The Weekend

Blah. It's Sunday. You know what that means....lesson planning. I figured out what I hate about teaching - all the stuff that isn't actually interacting with the kids in school. By that I mean planning, assessment, recording, reporting...bureaucracy. This probably sounds strange to those of you who know how well I love a good plan. I think lesson plans are different, mainly because I don't like teaching maths and the plans just lead to more plans.

It's almost 6pm. Our lunch guests left a short while ago after a booze fuelled feast. I have managed 7 days now on the detox; it's going well, but my target date is 5th October, which is FAAAAAAAR away. My family are being very weird about this. Last night we were at a family 21st and my mother asked me why I wasn't drinking. I explained the detox. She looked horrified. "Don't do that, you will only have a binge when you can drink again. It's better to drink a little bit each day rather than save it all up". She knows me well. My father's approach is rather different. We don't really do aperitifs in my house, preferring to hit the hard stuff straight. So at 12:50pm when our guests arrived, out came the big guns. "Whisky or brandy?," he asks. When I respond that a coke is fine, I get shocked looks from not just him, but my relatives as well. They proceed to demolish a bottle of whisky and three quarters of brandy. The Baileys and sherry also get a look in. Just after pudding the talk turns to an upcoming wedding between my cousin and her Muslim boyfriend. The concern here is that there will be no alcohol at the reception. My father and uncle put their heads together and decide that they will shoulder the responsibility of setting up a secret car park bar. Problem solved.

On Friday night we had a maths department curry, which was tasty tasty. Staying away from the Cobra meant that I could actually finish off my meal. However, I am concerned that I have just swapped drinking for food, a new addiction for me. My HoD remarked that he was thought I was a nice responsible girl until the Christmas drinks, where I went a little bit wild. It's a strange idea we all seem to have about drink...I can't figure out if people want me to drink or not.

During that dinner I heard two awesome stories from colleagues. One teacher told us all about how he'd ran a "bring a granny to the opera" programme when he was in charge of a youth centre. Each hoodie had to dress up nicely and invite a senior citizen to the opera. On the night 50 kids and seniors turned up at the ROH, everyone acting the perfect lady/gentleman. Woulda loved to have seen that! Another teacher told us about how she and three other teachers had been on a camping trip with some kids and had got so hammered during the night that they'd decided to hurl the kids' breakfasts at their tents! Imagine it, 30 eggs and sausages lobbed at sleeping children! In the morning one child was convinced that someone had been throwing eggs at him in the night. "Don't be so silly; it was probably a bad dream, " was the response. Shocking.

Aarrrgh I hate planning so much. Why am I doing this again?

Thursday Ramble

Period 1: PSHE with my form. Have observed maybe three/four lessons of PSHE before. Have never studied it as a subject myself nor taught it. Helpfully, our learning manager (head of year) is off sick so I have no idea what we are meant to be studying today. Manage to kill an hour of time with the kids, luckily it was first thing in the morning...by afternoon they were distinctly more challenging.

Period 2: Year 9. Solving equations. I can't believe that there are 14 year olds that still struggle to solve 3x=18. Crazy D has moved down to set 5. I'm not sure whether to whoop; I have a strange concern for that boy. In his place I have Sulky L. You will know her from numerous temper tantrums last year. She sulked today. It was nice to have her back.

Period 3: Year 10. Setting the rules and expectations. I'm no longer stunned by the size of some of the boys. They can tower over me and I can happily rant away. Again, with this class I am shocked at the low ability. Bear in mind that I sat my maths GCSE in Year 10, whilst these kids are mostly level 4 (as a point of reference, most people at my secondary school achieved a level 5 in maths at 11). When we were playing a bit of warm-up maths bingo, some of the questions would frankly insult my Year 7 set from last year, but when I asked the kids if they were finding it a bit too easy, they all resoundingly said no. And they weren't lying. Going over the answers, only one child out of 26 could tell me the square root of 100, and that was after much prompting. A rather menacing child got himself kicked out within the first 2 minutes of the lesson by refusing to sit in his allocated seat. On the street he would have scared me, but in my classroom I have a comfortable feeling of control. Even when the principal tried to persuade me to take him back in, I declined, stating that such attitudes and lack of respect for learning did not belong in our room. I love being able to stick to my guns, not least because it stops the kids steam-rolling me (in theory anyway).

Period 4: Year 8. All the set lists have been lost so we each had to grab any old 20 kids and kill some time with them. Made up an anagram game, which the kids really got into. No maths to be seen :)

My tutor group made me cross in the afternoon. I wanted to set up some circle time stuff with them, but they were all rather restless so in the end I made them sit in silence. I feel guilty about that now a bit, since clearly all the frustrations of the day were unleashed on them. Hopefully they will learn not to chatter when it's lesson time, then I won't have to do that again. Shame we ended sourly since we had been getting on so well in the morning.

And the last thing on a busy school day - got cornered in the corridor by our principal about inspections. We're being OFSTEDed this term, crumbs. In preparation for this, we're having an inspection by our sponsors. And yes, you guessed it, I will be inspected. I completely freaked out with my subject mentor and department after being told. Inspection chills me, probably because it reminds me of the awful summer term. I hate freaking out in front of people, especially when they know me as calm and controlled, and when there's nothing too much to freak about, I'm sure it'll all be fine. Will have to do more to keep on top of things, can't be messing up so early in the term. I knew I'd be on the list, but I'm still not too psyched by it. I kinda feel that it's another hoop to jump through just because I've jumped well through the ones in the past. Similar I guess to the way that kids stop performing well at school, because they know that success will just lead to more work.

Finally may Rhys Jones rest in peace, along with all the many other young people for whom life was too short. I'm not in the mood to talk about guns and knives, except to say that today my Year 8s in maths were talking about the size of a bullet hole as if this was something cool to discover. Why?

Hey There Delilah

I love Hey There Delilah by the Plain White T's. Particularly tunes and words of verse 5...

A thousand miles seems pretty far
But they've got planes and trains and cars
I'd walk to you if I had no other way
Our friends would all make fun of us
and we'll just laugh along because we know
That none of them have felt this way

Delilah I can promise you

That by the time we get through
The world will never ever be the same
And you're to blame

Found this picture when googling them. Awesome.

The First Proper Day Back

I had a really good day today :)

I think I've remembered why I got into teaching. Three reasons:

• I like being in control
• I like the sound of my own voice
• I like fixing things/people
  

Today I got to do all of these things. I spent most of the day with my tutor group, where I finally got to stamp really control over them. The old adage "don't smile till Christmas" doesn't really work with me since my face acts independently of my head, but I tried to be on the top of my game and jump on all infringements. I told them that I would train them, whether they liked it or not, so they might as well get used to it. Lots of monologuing on my part got my point across I think. And I don't want to speak too soon, but after it all Eight Evil were the best that I've seen them. I think it's cos they realised that they're stuck with me now so they might as well tow the line. Whatever, they're actually pretty ok, even crazy H and J-L (the girl who hated me all of last year). E was a bit clingy and A a bit whiny, but I managed it.

