Parents say the funniest things!

Had a really good parents' type evening tonight. One mother I spoke to ended up talking about orgasms ... Really, it's not what I expected when I stayed late!

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.

Monday Monday ...

Parents' Day yesterday ... an opportunity to meet the parents of the pupils in my tutor group, and to hand over their most recent results and to set targets to help them improve.

Of course, a longish gap in the middle, then everyone arrives at the end and I'm there until after 5pm. Exhausted.

Then another tiring day today ... one member of the department had to go home, so I ended up with covering that lesson, and my other non contact was used up observing another colleague. Great lesson, though! Once again, some of the Year 7s ended up in detention at the end of the day ... I wish they would learn that it's better to be quiet. Leadership meeting after school, once again a tiring day. Came home and slept for an hour! Dinner is on the go now, so I'll be off to look at that. (Rice and beans.)

Another wish ... I wish the Sixth Formers would leave their phones at home, or at least leave them switched off in their bags. Really annoying.

Let's hope I'm a bit brighter tomorrow!

Meetings etc.

Turns out that last night I spoke to the same girl who had the phone out in class! Wasn't her sister after all! Anyway, phoned her mum today and had a good chat - she was really nice, friendly and supportive.

After school I had a meeting with a woman from the TDA, asking me why I was doing a Masters. Nice to talk about the academic side of teaching, and the research, which I enjoy. That meeting was followed by Year 9 Options Evening, so I'm just in, at 8pm.

On a brighter note - one pupil had asked if he could interview me about my religion as part of his ASDAN course. I'd said yes, so today he gave me a questionnaire that he'd written for me to fill in. I laughed at the question at the bottom of the page - "Write down everything you know about your religion." With three lines to answer it!!! Apart from the fact that I teach him RE, and therefore surely must know everything in the RE textboook that he has to learn for his exam ... !!! Still trying to figure out how to answer that without sounding too facetious! "Bob, I have a degree in Biblical Studies ... !!!"

Follow through, follow up.

It's been a not too bad three days, really. Although it didn't end so nicely today ... I started the day with one phonecall to a parent, which ended positively - she is coming to her son's lesson next week and feels "much better" having spoken to me. Although I should have called her before the holidays, really, because of an incident before then. One of those cases that slipped through the net ... lots of passing on but noone catching the ball and running with it. Then, at the end of the day I had to phone another parent about a pupil who had taken a phone call in lesson time - apparently it was from her mum, and I wanted to call and confirm that it was her and explain that I had sent her to the Referral Room for taking a call during the lesson - but I got her older sibling, whom I also teach, who said that she had been on the phone to her mum and then hung up on me. Which I felt was very rude, so made me very angry, but on reflection I am sure she was trying to protect her sister, and perhaps mine would have done the same for me ... ?! Anyway, I'll try again tomorrow. It's the following up on things that's the difficult bit. I'm sure my parents didn't have lots of calls from school ... ??

Busy day tomorrow. Almost a full teaching day, then a meeting with the DFES at uni, then a parents' evening back at school. When will I make that call? Better go and get some sleep now!

Curriculum Evening

It was another late night last night. My form, and the rest of their year group, had a parents' curriculum evening last night, where the parents were given a presentation about what we are focussing on in their year, and the strategies that the school is using to support the pupils. There were about 70 pupils there, and their parents, so the hall was full, although that only represents about one third of the pupils.

I was able to talk to a handful of parents, finding out their concerns and making lists of things to follow up with other members of staff. It was nice to recognise so many parents; being able to greet them and talk about the progress their son or daughter is making is quite gratifying.

It was a late night on top of another busy day, though, and today was equally non stop. (I had to leave straightaway at the end of the day with a pressure headache - however, after a painkiller and a short sleep, I'm feeling well enough to post an entry on here.)

One of the best bits about yesterday, though, was a conversation I had with one of my colleagues. We were talking about career development and the many options that are open to teachers in terms of working outside the classroom a bit more but still in school. We're thinking of trying to start up a voluntary cross curricular teaching and learning group ... I spoke to the relevant Assistant Head last night, and he's keen, but we'll have to chat about it more. I'm going to try and come up with a proposal or something ... watch this space!

Parents' Evening

I was too tired to write an entry last night ... There was an evening for Year 10 parents, and I had to do a presentation about my department, along with the other core subjects. So I was quite tired when I arrived home around 9pm ... It was a busy day all day, although because I had AS and A2 lessons there weren't too many behaviour issues.

Right, I'm off to work now! Will write later.