Some random things

Am confused by some of the new icons on the blogger sign in page. Can people text me now? Or does that mean I can update my blog by phone? Hmm...

Should be working on my codebook, which is actually going ok, but am being a bit distracted. Liverpool vs Chelsea last night was so dramatic, I love watching football when it's like that. Been a bit of a housewife yesterday and today, doing all sorts of chores. It's funny how when you want to be distracted there's always something to do.

Very impressed to hear that Obama visited the MyBnk offices, that's awesome! Also pleased that there was a ceasefire in Sri Lanka - hopefully some of the trapped people made it out. Am still campaigning although it's slowed a bit. I want that war to end and end now. The Tamil people need their own land and then things will be ok.

It was Tamil New Year yesterday so am thinking and wishing for positive things this year. Starting with getting my work done!

Four days in Cambridge

Quick blog due to limited time! Am back at home in London and it's very nice indeed. I love hanging out with my brothers and parents, and also seeing lots of my friends from back home around here. Oxford isn't so far away but I still find I don't see people enough. Very much looking forward to seeing my girls this afternoon and playing some poker with an indoor picnic too (boo rain!)

Spent 4 days last week in Cambridge as a staff member on the Teach First Higher Education Access Programme for Schools. Basically we had 120 really bright 16/17 year olds on the residential course, where they undertook sample lectures and classes, completed workshops on interview skills and university applications, and lived a bit of a Cambridge student lifestyle for a few days. Selwyn college hosted us and were lovely. The food was awesome as was the punting and formal dinner and casino and debating and all the other exciting things we did. I led the Physics and Engineering group (NOT my subject specialism) and I have to admit, I learnt some stuff. My favourite part was the night trip to the Cambridge Observatory where we saw Saturn through a telescope made in 1927! We learnt some constellations and about space, it was totally awesome. Am inspired enough to take an astronomy course at some point.

Another poignant part of the trip was when we had to think about our lives and how they are finite and what we really wanted to achieve by the end of them. The kids made lists and we shared ideas. It got me thinking about some of the things that maybe I'd like to change and to do. It's good to reflect I think.

The kids were all really inspirational, really bright and exciting. I was impressed with their manner and attitude and work ethic. It made me want to teach again, but I guess it's unreal as this trip was it's own little bubble and real school isn't like that.

Ok best get on to some work, have a hectic afternoon and evening of socialising!

The 5th Annual TF Conference

The TF 5th Anniversary Conference and Celebration. Biggest and best ever, thoroughly enjoyed myself :) Held at the ExCel Centre in the Docklands, there were over 600 delegates, from the fresh-faced '07s to the old-school '03s, and this year from the Midlands, Manchester AND London. Big things happening in TF at the moment, was a joy to see...just when things get tough there's always a TF event to make you realise everyone's in the same boat, and to remind us of the amazing things we're trying to achieve.

So the day itself was excellently organised, clearly a lot of hard work and planning had gone into the day. We began with an introductory address from our CEO Brett Wigdortz. He's hilarious, such a lovely and amiable chap, you really want to do your best for him you know? He won Ernst & Young's Social Entrepreneur of the Year this year, and also went and pitched for a new project called "Teach For All" in the States recently...some great pictures of him rubbing shoulders with old Tony and Bill. Anyway, I digress. The theme around this year's conference was "Collaboration", which seemed apt given the huge numbers of us there now are. Since its initiation in 2002 TF has placed over 1000 participants in over 118 schools. They estimated that we've had 14.4 million opportunities to make a difference in the last 5 years. No idea where the figure came from, but impressive!

After the address we had our first workshop. Wanted to go to one on youth culture, but it was booked out, so chose one on debating instead. Lots of great ideas, resources and support on setting up debating clubs in school. They had some kids along to demonstrate a mini-debate, was excellent, really impressed with the level of argument and the presentation skills of the kids. That workshop left me with some inspiration to try out a mini-debate with my tutor group in PSHE.

Then we had the school project semi-final pitches. Hadn't submitted a school project, have enough on my plate(!), but there were some great ideas out there. In our room I voted for the guy who wanted money to set up an "outdoor classroom" so that kids could get first-hand interactive learning experience of the world outside. A lovely idea, supported by the school, students already keen, easily sustainable, useful across the curriculum and across the year groups. Lots of other good ideas made it through to the next round too.

Lunch time, glorious sandwiches, yum yum. Great chance to catch up with lots of TFers! A cynic would say I was a networker, but I'm not really, I just love lots of the TF people and so spend a lot of time chatting, heehee. Running at the same time as lunch was a Third Sector fair and also a corporate careers fair too, busy busy.

