Highlights from the week

I'm putting off the gym for 20 more minutes because it's been a whole week and no blogging action from me. Time to update this wonderful record of my rambley life.

Good things from the week:

• 8E stepping up for sports day and doing the business (every single kid in the tutor group bar one took part in one event or another, excellent...fingers crossed we finish well in Year 8)
• non-uniform day - yeah I got to wear flip flops!
• playing tangrams and Nubble Express with loads of my classes (hope I haven't started the "fun lessons" too soon)
• telling all my classes that I'm leaving and them all being sad about it - maybe I'm a good teacher after all
• teaching 8E a PSHE lesson based on the role of education in society (something that I taught my Y12s in AS Sociology) and having them respond really well to it
  
• spending most of my weekend with X, and also a midweek meet-up too - aaaah it makes me happy. As does winning two pairs of knickers in a bet over dominoes
• reverse parking into a tight tight spot the first time round, and then being told by the parking attendants that I was the best lady parker they'd seen all morning
• the end of year staff boat party - a free bar = shocking hangover, but it was loads of fun to celebrate the almost end of year with my colleagues. Not to mention getting muchos compliments for my "bap dress"
• having the new TF maths teacher in for his London week, and hearing that having watched all the maths teachers teach, the one he most wanted to be like was me!
  
• seeing my American friend Braden from my summer at Dartmouth, and also reunion-ing with all the kids from our exchange that year
• our final TF workshop, which was a bit lame, but so ace to see all of our year, and also to know that we've almost completed the programme, yeeehaaaa!

Not-so-good things

• not getting the money back from that ridiculous Wing Security towing my car away - grrrr
• being so busy that all the mundane chore type stuff has just not been done
• having to a learning log (boring)
• still not knowing about my knee operation and so not being able to book anything proper for the summer
• waiting for my WWOOF-ing booklet so I can finally contact some people about that

Aside from that, it's been a stellar week, I'm feeling awesome and happy! Five days of school to go, which will be crazy and emotional, but this time next week, well, I'll be at a colleague's BBQ celebrating the end of a mini-era. Hope all is well with you.

I wonder if any of this happened to you today?

I love not teaching in the afternoon, it's so the best thing!

My form were so good in silent reading this afternoon. Back last term this was completely impossible and wouldn't happen, but today we had the whole class super quiet, was awesome!

Except...

Three kids decided to draw pornographic images instead of reading! Shocker. These were seriously explicit pictures as well, I couldn't believe it. So trying to be smart, I confiscated the pics and told the kids I'd be sending copies to their parents. And I kept them back in detention after school. So far so good. But then I slipped out of the classroom for 2 minutes to photocopy some homework sheets for my Y10s, and when I came back, lo and behold the confiscated drawings had "disappeared". Little monsters. DId some futile ranting and raving, then had to send them home. Called up their parents - luckily they were good and supportive, so hopefully the culprit will step up tomorrow.

In other news, I'm teaching expanding brackets to my Y10 set 4, and my Y8 set 1. This meant that today I taught two hours worth of brackets, back to back lessons and everything. Aaaargh brackets, I don't want to see them again.
(((((((((((())))))))))))))))))))((((((((((((()))))))))))))))))))))

And finally, I was back at my old school today to watch the Y11 girls' borough basketball final. We have lost to the same school for the past 4 years, and this year we were so close to winning, and then lost by a point in the final minute. Such a dramatic game, and I felt really awful for the girls afterwards. Sport is too serious for me I think.

Back to the Learning Log. Yay, good times!

Sober Rambles

It's Sunday. Back in the day I think I used to lesson plan on Sundays. I have given this up. One week of school to go, and the kids will be demanding "fun lessons" left, right and centre. Plus Friday probably won't be a proper day of lessons, and then when you take away four afternoon lessons and one PSHE games lesson, well, I'm left with nine lessons to plan. Hardly seems worth spending Sunday doing.

