Beautiful skies

Some of the nicest times of the day are spent driving. Not so much when there are queues of traffic, those are times that are hard work, but early in the morning and at dusk, when the light is low and beautiful.

This morning I was met with candy pink cream and frosty white blue skies, heavy mist lying low over the frosted green leaves as I drove past ponds and roadside verges. Then in the evening, the blue to navy sky had a thin white crescent moon shining out as a beacon on the way home, hovering above the white, red and blue lights of the Canary Wharf buildings that I was driving towards. At times like these I wish I could paint, or record in some way the peacefulness, the beauty of these sights. At least if I can sketch them in words, then when I read back over my blog I might remember the images.

Half my lessons were taken up with invigilation. One of those periods should have been a Geography cover - I asked another teacher if she wanted to swap, and to my astonishment, she agreed! So that was nice and relaxing. I also had two Year 9 lessons. They had to write poems reflecting on issues of evil and suffering, and Christian responses to those issues. A couple of pupils were adamant that they couldn't write poetry, but then one boy revealed that he was a lyricist - not a rapper, more of an MC. I asked him to recite to me one of his lyrics - it was excellent. But he still said he couldn't write about the sort of suffering we had been reflecting on, so we discussed in a bit more detail. I explained that there was a lot of suffering in school, for example loneliness or bullying. He revealed a bit about his life, but didn't want to write about that, so then put some lyrics together. They were great. Students do have hidden talents some times! (Quite often in fact!)

Some of our Sixth Formers are on retreat this week. Sort of wish I were with them! It will be nice and relaxing and they'll get to do some fun outdoors stuff. However, I wanted to be at home - H is still not too great, he's obviously a lot better but I'm still worried about his chesty cough. Being here won't really help him, but I feel happier!

My year 7s did some display work on the Jesse Tree. I do like this as an idea, an alternative to the Nativity Advent Calendar, which gradually tells the story of God and his people, using symbols to remind us of key people, like Noah, Abraham, Joseph, Moses, Ruth, Isaiah, John the Baptist and Mary. We'll finish it tomorrow. It's a shame though that a few pupils spoil the atmosphere for the others by throwing pencils at each other.

H has a photo shoot tomorrow, so he's tidying up the place. Better and go and finish helping! (I've done the dishes, so that's one chore out the way!)

Sixth Formers and Computers

I have discovered Joe Jenkin's book on Ethics. It's very good. Wish I'd found it at the start of the year instead of a couple of weeks before the exams.

Sixth Formers were all over the place today. Couldn't teach them. Shame, it was a lesson on Sectarianism, watching the Panorama documentary. I was looking forward to hearing some Scottish accents.

Year 10s ... well, why do they think they're in school? Surely not to learn ... One or two, maybe, but that's not the way it comes across to me.

One of my Year 7 pupils got very upset when he wasn't allowed to play games on the computers ... being in the computer room is supposed to be fun, supposedly, a reward. Not about learning. Although when he realised that I wanted him to learn about a disciple of Jesus, he suddenly got interested, and thought that it must be okay to do the work then. I think he thought I was trying to make him do ICT. Strange.

And now I'm home ... H comes back tomorrow from Amsterdam (hurrah!) so I'll start eating properly again then.

Come on Chelsea!

Must go and do a bit of marking now. And plan a couple of lessons ...

A Proper Snow Day!

We sort of expected it this morning ...

The snow at home was not quite as conducive to making snowballs as the last lot, since it was a bit slushier, but it wasn't too bad either. The drive in to work was a lot slower because of the slush, but it was nice to see everything getting whiter the further north I went. The worst part of the drive was the road that leads to the school, which had not been gritted so was quite snowy.

I didn't see anyone around, so went up to the staffroom, where a few staff were milling about. One of the Deputy Heads arrived and said that we would be sending the pupils home about midday, partly because so many staff from further afield had been unable to get in. So we were to send the pupils to the canteen, from where we could distribute them to classes as necessary.

A few of us had a bit of a snowball fight in the back playground. That was fun ... nothing like setting a good example! I mean, that, it was *nothing* like a good example!

The pupils were really quite good. One of the Houses had a Feast Day today, so the Year 7s and 8s went to join them, the Year 9s went off to SATs revision in the library, the Year 10s went to Maths for some revision, and the Year 11s went to English to finish off coursework and revise for their exams.

Those of us who do not teach those subjects were asked to help out where appropriate. I went to English. There was a group of six or seven boys whose teacher was not in. One was playing on the computer, a couple were gazing out the window at the snow, sitting on a radiator, and the others were milling around, unsure what to do. I went to another teacher to get some poems that they could revise, and thus started my first English lesson! It was great fun. We read a poem called "Island Man" by Grace Nicholls, and discussed its context, attitude, language and structure. I remembered terms from my days of Practical Criticism such as assonance, oxymoron, alliteration and metaphors. We talked about the different stanzas and the layout of the poem. It was great fun! And at the end one of the boys thanked me for the lesson, which was a bonus!

The pupils left about 11am, and most of the rest of us not long afterwards. I went to the garage to get a new rear windscreen wiper, which had fallen off in the morning. And now I'm home!

Best news of all ... tomorrow is a real snow day! (Although possibly without snow ...) The school is closed! So I can have a lie in. Bliss!

Conference

Drove to the East Midlands last night, with another colleague from another school in the LEA, to take part in a conference looking at the Black Pupils' Achievement Project. A fine drive - we talked non-stop - and we arrived just in time for a delicious dinner: sundried tomatoes and artichoke salad, cannon of lamb with fondant potatoes, caramelised betroot and fresh veg with a jus d'orange, chocolate brownie with banana ice cream, and coffee with tablet and mini chocolate fondant filled meringues. Delicious! We had time to briefly run through our presentation, then I sat up chatting until 1am with the leader of our project and presentation and a friend of hers.

We were first on this morning, and I was glad of a tasty, filling and not too greasy cooked breakfast beforehand. The presentation, which included a couple of models of teaching methods ("articulate" and visuals/oracy/questions model), was well received. There were three main parts - an overview and explanation of the course, given by the course leader, leading the conference in an interactive activity modelling the teaching idea, "articulate", led by my colleague, and my brief presentation of my research, explaining how the course leads into working on a Masters. I had to rush my section, unfortunately, because the first two sections went on a bit too long! However, I managed to demonstrate one effective strategy, and a couple of people afterwards said that it was helpful and they are going to use it.

Good discussions afterwards about the BPAP strategy in our individual schools. Very interesting to hear what other schools are doing. I think it would be good if we could start a teaching and learning group at our school, with members of each department, so ideas and strategies could be shared with all members of staff on a subject-specific basis, although still with a cross-curricular emphasis (eg on literacy, or BPAP).

Another issue that was raised is the paucity of good, relevant images on the web of black people, and other ethnic minorities, for example in Catholic churches. There are images of black people in Pentecostal churches, for example, but very few in Catholic churches. Someone suggested that I write to parents to see if they have photos they would be willing for us to use in lessons, so that our visuals could become more representative of the communities that our pupils come from. I'm planning on following that up.

Right. I think I'll head to bed and get some rest before tomorrow - when I have a parents' evening with my form!