After lunch the keynote address from Ralph Tabberer, the Director General of Schools within the DCSF. A reasonable speech, some good points in there, but too much emphasis on the role of the teacher and how amazing we are at making a difference. I can see why non-TFers get annoyed at us, it makes it look like all it takes to be a good teacher is brains and six weeks of summer training, forgetting all about pedagogy and the importance of commitment, support and experience.

Two more workshops after lunch, one on organisational politics, HILARIOUS, the man from Politics at Work taught us all about the slimy tricks people play to manipulate and get what they want, can't believe I do so many of them myself, and have had so many done to me! Will do a whole post on this some other time. Then went to a great workshop on educational policy reform and current neoliberal thinking on educational disadvantage. Again, this topic could do with its own post, and more, but the basic conclusion I came to was that education can solve a lot, but really it is a reactive and temporary solution - social disadvantage is the real problem, which if correctly addressed would mean educational disadvantage would be far more limited.

At about 17:00 all of this wrapped up and we went back to the main room to watch the celebrations. Lots of lovely speeches, participant diaries (a participant from every year talked about their experiences through TF), songs, videos, dhol drummers, positive messages etc. TF really know how to make you feel like a winner, was properly proud and inspired and just all good inside after that. Obviously the glasses of wine and the gorgeous cake helped too :)

Whistle-stop tour of the Conference then. All in all I loved it, I love learning more about schools and teaching and theories and leadership and skills and basically all of the things connected with what we do now and what we could do in the future. I love "feeling the TF vibe" - I get completely filled with positivity and inspiration. Its an immense project with such huge goals, and Brett was saying that when he first had his idea, everyone thought it would never make it through. Look where we are now eh? The next five years will only be better. Keep it up TF!

Trip to Lourdes

I spent the weekend in Lourdes. I'm not Catholic, I'm Hindu, but we're very liberal. My mother has always wanted to go, mainly because of the concept of salvation through a mother figure, and also because Lourdes is one of those special places to which we need to go.


The story behind the whole place is really out there. I like it. I like the idea of visions and miracles and blessings and hope. The many sanctuaries are all beautiful and there is a glorious sense of redemption in the air. It's true what they say - people of all sizes and colours and ages and shapes stand side by side. I was surprised at the number of Tamil people; everywhere we turned there was another family approaching us. You know my mother, she loves a good chinwag, so by the end of the weekend she had quite the following.


I spent a lot of time in nice quiet reflection in various chapels. The Rosary Way in the Sanctuary helped pilgrims reflect and pray with its empathic depictions of the Mysteries. We joined in on the night-time procession on Saturday - an hour of slowly stepping around the Domain holding candles and praying. Thousands of people take part, it's an awesome act of collective worship. We visited the cave site where St Bernadette had her apparitions of Mary. We also collected holy spring water from the Grotto and bathed in Lourdes water. This was particularly moving, the nuns were all so kind and calm, it made it easy to believe. There were so many people there who had come to help others, and so many who had come to be healed, it made me feel blessed for all that I had. And also I feel like I have a new start. I know it sounds like I am listing activities that we completed, but I can't adequately describe the sense of contentment I still have within me now. I wish that people could be the way they are in Lourdes everywhere.


Aside from the religious aspect, we also did some touristy stuff. We took the venicular train up the Pic du Jer (one of the foothills of the Pyrenees), which was beautiful, clean and fresh. Hilariously, on our little carriage was a group of crazy old French tourists. There were about ten of them and three played accordions. All the way up they sang fun songs, and then when we reached the top, we formed a big circle and learned French folk dances from them. It was so surreal, but liberating too, twirling around with old people on the top of a mountain, it was ace! We also did our dues to the local souvenir shopkeepers by purchasing all kinds of tourist paraphernalia, and enjoyed some good rugby :)

I had a really good weekend, despite not being too well, and I put it all down to the aura of Lourdes. Try and go if you can, the spirituality is overwhelming.

Open Evening

Open Evening has come and gone for 2007. Three hundred minutes of intensive "showing and selling". As our principal says, open evening is our "bread and butter". As such, bums on seats is vital.

Over six hundred people visited our little Academy this evening, a huge number. The visitors came in all shapes and sizes: from the Somalian family of 9 people, to the strange same sex couple with a little baby (strange because one woman had very short arms whilst the other made barking type noises), to the decidedly middle class family who wanted little Oliver to spend time in the ghetto to prove they really were left wing.

I spent thousands of words promoting the maths department, the exam results, the new building, the facilities, the resources, the workshops, the extra-curriculars, the pastoral side....the opportunities. It's strange how an evening like this can on the one hand fill you with pride at how much you genuinely care about the school and its kids, and on the other make you feel so cynical about the power of marketing and the way that people rejected us in the past and now that we have all this money they come back running.

The thing that really stood out for me today was our kids. They were just awesome. From little A and D in my Y7 top maths group, both of whom were absolute stars, all the way up to T from Vietnam in my Y12 sociology group, the kids were just awesome. Really did us proud with how they were and who they were. A number of parents remarked on how happy and confident the children were, and it's testament to their own dedication that so many of them came along to help out. A nice warm glow from that.

