Teach First journey

moving north

2010-07-08T02:23:00.000-07:00

I told the Head as soon as I had written confirmation of the position in Edinburgh. Not because I felt I owed it to her, but because of the situation as it was at school what with voluntary redundancies etc. She shook my hand and said, “it sounds like a very interesting position.” Walking away from the office I at once felt relieved, as if I had a safety bubble around me.
Do I feel like I am selling out on Teach First and the mission I’d so passionately bought into? A little, yes. I am not going to be able to directly address the mission as directly as I could. As I run home each evening, I cannot help but feel that I will miss the urban grittiness of South London. However, as soon as i thought about the lessons and conversations i had had with students and staff at the school in Edinburgh, i was energised and enthused by the opportunities, expectations and the value placed on manners: it was cool to achieve (see blog on Berger’s book) and for boys to sing in the choir and study English Literature A level. All of the SLT that had interviewed me had put their children through the school. I couldn’t say the same for the Teach First School.

Another school

2010-07-08T02:20:00.000-07:00

When I was offered a position in Edinburgh, I did have to question whether I was being realistic. If my current job was full on, this one would certainly be living on the job!
“You’ll always be able to move up and get these leadership roles when you want them,” my girlfriend said. “You’re busy enough as you are and we need to enjoy being in London with our friends while we’re in our 20s.” I delayed in making the decision and as much as it perhaps shouldn’t have been, my girlfriend was the tie keeping me in London.
Nonetheless, I’ve always had the desire and passion to do a job like this. I was told by many that it would all be too much, that I couldn’t be expected to juggle this role with a girlfriend, friends, family, social life etc etc. But I couldn’t be told: I could do it all, I thought, and I took the job calling the Headmaster on a Saturday afternoon after our joint birthday party, hungover and shattered at the end of a long school week and a long, cold January.

outstanding students

2010-07-08T02:18:00.001-07:00

There are two students that stand out for me over my two year’s teaching. These two seemed to have something over their peers: a precocious understanding of how valuable an education would be to them. I suspect it came down to their knowledge of more of the world than just one London borough—towards the end of year 11, this one student had the confidence and respect of her peers to spin yarns about her experiences all over Africa.

My Voice

2010-07-08T02:16:00.001-07:00

Another thing that drove me from my students was my voice—with rounded vowels and consonants in more or less the right place—but this wasn’t the voice of my childhood. I picked it up at public school and then even more so at university, along with a penchant for cider! Perhaps this is just a bald case of social climbing—but at the time i thought this was the voice of the intellectual people and if i didn’t have the voice of the intellectual people i could never really be an intellectual. A braver soul would have stood firm, teaching his or her peers a lesson par exemple: not all intellectuals should be of the same class or speak identically. I went the other way, though. This was partly a reflection of my personality—an eagerness to please—and probably some cowardice too!

Day to day

2010-07-01T06:29:00.001-07:00

The daily grind of term time made me feel like I was falling into an inexorable tiredness. I couldn’t understand why my best mates from uni—working long hours in the city—could still play rugby on Saturday afternoons, drink all afternoon, night, recover on Sunday and go back to work at 6am on Monday. I came to the realisation that I was not invincible. The morning of my 25th birthday I plucked a grey hair from my head.

Apathy

2010-07-01T06:25:00.000-07:00

I never gave up on those that didn’t want to learn but too often it took me away from those that did—that broke my heart. What bothered me so much was that they just did not care: a handful of students just didn’t care whether I helped them or not, whether I marked their essays or not, whether they achieved or not. These students were sometimes rude and aggressive and couldn’t see the point in working ad learning. Though I had faith in them, these were the students that undermined everything I stood for and believed in.

Year 11s

2010-07-01T06:24:00.000-07:00

I did promise my year 11s that whatever work they did for me I would mark and turn around within 24 hours since they were my priority. This was in a vain attempt to get them to redraft coursework and do practice exam papers. It didn’t work. So often I wanted to shake them and say, “stop wasting time!” It still feels like a failing on my part that I couldn’t get them to see the need for urgency.
The start of one lesson was so bad I spent half an hour adding up all the late minutes to every lesson and explaining how many extra lessons that gave other students in other schools. They stared on blankly.
I resorted to having mocks every Friday and I would do an hour’s marking on Sunday evening ready for Monday but when I put the exam papers on the desks in front of them the boys would stop for a second during their animated discussions about computer games, glance at the grade, blink, and then return to their conversations, deaf to anything else going on in class.

moving on...

