As you take a long slow breath after the printer has finally spat out your assignment - without tramlines right across the - oh so important table! Do you really have time to pause? I don’t as well as assignments I have key assessment tasks to mark for my Year 8 and Year 6 pupils. I work in a Middle School, there are only a few of us left, in Staffordshire there are 14 in total and in our education system they are an interesting breed. They cover upper key stage 2 and lower key stage 3 pupils. As trainee teachers know – especially Primary trained year 6 are top of the shop and can be boisterous at the best of times, but not in a middle school, what I love about these schools is that the pupils seem to stay young. Not sure how to explain it in detail but they are not as streetwise perhaps, creating a nicer atmosphere.

I waited so long to be a teacher, I remember when I decided that I was going to University to train, I was living in Lincolnshire at the time and found that North Lindsey College was an affiliate of the University of Lincoln; I made an appointment and had a brief interview. The course on offer was a joint BA in English and History the key question I remember was, “Do you like to read?” I nodded my head and I was in! I transferred to Wolverhampton in my second year due to my husband’s work moving to the Midlands. But this is the past – what about the future what does 2011 hold for us? In semester two I start my last module before my dissertation (which I have now decided what I want to write about). I am hoping that there will be enough people to run the module that I have chosen, last semester there were a few people who struggled to study what they wanted to because there was not enough students. If I had a choice I would start my dissertation in January but I am not sure that I can I have a feeling that I have to wait until September which means another year before I graduate! Being part-time and working full time can mean that it is hard to know who to ask these questions. I have no idea who my tutor is, not sure that I have one – this osmosis approach can be challenging. But I feel that next year I have to find these things out.

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

So how about that weather! Can’t believe that I am sat here two days before Christmas looking out at a winter wonderland. All I have to do is work out how to get to the supermarket to finish my shopping for the festivities – not sure that turkey and baked beans will go down with the family.

As I finished my assignment last week, I had an interesting viewpoint on the undergraduate perspective on that first semester -  I watched my son preparing his! Quite strange watching your child go through all of those doubts and worries of handing in their work. I remember queuing up in the registry office and holding onto the assignment, lucky for me the assistant behind the desk was a rather determined young lady who deftly managed to extract the assignment out of my hand.

 I never intended to be attending Uni at the same time as my children, but circumstances and life didn’t really give me much of an option I had Al when I was 20 so really uni was not on the cards for me at that point in my life. It is also a very expensive way to study, being a teacher and my husband having a ‘good job’ in IT we strangely enough don’t get any assistance in putting Al through Uni, we are the squeezed Middle England, paying through the nose BUT seeing the bigger picture. Sounds like I’m a tad bitter but really I’m not I like my life I’ve worked hard to make it like this, these were my choices to make and I don’t think that I would change them.

I made such a prat of myself the other day! Last time I needed something photocopying, I had a little card that I added money to and swiped it in the huge scary mutli what not machine in the middle of the library. HHHHMMMMM I think that this has changed! Firstly, being overly confident in that 'hey I’ve done this before' attitude I stand in front of the machine and start slot hunting...ok try this one...nothing – I know swipe it with a more determined stroke and a meaningful scowl...still nothing. Great now there is a queue forming but hey not to worry, I’m a professional after all I can figure this out I have a degree for Christ sake!

“It ain’t gonna work”

“Sorry” I reply to the multi pierced chap beside me.

“It ain’t gonna work ... you need to use your pass wave it in front of that there and it will be fine”

Here’s the thing, do I believe him? Will the simple waving of a bit of plastic with the dodgy photo of me in bag lady mode actual kick this machine into life. So, I’ve nothing to lose, I grandly produce a sweeping gesture in front of the keypad and to my surprise it works. Stud chap smiles triumphantly and I hurriedly complete my copying.

I remember at junior school the joy on the face of the school secretary when she was copying using a banda machine. Remember? The hand cranked machine which created fumes which lingered for hours in a haze! I say bring it back no silly pilates moves just a steady fuzziness of the head and a but of exercise.

As I sit here, typing carefully and trying oh soooo desperately to sound cool (ain’t happened since shoulder pads were in the first time!) and authoritative about my experiences as a student at University of Wolverhampton; I have to think about one of my favourite films where life is described as being on a rollercoaster. I place my time at uni in this analogy and I have to admit that the overwhelming feeling that I have is one of fun mixed with disorganised chaos and a few lows.

I choose to describe my time at uni as fun for a number of reasons; I have the perspective of age to allow me the viewpoint of the mature student. I’m married with two children who alongside my long suffering husband have had to endure the three years of my BA in a number of ways. The new approach to housework, there’s more to life than dusting and don’t forget you have your own set of arms! The dietary changes of ‘Is it that the time already! I really need to read this so we’ll get a takeaway’ style of diet, not quite your five a day I grant you and when you have several takeaways on speed dial above your mothers' number you know this can’t be good, but also its not forever. The sigh as I remember when I was ‘that age’, as the bloodshot eyes of a member of your ’group’ come into focus, two hours late than you all arranged and with no real contribution value apart from comedy. Coupled with a small grateful ‘thank god I have a sound financial backup and I’m not relying on a grant to buy my next tin of beans!’

Yes, there were times when I felt that a BA in English and History was never going to end. Yes, the PGCE in Primary Education against a backdrop of a warzone in Bosnia (the rebuilding of the Walsall campus) was at times teething grinding annoying. Then there is now, trying to enrol in a system that appears to have forgotten you in one brief year as I attempt to complete my MA in Education...good times. The fact that I could engage with material that I had only glanced at before, that I was accepted regardless of who I was into a mixed up bunch of individuals who all had one goal...to get that degree and achieve.

We have so many limitations on our lives, what we shouldn’t eat or drink to stop smoking and drinking. To exercise more...well horse stable door you can get my drift on that one. For me the chance to attend university did come later in life but I was never made to feel that I wasn’t part of the group or lecture that I attended. I was listened to, my opinion was valued and I felt that I could achieve my ultimate goal of progressing in to teaching. So again as I sit here; the Head of Humanities in a middle school, I can smile and remember how much fun I had during my undergraduate course at University of Wolverhampton.