I guess we'll hear all about the success of the evening in briefing tomorrow. And while it was lovely to wander around the school and see all the exciting things going on, the true test will be whether we finally have a full year 7 in 2008. My money's on over-subscription. Judging by what some of the parents were telling me, it seems many are now desperate to get their kids in, so maybe the dream of a full year will finally come true. But will these new kids get what they deserve?

In other news I have a lurgy and spent Tuesday in bed. This sounds fun, but despite the perfectness of my bed, the lurgy is not a good companion. Lots of wild things happened in school in my absence, particularly my Y10s going a bit mad, and also my tutor group. Crazy "H" has been excluded again, this time for threatening a teacher with a bamboo stick, amongst various other interesting activities. I have a meeting to sort out references for next year. And tomorrow night we have a TF event, and since it's Eid on Friday, we have no school, yay! One day to get through, with a meeting with scary parents at the end of the day of which to look forward. Roll on drinks tomorrow (yeah clearly it will help with the lurgy!)

Poetry

I completely forgot about it being National Poetry Day this Thursday. We're having a poetry themed week all week, nice stuff. The KS3 assembly, despite being a stress-fest, was on poetry, and thoroughly enjoyable. I loved this poem...

The Sunlight on the Garden
The sunlight on the garden
Hardens and grows cold,
We cannot cage the minute
Within its nets of gold,
When all is told
We cannot beg for pardon.

Our freedom as free lances
Advances towards its end;
The earth compels, upon it
Sonnets and birds descend;
And soon, my friend,
We shall have no time for dances.

The sky was good for flying
Defying the church bells
And every evil iron
Siren and what it tells:
The earth compels,
We are dying, Egypt, dying

And not expecting pardon,
Hardened in heart anew,
But glad to have sat under
Thunder and rain with you,
And grateful too
For sunlight on the garden.

And, as a weird coincidence, the other day on the tube I loved this poem...

Snow
The room was suddenly rich and the great bay-window was
Spawning snow and pink roses against it
Soundlessly collateral and incompatible:
World is suddener than we fancy it.

World is crazier and more of it than we think,
Incorrigibly plural. I peel and portion
A tangerine and spit the pips and feel
The drunkenness of things being various.

And the fire flames with a bubbling sound for world
Is more spiteful and gay than one supposes -
On the tongue on the eyes on the ears in the palms of one's hands -
There is more than glass between the snow and the huge roses.

Same poet - Louis MacNeice. What are the chances? I think I may be a fan.

This Blog is kinda like a Pensieve

I am too busy. Almost to the point where if I think of all the things I have to do, I get dizzy. Thus I have decided it is therapeutic to blog for ten minutes so that I can get rid of lots of things from my head and so give me more space to process new things.

Firstly then, lots of drama in my classes. Have had three girls who, in separate incidents, absolutely lost their marbles with me. I'm coping well with all the negative emotion, phew, deep breath, let it go. At least they may have felt better just raging at me. Anyway, today I had one face-to-face apology, one written letter of apology, and one girl who tried so damn hard in the lesson to make up for it that I let some of it go. Not sure what's been happening with the kids, maybe they're just testing the boundaries?

Last night I went to a TF event on personal presentation. The woman hosting it was a wee bit odd, but I liked that. It was at Freshfields, but since there were no coaches or external "adult" contact type people there, the drinks and nibbles were noticeably absent. Boo. Anyway, the woman made lots of interesting and excellent points on first impressions, self reflection, values, strengths, weaknesses, and something called The Life Balance Wheel (I didn't really get this bit). I gave my tutor group the highlights of it today during an impromptu tutor time - they were quick off the mark, suggesting that people judge on appearance and how they are acting. One of them even pointed out that what you say isn't that important, it's more about how you say it. I was pleased with their thinking.

The woman also mentioned a coupla psychological concepts. The first was leakage whereby your body language gives away what you're really thinking and feeling regardless of what your mouth is saying. The second was the Reticular Activation System (RAS), which sounds like gobbledygook to me, but anyway...it's this thing whereby once you're thinking about something, you notice it more and more because your brain filters out lots of irrelevant things so you focus more on what you're interested in. For example, my father is always thinking about some car or other, and in the weeks leading up to when he actually buys the car, he will see the desired car everywhere, and will remark upon this very point. Similarly then, if you focus on the positives, you become a more positive person.

The last thing that interested me was the work values survey. Very important values to me: creativity, recognition, helping others and society, time freedom, competition, persuading people. Important values to me: learning new things, making decisions, risk, being an expert, pressure, communication, independence, challenge, variety, fast pace, community. Lots of things there. Upon reflection, it seems that teaching can offer me most of these things. Strange that!

