Wild Warhol

Had such fun with our Y1/2 class today.

First, let me remind you that that isn't my normal class. It's that time of year when we do class swaps and, as I'm leaving, I got to fill-in for one of the new teachers who couldn't make it in.

So, my basic premise for the day was "Going Wild". First, we watched an animated version of Maurice Sendak's "Where the Wild Things are" from YouTube. Then the children used the New York Zoo and Aquarium "Build Your Wild Self" application to generate their own "wild thing" which they wrote about, thinking about what they'd eat and also what they'd do all day.

Finally, for the end of the day I took a "Wild Self" that we'd all helped create, used Sumo Paint to reduce it just a black and white outline, then after showing and talking about a brief Warhol-style slideshow, the children picked 3 (sometimes 4) colours and coloured-in a picture each which I then mounted on a blind in the classroom (quick maths link - 24 in the class so, thinking about arrays, how can I arrange them into a rectangle?).

I had fun, I think they all did , too :)

All Change

So... I just looked back over my last blog post. How things change. Through a combination of factors, some personal some professional, I've just never "clicked" at this school - so by mutual agreement I'm moving on.


I'm now looking forward to a new challenge - moving up to KS3 to teach ICT. Just a slight change from Y3/4 where I've been this year! My main advantage, here, is the 13 years of development experience which does help me just a little with the subject knowledge side of things. Of course, I now have to change my approach slightly, as I'm fairly certain that Y7,8,9 won't respond to exactly same sorts of things as Y3,4.


Such is life - should be a good year. I know I'm going to work on it :)

Pastures New

So it's been a long while since I posted anything.

Just, then, briefly to think about where I've been...

After a fairly frustrating stint (personally speaking... the kids were great, I had other issues to contend with) I'm at a new school. All of the staff seem... open... which is fabulous. Enthusiasm is high (despite Ofsted looming) and now all I need to do is to get my head into the figures, as I'm maths co-ordinator just to top things off.

So, after two years of teaching I feel I'm finally in a strong enough position (in terms of experience) to start making the most of my IT background now, really trying to make good use of technology in whatever we're looking to do. To assist with that, I'm starting to make great use of Twitter - which is incredible as a resource - and look to other practitioners to see how they use technology in their lessons.

To sum up what I've found out... I've still got a long way to go. But we're going to have fun getting there :)

...and the wisdom to hide the bodies...

Had a situation today where, looking at decimals, I asked the class to stand up if the answer was greater than a number and sit down if it was less.

At one point, there was precisely one child who remained standing (sadly, incorrectly). I asked him to explain his thinking and he quickly realised his mistake. That should've all been fine, except for the prat who then decided to laugh at this one child - who immediately, of course, shut down for the next 15 minutes of the lesson.

I did, unsurprisingly, tear a strip off the prat for his behaviour. I pointed out that more than being simply ill-mannered, by his actions he had actually managed to mock the one person who had shown a willingness to have their own opinion. Without having to look and see what their friends were doing first. Without having to just copy everyone (a beat behind) in order to fell that they blend in. I commended the first child's bravery and the fact that they were prepared to take a risk on *their* answer being the right answer in spite of considerable opinion against them. And I hope it not only rebuked the prat but help build-up the risk-taker.

Because it struck me that, no matter how hard we try to make our pupils willing to take risks, it only takes that one stupid outburst to knock them right back again into their comfort zone, unwilling to gamble some of their self-respect to stand up on their own in a class of their peers. I hope some of the class find that willingness to be wrong again, soon. We need more of it.

"They said thank you!" *chop*chop*busy*busy*

How often do you get told you are "very good"? As an adult, probably not that often. But today I was observed by my head teacher and that was the outcome... which doesn't necessarily sound inspiring, but she was assessing against OFSTED criteria and the only criterion higher is to be "outstanding" (so yes, that's what I'll be aiming for next time, those of you keeping score).

