What I learned this week [29/04/16]

1. It was Earth Day on Friday and it almost passed me by. But then, quite late at night, I noticed a Guardian article about zero waste bloggers and it kept me clicking and linking for a good hour. The main blogger featured was Katherine Kellogg, a young woman living on her own and although she's in the States, there were things about her story that made me think I could take some of the waste reducing options. I also liked that the articles I read dealt with the idea that it can be interpreted as hypocrisy to do some of these things and then to carry on, for example, driving your car or consuming electricity. As most of can't go completely "off grid" or produce zero waste; it's good to have an awareness of lifestyle changes we can make.
Some things I have changed over the last few years are: using a mooncup and so fewer disposable sanitary products, using a re-usable coffee cup more, buying clothes more carefully and buying second-hand, not buying ready meals, buying loose vegetables where possible, or getting them from mum's allotment and avoiding fruit and veg that is pre-prepared or comes in loads of packaging. I don't eat meat for at least 5 days out of the week.
I struggle with: driving everywhere (I have to drive to work, but there are lots of times when I drive to somewhere I could have walked to), Tassimo coffee pods, takeaways, the lure of Primark, my love of a pre-packaged sandwich...
Things I'd like to try: get rid of make-up wipes, bamboo toothbrush and cutlery set, use cloths instead of paper towels and cleaning wipes.

2. I over-reflected on the non-existence of Humberside, mainly due to returning (for a variety of reasons) to my old primary and secondary school and the first school I worked at. Basically I was born in a place that doesn't exist... which sounds more exciting than it is. Side note: a thing I enjoy in local schools and libraries is looking for books and equipment that are old enough to be stamped with the Humberside County Council logo. Really old ones, of course, pre-date this.

3. After feeling frustrated with my derby plateau last week, this week went a lot better. On Saturday we skated outside for the first time this year, handing out flyers for Hull Fashion Week (I know right, next stop Paris!), Sunday we got really sweaty doing recoveries and paired pushing, on Monday I coached the new intake and on Tuesday we finally got to scrim! It's been a while as we don't have the usual number of refs but I was really looking forward to it and determined to make the best of every moment. I think I mostly did; in the second period we played against the A team and it was good practice trying to hold them back and co-ordinate our defence. On Thursday we went back to basics with 4 walls and braced walls. It felt slow, but suddenly I realised that I was bracing a wall and shouting instructions at the same time. I literally couldn't do this last month. I did it again a couple more times and so the goal now is to be able to do this during an actual jam. During all this time I worked on stopping and resetting as quickly as possible. This is part of a longer term goal that I am not sure how to measure at this point. Today I ache all over!

4. Started at my new school, don't want to say too much about it yet. What I learned is that a new commute just brings a different type of stress. It's different to my rural commute and quite enjoyable to go on dual carriageway roads for most of the way. However, people still take daft risks, and twice this week it was snowing or sleeting, and people were pulling onto the motorway/ A-road with no lights on! Today was really stressful, with an accident on the estate near school, snow, high winds on the bridge closing a lane, an accident somewhere on the way back into Hull and then total gridlock due to a really awful accident near by house. So the long weekend is most welcome, and I shall be dog sitting!

This week I learned... [22/04/16]

I had a very positive week and the sun shone for a large part of it. Here's what I learned but also quite a lot of what happened too...

1. This year I wanted to do some more challenging things in roller derby. One of my "out loud" goals* was to play co-ed, something I'd never done and then kind of gave myself the fear of. It was really fun, especially because it was part of a fantastic, glittery tournament, the Louisey Rider Cup.

Men tend to play roller derby with bigger hits and seem to take more risks. A men's game often looks more physical or aggressive, but I think it's because the game tends towards body checks rather than the hip checks you get more of in the women's game. In the tournament, you could see a lot of the guys going easy, but a blocker's bum can put you on the floor if it's used correctly, whoever it belongs to! There was some very impressive footwork on display; which has really motivated me to work harder on my own. MattLovin, who plays for Team England, gave me some tips for holding the inside line. With several blockers on my team I did a lot of paired blocking - this was fun and really effective for getting round offence. So yeah, it turns out co-ed is not that scary, who knew? (Me, probably).