What else? Well, my right hamstring is still sore, which means no physical activity, boo. Have SO MUCH marking to do. BITC business-education presentation tomorrow night, minor panic there since I can't view the presentation or remember the case studies, so no idea what I'm supposed to be saying! Have a full day of lessons to plan tomorrow, not sure what I'm teaching there either. Great.

And finally, in the tiny spare bit of thought I have left, well, it's full of people. No, not people, just one person. Ever had it when you've got someone in your head and you just can't get them out? In your head, under your skin, whatever you want to call it. I don't even know how they got there, they just kinda sneaked (snuck?) in and now I am all whirlwindy. This is alarming, I never thought I'd get distracted in this way again. I can't even do anything about it, it's very frustrating. Although now I have written all of this, I have more space in my head to contemplate.

Haha, what a good vague ramble, my favourite type! I'll leave you with two quotes from the presentation woman that I used with my kids today...

None of us is smarter than all of us.

Attitude is infectious - is yours worth catching?

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!

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!

SSE Day 4

Mulberry teaches maths in a very hand-ons/investigative type way. Lots of open activities, often involving some kinda colouring in/cutting out/pretty poster making. Not just scissors and glue though - the girls present the work they have done to the class and talk it through, tough stuff for some kids (especially those with EAL) so am impressed by that. And, importantly, all this investigative work leads to lots of lovely posters with which one can decorate the classroom. Kinda made me wish I had a fixed classroom next year so that I could set it up in group-work tables and have pretty displays too.

I watched the Y11 NRA day today (their final Y11 assembly and prize day). It was so beautiful, very emotional, even for me, a complete outsider. The head of Y11 is this super energetic middle-aged African woman, positively bouncing with barmy-ness, amazing! She wore a sari and the bit over her shoulder fell off during her speech and she just laughed it off. Also, upon opening her expensive-looking large ornamental bowl present, she immediately balanced it on her head and remarked "this is how we do it back home". Hahaha. The girls were really well behaved and all looked stunning in their traditional dress. A wonderful speech too from the head prefect. Yet more impressive stuff.

On the other end of the spectrum, I observed period 6 history with 9U. Made me very thankful that we only have one lesson after lunch. Period 6 seems to be a write-off. And these girls were actually pretty awful, well, by Mulberry standards anyway. Very rude and kept talking over the teacher and not doing the work and generally wasting their time. I could feel the rage bubbling in me and was very close to lecturing them all (despite their two other actual teachers being in the room...how could they let the girls behave like that?!). To calm myself I ran through bits of the lecture in my head (basically focusing on the fact that these girls are really privileged and lucky to have the educational opportunities they had, and that if they chose to waste them, well, they would have no-one else to blame when their poor kids ended up in a scummy school like mine). I then walked out.

Only one more day of this SSE, but don't worry, am already lining up a couple of days at my old primary school, yippee! Am helpfully in denial about the whole portfolio and all the tonnes of things I need to sort out to put in it. Also completely ignoring the dread I've got for school next week. Good times.

Second School Experience - Day 1

Today I woke up 2 minutes before my alarm with a smile on my face. A strange sensation indeed. And then I remembered I didn't have to go to school, yippee!

Obviously it poured all day and I wasn't wearing enough layers and I had to walk lots and wait for public transport and all the usual things that slightly annoy me, but doesn't matter, crucially, I didn't have to go to school today. Yippee once again!

So Mulberry School for Girls in Whitechapel. Very different to the old academy. For starters, there's only one white kid in the whole school, how crazy is that! It's 97% Bangladeshi Muslim - so much so that the girls can wear an actual hijab variant of the school uniform (I say variant, but really this is the dominant choice of uniform). It's a big school - almost 1500 kids, with 400 in the VIth form. When ours opens in September I think we'll only have 60 or so. The buildings, resources, staff, kids etc. are all lovely - the school went under some kinda refurbishment maybe 3/4 years ago and also got involved in a PFI partnership with Parkwood Leisure so at 6pm every night the school shuts and becomes a leisure centre! This explains the awesome sports facilities - they have everything apart from playing fields and a pool, including a tumble track, dance studio, astroturf pitches and a climbing wall! There's IWBs in the maths rooms, which are big and spacious. Most different of all was the fact that they trusted the kids to be unsupervised in rooms/corridors etc. during the day and also left rooms unlocked. I mean, they actually leave the maths store room unlocked as a matter of course. As I learnt the hard way, don't do this at my school. If it's not nailed down, they'll have it.