I should point out that this was a particularly stressful (and important) observation - the head had observed me last term (before Christmas) and had said that although it wasn't bad it wasn't what she would have expected, so she wouldn't enter that one as the official assessment and I should consider it a "dry run" in readiness for a further one. Hence the further observation this term.

You can imagine my joy.

Having said that, even before today's observation she had expressed her level of confidence in my teaching by offering me a contract for a further year next year. And while I accept that that should've helped me, I was still terrified this morning. Once in the lesson, most of the worries disappeared (as you would hope) and I knew I was going to be okay when she left only half-way through the lesson (if she's still there at the end, panic!) with a cheery wave.

So now my target is to further challenge the higher achievers in the class, to motivate and inspire them and teach them things above and beyond the primary curriculum (sounds rather fun, actually) with a view to them then leading one lesson per week (or so - maybe a fortnight). Then, once I've got that licked, I get to extend that to a weekly club for the whole of KS2 higher achievers.

*Yay, me*

Result!

Bit of a result, at least - I've been offered another year's contract at my school.

I am, needless to say, chuffed to bits - it's quite a validation, really, especially considering how far I think I've come since the start of the year. There was a sticky patch in the first term, my initial observation wasn't brilliant and I had warning shots across the bows about the classroom - but I was assured that I have now more than proved my worth in the school and the head was delighted to be able to offer me a contract for a further year (there was a permanent post going, and there was talk of how to decide between us - the head wasn't wanting to do a further interview as they felt they'd be going in with pre-conceived notions - so the P&P committee eventually decided that it would go to the one that had scored higher on the original interviews, which wasn't me). Things should be even more interesting next year as I will be the ICT co-ordinator, too (no surprise, huh?).

I'm especially pleased as it's still quite a tricky class (albeit now slightly reduced in number) and yet I feel I'm on top of the whole situation now - the class looks excellent (for which I thank my TA) and we have our routines all in place to try and keep them suitably occupied so as to distract them from any mischief. This was particularly drawn to my attention as on Thursday I had a course for the day (year 3/4 mathematics and how to make it fun at "The Village" in Chilwell, which was fabulous, inspiring and fun) and they had a supply teacher in instead. I got back yesterday to find out that, although they'd been okay in the morning with my TA there, in the afternoon they'd been a complete nightmare for PE; football chants (that the head had to go in and settle down) and then children climbing the walls (literally - up the frames in the hall) and balancing on stacks of chairs. The head did point out that she wouldn't be looking to have that particular teacher back on supply :)

But yes, I am gainfully employed next year again - still in Y4 (so with this year's Y3) with the same TA (because we're apparently making a great team). Yee-flippin'-ha!

Advice and stage fright

Been more than a little busy recently, but have to share a couple of incidents...

Firstly, I was stopped the other afternoon by one of the mums. "Excuse me, " she said, "but do you have a minute?" Naturally, I did. "My daughter tells me that you've completed Zelda on the DS?" she continued, "and I'm stuck. I'm on the third trip into the Ocean King's temple and I'm stuck on how to transfer the seal to the map."

Thankfully, I could recall the answer to that one on short notice. So, today she was back asking about another section on the ghost ship. That one took a little thinking - she ended up bringing her DS in to class so I could see exactly which part it was.

Think I may have made a friend, there.

On a different note (pun intended) our school has been running a sort of "Britain's Got Talent" competition over the last couple of weeks and today was the grand final. They needed a short "filler" spot, so my head decided (in her usual wisdom) that the staff could perform a short "Grease" medley. It fell to me to be Danny for "Summer Nights" and that all seemed to be going okay.

Then, today, in our dress rehearsal I not only came in too soon (which threw both myself and "Sandy" off for the first verse) but then, instead of singing "she was good, you know what I mean" I sadly omitted the initial "s" and loudly and clearly sang that "he was good...".

Oh how we laughed. Asked by one of the TAs later whether there was anything I felt I needed to say by way of explanation, I merely replied that I felt that I had stated my position quite clearly the first time.

*sigh*