To Do before going back to school ...

1. Mark Year 11 exams (2 sets plus one third of two other sets)
2. Mark 2 sets of Year 11 books
3. Mark 2 sets of Year 10 books
4. Plan A level lessons on Sex and Relationships
5. Write Year 11 reports
6. Write revision notes for A level students
7. Produce homework booklets for Years 7 to 11
8. Enjoy Christmas!

Right. So I really ought to get cracking then ...

Added on Saturday 10 January: I didn't manage to get much done ... I am half way through marking the first set of Year 10 books, and I still have most of the Year 11 reports to get finished. They are due in on Monday. I have made homework booklets for Years 10 and 11.

My to do for this summer ...

I just thought I should add this here:

1. Plan new Year 7 lessons
2. Rewrite Year 7 RE lessons
3. Plan GCSE lessons
4. Make a list of all the departmental things I'd like to do
5. Update my other blog with the books I've read
6. Go into school to rejig my classroom and meet the new teacher
7. May have some extra work from another website company that will need to be done
8. Try to get some colour on my legs - suntan, I mean, not more bruises!
9. Visit Scotland
10. Relax a bit!
    

Busy Weekend

I had my course yesterday - very interesting, great speaker, met up with a colleague from another school and went out for coffee - great to chat. Shame to be indoors, but at least some sun at lunchtime. Today - after a lovely walk to and from church to celebrate Pentecost, I have been on the computer ALL DAY working NON STOP (other than cooking up a lovely lunch of tilapia and butternut squash for H and I - made the leftover squash into soup later) on the computer, so have a sore back now, and still haven't finished!

Here's my list, with the completed things in red:

1. Revision overview stuff for Years 10 and 11.
2. Plan ICT presentation for Tuesday / Wednesday slots.
3. Email mentor about project.
4. Amend Year 9 assessment.
5. Write Year 7 reports.
6. Write lesson plans for my project.
7. Complete booklet on Hinduism.
8. Plan lessons and homework for this week, including some cover lessons.
9. Plan lesson for observation next week. (Mostly done ... some tweaking left.)

I'm sure there are loads more things ... as well as all the other non-school stuff on my other list. But I suppose that's not bad for today ... Will get off to bed now. Have to wake up H and move him to the other room ... he was in France last night, and has slept most of today!

My to-do list

Just thought I'd share my to-do list for this week with you all.

1) Complete an essay on sex education and email to tutor by the end of the week.
2) Plan my new Year 9 project and submit to appropriate person.
3) Write a revision booklet for our Year 11s.
4) Write up an overview of my Masters for the grant awarding body.
5) Marking Assessments:
- Year 9 Assessment from last term
- Year 9 Assessment from this term
- Year 7 Assessments
- Year 8 Assessments
- Year 11 end of unit tests
6) Mark books: Year 7, Year 8, Year 9, Year 10, Year 11.
7) Write Year 8 Reports.
8) Choose and start planning essay or lesson plan on the Sacraments. (Check when due.)
9) Write booklets of work as back-ups from Year 7, Year 8 and Year 9.

Now, there's probably more but those are the main things I can think of at the moment. And I'll be out of the house for a few days, being pampered at my auntie's. However, I have already almost completed 2, have begun 3, and have marked two sets of books, so that's a not bad start for the week, with it only being Sunday as well. We have rearranged the room, so both H and I have room for our computers on one table, facing each other, and it feels like a much better layout. I've been inspired to work more, and although I can vaguely see the TV, I don't feel too tempted to watch it if I can hear it okay while working.

Anyway, I am on holiday, so all is right with the world!

(And I should get my Masters results during the week too!)

Disheartened

It's tough to keep going when you are trying to ensure three lessons at a time have cover work, you're on your fourth supply teacher in seven days and you know a new one will be joining you tomorrow, and your pupils won't listen or get on with their assessments. Demoralising. Pupils coming in and out of lessons, Year 11s cheating during their tests, Year 7s "daring" other well behaved Year 7s to swear in class or just be generally rude, and Year 9s making other Year 9s cry. Really wish they wanted to learn and would let me help them.

A good lesson!

Let's celebrate! A good double lesson, no (or at least, very little) writing, a bit of reading, but mostly heated discussion, with almost all involved for the whole double lesson. A topical and controversial topic, with about two thirds of the class present and listening to each other. Great!

And then an interesting meeting in the afternoon with teachers from other schools. Always good to get together and swap ideas. So a nice day today! Which makes me feel quite happy for once!

Back in London

We left about 1.30pm yesterday, after shovelling away snow from under the tyres, stopped near Leeds around 6pm or so, then arrived in London about 10.30pm last night. About 500 miles. It rained all the way. Fortunately the traffic wasn't too bad. We were lucky in both directions this year.

