Today has been grim. I set myself the goal of writing up as much of my School Orientation Experience (SOE) as possible. This is the latest bit of TeachFirst paperwork and is making my brain feel like it's gone through a shredder. The observation week was great, and I took all the necessary notes etc. etc.. But I'd forgotten just how painful I find writing up. I am definitely a practioner rather than a theorist. The act of committing my thoughts to written text is almost physically uncomfortable. I've looked for all sorts of distractions, have needed to get up and walk around, make a hot drink ... but it needed to be done. Sadly it's not finished, but I've done nearly half, so that's a good start.
As for the other stuff, well I found another online drawing course last night
http://www.klinecreative.com/free-online-art-lessons.htm and I've made a start. The first couple of lessons have been simply about pencil control, so lots of drawing straight lines, but the bloke on the video is engaging and so far I'm enjoying it even if the practise is tedious. But I guess like anything "no pain, no gain". So as promised, here are my first, uninspiring exercises. I'm sure it will get more interesting ...
And my other great discovery today was a whole set of YouTube videos exploring the traditional music of nearly 150 different countries! I've been needing to get my head around various world music traditions, as it is a big feature of the current GCSE and A Level Music syllabus but was hardly touched on when I was at school and university. For those of you who are interested, take a look at
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLA3A1D292BFB1B6DF. It has everything from Bavarian um pah pah music to the music of Myanmar and Tajikistan. Fab resource with some very nice photographs to go with it.
Tomorrow I have to steal myself for C25K day 2. I hope it's not going to be throwing it down in the morning. In the meantime, I'm off to escape in the magical World of Warcraft as my reward for being a good student today.