My weirdo year 9s were good too, partly because most of the real nutters from my group's parallel back in Y8 seem to have dropped down a set, and all the ones that came from the set above are fairly normal. No doubt I will have trouble with them at some point, and obviously little D was his usual nutty self, but for the most part I liked that lesson.

This is all a bit weird. I guess it's cos I've forgotten what it's like to be in school. On Friday when I have a 5 period proper day of teaching I will get a bit shaky. But that's ok cos then it's the weekend and so I can have fun :) I'm surprised I guess cos last night I didn't sleep at all, very turbulent dreams, and yet I am only just feeling the fatigue. They were those lucid dreams where you feel like you're in control of what's happening but then you don't understand why you are dreaming what you are. Hope that doesn't happen tonight, it's too much like work. Should be ok though since I hit the gym at half six this morning, so might have been running off the buzz i.e. endorphins and raised metabolism, not dodgy steroids or anything. That should be enough to knacker me out tonight. Reckon I'll do that tomorrow as well.

Well that was all very rambley. Am off now to sort out seating plans and do some sociology work. Can't believe I am teaching them on Friday and I have no idea what's going on!

Unpacking

Have spent most of day 2 unpacking boxes and boxes and boxes of new equipment, and then carting off the rubbish to the school bins. On the plus side the work was pretty mindless and meant that I got to flex my amazing forearms. On the down side I am now completely knackered and haven't sorted out anything for real school tomorrow.

Not looking forward to my first tutoring day with 8E aka "Eight Evil". I think I have put too much pressure on the first day, in that I figure if I screw up tomorrow I will lose them for the whole year. Hopefully it'll be ok....although the class was already pretty mad before H from 7F got moved to my form. He's easily one of the most messed up kids in the year. Woohoo, the more the merrier. I guess I usually perform better if I'm a little nervous, so maybe my butterflies will work in my favour.

After having to spend 3 hours with them (ok, ok, I'm sure it won't be that bad...) I've got my first lesson of the year with my new Y9 set. Essentially this is my Y8 group (grrr) without S (yay!) but with crazy D and also twice as many kids. By kids I mean all the nutters from the equivalent set on the other side of the blocking system. Excellent. Roll on the weekend.

In other news, Science TFer K caught me at a chatty moment and somehow got me to confess all the tales of my summer term trauma. I am now distinctly uneasy that I have divulged too much, particularly since we chatted in the maths block and now patently my whole department will realise I may be a fruit loop. On the plus side here it turns out that she had some dramas of her own, so it's good to hear that I'm not the only one.

I guess I should go and do some work. Except I have no idea what I'm teaching or anything really. I think I will just sit and contemplate it all instead. 193 days to go!

PS Sailing photos on facebook. No longer interested in detailing the drama; time to put it behind us all.

Teacher Training aka Extended Nap Time

Day one of the academic year passed by pretty calmly in comparison to the drama of last week. In fact, at some points, it was positively tedious. I had to do all I could to keep my eyes propped open in the afternoon....by all I could I mean placing my entire 60 kgs on my left foot so that it really rather hurt.

From 9am to 3:30pm we were talked at about all kinds of things that I can't remember. The only bits that stuck were that we all have a lot of work to do, and that we shouldn't tell OFSTED inspectors the first thing that comes to our heads, since more than likely this won't do the school any good. Riiiiight, so is it normal practice to prep staff like this before an inspection?

I have 194 days of teaching to go. Is it bad that I'm counting down already? Ok, ok, some positives. I think I have my own classroom this year! Yippee! Well, I say I think...the maths teacher whose room it was last year is not pleased with this at all. Basically he's a head of year, and my new timetable has me teaching 19 a week, whilst he is only down for 15, so I've been given the room, and he's being made to shuffle through 9 different rooms. Essentially lots of crossness and drama in the staffroom this morning, excellent. Within about an hour of school it felt like we hadn't even been on a break.

This feeling was intensified when we started tidying up the maths office. It's full of supplies for the school move in January...why do we have them now already, hmmm? I was sorting out one part of the room when I flashed back to July when I was doing a very similar thing in a different part of the room. Sigh. What made me most cross about this activity was the amount of waste. We threw away so many perfectly good books and folders and other school paraphernalia. It was just shocking, although I guess the point that the other maths teachers made, that kids won't use second-hand goods, was reasonable in this day and age. I just kept thinking back to when I've been in Africa and India and Sri Lanka, where the kids are so desperate for pens and things, and yet here we are just chucking away so much educational equipment. It brought me down a bit, so I decided to leave them to it. Talk about team player.

In other news, I am spending a lot of time daydreaming, which is good fun. Perhaps the contents of my daydreams would cause controversy with some of you, but no matter, it passes the day. And no, I'm not thinking dodgy things about my children, you're so filthy for considering me capable of that. But even if I was, I'm having a detox this month so I think I deserve a treat.*

*In no way do I condone any kinda dodgy activity with children. Just thought I'd cover my back - sometimes my banter causes trouble!

Pre-school Greece Chatter

I think it was this time last year that I started my blog. A whole year has gone by...where's the time gone, eh? NQT Miss P, rock n roll.

Got back from our sailing week in Greece this afternoon. Even sitting at my desk 5 hours later I have a vague feeling of motion and swaying. And the accompanying nausea of course. Nothing at all to do with the two week hangover I seem to have accumulated.

So the sailing itself was pretty awesome. Like really awesome. A lovely boat, blue seas, sunshine, islands, Greek food and drink, friendly people, the occasional useful wind(!). I loved all of that - hopping from island to island in the Ionian, learning new skills, both sailing and banter-wise. Things were fine until day four - the jinx day for most of our holidays.

To put it mildly there may have been a teeny tiny bit of drama over the holiday. By tiny I mean just ridiculously out of control drama. Perhaps I am even a little emotionally traumatised by it. I would try and explain it all to you, but unless you knew Disney and all the intricacies of our world, it just wouldn't make sense. But honestly, there were parts of this week that were just amazing, and other parts that were so devastating that you couldn't script it if you tried. I wonder if anyone would watch the film version? Anyway, I think Disney as an entity may be a bit broken at the moment, so perhaps I should use the time I would have spent with them this autumn to write my screenplay instead...

I'm exhausted. This does not bode well with the fact that school starts tomorrow and I really don't care. My Facebook horoscope says "no matter how much people try to cheer you up, you're in a funky mood, and you're just fine with that, thank you very much. Alone time is in order". I'm not sure being in a school with 700 people quite counts as alone time.

Fingers crossed for the new term. Sailing highlights to follow in the week, and maybe even some photos!

Greece Baby!