We have had a great holiday. Christmas was really relaxed, and we had a fun time at Hogmanay, playing games and singing lots. Then the few days since then have been fun and laid back, and it was great to see all my family again. Hope it's not too long until we can spend some time with H's family as well.

My list of things to do before I go back to work in two days time?

* Finish marking Year 11 Mock Exams
* Mark assessments for Y7, Y8, Y9 and Y10
* Mark books for Y8, Y9, Y10 and Y11 so I'm up to date
* Plan Y8 SoW and put onto school website
* Plan Y7 and Y9 lessons
* Plan lessons for Y10 and Y11
* Put all assessment data onto school data system
* Start writing Y11 reports
* Finish essay for course I've completed
* Start essay for other course I'm following

Not too much then ...! Wish me luck!! (Oh, and I've still to go to the shops - at least I've unpacked from the holiday up north!)

Invigilation

Very tired! What happened today? Well, Year 11s had exams, so I had a cover - English, write about an unpleasant experience - and an invigilation. Last night I made a photo/music montage for the Year 9s, and that went down fairly well. Will show again tomorrow to inspire them to write poems. One of the Year 11 exams was our one, so lots of marking now! At least my second Year 7 assessments are quite short ...

Pigeon

Took the tube this morning. Arrived on time, but with the photocopying was a few minutes late for my registration ... I think my form are getting a bit annoyed with me! Then the Year 9s seemed a bit subdued - but still some didn't do any of the work. Took it easy with them, went through evil and suffering and wrote notes on the board.

The Year 11s are on mock exams, so it made a nice change to have invigilation rather than teaching. Even then, they still found it hard to concentrate - and were none too pleased when half the group left ten minutes earlier than the other half, and made noise, so the second half were given an extra five minutes in case they had been disturbed. One got up and wanted to walk out! It is boring in mocks when you have finished the exam ... I remember feeling frustrated about it too!

At break a pupil called me over - he had seen what appeared to be an injured pigeon against one of the doors and was trying to protect it in case any of the other pupils came to hurt it. We called for a caretaker to come and deal with it - I didn't want to touch it myself. After a while we realised that there was a teacher in the room behind the door, so I called him over and made signals through the window not to open the door. He looked down and saw the pigeon, and slowly pushed open the door. I was a bit worried about the pigeon, but then it hopped up and walked away! Then the caretaker arrived with a broom and pan, went towards the bird - and it flew away! So we decided that it must have just decided that the door looked like a good place for a rest!

After that I was on a course at the other side of London, so a long tube ride there, then another long one across London in the evening, getting home just before 7pm. So a long day, but we've had tasty salmon, leeks and spinach for dinner and now Blue Velvet is on, so I'm half watching that, half writing this, and half planning tomorrow's lessons ... Maths was never my strong point ... !

Bit better today ...

Apart from the fact that the coaches didn't arrive, the Year 11s didn't do much work, the Year 9s were loud and two of them shouted at me in detention, the Year 8s were so noisy another teacher came in to see what was going on, the Year 10s were videoing each other happy slapping each other, and the arrangements for tomorrow have been changed so I'll be the longest teaching teacher in the Sixth Form conference at the end of the day ... apart from all that, it's been a much better day! I think I'm perhaps even more positive under adversity ... Or maybe its the prayers of the sisters at church! Tomorrow is another big day, with the conference, an inspector in school and a Year 7 school trip (of which 19 out of 40 students have so far been given permission to go), so I wonder how that will go ... I think I need my sleep ... I'm sure I've forgotten something!

Non exploding head day!

My head didn't almost explode today! However, that doesn't mean the classes were all excellent ... Year 11 were copying out key words though, so at least that meant that most of them have something in their books. Not great, I know, but still ... sometimes you just have to get them to write something. We did have a good discussion, though, since the new topic covers contraception, abortion and euthanasia.

Had a strange experience with two year 9s who kept on insisting that they wanted to print out their essays - I told them know, I'd print them out later, but they kept arguing, even after I started teaching - strange because it was really unlike them.

I have had some great Year 9 work, though. One level 8!

The Year 7s were taking part in an enterprise activity in the hall, which was fun. They made hats out of balloons, and had to explain what the hats represented. There were some really good ideas, like the hat that came with a jumble of balloons, which represented sharing good ideas - all the links were different ideas that the wearer had got from people.

Almost didn't update!

It's been a busy, eventful and generally positive week - and a busy weekend - again! - hence the late entry.

Monday was fun - we had the TV cameras in, and the Year 7s were excellent. Very well behaved. I've managed to make some nice certificates for them which should be handed out in assembly this week. I took off the two lessons before filming, which was just as well since some of the websites I wanted to use weren't working, and we had to get them up and running first!

