Garden evolution, Part 3 - raised beds

Pretty much the day that we move in to the new house Tom climbed up into the existing raised beds on the left hand side and broke the first post. I was, if I am honest, pretty annoyed about this because I thought what a pain it would be to replace it. I didn't know at the time that this was going to be the first of many posts that would just crumble, splinter or snap in half once you started to look at it.

It became clear pretty quickly that the whole thing would have to go and it would all need to be replaced so we decided, as so many gardening books suggest to "just build some raised beds". It's a phrase used in the same tone as just going to the supermarket or just make a cup of coffee. I'd realised it wouldn't be as easy as it was made out to be, but I hadn't factored in just how exhausting it was going to be

So we had some hardwood sleepers delivered by a guy with a lorry with a crane attached to it came along and annoyed the neighbours by asking that everyone in a two mile radius moved their car. I wanted to suggest that he re-positioned his lorry but I was worried he'd drive off never to be seen again and all that wood was expensive. Once the wood was on the drive we had to pick it up and carry it into the garden. This was a whole days work. After we'd done that my arms felt like they were both six inches longer. It was then that I realised how hard this was going to be.

Day two of the build was taking up the turf and digging the holes to sink the sleepers in to. I had the physical but not technical jobs whilst Tom had the technically difficult jobs of preparing and drilling the wood. By the end of day two we'd managed to get the first layer of the biggest raised bed in place. Things had not been helped by having every possible type of weather to deal with.

By day three we had a better idea what we were doing and the middle sized and small bed went into place by mid afternoon, which was good because we were just ruined from all this very physical work. I'm not used to this sort of labour, I'm very out of practice and my body was telling me so.

We left it a while before we leveled off and dug over the soil, I tell people this was to let the wood settle and the lawn recover, but that's not true at all, I was just too tired to do any more. We're now at the exciting stage of filling it with all of our plant purchases and making it look like a garden instead of three big wooden boxes with dirt in them.

Garden evolution, Part 2 - Greenhouses

The original rip - and I'd thought this was bad...

For Christmas Tom's dad bought us this tent style greenhouse. It was a pretty awesome place to be but, understandably it did not stand up very well to storms. About two weeks after we put it up there was a big storm and the roof ripped right open, so I decided, no matter, I'll repair it. I took it down on Friday night, sewed it all day Saturday and then put it back up on Sunday.

I then proceeded to fret about the damn thing at even the hint of a breeze. About three weeks after that we did have a very big storm again and the whole thing ripped to pieces. The only thing left in tact was the repair I had made the previous weeks - so that was a little tiny win.

I was pretty gutted in all honesty, a lot of my baby seedlings had been smashed and thrown on the floor as it had blown over and the garden looked very bare and a little sad without it. Thankfully my very generous cousin and her husband were on hand with a replacement. This was a massive turn up for the books because I truly believe that my sanity and the little growing space outside the house are intrinsically linked.

Below is the current incarnation, a more traditional affair but far less likely to blow away and end up in Kansas.

A tiny patch of garden

Before

After

So one of the more enjoyable jobs on my half term to do list was to sort out the front little patch. It's about 3 foot square and it's got to be a bit of a mess. I'd planted daffodils and tulips before Christmas whilst I was pressure washing the drive. 

So I'd been thinking for a while about what to do with this patch and I'd also been thinking about what to do with the dozens of sun flowers that we've grown from seed and also the summer flowering sea holly and freesias. 

It's not yet the pretty little patch I was hoping for but I've de-cluttered the greenhouse and used up the end of the bulbs, thus killing several birds with limited stones. 

Garden evolution, Part 1 - a blankish canvas

When we first met our house on 8th June 2014 the whole experience was pretty overwhelming. I'd tried so hard to look at and notice everything but it was virtually impossible to take it all in. 

The garden was something which was high on the list but only in as much as it had to be a decent size. That was it. I didn't care whether it was manicured and pristine or a wild, overgrown jungle. Just as long as it was an outside space then I was happy. So this is what we inherited. A bit run down and lacking in features, as well as this the raised beds pictured above were rotten and falling down so would need to be replaced. Also, you couldn't tell from the house but the pebbled area that can just about be seen in this terrible photo is actually as big as the rest of the garden combined but there is nothing up there aside from one out of control climbing rose. There is actually another patio up there! 

But it didn't stay like that for long.  

The problem of concentration or - If I had a pound every time I felt distracted...I wish I had a puppy.

Concentration and engagement is a key issue for every teacher, especially new teachers like me. I realised that you can have the most brilliant, engaging and stimulating range of activities but if there is a huge car accident on the roundabout right outside my classroom window then I'm on to a loser. To try and swing the odds into my favour I've put together a list of tips and tricks which have worked in my classroom that my students can take into other environments.

1. Let them eat cake
Maybe not actual cake, but some sort of non-messy, quiet food which students can munch throughout the lesson. If they're hungry their mind will wander.