I'm going to Greece tomorrow, yippee!
We're going here:

Lefkas (Levkas, Lefkada, Leucas) is a small Greek island off the north-western coast of the mainland. South of Corfu, north of Ithaca and Cephalonia, Lefkas isn't part of the Cyclades, but instead holds a proximate position to the Preveza Perfecture. As such, Levkas has recently seen a boost in tourism and travel to the area. However, it still remains largely unspoilt. And it's supposed to be wicked sailing out there! Am very excited :) So much so that I'm not too daunted by our crazy check-in time of 0440.

My excitement is only limited by the fact that my crazy Snack Acca is over here from New York with my uncle too. I love her, she's just so funny! Alas she's only here for a week and so I won't get to see her apart from today. Hopefully she'll be back soon to promote her amazing book, which is being released in the spring.


Ok, I don't know that it's actually amazing, but it's based to an extent on the trials and tribulations of my family, so obviously that'll make interesting reading for me! Plus I know all about the different types of marriage, particularly arranged vs love. Weird how those two things are mutually exclusive. Well, not weird, just kinda sad. Anyway, I hope it doesn't lead to some huge family fall-out type thing since we've had more than enough of those thank you very much. You can check the amazon preview here.

You know what though? I just checked the US amazon for her book and there it costs $11.16, but in the UK it costs £12.99! What a shocker, that's more than double the price, how can that be?!

In other news I have finally finished watching Grey's Anatomy seasons 1 & 2, and now am desperate to get hold of season 3. I am also contemplating starting Jade's West Wing collection, but this could be risky since I have to leave for dinner soon (well, in 4 hours, but that's soon in TV land).

Enjoy the last week of the summer holidays, fingers crossed for sunshine!

GCSE Results; Spain Fun; Stephen Fry + Bipolar Disorder

It's GCSE results day. Our kids reached 27% 5 A*-Cs, including English and Maths, which is really pretty great for us! Am even more psyched by the 41% A*-Cs in maths, and the 85% in statistics! Go maths department!

I guess from that last sentence you've figured I'm back in the UK. Spain was heavy. I love JIj, and not just cos of her house in Spain, but also because she is an awesome cook and all round wicked host. We all had an excellent time - sun, pool, drinking, eating, scrabble, all my favourites! Finally, what a holiday's meant to be about. There were 8 of us over there in total: Jij, Sprouse, Mouche, two of Sprouse's chemistry buddies from my college, and two Furies from this year's team. A really stellar bunch, with enough opportunities for drama to keep it interesting :) I particularly liked getting to know the people there that I didn't really know too well before. Heard some stories that you wouldn't believe, although out of respect for the tellers I won't repeat them on here. And when I say respect for the tellers, I mean respect - that's some hardcore stuff some of these people are chatting about. But aside from the stories and all that, we really did have a great time...am gutted my camera batteries ran out, else I could show you the photos from the fun. When will I actually use this camera properly?

Am also gutted to be back in England with all the rain and wind and autumn-ness...what's going on eh? Good thing I'll be away again this weekend :) Busy times ahead...have a wedding tomorrow afternoon, then my cousin and uncle fly in Saturday morning, it's Puja's birthday dinner on Sat night, and then we fly out to Greece before 7am on Sunday morning. Nicey nicey. Will be back the Sunday before school starts...I'm very grateful for the two days of inset!

So, before I pack up for the night, I want to ramble a bit about this excellent documentary we were watching on BBC4 after dinner. It was called Stephen Fry: The Secret Life of a Manic Depressive. Unfortunately we'd missed the first episode of this two-parter, but nevertheless it made very good viewing. The whole thing was extremely insightful, featuring many famous and not-so famous manic depressives, of all ages and places, talking about how they'd been diagnosed, what bipolar disorder had done for their lives, how they'd learnt to cope etc. I didn't even know that Stephen Fry was bipolar, but clearly from the programme, which featured his both manic and depressive episodes, he's not really what you could call a "mild" sufferer. Still, he refuses to take medication, feeling that chemical changes would dull his mental state. It was interesting that when those interviewed were asked whether they'd get rid of their bipolarity entirely if they could, they all said no. I guess the buzz of the mania is just too good. I also found it interesting about the importance of diet, and how one woman claimed she could control her episodes by eating enough oily fish. I wonder if this is true?

Anyway, this programme has got me thinking a bit. I'd like to watch the other part too, just to see what it was all about. Obviously I'm not self-diagnosing myself, that would be too dramatic, heehee, but I think there are parts of this that cut a little close to the bone. Hmmm. I wouldn't really delve into this too much further, except the statistic that one in nine people, when left untreated, commit suicide. Don't worry, that would never happen to me, I'm scared of paper-cuts, let alone slitting my wrists! But on the other hand, I don't really care too much about death, I don't fear it or anything, which perhaps is odd.

Ok, now my rambling is disturbing me, so I will go back to the chatter about Spain and how much fun it was. Oh, except that I discovered that I am capable of jealousy, which was distressing. I wonder now though, can you be jealous of someone when you're not even sure you want what they have?

I'm such a weirdo today. I blame it on the fancy reserve that we had with dinner, it was just too tasty tasty to not be filled with something dodgy. I also think it is weird that I have labeled this post "weird things"...perhaps I too harbour some stigma about mental health and villas in Spain?

A-Level Day

It's A-Level results day. A day of celebrations and commiserations. I remember something about it making or breaking us when I was back at school. Perhaps a little too much emphasis on the significance of it all.

I don't really know what it feels like to collect exam results - I've never done it. They've always been posted to me, and back in the day I was always having too much fun in the summer to worry. Besides, confidence (or naivety) meant any worries I could have had were swiftly neutralised. But no doubt across the country kids today have had that A-Level feeling, sinking or otherwise.

Apparently one in four A-Levels this year was at grade A. I'd hate to join the "dumbing down" crew, but how is this possible? According to the BBC 43.7% of maths A-Level candidates were awarded an A. For the non-mathematicians out there, that's more than two-fifths of all entrants. Not quite the Normal distribution. The biggest gains in performance were in private and grammar schools. No worries though, apparently comprehensives and colleges had the most improved E grades. Nice to see we're all improving on the same level.


I heard a worrying thing today. Edexel are rumoured to be threatening to send the exam performances of teachers to the parents of exam candidates. By that I mean class by class breakdowns of the grades each class achieved through the teaching of their teacher. This is simply awful - how can the entire responsibility of a child's education (by education I mean exam performance...sad that I can equate the two) be pinned upon the teacher? Surely the parents, and, I dunno, maybe even the child himself, should take on some of the liability?

And finally, the other day, when I was a bit hammered, I went and posted bids on eBay for a load of mobile phones. Thankfully I was outbid on all but one of them, for which I duly stumped up the cash. It arrived today but I'm feeling guilty about using it right now because I'm convinced it has been stolen. There are songs and contacts and photos of people and profiles and everything stored on there. Someone's whole "phone" life. I reckon if it was really the seller's phone, he would have deleted all of that stuff himself. In fact, the more I think about it, the more I realise that eBay is the perfect forum for stolen goods. But rather than raising my suspicions with the vendor, or indeed with eBay, I've just deleted all traces of the previous owner. Does that make me a criminal too?

