Yesterday was a bad day….. not in all aspects as there was plenty of fun to be had, but in one major aspect. It, at least, felt major at the time.

I am a PGCE student and am at the point where I feel that I am learning a foreign language and languages were never my forte. This, aside, I have to create opportunities to teach in order to build my confidence and potentially learn through my mistakes – a joyous experience.

I was on my way to present to a group of young talented middle Managers to speak to them about team work and leadership (yes, I did say leadership!). This was my moment! An hour before I was due to leave I decided I’d better transfer my, specifically designed ‘all singing and all dancing’ PowerPoint presentation to my memory stick from my home PC, better now than leaving it until the last minute…. You think you know what’s coming next…..

Oh, it’s okay, the inevitable didn’t happen; my computer was working just fine and the memory stick, also. What I hadn’t anticipated, however, was that my monitor had gone to sleep, yes…. it had well and truly fallen asleep and it was not for waking. I was unable to see any of my work, although it was there and to all intent and purposes was simply in hiding. The screen was dark and empty, it was like looking into a black hole of doom and momentarily, highly reflective of my new career choice.

My options, as I saw them, were:

1. Cry
2. Pray
3. Google it on my phone (nice one!)
4. Put the kettle on….

After completing options one to four (in full!) and having a little thinking time, I realised that I was too late to really rectify this situation with any positive, hands on actions but the mug of tea had helped. I had to rely on my natural, whit, sparkle and charm to see me through. How does one maintain this for two consecutive hours? Is this even possible? I was about to find out…..

I armed myself with a few extra interactive games and off I went. As I started, I confessed as to what had happened as everything is a learning curve and my students could potentially learn from this.

 

By sharing, they equipped ‘me’ with ideas and suggestions to avoid it happening again. The sharing of knowledge and situations can, potentially, help everyone involved and everyone (once they had stopped laughing at my dinosaur ways) was more than happy to help me. It started the session on a good and positive note, which continued for the duration.

For me, I had to reconsider my time management, my lack of it any way and I have to consider how I can avoid issues, like this, from happening. I am very happy to talk about my subject area all day and, although, it was a great session, I felt that I could have given more to my students by being seemingly more prepared and seemingly more professional.

Life is what it is and the world keeps turning but I must endeavour to avoid making rookie mistakes – I suppose this will come with practice and more ‘experiences’