The most interesting thing I did today was take part in the Ocean Maths workshop. This is a pioneering Tower Hamlets workshop, borne from the Ocean Estate in E1, and aiming to increase parental involvement in their kid's maths learning. So workshop leaders come in with interpreters etc. and work on activities with the kids and their parents together to encourage them both to be more confident and work together more. It really was lovely to see, despite the scary lady in charge of it (well, obviously I charmed her in the end, but at the start of the session I was standing by a desk and she asked me to move, and I said where, and she said anywhere just move, all because a trolley was coming through - duh, am I blind or something? Clearly I would have moved out of the way all by myself, why the hostile tone?)

After school I had a training session on paper folding, which was fantastic! Called "how to be a paper mathemagician" it really did what it said on the tin! Now have lots of ideas on how to teach Shape, Space and Measure using paper folding activities including making a tetrahedron out of an envelope, shape tesselations from folding A4 paper, and making a pull-up cube (it looks magical!)

In conclusion, I think I have realised that my school really is awful (this thought is increasingly justified every time I visit another school) but it's nice to have a week break and get my enthusiasm for this job back. Given that we have quite a few TF quitters, who are leaving after the first year, well, I don't wanna be one of those people, so this week should do me good.

In other news, my little bro's latest goldfish, Mao, is on his last (metaphorical) legs. He is on his side and not looking good. Looking at him makes me cringe, but I can't help but stare. *shudder*. Would fish euthanasia be a no-no?

Coaching Event 1

School was school. I have decided that, as therapeutic as this blog is, today I am not going to rant.

Instead, I will skip straight to the most interesting part of my day - my first meeting with my TF coach.

My coach is called Mark and he works as an Emerging Markets Trader at Lehman Brothers. He's worked there for 3 years and doesn't appear to trade just one thing - rather, he trades all kinds of products linked to emerging markets (predominantly Asian) and is quite senior in the company (i.e. they let him take quite a lot of risk in his work).

So the idea of a TF coach is that TF match you up with someone in business/education/coaching etc. who will help you realise goals by thinking through things in a new way. We met at a lovely Thai restaurant in Liverpool St and got off to a good start when he offered to pay for everthing. Excellent. Further bonus points came when he revealed that he was holding a half a million dollar position on some product or other, and that he was really rather worried about it, but decided to fulfill his TF commitments and meet with me rather than stay at work. Much props for that, although I am thinking perhaps in this instance we should have eaten in a place that had mobile phone reception (we got out of the restaurant and he had 7 voicemails, which I took to be a bad sign on the whole money/trading/wheeler dealing etc. He also mentioned that quite a few people had gone crazy at his work, oh dear. At least stress in school means something).

Anyway, I really enjoyed the meeting, mainly because I managed to actually be a little bit open with someone. Despite my copious sharing, of late, on the blog, I am quite secretive (heehee, understatement). But, my coach made it very easy to share ideas etc. and so I think our meeting was productive e.g. I told him about how my folks probably want me married in the next few years and how this might be screwing up future plans, which is something I've hardly told anyone.

I think the other thing about it, apart from the sharing and trust and mutual respect, was the fact that the whole meeting was about me. Now, this sounds grossly arrogant and self-centred and all that, but, in fact, I spend a small portion of my time dealing with things that are to do with me (again, the blog comes up as an example, but there probably should be a better example than that). Very self-indulgent to have a whole evening to talk about me and what I want, and at the start I spent most of the time trying to switch the convo back to him, but in the end he said the whole point was for him to get to know me, and so I better start talking, hahaha. This was followed by a wholestream of tough questions e.g. whose opinion matters the most to you, your family, your friends, or your work colleagues? How do you measure your success?

To cut a looong story short, the food was lovely, I didn't get hammered (bonus points for me!), and I am now inspired to evaluate myself more critically and think about what I really want and what I'm all about. Lots of tough questions, but I think I need to get on top of them. This coaching thing is a really good idea for people like me, who need some guidance and a wall to bounce things off, so I have some hopes here.

In final news, through Facebook I am back in touch with an ooooold friend from primary school. My fondest memories of him include crying my whole way through his swimming pool birthday party cos I banged my head on the side of the pool, his terrible twin brothers, and his general "gentle giant" demeanour. Needless to say, for someone who lists "Romford Fitness First" as an interest, well....ladies you can judge him for yourself, heehee (ps, make sure you look at the profile pictures album, but don't check it at work, it may look like you are visiting naughty websites!)

Here's a sample, although have blanked out his nice face so I don't get sued! Please message me/wall me if you approve!

The last 24 hours

It turns out that next door were filming an advert for Asian TV yesterday. This was quite exciting at 8pm, but far less exciting at 11pm, when the little boy drummers for the advert were still banging their drums. It became rather annoying when they began taking down the sets at 1am. But I got really cross at 4am when they decided to have loud conversations on the phone, outside. Grrr. Also, apparently on Sunday morning they had had a huge row with the people who live on the other side, which woke everyone up too. Naughty neighbours. I was very close to opening my window and shouting out "this isn't a council estate, please be quiet", but then realised that was probably inappropriate, so instead tossed and turned in bed. Consequently, was rather late into our training day this morning, whoops.

