Wow! I’ve only just
realised that I haven’t posted anything since mid-July… It’s been a busy few
months!
The road along which my
freelancing adventure has taken me has had several twists and turns and, as I
expected, has not been anything near the route I expected!
When I left full time paid
employment I made sure that, despite my dissatisfaction with my job, I left on
good terms with my colleagues. It was my good relationship with these wonderful
people which led to me having the opportunity to work with the BBC’s Bang GoesThe Theory team, and it was also the reason for my incredibly busy summer.
I was contacted out of the
blue by a former colleague to ask if I could help them out with a project. They
needed someone who had the appropriate experience and CRB checks to assist on a
residential course working with young people from across Lincolnshire
I spent a week staying in
the student accommodation at the University of Lincoln with several hundred
teenagers, 12 of whom became ‘my’ group to work with for the next 3 weeks
undertaking a social action project in the market town of Boston ,
Lincolnshire
We met some wonderfully
dedicated people who were extremely supportive and encouraging to the young
people, helping them to gain new skills and confidence and giving them the chance
to work with people of different ages and backgrounds as equals.
We weeded, uprooting tons
of Ragwort.
We mulched, helping young
trees to grow.
We dug trenches and laid
slabs, helping in the construction of a ‘compass’ in ‘Jenny’s Wood’.
We all learned a great deal.
Some of the young ‘men’ in
the group learned that running through a patch of waist high nettles bare
chested as a show of ‘manliness’ can be very uncomfortable! Maybe… hopefully…
one day, they will realise what it takes to really be a man!
Almost as soon as my
adventures in Boston were over, it was back to
work as a part time lecturer at Lincoln College , with hugely
increased hours compared to last year. Not only am I teching GCSE Science, and
Biology as part of the Access to Higher Education for Health Care Practitioners
(Access HE HCP) course, but I have also been asked to teach Maths…
Aaaarrrggghh!! (Oops, Sorry!!).
That was my initial reaction though…
I have to say that I’m
actually really enjoying teaching Maths. The course that I’ve been charged with
teaching is ‘Maths for Nursing’, which means that all of the Mathematical
principles which I have to cover have practical applications, and aren’t the
really scary kind of Maths (I dropped A-Level Maths after a term!). Having
worked as a research scientist for several years I understand what it’s like to
have to use Maths. Thankfully, I have always been pretty confident when it
comes to the basics, thanks to a great start from my parents and some really
good teachers when I got to school, so making the jump to any actual
application of the Maths seems fairly logical for me.
The feedback from my Maths
students so far has been encouragingly positive. I think they appreciate the
fact that I’ve openly admitted that Maths isn’t what I chose to do… It’s
something that I see as a ‘necessary evil’ if you will, but I equally make sure
that I put across the message that it isn’t something to be scared of. It is,
in fact, something that all of my students use every day, even if they don’t
realise it. Sometimes it really is a case of fear of the unknown, and once you
point out that, actually, these are all simple mathematical things that they do know, everything falls into place!
More busy times are ahead with long days lecturing at College, several bookings through Dr D’s ScienceDays, and some GCSE exam marking coming up in November… When you’re a freelancer
you have to take the work as and when it’s available…