I do, however, have to complete my Learning Log. Again. Boo.

So I am tired. I went to bed very late, about 7 hours ago, after J from TF's birthday shenanigans. Crucially, I am not that hungover. Either that or I am so used to my Friday night hangover that it just seems normal. Anyway, we went to the Covent Garden Comedy Club and saw some excellent stand-up. It was held at Heaven, which is pretty fun club anyway, and a really intimate stand-up venue. I was properly laughing my head off for most of it. I haven't been to much stand-up since my gap year, when I was quite into it, but it's definitely something else that is going back on the list. I think I liked it so much because I find everything funny - whether it's offensive, complaining, self-deprecating, fantastical, autobiographical, whatever, it's all funny to me. Obviously, those of you that know me know I think I'm hilarious, but these people are on another level. That said, if I had all day every day to read the paper and contemplate my life, well, I'm sure I could think of a few gags.

The tickets included entry into Motion, which is just on the riverbank near Embankment. Good fun there too. Enough said. When I combine the chatter of last night with a college friend's Christmas party on Friday night, it's pretty obvious why I've practically lost my voice. It's at that sore/husky stage, where it could go either way. School will patently push it into non-existence. Anyway, the party on Friday was my first Christmas party of the season and it was really good, mainly because it was full of people I knew from college and from Oxford and from my gap year, so it was great to catch-up. The mulled wine went down a treat, even when it became purely hot red wine, and it was just nice to see how far everyone had come and catch-up with those people I've just not seen for ages.

To keep up the busy-ness of the weekend I had lunch and went to the Natural History Museum yesterday with someone I shall just call X because I know what you are all like with gossip. The only downer was seeing my mangy fox daemon on display - a truly verminous specimen. Apart from that, I am having fun there. It's kinda weird how I feel, but I like it.

I am pleased with the reintroduction of many non-drinking activities to my life. And also the way that I have swapped school for an actual life. Good times.

Ending on a dramatic note though, here's my Sunday Times horoscope for this week. Am already nervous about Tuesday...

Because you think things through carefully when you first hear about them, you’re rarely caught off-guard. But when events involve a form of transformation, as is the case with those triggered by Tuesday’s encounter between Jupiter and Pluto, there's little chance you could anticipate the sequence and impact of events. That being the case, forget about analysing everything and live one day, or even one hour, at a time. Because changes involve matters close to home, there could be dramas. But, with Jupiter showing its more benevolent face next week, you’ll soon be smiling again.

I hope so.

Skipping School

The attendance target at my school is 93%. My form, typically, is rather behind on this. We have two kids on the roll that just don't exist, but until the EWO (educational welfare officer) can track them down, they have to stay on roll. As such, we never win the attendance prize.

Am I a good role model? Well, looking at my own attendance, I have missed 4 days of school in the last 41, not to mention a hospital appointment and a visit to the dentist in school time. So my attendance is below the 93%. Further, despite it only being week 2 of the second half of the first term, I am already on my fourth instance of absence. This is a sign of trouble.

How it works in my school is that if staff have more than five instances of absence in a year, they have to have some kinda support interview or something. An instance can be anything from day to literally months (with a medical certificate of course). Mine have been four separate days, but still.

So what happened today then? I didn't really have a hangover, that wasn't the problem. I woke up really early, and my stomach was hurting, and basically I decided I couldn't face the day at school. Once my mind decides that, it's a done thing, it's difficult to persuade myself otherwise. School is like a battle to me at the moment, and if I'm not up for battle, well, I'd rather not take part. People say any teacher is better than no teacher. I disagree...a supply teacher is better than your regular teacher when she's having a bad day. But that is my opinion.

What did I do? Tried to sleep, but failed. Took a stroll in the park to try and get my head in the game. Realised that I looked very much like a skiving kid, so came back home. Forced myself to complete a rather mediocre Learning Log. Dwelled on my problems, and tried to make a plan to help me last to the potential solution. Finally, stumbled upon this, and had an educational browse. Felt a bit better after that, but then when I consider a day of battle tomorrow, well...we'll have to wait and see what happens.