Good thing really, managed to miss some of the warm-up introductory speeches, but caught the rest of the day. Was quite good, they had another educational consultant in, this time to talk about "stimulating teaching, exciting learning, and assessment for learning". He was a good speaker, kinda like a stand-up comedian, lots of funny anecdotes and chatter, which warmed up the crowd. Plus, rather than trying to get us to brainstorm and group discuss and all those other standard INSET activities, he just cut out all the nonsense and told us his ideas straight up. Despite the vacant look I carried for most of the day, I appreciated this.

He suggested lots of things for stimulating teaching:

• classroom management - starting as you mean to go on, seating and displays, ground rules, roles in group work, processes to get activities started
• group work - managed through roles and clearly structured tasks
• visual mind maps with interactive links
• sharing learning objectives
• confidence through understanding key vocab
• matching card games
• blockbusters - using software based on the game show
• snowball - this is a great idea - basically start the class off by asking them to think of one of something e.g. one factor of 120, then get them into pairs and challenge each pair to find 4 factors of 120 i.e. double what they already have. After this, the pairs get into fours and they have to come up with 8 factors between them. I like this very much, will try it as a starter soon
• true or false using show-me boards
• question time - pick a group as the experts, give them ten mins to prepare their knowledge, then the rest of the class challenge them with questions
• pass the question - in pairs pupils write the question on the top half of a piece of paper and the model answer on the bottom half, rip up the top halves and pass them around the pairs, who then have to figure out the model answers
• reviews - support groups, revealing answers on IWB, matching dominoes, assessment review e.g through ActiVote (we have these sets in the maths department, I really wanna learn to use them, they seem ace), celebration review e.g. through issue of merit stickers, learning logs with specific targets for each pupil breaking down learning objectives into little tasks so that progress can be easily monitored

He did similar things for learning, emphasising that students are more excited about learning when they feel confident and clear about the work. He suggested using open ended activities that have a degree of creative control but that require understanding rather than just a search for the "right answer". He also encouraged the use of stimuli e.g. videos, sound clips, pictures, writing frames etc. to support work. He said that good writing requires purpose, product and audience. He was very anti-SATS and OFSTED, which surprised me, but which appealed to our staff I think.

Finally, with regards to assessment, I particularly paid attention to his talk on feedback and feedforward. He said that targets and assessment criteria should be shared with the class and put into more friendly language so that students are clear on what they need to achieve (without dumbing the language down too much - students need to be able to speak the language of assessment). He said that we shouldn't mark too much work, but that we should give clear written feedback on the work we do mark, and also give feedforward i.e. targets that pupils should work towards in their next piece of work so that they have something explicit they can do to improve.

So yes, we learnt quite a lot today on our last INSET day of the year. However, bad news too - next year five of our nine INSET days will be spent moving into the new Academy, which doesn't inspire me too much. Further we are expecting HMI next term PLUS a ULT inspection. Rubbish. I better make the most of this half of the term, before things go all crazy again.

In other news, tomorrow I have my last subject studies day, in which I think we are doing some kinda maths trail in London, exciting stuff. Also, I have an interview at MyBnk on Weds after school for a summer internship - I really wanna work there, it's a great idea, very inspiring! Will let you know how that goes.

And if you have time, check this out. Hahaha, pirate chatter, shiver me timbers.

A good day!

Finally! A good day! What a looooong time coming!

Wow, overdoing the old exclamations there. So teaching is the perfect forum for me to indulge in my manic depressive tendencies. I was super hyper today after minimal sleep and a slightly generous amount of vino at dinner last night, and thus the day went swimmingly. Actually, I think it was because I decided today to be positive, rather than a whiny old witch, and it worked!

I remember singing as I was walking into school and then humming my way through the day - I swear singing sometimes makes you happy.

But also, things were good because I had my internal formal observation with Y11 today, and despite one boy putting his head on the desk and one girl almost in tears (because of some unknown reason - it wasn't me!) I got 2s and 1s all the way through the form (2 means good, 1 means outstanding). The feedback session was really good and I was really pleased with how it all went. I have to work on implementing the behaviour policy (not giving a formal warning to a deserving kid dropped me from a 1 to a 2 in the classroom management section) and also on really breaking down how to get each mark in an exam question for the kids. These are good targets for me, I can do that for sure.

What I was most pleased about was how my observer said that I had the most positive classroom style she'd seen in the school since she'd started the observations. In fact, she said she took a leaf out of my book and tried praising her Y8s for good things instead of telling off the naughty ones, and that this worked a treat! I got points for my relationship with the kids and my enthusiasm for teaching too (hahaha, if only she'd read the blog!)