2010-07-01T06:18:00.001-07:00

In November one of the VPs asked me about next year and made some murmurs about possibly helping to run the student commission on learning with her. In principle I wanted to stay. However, I didn’t feel as though I had figured out whether I could really do the inner city school thing. I wanted to continue to work with some of my colleagues who were truly inspirational. However, by February, the thought of doing another January seemed like self-flagellation: I couldn’t be the best teacher I could be at the school and the increasing pressure on eeking out C grades at GCSE was getting me down. Pressure from above was growing: a result of pressure to hit the government target of 30% A-C and the English Department, more than any other, was being hit with more and more strategies: data, mocks, data, after school revision classes, data, intensive revision sessions (all paid for by the school while the funding elsewhere was so tight that the school was looking for voluntary redundancies) and more data. I now realise that the increasing pressure may well have always been there but I only became more aware of the academy’s agenda. And I didn’t like it.
I realised that the feeling I’d had back in September when the sun still shone and I felt on top of the school year had long faded away. I started to dream of teaching in a school of well-rounded individuals, classes where I could make 100% of the minutes count.

Despondency

2010-07-01T06:09:00.000-07:00

I recall having this conversation with a teacher one year ahead of me and then being on the receiving end of the question this year:
“Does it really get easier?” and the response was the same both times,
“It will never be as bad as the first!”
Indeed, as I started my second year, I had been at the school a good deal longer than a large chunk of the staff. I knew that the school was very territorial and whereas before I was very much coming into their “endz,” I could probably say that I was now “rep’ing the same endz” (sic). Further, two of the most important people to have on side in a school—the secretary and the caretaker—I knew fairly well. September was a dream, reinvigorated by the summer, I would be in school by 7am to return my year 11 work quickly and I would work on my form’s self-esteem blasting them with quote after quote from Mohammed Ali. In early October I was definitely thinking about staying on another year and trying to take on some extra responsibility.

Turning point

2010-07-01T06:06:00.000-07:00

All through my first year I’d waited for the moment when it would suddenly get better. I kept promising the next landmark: Christmas, Easter as the watershed with behaviour. It wasn’t until the summer term, though, that I noticed I was much calmer in front of the students and they were calmer as a result. I still tried my best to perform for them, though: telling them stories, telling them about my weekend, playing a role and my favourite classes quickly became malleable. My most tricky classes, however, I still had to bamboozle with clips, powerpoints, music and quick tasks. I never really shook off the horrible feeling in the pit of my stomach before lessons with one particular group. It was the unpredictable nature of their mood which I found difficult. At the end of a Monday—when I taught solidly back to back, including 30 minutes of tutoring—I would be visibly frazzled and the bin would be overflowing with packets of junk food the students has surreptitiously being eating.

Festival of Education

2010-06-29T01:14:00.000-07:00

I came across adverts for a "Hay-style-festival" of education in the papers this weekend. The line-up looks impressive with speakers from the worlds of education, culture and entertainment. I'll certainly be heading across.

http://www.festivalofeducation.org.uk/

This one student...

2010-06-16T02:28:00.000-07:00

He has a benign face when he is not scowling; he has quite a round face and a spattering of freckles across his nose which do an awful lot of diplomatic work for him. He is a strange juxtaposition of anger and embarrassment. He talks consistently, always politely apologetic, but always talking!!

His class always listen carefully to the text I am reading them but when it comes to listening to each other, proceedings fall apart. Several separate conversations strike up while individuals try to share small observations. The pattern goes something like this: I apologise to the person taking, turn to the students talking to each other, ask them to stop, explain that it’s rude to speak over others, they stop while I am talking to them before turning back to continue their conversations the moment the firs student started sharing his/her observations again! Grrr!!!!!

