Busy Bee!

It seems there’s a bit of a gap to fill. To catch you all up…I applied about two weeks ago for my teacher training programmes. The last couple days, I’ve actually been at the interviews I was offered. The two I’ve been to are School Direct programmes so I would train to be a teacher whilst working in the school full time. The interviews were really intense. I had to do A Level papers to prove my subject knowledge, teach a lesson to Year 12s, give a presentation and have a standard interview. Two very stressful days and now the wait begins…

…I really hope that I do get on to the teaching programme this time but if not, I would happily stay at Greenwich a bit longer and do my Masters in Psychology instead. I’ve loved my time here and I’m not sure I’m ready to enter the real world just yet anyway!

In other news…my kitten (now officially cat L) turned one whole year old last week. He was treated like a king with tuna and shrimp but is now ignoring me for abandoning him for two nights (don’t worry, he was looked after by his other human)! Fickle.

It was nice to be away though, to spend some time with my parents. Coursework deadlines have been so insane lately that to take a break was just what I needed. I even got to see my best friend for a couple hours between interviews. Final year is non-stop so I’m really looking forward to a few days of eating and drinking way too much at Christmas.

I also might get a chance to catch up on my films and TV. Even though it’s technically part of my dissertation to analyse horror films, it’s definitely a good excuse to put my feet up with some popcorn. I’m going to be looking at how fear and violence are portrayed in three subtypes of horror films. Hopefully it won’t be as boring as it sounds…at least the watching of the films won’t be. No doubt I’ll be cowering behind my sofa for most of the Christmas break- between the shovelling of popcorn. My dissertation/I finally have a break media list involves a bit of Scream, a lot of Freddy and a pinch of Chucky.

Really looking forward to a bit of Supernatural action over the break as well. I’ve been banned from watching Season 10 for now until it ends but I’ve asked Santa for all sorts of SPN geek spec presents. Here’s hoping I’ve been good enough this year to get that Misha Collins t-shirt I’ve been eyeing up! And if you don’t know what SPN is, here’s a little bit of education:

Yes, they are really that beautiful.

Until next time chickadees and if I don’t see you before, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

So my first blog…here goes!

I’m Jenna, I study BSc (Hons) Criminology and Criminal Psychology and I finally made it to my last year! So now the stress begins all over again with Teacher Training applications and filling out the dreaded UCAS form. It’s not as bad as I thought it would be but I am struggling with what to say in my personal statement. See, I know what I should put, but I don’t know how to make myself stand out. I’ll keep you posted with how that goes anyway :)

So…I really want to teach at Secondary level. When I was at college, I had no idea what I wanted to do but then an amazing lecturer (Auntie Linny) helped show me the way. After that, while I love Criminology, I wanted to promote education in the way she did. Later, I might help people on the shrink couch but until then, teaching is definitely for me!

On another completely unrelated note: I am a cat person. I’m not a crazy cat lady by any means but I love animals, especially cats. I have a little male hairless sphynx kitten that is absolutely mental and takes a lot of my time- he’s a huge attention seeker. Even though I like exotic house cats, I’ve been looking into going back abroad to do Big Cat Conservation in Costa Rica. Last summer I went to Morocco to work in orphanages and with “street kids”. It was an incredible experience and something I would always recommend but I think this time I might work with animals. They say “never work with animals or children”, well I’d quite like to prove a point and work with both :)

So until next time when I’ll hopefully have some news about my application, here is a picture of a cat: