the goal of producing a decent prototyping engine. I'll be like a pig in sh*t if I can get the engine to a state where a new game idea could go from zero to playable in a weekend. Ah, the dreams... Game-playing-wise, I've been mostly absorbed by Battlefield 1943, especially the Air Superiority game (which I've suddenly discovered I'm not so bad at), and the original Rock Band, which I play with my w...

Ohoho, so I had my first official lesson observation today. I'd been bricking it all week, but the lesson turned out to be the best yet with that class. They had plasticine to make shapes with and drop through rice flour paste in a measuring cylinder. Only one exercise book was totally soaked with paste, and I managed to avoid getting covered in it too! So it turns out I'm doing okay. I'm beating myself up too much, but I am actually progressing onto targets about the kids' learning as opposed to my lesson survival. So I'm totally chuffed.

I have had my last day in a job that I've found increasingly oppressive over the last two years. It feels momentous that I no longer have to go back. I have my sights on being an indie game developer in a couple of years, and this is a considered step towards it. It feels so good. :)