Sleep is good. I went to bed at 8.30 last night and slept pretty soundly - until 3.30 when my husband knocked his clock onto the floor. Managed to doze again after that and feel less of a wreck this morning than I did yesterday.
Another busy week ahead. Meetings galore and lots of training sessions to lead. Tuesday will be easier as all of KS3 are having a thinking skills day so no normal lessons for them - or me, since I teach KS3 all day.
I have to pick up the pieces with one class as a result of my not being in school on Friday afternoon - their behaviour was, apparently, awful. Am hoping, actually, that their form tutor and Head of year will pick up that in terms of consequences, and I can just express my diappointment and dissatisfaction.
Showing posts with label school. Show all posts
Showing posts with label school. Show all posts
Monday, 6 October 2008
Friday, 5 September 2008
End of week 1
A successful day, I think. I managed to be fairly assertive with our technician without getting into a confrontation. I have the data I need in order to add pupils to the learning platform. Got frustrated a few times - with waiting around for someone who said they wanted to see me but was then too busy doing other things... When time is short, it's hard to be hanging around waiting. Waiting isn't my strong point - I like to do, to sort, to finish...
The last lesson of the day wasn't brilliant. A difficult class, who had just had PE, and before that a wet lunchtime (so they were indoors - not good), and the end of the day, end of the week. Decided on reflecting that I had done all I could to make the lesson successful - it was down to them, not me. Ah well. A new week on Monday.
More positively I went to the gym after work, and a friend came round - we had a great gossip. And it is the weekend. I don't have to get up early tomorrow. I can take some time to go in to town, maybe choose some books, do some shopping... All good.
On Tuesday I see J again. All good.
The last lesson of the day wasn't brilliant. A difficult class, who had just had PE, and before that a wet lunchtime (so they were indoors - not good), and the end of the day, end of the week. Decided on reflecting that I had done all I could to make the lesson successful - it was down to them, not me. Ah well. A new week on Monday.
More positively I went to the gym after work, and a friend came round - we had a great gossip. And it is the weekend. I don't have to get up early tomorrow. I can take some time to go in to town, maybe choose some books, do some shopping... All good.
On Tuesday I see J again. All good.
Wednesday, 3 September 2008
Another good one
In fact, I had the best night's sleep last night that I have had in ages. That helped!
Three teaching lessons, two non teaching today. All the lessons went well - I enjoyed them and the pupils seemed to as well. I even managed to sit down (very briefly!) at one point. Technology was more of my friend today than yesterday - though I seemed to spend quite a lot of time sorting out other people's technical issues! (Funny - I thought that was what the technicians were supposed to do....)
More positive feedback from colleagues - particularly about the ICT lessons I have prepared. They were very appreciative that everything is provided for them in terms of lesson plans and resources.
The one fly in the ointment is semi-technical; I am involved in a project in school (and, in a consultancy role, across the county) which needs pupils to be entered onto a system. There's a quick way to do this (would take me about a couple of hours max) and a slow way. The slow way is more efficient, since data would be automatically updated as pupils enter or leave the school, but it will (it seems) take a month or more to set up. I was promised the pupils would all be entered onto the system in the first two weeks of term. Now they won't be. I'm tearing my hair out because it has huge implications for me, both in terms of lessons I have planned (using this project as a tool) and in terms of my role in the project. It's VERY frustrating.
Three teaching lessons, two non teaching today. All the lessons went well - I enjoyed them and the pupils seemed to as well. I even managed to sit down (very briefly!) at one point. Technology was more of my friend today than yesterday - though I seemed to spend quite a lot of time sorting out other people's technical issues! (Funny - I thought that was what the technicians were supposed to do....)
More positive feedback from colleagues - particularly about the ICT lessons I have prepared. They were very appreciative that everything is provided for them in terms of lesson plans and resources.
The one fly in the ointment is semi-technical; I am involved in a project in school (and, in a consultancy role, across the county) which needs pupils to be entered onto a system. There's a quick way to do this (would take me about a couple of hours max) and a slow way. The slow way is more efficient, since data would be automatically updated as pupils enter or leave the school, but it will (it seems) take a month or more to set up. I was promised the pupils would all be entered onto the system in the first two weeks of term. Now they won't be. I'm tearing my hair out because it has huge implications for me, both in terms of lessons I have planned (using this project as a tool) and in terms of my role in the project. It's VERY frustrating.
Tuesday, 19 August 2008
SATs marking
I've been following the debacle of SATs marking - both through the newspapers and though the TES forums. The latter give a real flavour of the frustrations of markers who couldn't get through to the "no-help"line (as they term it!), couldn't get scripts delivered or collected, were constantly contacted about scripts which had already been returned, had boxes of scripts with papers missing (which barred them from marking any of the scripts because a whole school's scripts for each subject had to be marked by one marker), couldn't enter marks online, couldn't use the "benchmarking" software online... the list goes one.
So I gave a little squeal of delight last week when I saw that the Government has (finally) agreed with ETS, the company responsible for the marking of SATs this year, to end their contract.
Now if only the spotlight could turn on how unhelpful the entire SATs process is to pupils. We spend so much time teaching to the tests, enabling pupils to perform well in them. What a waste! 11 and 14 year olds shouldn't have their learning time dominated by this exercise, nor feel under such pressure to achieve. Increasingly schools are judged and measured solely on their SATs results. This isn't right. Time to ditch the SATs altogether, I think.
I know - it's not going to happen!
So I gave a little squeal of delight last week when I saw that the Government has (finally) agreed with ETS, the company responsible for the marking of SATs this year, to end their contract.
Now if only the spotlight could turn on how unhelpful the entire SATs process is to pupils. We spend so much time teaching to the tests, enabling pupils to perform well in them. What a waste! 11 and 14 year olds shouldn't have their learning time dominated by this exercise, nor feel under such pressure to achieve. Increasingly schools are judged and measured solely on their SATs results. This isn't right. Time to ditch the SATs altogether, I think.
I know - it's not going to happen!
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