Last day of internship tomorrow, then a bit of viva Espana till Thurs. Will be back with banter then :) See, I can still smile with a guilty conscience.

The Weekend in Food

I have spent the weekend with people who are not my friends. It has been awesome!

Let me qualify that...by "not my friends" I mean people who haven't quite gotten deep down into my strange little world. As such, banter prevails, and thus I am free to invent myself as I wish. I love talking about inconsequential things like war strategies, Scrubs season 6, and the pros and cons of rose wine. I guess when you get close to people these discussions take a new turn.

Since I have been injured with THE KNEE that stops me running and doing other fun exercises, I have got myself a new hobby. Eating.

So the weekend in food:

BBQ on Sat at G's birthday gathering, including chicken kebabs, grilled haloumi, and chocolate creme fraiche with summer berries. Then, laaaater on Sat, pizza and salad. And in the early hours, chips and chicken and pigeon kebab that my brother had got out of the local chippy after chattering in arabic with the owners. Classy.

Lunch on Sun with the lovely A and co. Moroccan chicken with spicy couscous and green leaf salad, followed by apple crumble and cream and custard. Lots of wine too. Laaaater on Sun, BBQ AGAIN at a family friend's birthday thing. Yum yum including banoffee pie, brie stuffed potato skins, spicy jerk chicken, and home made apple chutney.

I am stuffed, and also a bit hammered. Oh dear, it's not a good time for bikini-wearing!

PS Before you get excited, no, I'm not typing this in a bikini...I'm in my pyjamas!

Life in the office

I am half-way through my internship. So far...

Pros:

• finishing at 5pm and not having to think about work
• nowhere near as much stress
• being around adults and recent graduates
• working in the city
• managing my own work
• good people to work with (for the most part)
• exciting ideas

Cons:

• unclear aims and objectives (for my project anyway)
• confusing leadership
• working at a desk by myself all day is BORING!
• laziness + junk food habit
• no sense of achieving anything (well, not as regularly as you feel it in school)
• not doing as much "good"
• limited interaction
• working till 5pm
• commuting on the tube for an hour at peak time
  
• office politics

So far I am not sure what we have really done, but it's good to be exposed to the CSR world. Besides, it's the start of a one-year long project, which sounds like it'll be pretty influential with regards to business-education partnerships, so I will stay positive. But I'm not sure I could do something like this long-term...although I guess I'm not sure about doing anything long-term. Commitment-shy? Oh yes!

Facebook Dependency

Grrr.

I was in the middle of doing some "Facebook Work" when the silly site shut down for maintenance. How annoying! I have four Scrabble games that are awaiting my move. Yes, alright, you can shout geek at me from afar. But really, it is very annoying when the site's down. Almost the same as when you can't get to your email or something takes aaaages to download. Humph. Impatience is a virtue right?

In other news, we had the most awesome picnic on Sunday. I'll post the pictures up from that as soon as I can sneak my bro's camera cable.

Today I definitely realised that I would struggle to work independently in an office. By independently I think I mean "continuously and quietly". On the plus side, I am loving the whole 9-5 malarkey, particularly with the extended 11am and 3:30pm tea breaks, and also the fact that I don't have to do any work or think about work or anything like that as soon as I leave the office. I guess this is what normal worker people feel like.

I am currently spending a lot of time thinking about the future and what I should do after my NQT year. I have many different ideas, none of which seem to be related, or even slightly similar, to each other. The most dramatic one is still graduate entry medicine, but I was reading "The Practitioner" journal on the tube this morning and I wasn't enthused. The whole medical debate is something else I need to blog about at some point. Wow, having a life really does make it difficult to ramble on here. Well, obviously not that difficult - all that needs to happen is Facebook going down.

An Awesome Day

Firstly, apologies for my lack of posting this week. It's officially the summer holidays, and whilst I am working at BITC, frankly I've rediscovered what it's like to live like a normal person, thus not much time for posting. I'm sure you're desperate to find out what I've been up to - more info on the internship etc. tomorrow.

Secondly, I have had a most awesome day. It's all thanks to this at Regent's Park:

And, of course, the lovely Gid and CK, who thoughtfully invited me to tag along with them into the VIP area. Free food and drink and some time to while away in the sunshine is all I need to make me smile. Oh, and Gid's adorable dog Barney. Lots of nice chatter and people watching and generally taking ridiculous advantage of Innocent's generosity (Gid and CK managed to nab 36 free smoothies before we left! 36! Shocker!) We decided against wandering out into the melee, preferring instead to enjoy the live music and cocktail bar in our little bit. Wonderful.

After thoroughly stuffing my stomach and my liver, I popped down to Krazy's party in Notting Hill. This too was a fun affair. I don't know many international people, but this room was FULL of people from overseas. I think I may have been the only one born in the UK. It was great, lots of lovely chatter, a chocolate fountain, more cocktails and Corona's, and a hilarious wannabe stand-up comedian boy from LA, who I thought was gay, but later realised wasn't. Perhaps it was my rather revealing top that changed his mind, heehee. Fun & games indeed.

Tanaka and Institute of Education Knowledge Days

I've learned a lot in the last three days at Tanaka Business School. Our mini-mini-mini-mini MBA is actually rather interesting.

Thursday was all about strategy - lots of chatter about vision and missions and objectives and internal analysis and external analysis and resources and capabilities and core competencies and gaining a competitive advantage. After 5 hours of intense lecturing and applying the theory to an education case study I am still confused by a lot of it. Nevertheless I got 100% in the multiple-choice test (perhaps evidence that certain assessment strategies aren't always that useful).

Friday was all about marketing. More jargon again. This time it was about creating a marketing strategy based on segmentation, targeting and positioning. There were the three Cs and the four Ps and various other random words here and there. Again a steep learning curve but I found the education case study today a lot easier to get my teeth into. I think this was because I was still enjoying the positive reception my PitPads had received.

Yes, that's right, the PitPads are back. We had to create a marketing strategy for a product and I managed to persuade my group to use PitPads. Lots of excellent marketing ideas and possibilities for the product led me to thinking that perhaps there's hope for the idea after all. However, this has rapidly been dashed since I got home and found out that another name for what I thought was my unique idea is "dress shields", which lots of companies seem to already make. Bugger.

Saturday was all about Finance. A bit of a cheat for me really since it was all about balance sheets, P&Ls, and cash flow statements - stuff I've done at Deloitte already. Very funny lecturer, who complained about his wife's spending habits. When trying to persuade him to buy her a £600 Gucci bag, apparently she said to him that it was "very strong". "So are two Tesco carrier bags put together. And they're free," was his reply. Anyway, enjoyed that quite a lot, and also the afternoon case study on trying to sort out the budget deficit for a fictional school. It was good to see the kinds of ways schools make and spend their money, and how teachers are such a huge expense. Good thing TF is out there providing all these cheap teachers!

