Firstly, woo hoo, only one week till the Easter break!
Thursday night saw Y8 parents' evening take over the foyer and main hall. Parents (and associated other carers...I mean, what a potential minefield - I spent ten minutes talking to one "mum" who later turned out to be the child's sister!) and kiddies busily scrambled around meeting and missing appointments with various subject teachers between 4:30pm and 7:30pm. My schedule was reasonably full, although luckily with frequent gaps in which to run away for tea.
So on to the revenge I had prepared to exact upon my little monsters. After almost two terms of regular chaos and mayhem from this class, you would think I'd have lots of constructive criticism to dish out. But, actually, when it came down to it, I found streams of enthusiasm and positivity flowing from my mouth rather than the bitter crossness I had expected. It was something about the hopefulness and pride in the eyes of the parents and the kids sitting across the desk from me that stopped me ranting. I did my best to tell it like it is and most of them were understanding and supportive about their child's behaviour issues. But, on the whole, that class has actually done really well with regards to effort, progress, and homework. And even with D and S, there were positives there. The more experienced teachers told me I should be as blunt as I could and not put any spin on the truth. Maybe in time I will do that. But right now I'm still naive and so I'll stick to trying to ensure the positives outweigh the negatives. Besides, I don't think Mrs K could take any more teachers telling her her boy is almost 100% nutty.
Some other links for you:
one from the Sun about some drama at our Academy during comic relief;
an old blog entry about the silliness of putting inexperienced teachers in the classroom;
and one about how completely pointless it is to make blockbuster films about teachers "saving" their pupils through some random skill like ballroom dancing.
Thursday night saw Y8 parents' evening take over the foyer and main hall. Parents (and associated other carers...I mean, what a potential minefield - I spent ten minutes talking to one "mum" who later turned out to be the child's sister!) and kiddies busily scrambled around meeting and missing appointments with various subject teachers between 4:30pm and 7:30pm. My schedule was reasonably full, although luckily with frequent gaps in which to run away for tea.
So on to the revenge I had prepared to exact upon my little monsters. After almost two terms of regular chaos and mayhem from this class, you would think I'd have lots of constructive criticism to dish out. But, actually, when it came down to it, I found streams of enthusiasm and positivity flowing from my mouth rather than the bitter crossness I had expected. It was something about the hopefulness and pride in the eyes of the parents and the kids sitting across the desk from me that stopped me ranting. I did my best to tell it like it is and most of them were understanding and supportive about their child's behaviour issues. But, on the whole, that class has actually done really well with regards to effort, progress, and homework. And even with D and S, there were positives there. The more experienced teachers told me I should be as blunt as I could and not put any spin on the truth. Maybe in time I will do that. But right now I'm still naive and so I'll stick to trying to ensure the positives outweigh the negatives. Besides, I don't think Mrs K could take any more teachers telling her her boy is almost 100% nutty.
Some other links for you:
one from the Sun about some drama at our Academy during comic relief;
an old blog entry about the silliness of putting inexperienced teachers in the classroom;
and one about how completely pointless it is to make blockbuster films about teachers "saving" their pupils through some random skill like ballroom dancing.