2. I had to change some of my self-talk.
Part 1: "I will never win an award in a game."
Managed to win the audience vote MVP for my team. Don't ask.
After I'd finished dying of embarrassment and once my team had the tournament final to concentrate on, I was quite pleased.

But some point during the day I thought "oh, now I can't say I never play co-ed because I have. I can't say I'll never win an award because I have." All the sports psychology must have rubbed off because now my brain is telling me I CAN DO THINGS. We had a goal-setting session today and it did make me aim higher than I would have previously.
Part 2: "I can do this. "
I held my own in a really advanced team of skaters. I didn't once say I couldn't do it, I didn't once come off track and dread going back on again, I didn't once doubt we could win a game. We. Won. Every. Game. Now, I can't say I contributed much to that, I was a mediocre blocker at most, but I think I played really well and the feeling of being on a winning team is brilliant (only my second time for that one). On the one hand, it's made me very confident and determined; on the other hand I had a terrible bout comedown afterwards.

3. Headteachers are still more bothered about whether you polished your shoes and covered your tattoos than how good your teaching is.
Possibly NOT entirely true but I went to do some training and a (recently retired) headteacher talked about what heads are looking for in terms of recruitment. The aim was to get long-term placements in supply teaching. We got some good advice on what to put in a personal statement and preparing for interview. I'm taking with a pinch of salt that part about "one pair of earrings is enough". The most important take-away was when he said
"You are good most of the time... you will have bad days, but you are good. You do make a difference to pupils by being there for them and being yourself."
I think this is true. I may also have a long-term placement. It will mean teaching in an academy school, another first for me.

Otherwise, I've been watching a lot of Victoria Wood sketches, Series 2 of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and Rear Window (it's on Netflix, worth a 3rd watch). Best yogurt I had was Onken apple and cinnamon. One of our coaches, Abi, took us through a goal setting session, on which more later (my head is a bit muddled and meddled from it right now. Then I tried something new, failed miserably and had to be talked into putting my skates back on - so the self-talk needs some work!)

* There are goals that you should share with others, and some that are best kept to yourself.

This week I learned... [15/04/16]

1. When the Guardian tried to create "the web we want", the establishment showed how many people apparently still live in the hazy past of "oh I'm not being racist/ sexist/ misogynistic...."
Then I saw this on twitter and replied and such irony:

This also made me realise how much of an effort I put into really thinking through different people's experience of life and how it may make others feel when nasty troll comments are made, or worse.

2. Joanna Lumley actually doesn't eat, much like her famous character Patsy Stone. "Patsy hasn't eaten since 1974". This came about after binge watching Ab Fab led me to google Joanna's age. Anyway, I very much doubt she's a role model to young girls, despite the Ab Fab film due out soon.
"Well, there was that crisp...."

3. Someone posted this

  

on facebook and although good arguments were made for ghosts being naked (or, you know, not actually existing), it really made me fix onto the idea of being stuck in that exact point in your life, and in that exact outfit. So my twitter name this week is Ghost Cardigan. It's possible this reduces one's gravitas when getting into political spats on the twitter.

4. It was a challenging week to be in the Green Party. Starting with the moment when my local party missed the deadlines to register the candidates in the local election and ending on Question Time when the BBC managed to find the only Green Brexiter and put her on the panel. Plus then she didn't know the policy on inheritance tax. It grates a little when you feel you know the manifesto inside out and then key members seem not to when on tv... I guess it shows how much time, effort and probably money the big parties throw at spin.

5. I did a lot better at being vegetarian this week and even ate some falafel. The knock on effect of trying to cook properly and eat lots of fresh things was that I also ate a lot less dairy and had several mostly-plant-based days. It wasn't intentional, I'd probably not be able to do it for long as I'd have terrible cravings. As it is, I slightly binged on cheese and chocolate on Tuesday, got a migraine and couldn't skate!

That's it for this week. Hopefully next week I will be back at work, plus I'm skating in a tournament tomorrow so more may have happened...! If not, I will just be posting about all the different yohgurts I've tried over the week and I don't think anyone needs to read that.

New challenge

Ok so I'm going to start writing again.
I've decided to note down things I learn each week: in the news, teaching CPD, assorted feminist stuff, body positivity and roller derby things. The aim is still to post once a week, but I'm going to schedule posts so that it actually happens!

More instagram and maybe even the odd vlog if I get really carried away...!