All in all, Tanaka was really useful and engaging, at least for me anyway. Shame I don't have thirty grand to spare - an MBA could have been the way forward!

Tomorrow I start my three week summer project with Business in the Community. Just when I was getting used to a holiday!

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.

Q-U-A-L-I-F-I-E-D-!!!!

Swap driver for teacher. Woohoo! Not a fraud any more, no more pretending, it's true, I am a real proper qualified teacher :)

Strange, I don't look any different. Maybe I will have to get a QTS tattoo across my forehead to prove it.

Canters was ace, so much fun, I am back in love with the whole TF experience. Will tell the tales really soon, but right now am knackered and have to prepare for business school tomorrow.

Holidays schmolidays, I am clocking hours like it was a school day. At least I get to drink though!

Still not finished Harry Potter, but nearly....

Miss P QTS, sounds good eh?

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 :)

A new attitude to behaviour

Lovely day today. Partly because school is always nice when you go back - all your kids and colleagues ask how you are and what you've been up to and so you feel missed and thus a little bit special.

But more so because I decided that I was gonna implement some of that behavioural theory and see what happened. Obviously it's a little late in the day to do this, but whatever.

Basically I read Assertive Discipline - a book my HoD recommended and which is really quite good. Very Americanised and focused on the idea that behaviour needs to be taught. At first I thought this was silly, but actually this makes perfect sense. Of course we have to teach behaviour. If you're not clear about what you want your kids to do and how you want them to behave, then they have no idea and so choose to do whatever they want, which is no doubt what you least want them to do. Assuming they can behave i.e read your mind is just downright idiotic. I have seen the light.

The system is fundamentally based on three things:

1. rules
2. rewards (positive recognition)
3. consequences

If you consistently apply these three things, then kids will respond and behaviour (and thus attainment) will improve. Now as I've only been doing this for one day, and tomorrow's my last day of school before the summer (did I hear a woooohooo? Oh yes I did!) I can't really properly evaluate the system. But I tried really hard to maintain it all day and I'm still smiling, so maybe there's promise there.

In other news, we had a staff meeting today. Enough said.

One daaaay!

Would you employ this teacher?

My Disney-buddy Sprouse is teaching English in Oxford. She mentioned a drama once when a child jumped on the table during a lesson. I sympathised with her, even when she elaborated that she only taught the one child by himself, he was 12, and it was a private lesson (so she got paid my week's salary in one session).

She sent across her potential teacher profile:

"miss rouse just finished her degree in chemistry and has no teaching experience at all. she has also never learned grammar so is not qualified in any way to be teaching your children. you are wasting your money. outside of academia, her interests include your faces". i'm thinking along these lines. sound ok?

I would employ you Sprouse - maybe this is the business we've been waiting for?

The Fruits of the Day

Rather than doing anything productive i.e. WA4 during this third sick day, I have instead been messing about on my blog. I also learnt a little more about the TF wiki, but still have no idea about how to post up my units of work. Who'd have thought that I was once so gifted when it came to techie garble?

What's one eight of 32?

Rather worrying article about maths education right here. Wonder how many of my students could answer the question, let alone their parents...?

Good deeds and good tips

Went to the hospital today to have a blood test after the persistence of my ridiculous sore throat. I am worried I am becoming like SB when it comes to sore throats i.e. they are a defining characteristic of mine.

At the car park I was about to pay for a ticket when a nice lady gave me hers, with two and a half hours left on it! Excellent! Feeling buoyed by the good deed, I proceeded to pass on the remaining 90 minutes on the ticket when I was done at the blood test unit. As I passed my ticket on, I noticed around the car park that lots of people were doing the same thing. Clearly such behaviour is normal at King George's hospital, perhaps to spite the over-zealous car park operators who insist that customers must pay for a minimum of three hours of parking (what does that say to you about NHS treatment times?) Anyway, I have been inspired to try and do at least one good deed each day, whether it be picking up some litter, letting someone in at a busy junction, or simply turning my radio down a bit.

In other news, here are some tips from a very entertaining and experienced teacher (might come in useful for the old NQT year...yes, I know we've been told most of them before, but perhaps this time we should actually use them!):

1. Say what you mean, mean what you say. ALWAYS.

2. Don't smile until Christmas - The saying is true. BE MEAN.

3. Children are like dogs - they smell fear. Think Tony Blair or Bill Clinton when you talk to them. YOU RULE. Always stand at the front when talking, don't fidget, survey the students, and COMMAND attention.

4. Don't just be IN authority. Be AN authority. There is a difference.

5. Follow everything up. EVERYTHING.

6. Never forget a name and always use their names wherever possible.

7. Laugh at yourself. Show yourself to be human ONCE you have that control.

8. Talk to them individually, ask them how they are, what they did on the weekend, where they get their hair cut, what football team they support. And then remember what they told you so that you can follow up the conversation the next time you get the chance.

9. Be slightly mysterious.

10. Give gold stars. And always catch them doing something good. If you can, tell the parents quickly. That way when you ring up about something bad, they'll believe you.

Three days to go!

Cats and Tonsils

I am contemplating attempting to remove my tonsils with a spoon.

The kids next door are searching for their cat. It seems than rather than physically look for said feline, a better technique is to loudly shout "Rushy, Rushy, where are you? COOOOOME BAAACK" for hours on end. There are 5 kids next door. I think they have created some kind of rota since it hasn't been quiet for ages.

But, on the plus side, what happened to the polar bear who sat on the ice for too long? He got polaroids. Hahaha.

Four days of school to go!

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".

Blog maintenance

Check out the updated links. And also my acceptance of defeat with regards to "the thought for the blog". Hopefully have managed to get the comments back too.

Is it obvious I'm too tired to go out tonight?

Sports Day and associated ramblings

Sports Day today. Much fun had by all. Very impressed at all the posters and chants and things the kids made. Also by the general behaviour and positive attitude throughout the afternoon - even some of the naughty kids were on their best behaviour. Sad not to run in the teachers' relay - can't wait for this knee to sort itself out.

Had a nice chat with Mr L (the epic former head of Y11 and now head of Y9). Taught me some stuff to do with behaviour etc. and how I shouldn't let the little monsters defeat me, but instead keep going and show them who's boss. He sorted out the nasty Y10 who had a go at me at break time. Basically tried to get her to turn her phone off - I didn't even try and confiscate it! - and she starts swearing and then turns and points to her face and says "does it look like I'm bothered? I don't care what you say" and then walked off. Nice. Between him and the head of Y10, who is also pretty damn good, the girl was in tears and later came and apologised in a very mature way. Was impressed there.

Obviously easy to do when you've got people around. Not so when I'm left to my own devices. Later in sports day, caught a Y7 hurling a cymbal into the grass (one class had bought a load of instruments down). When I tried to reprimand him, he just flew into a strop and refused to apologise or improve his behaviour. Similarly, three other Y7s were throwing water at each other. Managed to get two of them to stop but the third one just wouldn't cave. So in the end I kinda gave up. Wrong thing to do, but it just feels hopeless sometimes.