Our next big day was Wednesday, a special day for our House. We had a visitor to the school, a man whose son was killed a couple of years ago. He spoke very movingly - you could have heard a pin drop. Shame the students weren't so attentive during Mass in the morning!

The next major event was after school on Thursday. I had to give a presentation of my findings of my research. Just need to get it written up as my dissertation now! It was a fun evening though, especially on the way home in the bus with some other teachers, where we discussed how we could use new technologies to move the school forward.

I've spent the weekend marking the Year 7 and Year 8 assessments. The Year 9s will finish theirs tomorrow, then the Year 10s and 11s later in the week. And then it's half term! (And writing up the dissertation ...)

Disappointment at Formula 1

Well, I'm feeling really quite sad at the moment, since we've just watched Lewis Hamilton go off the pit lane and have to retire from the Chinese Grand Prix. So there's just Brazil in two week time. I hope Hamilton manages it ...

Highlights of the week? Well, my Year 7s gave their presentations, and some of the students in the lower group did particularly well. They had to speak about their community, and there were some very clear and confident speakers. It's a shame that in between times, so many of them are rude to each other, shouting out, pulling faces, drumming, getting out of their seats ...

My other Year 7s were practicing using the computers. I got them all logged on - and the website was blocked! Great. Such are the pitfalls of using the ICT suite!

It's been quite busy, but mostly okay. The Year 11s were much better than last week, and the Year 10s had a couple of good lessons, mainly because some of the more disruptive students were not there.

We had a parents' evening as well, which was interesting ... it was an explanation of what parents should expect with the SATs coming up, and one parent made a big scene about the lack of communication with the school (I think she thought it was the sort of parents' evening where you meet the teachers rather than an information evening), then another parent asked her to talk to someone by herself rather than wasting everyone's time, so that was interesting.

Busy weekend trying to get ready for tomorrow and a presentation of my research on Thursday.

Tuesday

Had another Year 11 "Muslim" pupil today. I suspect he got the idea from the first one ... so two letters sent out today.

With the first Year 11 pupil not in my lesson today, it was a much better class. Not great, but better. Have them again tomorrow ... hope we get something done!

My Year 9s were writing about their dreams today - I look forward to reading them. One boy said "that was a good lesson today, Miss" on the way out - still not entirely sure if he was being slightly sarcastic or if he had enjoyed writing about his dreams! Anyway, he's quite a happy, smiley, cheeky wee boy, so hopefully he had enjoyed it!

Nice easy year 7 lessons today. They have lots of questions, and one of the groups is quite slow, but hopefully we'll make good progress as we go. Hope at some point to really think about differentiation.

Have to prepare a presentation for the SACRE tomorrow night. Will plan tomorrow after school, since I'll be staying there.

Had poussin for dinner. Tasted just like chicken ...

A full day

It surprises me that pupils do not own coloured pencils. Fair enough, some pupils might not want to bring them to school in case they get lost, and perhaps year 9 students might think that they are too old for colour pencils (although whoever is ever too old for colour pencils?!). However, for year 7s to claim not to have colour pencils at home is a sad state of affairs indeed.

One of the features of a Catholic school is the prayer at the beginning of each lesson. One year 11 decided to interupt this twice by calling out that he was Muslim so was going to pray a Muslim prayer, trying to say "Salaam Alaikum" (but failing), then lying down on the floor. Not even close, mate! When he was sent to the referral room he decided to kick up a fuss, and it took three teachers to eventually move him. He can work, but the amount of chaos that he causes in between his bouts of working are too disruptive.

Year 10s were also quite chatty today. Three very noisy pupils in particular. And the top set Year 9s also surprised me by their attitude. A few did not seem to come prepared to learn. A similar case with some of the Year 8s. Three girls were 20 minutes late, their excuse not exactly watertight (we were with Miss ... don't you believe us?), and were still complaining at their detention. At least they turned up, of course. One year 8 and one year 9 didn't. So some chasing up to do ...

My legs are aching - they were out of the habit of heels and standing on my feet all day! Hardly stopped - a full complement of lessons, a pupil came to see me at break, detentions at lunch and after school, a whole school meeting (boring!) after school, notes about pupils in other teachers' trays after that - school is well and truly back!

Next week - plans

I now know the plans for next week. And I will be teaching non-stop. We all will be. Teaching every lesson. Drugs and Sport. Teaching about the connection, that is. Not taking them and doing some. Although by the looks of the timetable, that could be an interesting option.

Am annoyed with Sky and Virgin Media. Trying to change broadband providers. Very complicated, when I'm sure it shouldn't be. Will try again tomorrow.

