Catch-up

I’ve not been posting for a while, so this is my post to catch up on all of the things which have happened.

The reason that I haven’t posted for a while is that I have just finished a spate of mock exams and to revise properly I had to stop using the computer as much – I find it a lot harder to waste time if I’m not on the computer.

In the mean time I have continued going to men-cap and attending beavers, I’ve got a job and become a reading mentor through school, and I’m in the process of organising some work experience.

At beavers I have continued in my usual role, helping out the leaders with the activities, organising games for the beavers as time fillers or distractions and just generally helping out, but soon I hope to be able to help one of the other junior leaders, Dormouse, to organise some activities for national science week, to help them get their science badge. I’m obviously very passionate about science so the opportunity to get them interested as well is something I’m going to grasp with both hands. I have a couple of books from when I was younger called the Mad Scientists Handbook 1 and 2, and they have a lot of potential activities in them which I’m going to suggest. 

I think activities like this are very important for the kids because as they experience something like this it can help to get them interested in science. This is especially important for those children who don’t pay attention in class or tend to struggle and switch off. By showing them something hands on, exciting, and something they can do themselves and explain to their friends at school or their parents, it may help to boost their classroom interaction next time they have a science lesson. There is, however, the challenge of making the activities safe as well as interesting and fun for all of them.

Men-cap has continued as normal – I turn up on a Wednesday afternoon to help out and sometimes on Fridays too. The only changes have been the children that I’ve met. I’ve now spent time with children with a few other disabilities; one being down’s syndrome, and the other being a “chromosome disorder”. I plan to research a little on both of those.

My job is working in a pub just up the road. As I’m not 18 yet, I can’t serve the customers alcohol, but I can do basically everything else. As general dogsbody, I’m responsible for anything from helping in the kitchen with the meals, to waiting and clearing up after everyone has gone. I’m really enjoying the few shifts that I’ve done so far as all of the patrons seem friendly and welcoming, and it’s really fun to be able to start a conversation with someone who’s just walked in the door moments ago. I’m also proud to have a job – it means that I have a bit more freedom and responsibility and at the moment, teenagers are finding it increasingly difficult to get a job. 

I can’t speak much on reading mentoring, as my first meeting was supposed to be yesterday, but the boy I’ve been paired with did not turn up. Normally, the reading mentor’s scheme is done between a year twelve and a year seven, or a 17 year old and a 12 year old, but the boy I’ve been paired with is in year nine. The teachers are especially keen to get him (L) reading before his GCSE’s start next year so he isn’t at a disadvantage, but he’s not particularly willing to turn up to these meetings, probably because there will be a certain amount of stigma attached to needing this sort of help. I am confident, though, that I can persuade him to turn up, by offering incentives (like chocolate), focusing on successes he has rather than challenges he needs to overcome, and by making these a little less formal than they might have been if he’d been meeting with a teacher.