Anyway the fact that I was so chirpy today could be partly attributed to this lesson, but given that I didn't get the feedback till the end of the day, other things must've contributed too. My Y8s were really good during their notoriously awful Thursday period 4. I took them to the computer room and they did well, so I think I'll try and take them again next week. Naughty S was much better behaved, and crazy D is in the LSU from next week, so we'll have a bit of respite there. Was free period 5 and did some sweeping up of the kids that had walked out of lessons (this happens quite a lot, kids storming out). Was chuffed that I'd managed to persuade an angry Y10 back into her class - it's nice when your reasoning and persuasion skills get the kids to do the right thing.

And finally, had the Leadership Discovery Day twilight tonight. Lots of stuff to take in, all about opportunities and skills and knowledge and experience etc. in the "leadership journey" we'll be going through. Hated all the TF jargon/lingo, it's so Americanised and management-consultancy, and obvy the thought of having to do lots more work is a bit of a turn-off, but secretly I think I'm quite excited about all the things we could potentially do next year. More on this soon, when I've read through all the paraphenalia. Crucially, we only had to do 90 mins tonight - the rest of the TFers had to do an 8 hour day of it last Sat!

So, in conclusion, I think today shows that a positive mind is a strong tool. And also that everyone needs some positive praise now and then. Teaching can feel like a thankless job but I've been reminded there's light at the end of the tunnel - sometimes it's a looooong tunnel though!

Wellbeing

I think I'm outta the funk. I don't wanna speak too soon, and perhaps it's because there're only 4 days left before the Easter break, but I feel a distinct ache on my face - the consequence of the return of my smile. Good stuff.

So, something I've just been reading rather than planning for Year 8 tomorrow. I mean, surely it's a good idea to reward your most badly behaved class with lots of sweets and games rather than algebra during their last few lessons?

It's a loooong Observer article about "Wellbeing" lessons and positive psychology, but worth a read. I'm gonna go to bed instead of summarising it for you, but I actually think teaching kids strategies to be happier would be a good thing (although I guess it's still debatable whether happiness can be taught or whether tendency towards happiness is something inherent within our characters). Either way, more Circle-Time material :)

Before I go, here are the ten tips from "Making Slough Happy" (courtesy of NetMums) - wellbeing tips if you wish...

Count your blessings each day

Have a good laugh every day

Cut TV viewing by half

Plant something and look after it

Get physical

Talk time – an hour conversation
with good friend or partner once a week

Say hello to a stranger every day

Phone a friend or relation

Treat yourself and enjoy it

Daily kindness – do a good turn

Less doom and gloom

Relax, this post won't be all doom and gloom. How can it be, I'm eating Starburst? I better type fast though, since the come-down from the sugar high could well be shocking.

So let's get the doom outta the way. I am housebound this weekend because my cold has returned and my knee is hurt again after a heavy tackle in the staff kickaround yesterday. My Dad is once again calling me "Limping Lucy". I don't think he realises I rather dislike this particular pet name.

And now for the gloom. School was just about bearable, perhaps because I wasn't in on Weds and was so hungover on Thurs that I skipped home early. Responsible. Lots of drama concerning F in Y10 and potential accusations from her mother about inappropriate relationships with staff. Some other people have got far more involved that me, but still, I can sense trouble ahead on that front.

In more positive news, visited my old school, Forest, on Wednesday. Saw a range of Key Stage 3, 4 and 5 lessons. Was very impressed, particularly with partial fractions being taught without a board! A little bit scared though since hardly remember most of A-Level so could be tricky if I get an AS class in Sept. Saw a hilarious class of Y7 boys in the computer suite playing with fractions software. Also visited the brand new sports centre, sat at the teachers' table at lunch, went into the staff common rooms and saw lots of my old teachers - all very strange experiences but fun. Deffo learnt a lot and am still so surprised at how keen most teachers seem to be when it comes to sharing advice and resources and helping the new teachers out. The grass did seem better on the other side, but I didn't really want to be grazing over there either, if you see what I mean.

Later that evening went to the "Women in Leadership" even hosted by TF at Lehman Brothers. Seriously one of the better events I've been to - lots of charismatic speakers such as the chairman of the Women of the Year Assembly, the founder of Rococo Chocolates, the headmistress of a London school, a choral conductor who founded the Voices Foundation, and the head of Capital Advisory at Lehman. Learnt loads and loads, the most useful being three tips for teachers as leaders:

1. be a role model and find a role model: think about how people regard you, make other people feel good, boost other people's confidence, be positive
2. self-confidence/self-esteem: bellieve you can do something, recognise that you don't have all the answers, accept you will make mistakes, let someone else take the credit
3. get the best out of others: we are there to facilitate others, allow them to try (and fail) with safety net

That's kinda in note form, sorry about that. The other good little thing to remember is the 4 Rs of teaching/leading:

1. Reflect
2. Review
3. Revise
4. Resilience

Enough said about that.

