The Return of The Blogger ....well, soon!

It warms my heart to know that some (well, two) of you out there have been waiting in anticipation for my next post. Alas, this is not going to be the epic entry you had all hoped for, however I can assure a lot has happened over the past month and I will be documenting it all very soon.

Sunday procrastination

I've got the usual Sunday blues; I find myself procrastinating once again, this time on the MyHeritage website, where I have found out that I have a 54% likeness in appearance to Pete Doherty. Shoot me now.



The TF event on Thursday was brilliant. My kids were so excited and their families so proud. Mulberry girls cleaned up the awards being 4 out of 5 of the winners! The first prize won an ipod nano (!) along with a framed Young Voices Writing Competition certificate, a book and gift vouchers.



Sir John Jones was an incredibly inspiring speaker, who not only gave us plenty of anectotes to get us laughing (at times, uncontrollably) but real food for thought with regards to the kind of teacher we need to be in order to make a change.

He spoke of habitual behaviour, the things we do that keep us in our comfort zone, using the example of which hand we wear our watches on to highlight this (obviously the only acceptable hand to wear your watch on is the left). He asked us to switch our watches over for the duration of his speech, flaunted his new watch-less left hand in the air and shouted 'Let's get naked', a hysterical moment. He went onto explain that it is our habitual behaviour that stifles change. (I think the fact that I couldn't bring myself to switch my watch over speaks volumes about my discomfort with change.)




He shared a wonderful story with us that displays the creativity of youth: a 6 year old girl in her art class says "I'm just drawing God". Another pupil says "I don't know what he looks like" and she replies "Well you will in a minute".

He informed us that the four factors that determine success in life are
1) poverty
2) family
3) neighbourhood
4) quality of schooling (Oh the pressure!!!!!)

The most interesting thing he shared with us was Robert Rohm's DISC model of human behaviour. The D type - dominant, driven and defiant - is focused on getting things done and making it happen; the I type - inspiring, impulsive and intuitive - loves to interact, socialise and have fun; the S type - supportive, sensitive and shy - enjoys helping or supporting other people and work together as a team; the C type - cautious, clinical and calculating - seeks consistency and quality information (and enjoys list making!). He decribed the reactions of pupils in a hypothetical situation where they are told that a test has been cancelled and linked that to the types of behaviour - the S types might say "thank you", the D types might say "well the test was innapropriately timed anyway", the C types might say "but I revised thoroughly" and the I types might (would!) say "what test?".



Finally, as teachers, or passionate people we must:
- like children
- be dream builders
- be irresistible optimists
- love the questions more than the answers
- regard crisis as the norm
- have little paranoia
- be comfortable with change
- see kids with difficulties, not difficult kids

So my e-ticket has been bought and it's official - I'm off to India on April 3rd!!! But man have I got a lot to do before then! Need to finish WA3 tomorrow (logistically speaking), going to see Lail (www.myspace.com/lailarad) do a gig at 93 Feet East on Tuesday, got a work gathering/excuse for drunken frolics at Tayyabs on Wednesday, family + friends dinner on Thursday, off to Gorsefield on Friday for the weekend with my year 11s and back on Sunday arvo after which I intend to see the Namesake, leading GCSE revision class on Monday and hopefully going to see A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Roundhouse that eve all before I jet off on the Tuesday, oh and did I mention the week's lesson planning and teaching to boot!

Nothing like a youtube video of myself and Lawrence singing a disney classic at the school talent show to lighten my mood (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9a7qCH-kIE).

An evening off

Finding the time to write my blog everyday is more effortful than I thought. What better than tonight though, when I have decided to do absolutely nothing except enjoy my ma’s until this evening MIA delicious food and watch Desperate Housewives. Yes indeed, my parents are back from India after my two lonely months of frequenting the soul destroying eateries that are Macs, KFC, Subway or Lahores (a greasy Bangladeshi spoons next door to work) and purchasing Tesco or M&S ready meals (I have put on a stone!). They arrived yesterday evening after their flight was delayed on Air India (quel surprise) and I am truly very happy to have them back.

It's been a good few days of teaching. I can do no wrong with my year 11s these days (and vice versa!); they are motivated and enthusiastic and are constantly telling me how much they enjoy their maths lessons! I announced the Gorsefield lists (intervention scheme whereby we take selected pupils on a 48 hour residential and do maths) in today’s lesson, and there were looks of utter disappointment on the pupils who haven’t been picked. Need I say more? On Monday my bottom set year 10s (the bane of my existence) got on well with their 8 times table dot-to-dot (a rhinoceros) and after they had spent a lesson doing that and shading in a 8 times table number picture (a bat) (which was only meant to be a 10 minute starter) they happily learnt about linear algebra. My successes were that, 1) I only had to send one pupil out, admittedly 7 minutes after the start of lesson but who’s counting and 2) I got some evidence for WA3 with an EBD (emotional and behavioural difficulties) pupil. Thanks to a discussion with Amanda I finally established my two case studies and she helped me realise that working with an EBD pupil would present an opportunity to develop some useful strategies.



The colourful handout I produced for my EAL pupil went down a treat (although when I asked for her feedback she couldn’t say much as she finds it hard to express herself in English (the irony)). Today I induced a bit of ‘soft’ evidence, as Maggie puts it, with my visual aids to teach her rotational symmetry. Ooooh, isn’t WA3 coming along nicely!

Feels good to have a relaxing evening after, 1) the stressful production of WA3 resources on Sunday, 2) the manic tidying job I was forced to do prior to parents arrival on Monday and 3) Yoga on Tuesday which is quite frankly exhausting when you have to do moves like the downward dog (or the downward facing b-yatch as Taruna puts it). Tomorrow evening is the TF Speakers event and Hustings, but I’m mainly interested in the fact that four of my pupils will be attending the ceremony to collect prizes for their winning entries in the Young Voices Competition. How proud of them am I!

It's a new dawn

Thus begins my journey as a blogger (not that I really understand the word or its derivation-can anyone help?). I cannot believe I haven't created one sooner seeing as I am obsessed with documenting my life in other ways, have a need to remember everything that happens to me and anyone related to me, am a fan of reminiscence and nostalgia and in truth enjoy relaying my life to others (and believe they are interested!).

In normal circumstances I would try to do some form of catch up: as my friends know well, I like to pinpoint the last time I have seen/spoken to/had contact with them before I entreat them with my up to the minute news. Fear not, we shall begin not at the beginning.

Woke up ridiculously late this morning but not as hungover as expected. Went to Chalk at the Scala last night with Julia, Rachel, Jamie, Josh, Rory and a few others as one of Rachel's friends was meant to be DJing (unfortunately he had to pull out at the last minute because he was given a rubbish set at 3.30am). Enjoyable night even if it was a random mix of music (Mr Hudson and the Library are defos not my cup of tea) and people (if I worked in North London I'm sure I would have seen some of my pupils out). The most AMAZING half hour was UK Apache's set - we knew he would play Original Nutta but we were ecstatic when he played Gimme Da Gal (if you don't know, get to know!).



As if facebook wasn't enough, I now have this blog as an additional form of procrastination. Got a double year 10 and double year 11 lesson to plan for tomorrow not to mention that I need to formulate resources for two EAL and SEN pupils as I am running out of lessons to try them out in before the WA3 deadline (which of course would be a detriment to my conclusions about the principles I should adopt for supporting pupils with SEN and EAL and "how my work has enabled me to meet the requirements of S2.6 and S3.2.5"). Aaargh!