And finally, I got moved from being a Y11 tutor (yay!) but am now instead going to be a Y8 tutor (no!) for the current 7E aka "7 evil". I'm sure a few posts back there was week when they destroyed me. Oh dear. Still, I will try not to let the dread of next year encroach upon me already.

A quote from K to finish (she says she was quoting Gandhi): you must be the change you wish to see in the world. Right then, sounds easy enough...

Hurry up holidays!

To echo the sentiments of TeacherMan of thelondonpaper, what on earth is the point of school now? All the GCSE kids are gone, lots are on work experience, the rest are just watching videos and making posters and counting down the days to the summer. Except, of course, when they are causing trouble. Teachers, meanwhile, are entirely exhausted and have become pretty apathetic. Behaviour is just appalling but no-one cares any more. For example, at break today there was a fight in the playground in direct view of the staffroom. Back in March, any sign of a fight and immediately half the staffroom will step up to sort it out. Today, the chorus of excuses was beautiful, ranging from "I'm not here next year so I'm not sorting it out" to "I'm eating my sandwich, they'll have to keep fighting till I finish". On a similar vein, I caught a girl wearing completely bright, and odd, socks, pulled all the way up her calves (not quite part of the uniform) while another girl was actually wearing a trainer on her right foot and a ballet pump on her left. When confronted, both said "but Miss, there's only a week left". I had to concede, the argument was bullet-proof.

In other news, my Y8s made me so cross today that I actually had a mini-breakdown on the phone to Bertie at lunch-time. Thank you Bertie for putting up with my incoherent rambling. I think it's because I can't exercise so all my crossness just builds up inside. Anyway, I feel much better now, but I swear, had one of them pushed me just a little further, well....let's not go there.

Why isn't it summer yet?

Primary School Visit

Firstly, Bertie, I am very glad you're reading this, hope you've been keeping your eye out for the lesbionic facebook banter - I've been trying hard to impress you on this front.

Secondly, two quotes from today that I like:

Jade (during my rather funny piano lesson...bless my fingers): "it's meant to make a sound - it's music!"
Emma (during a cheeky drink at the Cuckfield, which by the way has been fabulously redone and is now clearly going to become one of my favourite places to drink): "I've got my head screwed on when I take drugs."

Thirdly, after a delightful meeting tonight my father has confirmed builders will be returning chez nous in the middle of August for 6+ weeks. Excellent, I am eager for this to happen. As eager as I am to teach my Y8s aaaaall day long.

So, on to the primary school visit. I give it an 8 out of 10 - it loses two marks because sports day got rained off towards the end, and because I didn't actually get to watch any maths teaching.

Good points about my day and also primary school teaching at Parkhill in general:

• the kids are smaller than you and thus infinitely more controllable
• they are keen to learn and able to concentrate
• they produced some wonderful creative writing and poster work
• the whole atmosphere of primary schools is colourful and fun and friendly and positive
• there aren't any of the ridiculous secondary school type issues e.g. llittle Jonny and little Sarah trying to sneak into your classroom at break to get their ends away
• better socio-economic status, which leads to a more positive attitude to learning, more resources, more enthusiastic parents, better support from parents, greater aspirations etc.
• you can teach a wide range of things and with more control over how you do it
• you can really mould your kids and build good relationships with them

Bad things about teaching primary:

• the need to socialise kids into behaviour and the ways of school (although I guess you do that at secondary too)
• being with the same, very young kids aaaaall day
• assessment and pressures on kids that is pretty unnecessary in my opinion
• needing to be able to teach lots of things but always at a fairly basic level

Well, Parkhill is a good school - it was rated outstanding in its last OFSTED and gets excellent KS2 results (61% level 5+ in science, 31% level 5+ in English, 38% level 5+ in maths - and all that's with a supposedly "dodgy" year group), not that that's the best way to judge a school. But just being in the place filled me with a sense of the purposeful nature of the school. Once again I am inspired. Maybe a bit of primary teaching wouldn't go amiss with me...?

And finally, was mightily impressed with the school's dyslexic and dyspraxic PE co-ordinator. A delightful man, who organised a wonderful sports day, which the children all thoroughly enjoyed. He even spent time with me explaining how he differentiated PE, a far cry from our streamed PE groups at Forest - whose bright idea was it to put all the PE haters in one group?!

Some inspiring perspectives

First, some good quotes from the day:

K (the Science TF at my school): "the poor can't help the poor."
E (the English TF at my school): "oh no, I'm not sad, I'm just destroyed."
My little bro: "that's the most use you can get out of a theology degree - putting down tramps on the train".

The fire alarm was set off twice today. Cheeky monsters. I think it must have gone off more than ten times this year, and by gone off I mean deliberately set off. There needs to be some serious tightening of the strings here - the kids are just plain having a laugh. I missed 30 mins of one free and my afternoon lesson with my Y7s was messed up, which was a shame since I took them to the computer room to treat them for how good they were yesterday. I will have to think of something else to do with them because they really were stars.

Speaking of thanking people, I had a very deep and meaningful chat with K (above mentioned) today. She's quite a secretive person, and over the year I've made jokes about how we could never be friends because neither of us would share anything, but in fact we have become pretty close. Today was her assessment and it sounded like it went well for her, so I hope she gets a good grade. Anyway, we were chatting in the teachers' resources room (aka the rubbish computer room) and she was telling me about her goals and visions and stuff. She was just so enthused, it was amazing to see. She wants to teach kids about life skills and perspective and potential - basically teach them how to drive for more. She's a natural mentor - I can see it in her whenever I talk to her she just makes you say whatever is on your mind, it's a gift really. She's just become second in science but she has much greater ideas for things. Two important things she said, apart from the quote at the start, was how she'd rather have recognition of her abilities than just money, and how it was important to define what success is to you. I am already inspired to aim for more.

Continuing on the ramble about how much I love everybody at school etc. I'm really glad to be working with both K and E, we all get on and support each other, I am so happy about that. Through any problems I've had they've been ace, and hopefully I've been good to them too. This is easy when people are your equals. But my question now is how do I show my gratitude to all the people who have helped me out this year, especially my department? I want them to see how much I appreciate them, but how? I'm not sure a nice cake will cut it (pun not intended!)

Tomorrow I'm on my primary school visit, yay!

Winner!

Yep, I feel like a winner today :) Since I can't drink yet, have been chomping on these amazing Jelly Belly jelly beans, yum yum!

My final assessment went really really well. I got graded "very good", which is the top grade CCCU gives to TFs. My portfolio was pretty hot, almost everything was there, just need to do some more work on assessment. My observed lesson could hardly have gone better - the kids were great, really keen and on the ball, no behaviour problems, all engaged and on task - it was a thing of beauty. Only minor issue was time, but I dealt with that. My favourite part of the interview was when my assessor said to me that I taught like someone who'd been teaching for 2 or 3 years, and that I was a natural. Hahaha, a natural teacher, who'd have thought it eh? He also said I should start laying the ground work to move up the ladder because there's lots of potential for responsibility. Exciting stuff! So yeah, I'm feeling pretty good right now :)

It's weird though, because recently I was really not enjoying this job, and obviously things are still tough, but I think my faith in me has been slightly restored. Maybe I could be a teacher after all....