A secret

2010-06-16T02:25:00.000-07:00

I told my year 8 class a secret today but made them promise not to tell anyone else. I told them they were my favourite class. I know this is wrong but, to be honest, there isn’t much competition. Theirs are the lessons that I really look forward to. We have also been on trips to the imperial war museum, they have written, produced and directed their own play, raising nearly £300 for Great Ormond Street in the process. I arranged for them to perform for the Teach First office before Christmas and then for a big city firm where I’d previously done work experience over the summer. Recently the lady from Great Ormond Street came in to thank the students and tell them about where their money would be going.

Glasses

2010-06-02T04:08:00.001-07:00

Gradually, if not intentionally, I’m giving up contact lenses. At the end of a long day’s teaching the world looks like a 3D film without the glasses. Even my vanity can’t hold out against this level of visual confusion. I realised today while running a half term revision class that every so often I pause to push my glasses back up my nose. I have come to think of this gesture not as a practical necessity but as a pedagogical affectation worth cultivating, a way of underscoring salient points!

Saying one thing and meaning your mother...I mean another!

2010-05-25T08:05:00.000-07:00

At a recent careers event in the city, I found myself hustled by circumstance into spaces that I reject politically, personally, aesthetically. And somehow I said, looking around, ‘This is great.’ Why does my instinct blurt unsolicited exactly the opposite opinion to the one I hold?!

The visiting writer and role models

2010-05-11T09:24:00.001-07:00

I was mad keen to get a friend of mine from university to visit the school—her play, ‘Eight,’ had recently won awards at the Edinburgh Festival and she was about to go off to New York for a run there. I thought this a perfect opportunity to let my students meet a role model. Quite early on in my first year, I had no control over the majority of my classes and Ella, I fear, had a horrid experience. I was hugely grateful to Ella for giving up her own time to come and work with the students. However, the experience made me reflect on role models—Ella and I were both white and public-school educated—I concluded that this ultimately drove me from my students. I still think that class and race matter when it comes to being a role model. The next visitor I arranged to the school was a gangster rapper by the name of Napoleon who used to rap with Tupak and more recently converted to Islam. This seemed to go down a lot better.

A great day’s lessons

2010-05-11T09:21:00.000-07:00

When it goes well it’s so easy. I feel balanced and like I could do this job forever!

Standing up for the hoodies

2010-04-30T07:55:00.000-07:00

I recently took my students on a trip and was amazed by the reaction and obvious misgivings that people had for teenagers. These misgivings were not only apparent through body language but general rudeness! Why are our teenagers so maligned?

When we got on public transport, there were a good number of adults who moved away from us—we were not noisy--I can only assume it was because they thought the teenagers were trouble. Later in the day, we walked into a shop where the students were to buy their lunch. Students were only allowed to go in on their own and were followed around the shop by a security guard while they bought their lunch. Assuming that they were going to steal from the shop angered me.

Being a teenager isn’t all that easy. Some of course do steal from shops and this is wrong, but let’s ask why this happens. I suspect that the fact that they are being told about the latest must-haves being the source of happiness cannot help. I got one of my students to record an average school day for me:
Up at 6.45am; leave at 7am for school; basketball training at 7.15am; lessons at 8.40am; out again at 3.30pm, football practise until 5pm, home 5.45pm, couple of hours of homework, say, takes you to nearly 8pm. This leaves about an hour to eat the 5-a-day, relax, wash, catch up with friends/family and do chores if they are to get the recommended 9 hours’ sleep a night!

Then we give them grief when they want to chill out at weekends or holidays. Further, we have created such a horrible world, who can blame them for wanting to stay home and watch TV all day? As a result they get castigated for being layabouts and label-mad consumerists. As if the messages we are giving our teenagers through the media aren’t confusing enough, the struggle for maturity is no picnic.

Grades

2010-04-27T04:07:00.000-07:00

Grades are good. They offer prompt feedback to students about their work, letting them know WWW and EBI. Further, everyone understands the currency of grades even if they disagree with the logic of the system. What’s key is dialogue with students about grades, the criteria used, and how they can be achieved.