2. Let them play
The saying goes that the devil makes work for idle hands and that is certainly true in my classroom. Some students need that external stimulation to allow their mind to really focus on what they see and hear so give them something to fiddle with. If you give them a whiteboard and a dry-wipe pen to 'draw what they feel' about what you're discussing as a group they're engaged and they're fiddling. I know that this is true because I have to fiddle with something during class discussions.

3. Drink, drink, drink...
If they're thirsty they'll be distracted. If they think they might be thirsty in the future they'll be distracted too. Circumvent the issue and request that they bring a drink of water to every class.

4. "I need a tissue"
I get this one all the time and my suggestion that they use their sleeves does not go down well. I'm fitting a toilet roll dispenser in my new classroom and I'm hoping that I can sweet talk the cleaning staff to fill it up on the normal loo roll run. For some, taking a very short break to get some tissue is all they need to refocus and get back to work without leaving the room.

5. Scaffolding
Even asking my 17/18 year old A2's to write a one hour timed essay you see their eye bulge as their brains start to disengage. There is nothing that I can do to change the format of the summative assessment but I can do a lot to scaffold the run up to completing it. Instead of researching, assimilating and writing up all of that information in one huge lump they do tiny little sections over a period of time and build it up. They understand it better and can actually use the information instead of just regurgitating it.

6. Insist on organisation
I nearly broke down and cried when a student asked to borrow a pen and paper two weeks before the final exam. It made me question everything, if they turn up without these absolutely fundamentals to a lesson knowing full well that they have needed them EVERY OTHER LESSON that year then how will they know anything in their exam? Will they remember to get to the exam on time? Will they even turn up to the exam? Ever since then I have insisted on very specific list of resources and a filing system that every student brings with them every lesson and the first activity of the lesson is to get it out of your bag and on to the desk. No faffing during the actual lesson.

7. What's wrong with headphones?
When doing a longer independent task I see no problem with students listening to their music as long as they understand and follow the rules.
a. You must choose a playlist and then listen to it without changing the track.
b. You must use both earbuds so other people can't hear the music
c. You have to keep half an eye open for when I wave frantically at the front if i want everyone's attention.

If it helps someone get into their own little world and really concentrate then I would be mad to stop them!

8. Go with it

I can't compete with a solar eclipse and that's okay. 

There have been so many times that I have put together a carefully considered lesson plans with very specific activities and then I discover that the group wants to take it in a different direction. When I first started teaching I was a slave to the lesson plan, if it wasn't on then I didn't do it but now I've realised that the best way to hold a student's attention is to give them ownership over what they're learning. If they're doing what they want to be doing in the way they want to do it then everyone is happy.

9. Some times it's just a bad day
One of the hardest lessons I've had to learn as a teacher is that you cannot fix every problem that comes your way. In the ten minutes left of first lesson after the recent solar eclipse I don't think I got a single moment of work out of any of my 2nd year BTEC students who were sitting there. Their mind was still squarely focused on what they'd just seen (and that the world had not ended...) and there was nothing I could do about that. You can't always win the room because sometimes the outside stuff is bigger than whats going on in the classroom on that day at that time. And that's okay.

Obligatory half term baking

It's not a half term well spent if you don't do baking. I feel very guilty that I don't do more lovely cooking because I have the perfect to do it in but I get fed up half way through.

So this is what I made,  they're not overly impressive but they were quite tasty and it meant that I could tick "bake stuff" off my to do list.  Win/Win.

Very simple recipe that is good with coffee.

Raisin buns

Ingredients:

100g cooking spread

100g caster sugar

2 eggs

125g self raising flour

75g raisins 

Method:

1. Whisk the butter and sugar until fluffy

2. Add the eggs, blitz some more

3. Throw in the raisins and seize in the flour. Whisk until combined. 

4. Put about a desert spoon full into muffin cases 

5. Cook in a pre heated over at 175 for a fan oven or 195 for a normal oven for 17 minutes until the tops just start to go brown. 

6. EAT

I'm a published teacher - sort of...

The college produces an in house teaching journal called Learning Matters and I was published in the 4th edition. It's not exactly the Times educational supplement, but it's a start. 

A fresh start

I'm a teacher (for money) and a youth worker (for fun - usually). When I'm not working I'm spending my time having a lot of fun playing in my newly purchased house which I share with my boyfriend and an extraordinary number of plants.

This is a fresh start on a new website due to an unfortunate mishap with my original blog. I do have a reasonably established blog with my own URL but I'm still waiting to regain access to it. I'm working on the logic that as soon as you go to the toilet in a restaurant my food will arrive and therefore, if I start a new blog then the old one will come back. Don't burst my bubble, I like the delusion.

I want to use this as a place to collect things, I'm not overly interested in other people reading it or liking it. If I feel like making it pink with red writing then I shall. I want to collect the progress I made toward making my garden look something like all of the Pintrest pins I waste hours looking at.

Things are always better with a cup of good coffee

I also want to compile my work towards improving the learning experience for my student and my strive towards that elusive 'consistently outstanding' gold standard.

Finally I want to drink lots of coffee and focus on the fun things I do in my spare time and assemble everything on here instead of being an annoying Facebook spammer.