But I wonder what it would be like to change schools? I'm always ranting about the problems in school, but my department and so many of my colleagues are just amazing, I don't think I'd want to go somewhere else. Really, especially with my department, they're all just so supportive and lovely, I don't think other departments could compare. Today, for example, after my observed lesson, they were all waiting outside to see what had happened - how sweet! And when I couldn't walk up the stairs they helped me get all the resources and organised room changes and sorted things out for me. I really owe them.

Wow, I think I am a wee bit emotional today, heehee.

Ooh but in other news, D in Y8 was back in my lesson today after 4 weeks in the LSU. He lasted 20 minutes before he started simulating a sexual act and so I had to kick him out. Also, heard a scary rumour that I may in fact be a Y11 tutor next year. Errr, no thanks.

Must stop the negativity....winning thoughts, winning thoughts...I'm a winner, yay!

T minus one

Tomorrow is final assessment day, exciting stuff!

For once I have actually planned the lesson more than 24 hours in advance. Good stuff. Wow, I remember back in the day when I used to be able to plan almost a whole week on a Sunday. Hahaha, nowadays I am still planning as the lesson is going on.

In other news, I can now hobble pretty well sans crutches, but have real problems with stairs and also sitting down/standing up for longer than about 5 minutes. The stairs thing is particularly funny in that I have regressed to an ascending and descending technique very similar to that of a toddler. I look forward to having to address lots of "equal opportunities issues" with the kids tomorrow when they take the mick out of my limp.

My portfolio is done, yay! But I am out of ibuprofen, which means the big guns aka codeine will have to come out tomorrow. Those of you who know about painkillers and I...well, you can join me in the chorus...altogether now, "oh dearie me...."

This Rant Could Be Bigger

My knee is buggered again. I am cross. But also glad in that it's not as bad as it could be. I think I may have partially dislocated it, but luckily fell quick enough for it to pop back in. I felt my thigh and leg bones move away from each other and click. Gross. Now my knee is a big puffy ball and I can't really bend it or carry weight on it.

My HoD was complaining about tennis players and their excuses. He was saying that if you're not fit enough to play then you shouldn't play, rather than losing your match and making lame excuses afterwards. Extending the theory and applying it to teaching, does this mean I should try and postpone my final assessment on Monday? I won't be able to walk around and I'm on a rather weird combination of prescription medication which makes me feel a bit strange, both of which are delightful ready-made excuses in case I don't get the grade I would be expected to get. But would the honourable thing be to simply reschedule the assessment rather than putting in a mediocre performance now?

My professional tutor was in on Friday and my subject mentor asked her to come and talk to me about my "problems". Humph. My professional tutor is one of the least subtle and discreet people I have ever met. For example, in an attempt to get me to confide in her, she proceeded to disclose another girl's confidential information. In the past she has revealed and openly discussed the situations other TFs were in without seeming to care about privacy. How unprofessional! Anyway, I remained button-lipped, she is never going to be a help.

And finally, we got the draft version of next year's timetable on Friday. It is awful. I will save that rant for later. Oh yeah, one good thing from the buggered knee - at least I will have to stay in all weekend and be responsible and make my portfolio. Every cloud eh?

Name dropping

But first...

Today S in Y8 was very annoying in my computer room lesson. And yes, not just because he shares many similarities with a cabbage patch doll.

He can basically get on with the work, but only if you're sitting right on top of him all the time. I think he needs an LSA. Do we have one for him? Err, no. So anyway, I speak to him at the end of the lesson and he seems apologetic. I dismiss him. He walks out and shuts the door. As I am having a word with the next of my naughty ones, he bursts open the door, sticks his rear end in the room, and proceeds to make loud and disgusting farting noises at me. Wow. Shocker.

Real shame though, since my kids learn really well on the computers. I like taking them there, but the naughty ones mean I am reluctant to do it as much as I should. Behaviour definitely gets worse - a combination of excitement and change from routine I suppose. Although I tend to take them Thursday lesson 4, when they are already a bit more hyper than usual.

I like doing the ICT stuff because learning on the computer provides instant feedback and they can all work at their own pace. Plus, all the games and things make them learn without the rigmarole of book work. We use mymaths a lot of the time, and today we did some work on place value and ordering decimals. I still get shocked at their low ability - most of that group is a high level 3/low level 4 (the kinda levels most year 6 students should be getting - except my lot with be in year 9 in Sept). Still, will be taking my Y7s there tomorrow too, so will see how that goes. Can you tell it's almost the end of term? Time for computer sessions and investigations....

In other news, found out our school is one of the lowest paying TF schools. Last year we were on the lowest point on the unqualified teacher pay scale and now we are moving on the lowest point of the NQT scale. Our Academy is tight with money. Grumble. We are contemplating asking for more money, although I'm pretty sure we'll be told where to stick it.

And now for the name dropping...my cousin's band were played on Zane Lowe's show this evening. They're called Battle and their new single The Longest Time is out now. Check their myspace out here. And this story made me laugh too.

If you're angry and into maths...

...as obviously I frequently am, check out this blog.

Might try it myself, and maybe even teach the kids. How's that for cross-curricular work?

Y6 induction day; even newer teachers than me!

Life is still tough. My HoD has once again suggested to me that I take some time off. Humph. I think my generally surly demeanour is warranting attention. I really need to find my smile again. I'm sure it's in my pile of teaching paraphernalia somewhere.

Portfolio still doesn't exist, crumbs! On the plus side, my Y7 and my Y8 books are now marked up to scratch, only 2 hours of work! Also have evaluated my submitting units of work, caught up on the journal, and written up all my observed lesson evaluations. Gosh, look at all that paperwork - is that what we got into this for? Well, rather the paperwork than the politics (I think two more people have been asked to leave/have resigned in the last week, it's awful).

Y6 induction day today. Some lovely and very bright ones; also some rather boisterous and potentially very challenging ones. Heard a rumour that one turned up in a jumpsuit and hoodie with matching diamante earring. Said boy had a freak out during an English lesson - told his English teacher to "f*ck off", hurled a chair across the room and then stormed out. Nice. I look forward to it. Maybe I'm lucky not to have a tutor group after all.

Last CFG (Critical Friends Group) was tonight. Met most of the '07s from our area. Can't believe how young and innocent they all are. Actually, more like I can't believe how old and wise I sound. They're all desperate to hear advice on teaching, which is understandable - you hear so many scare stories that you cling to anything that might help. Tried to reassure them, and also secretly felt quite proud at how far we've all come. One of the other '06s in my school has just become second in department in science - props to her indeed :) In truth though, as much as other people's tips can help, it's not until you're in your school with your own classes that you can really start to develop as a teacher.