At the moment, though, I feel that there is so much focus on grades that we are beginning to miss what we’re all about. The focus is very much on measurable outcomes and the pressure for results is high. Instead, we should strive for an environment in which students constantly reflect:
Who am I? What do I care about? What kind of a person do I want to be? What's my responsibility to others? What do I hope to accomplish? How can I do that? Etc.
We are currently having some real trouble motivating Year 11 students in the run up to their exams but I truly think that if we were engaging students in these types of questions all the time questions of motivation would be made redundant.

Culture and ethos

2010-04-18T11:38:00.000-07:00

In 'An Ethic of Excellence: Building a Culture of Craftsmanship with Students,' Berger argues that ‘students adjust their attitudes and efforts in order to fit the culture. If the peer culture ridicules academic achievement—it isn't cool to raise your hand in class, to do homework, to care openly about school—this is a powerful force. If the peer culture celebrates investment in school—it's cool to care, this is just as powerful. Schools need to consciously shape their cultures to be places where it's safe to care, where it's cool to care. They need to reach out to family and neighbourhood cultures to support this’ (34). Perhaps this is patently obvious but it captures everything I have been thinking this year: that culture and ethos is more important than teaching and learning. That is, as important as teaching and learning is there is something that must come before it. Too many of my students have, underneath, a fragile sense of their own ability. Berger goes on to argue that it is through their work and focus on it that their self esteem will grow.

Texts without context

2010-03-31T09:13:00.000-07:00

We seem to increasingly value ‘metaness’ and prize the ‘mash-up’ more than the original source that was ‘mashed’. Reading the work of Andrew Keen and Nicholas Carr, it would seem that new technology is to blame: the former argues that the internet is creating mediocrity and swapping ill-informed speculation for genuine expertise; the latter argues that our growing attention deficit disorder and susceptibility to information overload is impeding our ability to think deeply and creatively.

I am a firm believer that the web empowers us through equity and equal access: twitter is used by Iranian dissidents and Facebook helped coordinate the aid work in Haiti. Nonetheless, it would be wrong to dismiss these sentiments as coming from luddites. This concern about the way new technology is reshaping our world stand as insightful and useful counterweights to a techno-utopia.

Technology is certainly accelerating certain trends: first, news and entertainment is blurring. We are over stimulated to the point that only sensationalism and hyperbole grab people’s attention. I smiled when my students asked a visiting speaker from a national newspaper whether news editors were just people that slacked off at work and surfed the web for ‘stuff to write about,’ as if news was about the latest and funniest ‘You’ve Been Framed’ clips!

Second, there is an increasing deconstructionist view of literature and a growing emphasis on immediacy and real-time responses, which means that readers are not immersing themselves in another world of reading in the same way they might. Reading is no longer a solitary act but social. Further, in our emphasis on speed and efficiency we are increasingly choosing the immediately available product over the more thoughtfully created one. Instead of embracing a whole novella, speech, film, for example, my students want to jump to the summary, the clip, the sound bite—overlooking the importance of context and nuance.

And third, mash-ups and bricolage are now everywhere in our cultural landscape. The cut and paste aesthetic inevitably results in tired imitations, like Lady Gaga who is omnipresent at the moment but can be seen as a third-generation Madonna.

In learning communities, then, we need to think very deeply about what this means for the future of our education system. We are at a very ambivalent time. Just today I confiscated a student’s phone and asked his parent to come into school to collect it; and yet, I run my life through a smartphone.

Dealing with the most challenging

2010-03-19T08:10:00.000-07:00

In measuring the distance between first and second year, I reflect on how I deal with my most challenging students. In the classroom next to me, I am so fortunate to have a truly superlative teacher: watching very carefully the way in which she deals with her most challenging students gives me wisdom. I have lost count of the times I have marched luckless students into my colleague’s room next door. With the youngest she has them nodding along. I get another heavy weight at the school to deal with the older ones. They answer her questions in a matter of seconds before she ends the grilling with a quip or, better still, a nod to their family or friends that she knows from outside of school. This always makes them good-natured and repentant.

I am always grateful to these colleagues for their support straightening my wayward students, albeit makes me feel despondent sometimes!