Obviously the smart thing to do when you are feeling off-key is to go out and get hammered so that's what I did. Bad sign definitely when not just one, but two bars have to make you leave because they're closing. Was also pretty devastated when I thought I'd lost my teaching notebook, really should make a copy of some of the things in there. Luckily it was found, phew. Somehow we managed to get home, and my folks managed to hold back the critical/disappointed looks in the morning, so that was ok. Props to Sanju since she was actually being observed lesson 1 on Thurs and found that teaching hungover is a good look for her. Not so much for me, my lessons were ok but that's probably because I so beyond caring that nothing could get to me.

Anyway, it's the weekend now and I still can't hit the gym so instead am just gonna do my best to keep my chin up and stop this funk. That said though, am listening to "Kidz" by Plan B at the moment, and you know I spend all my days with these clowns, so what have I got to be wallowing about really? I can't wait to get back to being me.

Special Times

This is my 100th post! How exciting!

In further special times news, Sunday was my 6th month anniversary of teaching. 6 months eh, can you believe it?

How have I celebrated? By falling spectularly ill. Good choice. I haven't been to school since last Friday.

Admittedly Monday was a SS day, and I was only slightly coughing through that. To the untrained eye, I appear to be fine. I mean, I'm sitting here writing this blog aren't I? But you have to remember that "I am a machine". Yes. So despite not appearing to actually be properly ill, I am not my normal energetic self. The fact that I am home is a big thing since so far I haven't taken any time off and I can't remember the last time I actually had to skip stuff because I was ill (if you don't count the torn ACL that is).

So clues that I am ill:

1. Spent about 80% of each of the past two days in bed with a nice pot of Vicks.
2. Been wearing pyjamas since Monday night.
3. Haven't been to the gym, played my piano, or attended mid-week lash opportunities
4. All meals consist of toast or soup or toast and soup.
5. My body feels like a broken bag of bones (this is probably the best clue on the list)

At first I thought I had TB (paranoid) but now I don't really know what is wrong. In any case, I am hoping my super combo of vit c, zinc, echinacea, water and bed will do the trick.

I feel remarkably guilty about missing school and my kids' lessons, but then as soon as I contemplate having to stand in front of a class all day, my head thumps a little louder. Besides, I wouldn't want to spread any germs would I...

Something to inspire any other sick teachers out there...

TFTs: a good blog on EAL in Canada...can't be slacking off WA3 now can we?

PS A downside of sleeping all day means you can't sleep at night, so check out the updated links. Mouche and Ange, I have officially given up on you guys!

Random things, but most importantly...

It's half-term! I am sitting here reading the papers and listening to X-FM in my pyjamas after a luxurious brunch in a completely empty house (bliss!....my folks have gone to a lunch, but not before our breakfast guests departed...who else has visitors before 11am on a Sunday?! A wonderful excuse to hide in my bed).

Hahahaha, I think I may be delirious from the knowledge that I don't have to go to school this week :) Either that or still drunk. I have become a glorious lightweight, and also a more responsible drinker i.e. no longer having to sink everything in sight. Well done me.

On the down side, I now have a bit of a cold. How annoying. I always get ill when I have a kinda slow down in life pace. Boo. Still, plenty of echinacea, vitamin C and zinc will boost me through. I think I got it from the weird lady in the sauna at the gym, who despite my clearly trying to relax (with my eyes shut and everything), insisted on attempting to make me talk to her. Some highlights of efforts to trap me in conversation included:

"what kind of fish do you eat?"
"are you worried about bird flu?"
"there's a court in Snaresbrook you know"
and, most alarmingly, "when are you coming here next?"

She creeps me out, and the fact that she is quite emaciated, has scary worm hair, and sunken eyes doesn't help. In future I won't be so polite, since clearly my downfall came from answering her questions, even if my answers were horribly blunt. Further, this will limit the chances of her committing ID fraud with all the random personal information she has gleaned from me. I think she's a witch.

In other news, I am still full from the gorgeous feast created by Noor last night. And also mightily impressed at Charlotte "Ginger" Rhead's ability to drink more than half a bottle of rum disguised as mojitos, and still be standing. Inspiring. Also inspired by Noor's beautiful house and woods to once again contemplate becoming motivated by material possessions. Luckily these thoughts were quashed by numerous debates about teaching and the marketing machine that is TF etc. I think this job has taken me over. Yeen, we missed you, but drank in your honour.

And finally, when it comes out, make sure you see Freedom Writers - I've heard it's a wonderful film, in the vein of Dangerous Minds, based on a true story about a super-teacher (Erin Gruwell, played by Hilary Swank) who changes the lives of the young monsters in her charge through a diary project. Something for all us TFs, I'm sure. Maybe we can get them to screen it for us for free?

PS Potter, congrats on finishing your exams!