Think I'm teaching all day tomorrow as well. Have offered to do lots of cover for a colleague who is out on subject business.

It's the little things that make teaching worthwhile. The Year 11 student, whom I only taught about once during a revision session in the holidays, who came to say thank you and that the session was really helpful. The Year 8 tutee, who looked really pleased when I agreed that I hoped to continue being his form tutor while he is at school. The Year 9 girl who had been a bit awkward during the lesson, and when I was still nice to her at the end of the lesson, got up, while I was outside shouting at pupils who had gone running outside, cleaned my board for me, which made my end of school routine much easier. The Year 10 boy who smiled in recognition of the fact that H and I went to see him play basketball at the weekend. The three Sixth Formers who are so happy at going away for a few days to a Youth Festival, and asked if there would be an iron there. The Year 7 girl who realises that the class isn't going to leave while the room is still untidy and goes around picking up the papers even though she had already tidied up her area.

The good pupils, the trying hard pupils, the grateful pupils, the wanting to learn pupils, the thoughtful pupils, the humorous pupils, the dedicated pupils, the polite pupils, the hardworking pupils ... I salute you!

This week

I am trying to get rid of a cold. I have been taking Vitamin C tablets, drinking lots of water, eating satsumas, covering myself in Vic, eating chicken soup, drinking Innocent smoothies packed full of vitamin C, having extra sleep ... hope it shakes itself off soon.

Enjoyed the peace and quiet at lunchtime after the final pupils had left! Decided to come home early to try and get rid of the dreaded lurgy!

A2 had their exam today. My final one. GCSE Year 10s and Resits yesterday - most pupils seem quite happy with it, and I thought it was a fair paper. Most of the topics that came up were ones that were expected.

When we were visiting a friend on Saturday night, quite late, I heard a strange, unearthly screaming sound. I looked out the window, as our friend told me it was foxes. Outside there were at least six foxes, chasing each other through the streets. They were quite aggressive, and our friend's sister was attacked by them once. So I was a bit scared when we left, but it was okay!

Sports Day on Friday. Was a bit offended in the staffroom today at lunch ... a couple of colleagues were discussing who would run in the women's relay team, and were asking loads of women, and mentioning the names of many women on the staff - but not me! Eventually the man sitting next to me suggested "What about NL?", but there did not seem much interest. The original girl discussing it then phoned over to someone else, and mentioned who might take part, "Me, Miss X and -" (here she laughed a bit) Mrs NL"! I know I don't ever take part in anything sporty at school, but I was in the relay team at primary school! (Although I'll definitely not be doing it this year, since I can hardly breath when I'm not moving, never mind trying to run!)

The first exam of the season ...

I'm glad to say that they were all there, bright eyed and bushy tailed, fully equipped with pens, revision guides and thinking caps. The questions all seemed fair, and most of the topics we said would come up, did come up. There were a couple of a bit off-centre questions that seemed to step outside the typical question structure, eg "Explain why people argue about abortion" rather than "Explain why there are different Christian attitudes to abortion", but hopefully they will have remembered the many arguments we discussed on Tuesday. It was a fair paper, and if they haven't all got great grades, then I don't know what else I could have done. Let's hope it bodes well for the rest of the exams.

I visited some work experience students today. One group was working for a record label (a small one!) and the other with a director for what I presume is a small independent film company. Very interesting work going on ... but a few of them seemed to be sitting around doing very little and seeming a bit bored! Let's hope it was just because it was just before lunch and they got shy speaking to me ... their supervisors were happy with them, though, so they must be doing something right!

The car is in for its service, so I have a little automatic Jazz at the moment. Automatics are so strange ...

Best day so far

I think yesterday was the best day so far since coming back after Easter. Partly because so many of the Year 11s voted with their feet claiming that the had coursework elsewhere. I didn't give them permission to go, but they walked out anyway. (Spoke to the teacher they claimed to be seeing who has given them a piece of his mind). The Year 10s helped me label the Year 8 report boxes, I saw my nice Year 11s for the last time, and the Year 8s really enjoyed the video I'd put together for them.

H has double booked himself - art opening or England v Brazil at Wembley?!

Slightly better

It doesn't take much to be slightly better, but it was today. My nice Year 11s are living up to their name. Only one lesson left before their exam ... scary. Both my Year 10s seemed to have calmed down a bit ... not great but they sort of followed the interactive presentation I had about Mother Teresa on the IWB. AS and A2 are always okay, although the punctuality is not great. Talked about Cloning. My nose is bright red but I'm feeling much better, and have produced a powerpoint for tomorrow's Year 8 lesson. Using ICT again. Hope it works again - it's supposed to be raining. Not so good. Last week was sunny, and had a sort of holiday feel to it. Reports are almost finished.