The hoody girl

2010-03-15T15:28:00.001-07:00

A new girl arrived from a sister school down the road. She arrived at my class wearing a hoodie so I asked her to take it off. She simply stared blankly. I told another student on the other side of the classroom to take his hoody off. He did and so the correct behaviour was modelled for her. “We don’t wear hoodies in this classroom,” I said politely. She still refused to remove the hoody and sat staring blankly. However, next lesson, no hoody.

Cussing

2010-03-13T06:30:00.000-08:00

I lost my rag with one of my classes this week. I have recently tried to enforce a complete ban on profanities with one group in particular that cannot seem to stop cussing. They didn’t take too kindly to this. Their argument was that anyone heard venomously bellowing “fiddle sticks” in moments of pressure might be deemed slightly eccentric rather than commendably restrained.

My problem with it is the fact that familiarity breeds out the shock value and most of my colleagues are now far more familiar with four-letter words than we might choose to be. As I walked through corridors, I imagine that if the expletives were deleted from everyday conversations that I overheard, there would be very little left. Student hangouts are not the place for those of nervous disposition or aural sensitivity.

In response, one of my students wrote me the following note: "You can't take words away, Sir. Language controls us through what we say. Even if the words aren’t there, we're still thinking it. Besides, swearing may help us let off steam, which maybe prevent us banging each other up! I'm just saying that if you banned cussing completely, every thought and frustration would still exist – new ways and means of expressing them, such as physical violence, might escalate."

Change should be disruptive; if it’s not, it’s not doing its job!

2010-03-07T02:29:00.001-08:00

Sometimes those at the top are so out of touch that they think things are as they are and always will be, that nothing can be done and everything has been tried. This reminded me of the following passage from Winnie the Pooh:
‘Here is Edward bear, coming downstairs now bump, bump, on the back of his head behind Christopher Robin. It is, as far as he knows, the only way of coming downstairs, but sometimes he feels that there really is another way, if only he could stop bumping for a moment to think of it.’

The challenges

2010-03-07T02:26:00.000-08:00

I think schools are facing more challenges than ever before and certainly from a broader base too. The most obvious is the way pupil attainment is measured in raw terms by the very explicit reporting mechanism of 5 A-C including English and Maths. I question whether the National Challenge initiative helps. Other challenges include: the recruitment challenge and the incompetence challenge in a system that seldom calls anyone incompetent; the financial constraints, unlikely to let up anytime soon in the current climate; community cohesion; attending to emotional wellbeing, promoting healthy living, tackling parenting weaknesses etc etc. However, these challenges must be seen as fruitful opportunities as we lead beyond our authority...

The challenges

2010-02-28T11:34:00.001-08:00

Beyond authority continued...

2010-02-28T11:32:00.000-08:00

Schools cannot and should not operate in silos, but need to increasingly look across and outwards. I recently came across Albert Schweitzer’s book Memoirs of Childhood and Youth. In this he has written:
‘We must not mix ourselves up uninvited in other people’s business. On the other hand, we must ot forget the danger lurking in the reverse which our practical daily life forces upon us. We cannot possibly let ourselves get frozen into regarding everyone we do not know as an absolute stranger.’
Schools cannot be ‘hot houses’ but places where ‘melting’ goes on—of dogmatic attitudes, of stubborn wills and of iron fists.

Leading beyond authority

2010-02-20T09:37:00.001-08:00

Julia Middleton and Common Purpose have coined the above phrase and it has really resonated with me; it is about seeing the bigger picture, about taking responsibility for problems other than our own within society at large and sharing emerging effective practices. From my very little experience, I also believe that the community need to do more to instil better behaviour in students. I’m an advocate of members of the public picking people up on anti-social behaviour.
Julia Middleton talks of leaders who can create their own legitimacy, that see further, wider, deeper. It is crucial for our leaders to know how things work in different worlds and bring them closer together. Boundaries are blurring all the time—why can’t independent schools team up with challenging inner-city schools? It is not about right and wrong or about individuals but about making the world around us better.

