Today I woke up 2 minutes before my alarm with a smile on my face. A strange sensation indeed. And then I remembered I didn't have to go to school, yippee!
Obviously it poured all day and I wasn't wearing enough layers and I had to walk lots and wait for public transport and all the usual things that slightly annoy me, but doesn't matter, crucially, I didn't have to go to school today. Yippee once again!
So Mulberry School for Girls in Whitechapel. Very different to the old academy. For starters, there's only one white kid in the whole school, how crazy is that! It's 97% Bangladeshi Muslim - so much so that the girls can wear an actual hijab variant of the school uniform (I say variant, but really this is the dominant choice of uniform). It's a big school - almost 1500 kids, with 400 in the VIth form. When ours opens in September I think we'll only have 60 or so. The buildings, resources, staff, kids etc. are all lovely - the school went under some kinda refurbishment maybe 3/4 years ago and also got involved in a PFI partnership with Parkwood Leisure so at 6pm every night the school shuts and becomes a leisure centre! This explains the awesome sports facilities - they have everything apart from playing fields and a pool, including a tumble track, dance studio, astroturf pitches and a climbing wall! There's IWBs in the maths rooms, which are big and spacious. Most different of all was the fact that they trusted the kids to be unsupervised in rooms/corridors etc. during the day and also left rooms unlocked. I mean, they actually leave the maths store room unlocked as a matter of course. As I learnt the hard way, don't do this at my school. If it's not nailed down, they'll have it.
The most interesting thing I did today was take part in the Ocean Maths workshop. This is a pioneering Tower Hamlets workshop, borne from the Ocean Estate in E1, and aiming to increase parental involvement in their kid's maths learning. So workshop leaders come in with interpreters etc. and work on activities with the kids and their parents together to encourage them both to be more confident and work together more. It really was lovely to see, despite the scary lady in charge of it (well, obviously I charmed her in the end, but at the start of the session I was standing by a desk and she asked me to move, and I said where, and she said anywhere just move, all because a trolley was coming through - duh, am I blind or something? Clearly I would have moved out of the way all by myself, why the hostile tone?)
After school I had a training session on paper folding, which was fantastic! Called "how to be a paper mathemagician" it really did what it said on the tin! Now have lots of ideas on how to teach Shape, Space and Measure using paper folding activities including making a tetrahedron out of an envelope, shape tesselations from folding A4 paper, and making a pull-up cube (it looks magical!)
In conclusion, I think I have realised that my school really is awful (this thought is increasingly justified every time I visit another school) but it's nice to have a week break and get my enthusiasm for this job back. Given that we have quite a few TF quitters, who are leaving after the first year, well, I don't wanna be one of those people, so this week should do me good.
In other news, my little bro's latest goldfish, Mao, is on his last (metaphorical) legs. He is on his side and not looking good. Looking at him makes me cringe, but I can't help but stare. *shudder*. Would fish euthanasia be a no-no?
Obviously it poured all day and I wasn't wearing enough layers and I had to walk lots and wait for public transport and all the usual things that slightly annoy me, but doesn't matter, crucially, I didn't have to go to school today. Yippee once again!
So Mulberry School for Girls in Whitechapel. Very different to the old academy. For starters, there's only one white kid in the whole school, how crazy is that! It's 97% Bangladeshi Muslim - so much so that the girls can wear an actual hijab variant of the school uniform (I say variant, but really this is the dominant choice of uniform). It's a big school - almost 1500 kids, with 400 in the VIth form. When ours opens in September I think we'll only have 60 or so. The buildings, resources, staff, kids etc. are all lovely - the school went under some kinda refurbishment maybe 3/4 years ago and also got involved in a PFI partnership with Parkwood Leisure so at 6pm every night the school shuts and becomes a leisure centre! This explains the awesome sports facilities - they have everything apart from playing fields and a pool, including a tumble track, dance studio, astroturf pitches and a climbing wall! There's IWBs in the maths rooms, which are big and spacious. Most different of all was the fact that they trusted the kids to be unsupervised in rooms/corridors etc. during the day and also left rooms unlocked. I mean, they actually leave the maths store room unlocked as a matter of course. As I learnt the hard way, don't do this at my school. If it's not nailed down, they'll have it.
The most interesting thing I did today was take part in the Ocean Maths workshop. This is a pioneering Tower Hamlets workshop, borne from the Ocean Estate in E1, and aiming to increase parental involvement in their kid's maths learning. So workshop leaders come in with interpreters etc. and work on activities with the kids and their parents together to encourage them both to be more confident and work together more. It really was lovely to see, despite the scary lady in charge of it (well, obviously I charmed her in the end, but at the start of the session I was standing by a desk and she asked me to move, and I said where, and she said anywhere just move, all because a trolley was coming through - duh, am I blind or something? Clearly I would have moved out of the way all by myself, why the hostile tone?)
After school I had a training session on paper folding, which was fantastic! Called "how to be a paper mathemagician" it really did what it said on the tin! Now have lots of ideas on how to teach Shape, Space and Measure using paper folding activities including making a tetrahedron out of an envelope, shape tesselations from folding A4 paper, and making a pull-up cube (it looks magical!)
In conclusion, I think I have realised that my school really is awful (this thought is increasingly justified every time I visit another school) but it's nice to have a week break and get my enthusiasm for this job back. Given that we have quite a few TF quitters, who are leaving after the first year, well, I don't wanna be one of those people, so this week should do me good.
In other news, my little bro's latest goldfish, Mao, is on his last (metaphorical) legs. He is on his side and not looking good. Looking at him makes me cringe, but I can't help but stare. *shudder*. Would fish euthanasia be a no-no?