PS Not all doom-and-gloom...also found this and love it.

Saturday night update

It's pretty late, I should be in bed. I need the sleep for all the work I have to do tomorrow. Work doesn't always mean bad things. For example, I think of piano lessons and gym sessions as work, and I have to do both of those tomorrow, but I like them. However, there is some work that I definitely don't like that I also have to do tomorrow. Lesson planning, yuck. GS Leadership Log, double yuck. Education - Business presentation, triple yuck. If I didn't have to do all the extra work that is associated with the whole TF experience, I'd only be on one yuck, instead of six. Some nice algebra there.

Still, mustn't complain, currently I feel like I can battle all this work, complete it all, tick it off the list, and then spend time gloating and being satisfied that my "to do" list is done. I like this feeling.

In other news then, the inspection, well, terrible. Was 10 mins late for the lesson with my mad Y7s. The groups hadn't been set yet and so it was entirely mixed ability, except by mixed I mean on the one hand kids that can add 7 to a number, and on the other, kids that can barely count or spell the word number. Inspector went to hell and back with his post-lesson chatter. Essentially I think I flopped because I just don't know the kids yet, I don't know where to pitch the level, I don't know who is capable of what, or where to provide extra support. I'd only taught that class four times previously, there were 31 kids in the group anyway, and as a final excuse, well, I had no information on them and we hadn't had a formal maths lesson yet, so of course it wasn't going to be perfect. Still, it felt bad not to have a good opportunity to show off my potential.

Crazy H in my tutor group is being excluded for 3 days next week. His latest offences include kicking other students, threatening to burgle the house of an LSA, and bringing hardcore pornography into lessons. Bless him. I just want to hug him since he's an angel with me and cares about how Spurs are doing. He's really messed up and there's no-one really there to help him. Sad as it sounds, I can't see him lasting to Y11 at this rate.

This morning I woke up with a cracking hangover. The older I get the worse they are. Even if I don't drink that much. Last night was great, lots of good times with various TFers over the night, plus bumped into two old friends too, what are the chances? Obviously today was written off, except I did manage to get some tat for the kids as prizes for next week. Scented highlighters, glitter pens, and lollipops...surely that is incentive enough to try and stay off report all week?

And finally, I missed most of a dinner party tonight, naughty naughty. Was out drinking with the Furies, which I loved for the most part. It's not the same though, there's just too many rocks beneath the waves for it all to flow smoothly. I dunno, I don't want to waste too much emotion on it all, it's time to cut lose and leave it to mend itself. It's weird though, I can feel myself actively pulling away, it's sad, these people were my good friends, but now I find it hard to imagine ever having again what we had had.

So, to bed I guess. To ponder. To ponder is to dream, right? Or have I got that wrong...

The Canterbury Tales

I didn't start this blog till after the Summer Institute last year, so I've had to wait a long time to use "the Canterbury Tales" as a title. Still, better late than never.

So, a whistle-stop tour of our three days in Canterbury. We:

• presented our WA4s to the '07s
• shared resources and ran workshops with the '07s
• completed our final QTS portfolio checks and interviews
• set two new targets for our NQT year
• learnt about rights and responsibilities for our NQT year
• got introduced to the GS Learning Log (part of a 3 year research project to try and measure the impact TF teachers have had with regards to achieving the TF mission)
• enjoyed a delightfully cheesy TF QTS ceremony

A very busy 3 days indeed. My WA4 went down a treat, despite having a choking fit in the middle of it. Comparing my Y8s to the Sesame Street Bunch (cos they are all very strange, and because they seem nice enough on the outside, but could cause trouble at any moment!)

and my Y11s to the Ocean's 13 gang (cos they were just too cool for school)

got me a barrel of laughs, as did the slides where the spell-check had changed all the "maths" to "moths", which I didn't notice until I was reading out "I have tried to incorporate real-world moths into my classroom this year". Aside from my own, I was thoroughly impressed with the other presentations I saw - we've come so far this year; WA4 is a wonderful celebration of this.