January

2010-02-20T08:55:00.001-08:00

It was drizzly, the wind howled; hail happened now and then and Thursdays dragged their heels: time crept and no light came, the air was full of water. Journalists bashed out their tired articles about the grimmest month—even day—of the year. The snowy chaos of early January just prolonged the agony when it came. Does anybody truly love anybody in January?!

Back to blogging...

A Child of The Dales, Gervase Phinn

2010-01-12T07:47:00.000-08:00

From the classroom window rolled the great expanse of the Dale. The sad child in the corner stared out like a rabbit in a trap.

‘He has special needs,’ explained the teacher, in a hushed, maternal voice. ‘Real problems with his reading, and his number work is weak. Spelling is non-existent, writing poor. He rarely speaks. He’s one of the less able in the school.’

The lad could not describe the beauty that surrounded him, the soft green dale and craggy hills. He could not spell the names of those mysterious places which he knew so well. But he could tickle a trout, ride a horse, repair a fence and dig a dyke, drive a tractor, plough a field, ilk a cow and lamb a ewe, name a bird by the faded feather, smell the seasons and predict the weather. Yes, the less able child could do all those things.

Is anyone out there listening? continued...

2010-01-11T00:03:00.000-08:00

As an experiment I got one of my classes to record—either with their mobile or good old fashioned pen and paper—the sounds in their home. There was the expected tv; siblings fighting, screaming; radio; sirens, traffic noise; however, what was so unexpected was the blaring volume of some of the audio clips that my students had recorded. It was worrying.

Surely a greater focus on listening would really increase literacy rates, not to mention the social benefits of listening to each other. Too often listening skills are pushed aside. My dad always says that we have one mouth and 2 ears and that we should therefore listen twice as much as we talk. From a teacher’s perspective, surely it is the most important of the five senses? Without truly listening to our students how do we know what they know? How do we know what they feel?

Is anyone out there listening?

2010-01-04T06:02:00.000-08:00

This is a question that I would very often ask myself last year with my most challenging groups; however, I have recently become so concerned that we—staff and students—are fast losing the ability to listen—really listen—to others and the world around us. How many people do you see plugged into headphones on their daily commute?

Adults have always been concerned by children’s playthings: television, we used to be told, would turn our eyes square. Psychologist Sigman argues that time spent in a virtual world is displacing time that would once have been spent socialising. As a consequence, young people are not developing as they should and cannot make eye contact, they do not understand personal boundaries, they have a lack of respect for authority as well as ADD and other problems that come with sitting down for too long. Semantically, playing games used to mean going outside; now it means settling down in front of a screen.

I feel we must be wary, though, of assuming that using mobiles and laptops should be any more harmful than reading the latest bestselling book--Manga (look it up!). Increasingly, that’s the way we will read: as a download on a phone! Further, with spellchecks and predictive text that write for us, one might think that this will exacerbate literacy levels. However, listening to my students, they also do a good amount of writing when blogging and messaging each other--perhaps more than any generation before--we must, then, better harness and tap into these developments.

End of termitis, the mind and high expectations (again)!

2009-12-21T07:10:00.000-08:00

When I get to the end of a term and fall ill I always reflect on the control the mind exercises over the body. The fact that teachers can pull out all the stops in the usual water-down-the-plughole-syndrome of the end of term, only to fall ill the moment we stop goes to show that the brain is much more than just matter and chemistry.

Our consciousness often determines what we experience. That is, positive thinking exercises seem to have a positive effect on the body. This leads me back to the fundamental value of high expectations. The caveat being that we can throw rhetoric at our young people but it is meaningless if they do not feel that it’s for them.

Student leadership

2009-12-08T01:10:00.000-08:00

I listened very carefully when a very talented actor, after his first performance in this year’s Christmas play, said that the fact that he and his peers would not be around next year was the very reason the plays should continue because it was not about quality on stage but about leadership, appreciating teamwork, individual development and overcoming fears.

self discipline

2009-12-08T01:02:00.000-08:00

We need to train students to be self disciplined and to be able to concentrate too. Both are fundamental for effective learning. I like to use listening, counting and backwards-spelling exercises at the start of a lesson to settle some of my most lively classes.

Perspective

2009-11-26T09:27:00.000-08:00

The photocopier decided to eat my resources for this particular lesson. 10 minutes later it regurgitated them, as if spewed from the machine in disgust. I was late...

