Who am I? What is this blog?

First up, who am I?... I'm a thirty something Computing teacher in a special needs school. I have a
degree in Music and Philosophy and trained originally as a Music teacher... bit of a U-turn huh? Yep, definitely!!

After teaching Music for four years I realised I was losing my passion for it both inside and outside the classroom whilst those around me seemed to be getting more of an enrichment of what they did in their own time from being immersed in it all day? So I took a break, decided I would just have to lump being one of those statistics (you know, one in 4 leaving and all that). I was told in no uncertain terms by EVERY recruitment agency I went to that I had no employable skills or relevant experience for such a competitive job market. WHAAAAAAT?!!! I hear you screaming!! Yep, true that!

So I wound up spending the summer as a temping receptionist at the local probation offices... Not the busy, super organised, highly skilled reception/admin lady, just a receptionist who answers the phone and books in the offenders (through bullet proof glass - but I trained and taught in inner city London so apparently I DID have some relevant experience for this one!). Mostly, I twiddled my thumbs and thought of inventive ways to finish myself off if I didn't get some kind of mental stimulation and my brain turned to jelly leaving me a vegetable. Then the reality that £6.45 an hour wasn't going to pay my bills once my precious savings ran dry hit home. So I started doing supply work. Turns out I hate supply work and teaching a load of kids I don't know something I hadn't planned myself and it turns out a lot of teachers leave tests and exam practice as cover work so I had to sit and once again twiddle my thumbs (which by now were becoming quite muscular from all said twiddling) while they sat in silence. Then I did a days supply in a local special school and everything changed...

I wound up covering ICT for a couple of terms and then landed the job permanently. Suffice to say that coming from a music background this was an entirely different kettle of fish so I had to retrain with regards to my subject knowledge. I was pretty IT savy with regards to use of software but then it all changed in September to Computing and I'm not going to lie "programming" freaked me out (still does to some extent!), but not one to back down from a challenge and being someone who likes to learn I attended Picademy (which was amazing!) and got myself a load of books and some online courses. It's been a very big mountain and I'm still only about 2 meters up!

Jump to three years down the line and here I am, starting to slowly become more confident in my ability of teaching Computing as it's now called but still struggling with Python and screaming in my head that our school network won't allow me to download software or files onto my Pi's!!

She likes to help me with my marking! 

Outside work I'm a big fan of fantasy, horror and sci-fi books/films, I bake and (attempt to) do sugarcraft, I'm a bit of a gym junkie, a trained singer, addicted to Plants 'vs' Zombies and Clash of Clans and because I am such a geek I like to do courses on Coursera. I'm also mother to one crazy little blue furred fluff ball who's antics keep me sane and smiling through the most stressful of times (and as teachers we all know there are plenty of those!! Good job the rewards outweigh them!)

So that's me. What is this blog? Well, hopefully, it's not just an account of my experiences teaching computing inside and outside the classroom/school but also an account of my life as a bona fide geek and a place to share resources with readers and get feedback and ideas from like minded (possibly way more knowledgeable) people!