It was great working with the '07s - we saw them micro-teach, very impressive stuff. Also set up a resources carousel for them, which was good fun. Again, it was highly evident how much we've learned and developed over the year - I wouldn't want to go back to the state of impending doom most of them seem to be in at the moment! That first term is oh so tough, I don't think I could do it again.

Finally the end of QTS ceremony. Our CEO made a hilarious video featuring clips from the Wizard of Oz, the Lord of the Rings, and Gladiator, all of which were meant to represent our teaching journey. The barbershop boys sang their funny song again. We were praised by and applauded all the TF staff and our tutors. We watched our SI music video again.

And finally we had the participants' diaries, which were the real highlight - so honest and heartfelt and just downright funny. My favourite bit was R's story about how one day he was marking his books and heard a boom in the room next door. He ignored it until he heard another loud crash. Reluctantly he wandered next door and found a load of rowdy Y10s causing chaos for a supply teacher. Standing in the doorway, he found himself doing that thing that no-one has ever taught us, that's not in any book or guide or anything. It's just something that, at moments like this, just comes from deep within - the barking of the seal.

"Errrrrrrr," he said, pointing at one child. "Errrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr," he said, facing another. "Errrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr," he said, glaring at yet another. The barking continued as child after child stopped in their tracks and returned to their seat. Eventually the room returned to normality. Returning to his own classroom afterwards, he wondered if it had all really happened, before shouting out in glee. I think we've all had a moment like that.

Summer!

Oh YEAAAAAAH! You know what time it is.....summer holidays!

My gosh, who'd have ever thought we'd make it eh?

This is what it feels like. But maybe even better!

Am off to Canterbury now for the Final Summer Institute, hopefully returning with my QTS on Weds. Wish me luck. And happy lashing!

I'm really happy right now :)

Leadership Rambles

Now that the dreaded portfolio is almost out of the way, you'd think there'd be some time to sit back, relax, and enjoy this last week of term.

No! You're wrong. Instead it's time to step it up on the leadership front.

Firstly WA4:

with reference to your practice this year identify some of the factors that demonstrate that you have had high expectations of pupils and shown a commitment to raising educational achievement

This isn't just another written assignment. It's a 10 min live presentation, incorporating theory, practice, evidence, strengths, weaknesses, and strategy (both teaching and presentation). Currently my plan is to do ten minutes of mime. I think mime is underused in teacher training. I'm not really inspired to do this yet.

No fear though, if WA4 doesn't quite tickle my tastebuds, well, there's always the assignment on "defining my leadership journey" to do instead. This is a three part written exercise involving reading and reviewing a leadership book, interviewing two inspirational leaders, and defining my own leadership journey (obviously). See WA4 with regards to motivation to do this right now.

I know all this stuff in school and with TF is meant to make us into strong leaders, but it's really tricky to pinpoint exactly what we do that transforms us. Is it the teaching? Is it managing resources and people? Is it the workshops and masterclasses and conferences? Is it being able to maintain our enthusiasm, passion and drive? Is it simply being there every day, aiming for more?

I don't know if I'm a leader yet.

And finally, the TF summer picnic was a bit lame yesterday. The venue was the indoor beach at the O2 - decidedly overhyped - more like a big pile of sand than a proper beach. Alas it seems TF had spent all their money on the hire charge since there was only one free drink (which you had to pay a pound for if soft drinks were too soft for you) and the food stopped at 2pm.

A far cry from last year's Cobra sponsored affair in the playing fields of St Paul's Girls' School. Chocolate fountains, inflatable sumo wrestling, gourmet catering, and, crucially, more Pimm's and Cobra than the eye could see - a wonderful TF event indeed. This year, well, a resounded "could do better".