In other news, thought I'd give you a health update. Hair still not being washed with product; it's thicker and wilder than ever. Needs a trim actually. Have definitely gone down a trouser-size and there's some serious flattening of the stomach. Have a shocking sore throat - if I could lop my tonsils out with a spoon I think I would. In preparation for some serious weekend hangover - got some big birthday lashes lined up. Oh and maybe a bit of work for the old final assessment!

And finally, a shout out to Mr Read and his blog - thanks for the name drop and keep up the good work, very entertaining reading! And for the reminder that there's time for fun in all of this madness!

Tutoring

I don't have a year 7 tutor group next year. This is strange, although now I don't know why it's strange. I think because I always assumed I'd get one. But I haven't. And, in fact, I have no idea what I'm doing next year tutoring-wise. I hope it's not co-tutoring with a year group again. That's a bit of a nightmare - running around six different groups without any real consistency. This would be ok if a co-tutor had any authority or understanding of what's been happening in the class, but for the most part they don't.

I think this makes me a bit sad since I'm almost certain I don't want to be a maths teacher long term, but perhaps the pastoral side of teaching could have been what appealed to me. Now I don't think I'll get the chance to find out. Plus, slightly arrogantly I'll admit, I always thought I was as good, if not better, than the other TFs in my year, and yet they've been given tutor groups and I haven't. I guess all my recent crazy is catching up with me.

In other news, one of the '07s has been warned against his incessant questioning. Apparently he has been ruffling some quite senior feathers i.e the queen of our academy herself, and so must now learn to button his lip and just accept things. Such is the way things work in our school.

Back in school

Nice day at school today, was pretty good to be back. Went in totally unprepared, managed to get through the day with some good lessons though (well, Y8 was a good lesson, and Y7 just did a test, heehee). Looooots of marking, paperwork etc. to catch up on, boooo! A Y9 boy accidentally knocked my elbow as I was walking with a mug of tea; had a nice big brown tea stain on my purple and white shirt, not to mention minor boobie burns (ok, I'm just being dramatic, they were only a bit hot).

School is calm at the mo, only KS3, everyone else is on work experience/study leave. Still drama on the staff front, lots of feathers being ruffled etc.

Told my subject mentor today about my semi-crazy status and so on. Not the full story, obvy, but a close approximation. She was very nice about it and supportive too. I realise I've only got to get through three more weeks, piece of cake :)

Had a lovely piano lesson, hit the gym hard, my calves are aching. Middle bro is back home, the house is back to full again (he is sleeping on the floor in the empty loft). Portfolio still doesn't exist. New '07s in school were nice - one is super keen, kinda freaked me out (when I was on my London week I didn't have a clue). One I think is one of Ladun's CU friends. The other is a rather good-looking chap, I think our girls might well find him appealing.

Leadership Skills Masterclass; Weekend Chatter

Welcome to smoke-free England! Hurrah!

I drank about 8 units of Jack Daniels last night and felt right as rain this morning. Proof that spirits are the way forward. A very nice birthday party, although a shame that the full family turnout didn't quite happen. It'll never be like it was back in the day, but still. Lots of nice "so when are you getting a serious profession and finding a nice husband" chatter. I'd like to think I cleverly bantered my way out of those conversations, but in retrospect I think I was a bit hammered and so may have come across as a bit hostile and argumentative. Ho-hum.

Leadership skills masterclass yesterday was actually very good. Freshfields were wonderful hosts, providing both breakfast and lunch, and also the use of some very nice offices. The masterclass itself was well presented with good content and challenging ideas. Lots of excellent "business psycho-babble" theory, with questions designed to help us figure out our leadership style, and what motivates us (achievement, affiliation, power).

It seems that essentially good leadership can be boiled down to a model with three components: intent/motive + behaviour/skills + outcomes/performance. If you get the balance right, you can be a good leader and provide direction, execution and commitment.

We have an assignment to do now to help us "define our leadership goals", which could be waffley, but might well be interesting. The two critical questions for a leader at the end of the class were "how do people experience you? how do people experience themselves in your presence?" I have no idea as yet, but I do now know that "people who cause others to experience themselves as energised, committed and confident are most likely to be seen as leaders". I will resist the urge to apply all this theory to the leaders at my school, this can only lead to negativity. On a slight aside, I feel rather like I've been brainwashed by the masterclass - I'm all over this leadership stuff, give me more!

In other news, a boy from my year at college is on a TV show called Last Man Standing. It's a competition where 6 lads go round the world and get initiated into various tribes and compete in tribal games and stuff like that. All sounds a bit mad really, but it's entertaining viewing, so check it out if you can (Tuesdays at 9 on BBC3; first episode repeated tonight at 8).

Meant to be making my portfolio today but still can't really be bothered. I have progressed as far as finding a lever-arch folder and some dividers. I think that merits a break.

Times Horoscope for Virgos this week:

Ordinarily, you’re the one who’s dispensing advice to others, and usually they take it. Now the tables are turned. Not only do you dislike the vulnerable feelings that relying on others’ advice triggers, you’re also not so sure about what they’re telling you to do. If you can’t agree, at least explore their suggestions, some of which would take you into unfamiliar territory. Actually, that’s the point. Recent burdens have restricted your zest for life. Once you regain the inquisitiveness that is one of your most valuable traits as a Virgo, you’ll also regain your enthusiasm, and won’t care in the least who’s giving you advice or what they say, as long as what it leads to interests you.

Friday night ramblings

Have just eaten a plain roti with potato curry so can't sleep yet so will ramble instead...

Went to a lovely Lebanese in Queensway with some TFers. Excellent shisha. Despite looking forward to the whole smoking ban, will be sad to see these institutions go. Chances are they will find their way around it though...fingers crossed anyway.


New '07 TFers have their London week next week. Bless them, can't believe it's been a year since we did our London week already! First taste of school life for the new kids on the block. Excellent, fresh meat for our little angels to torment. Fingers crossed they'll be nice; have every faith in them.

Last day at Mulberry. Very nice stuff. Finally saw some naughty kids, and also some very low-ability ones, but even the bottom set Y7 were working on isometric drawings with some managing to churn out level 6 stuff, so not all bad there. Taught them a maths game - call out a number, if it's in the two times table clap your hands, if it's in the three times table hum etc. They seemed to enjoy it, funny funny stuff indeed.

And lastly, apparently the football girls were awfully behaved this week and so have been pulled out of the London Youth games by the other coach and the PE department. This does sadden me - why couldn't they hold it together? It's a shame, the Youth games is amazing, they've missed a good opportunity there. On the plus side, this means I can go to Tania's 18th tomorrow night, and also have Sunday free to PORTFOLIO, fun times! Need to get through the skills masterclass ("defining my leadership journey"...*mini-cringe*) at Freshfields tomorrow morning first.