As I walked into my classroom I had the sense of being in one of those claustrophobic Edwardian plays where the whole world is reduced to one room. To the right of the scene one student was throwing paper aeroplanes, at the back was another student held up against the wall by another and I had time to note someone who might be a new student having an argument on a mobile phone. Then the tableau came to life...

After a bad day, I find it so reassuring to turn back after I have left the school gates and remember that it is just a building with people in it; that even when things have gone disastrously wrong, there is a world outside the classroom walls.

Self determination

2009-11-26T09:18:00.000-08:00

We must resist against those that try to define 'us': the educational system, our schools, our leaders etc. We mustn't allow others to define our world for us, as they will make our world too small.

More on expectations...

2009-11-19T23:50:00.001-08:00

Michelle Pfeiffer demonstrates her faith in the potential of every single member of her class in 'Dangerous Minds' by telling her class of disaffected students that they all have ‘A’ grades. To quieten the shouts of derision, she goes on to explain that it is up to them whether they keep it or lose it. I liked this!

The choice

2009-11-09T23:35:00.001-08:00

This strategy tends to avoid confrontation very well. The idea being that it is up to the children to sort out their own behaviour. The role is not so much about forcing them to do what you ask; instead it is about putting the decision in their hands. When a student misbehaves, a statement about the desired behaviour is useful. Then, if they refuse to comply, offer a choice, outlining both the benefits of doing as you ask, and also the consequences of refusing. Once the choice has been offered, walk away, leaving the student to consider their options. If they have not the sanction needs to be applied.
Ideally, we want our students to take responsibility for their own actions, and for the consequences of those actions. This is also vital in helping young people prepare for their lives beyond school.

The scene of the crime

2009-11-02T23:47:00.001-08:00

Another idea pinched from Sue Cowley—the scene of the crime—and I adapted this for the deaths of Romeo and Juliet. This grabbed the attention of one of the rowdiest classes and they were more than happy to go along with the fiction of the lesson.

When they entered the room the students enter a crime scene, clues are scattered around the room and they must examine the scene, discuss their findings in groups and then report back. Great!

You’ll appreciate it when you’re older

2009-10-21T09:51:00.000-07:00

An argument that ingeniously bypasses the fact that many of my male students--with manly chins, upon which hair has been growing for a few years but has not yet confidently established itself--are already older and do not appreciate it.

The story of the past

2009-10-14T23:43:00.000-07:00

Having said what I've said below, I recently came across a school website that claimed that they had all the newest, latest and best facilities. I am wary of the pressure to sweep away the stories of the past in favour of a gleaming, parent/customer-friendly future. Schools are, or should be, places where there is a distinctive heartbeat from old, story ridden uneven furniture which is quickly lost in an Ikea look alike. I suggest that cherishing the roots of a school, the collective wisdom of its history, is as important as pruning and polishing the branches.

I am by no means against change. I could certainly think of a few buildings I’d like to bulldoze! However, I believe teachers should ensure that former pupils are included in preset day school life for the contribution that they have made to the school and for the story they have of their own value formation through participation in school life.

I think it important to think about how schools tell the story of their past as well as how they participate in the present and embrace the future.

learning space

2009-10-14T23:42:00.000-07:00

I love the idea of creating learning ‘spaces’--a community of enquiry where a teacher’s voice is a voice not the voice in that ‘space’--, we need to harness better the world’s resources and weblogs, I would like to podcast lessons for students to revise, run more vocational Simulation Days, ‘Dragon’s Den’ projects, trips, concerts, talks. These things epitomise the fantastic creative potential of teaching.

Uniform

2009-10-08T00:03:00.000-07:00

I stretched my arm out as one of my students tried to enter my classroom today, blocking their way. Not only was he wearing his tie like a bandana but this was worn over the top of a balaclava!
‘What’s this?’ I asked.
‘Nothing.’
‘What’s the deal with this?’ he asked, flipping the interrogation round and touching my well-chosen tie for the day.
I said nothing (literally).
He said gnomically, ‘nothin’, Sir. It’s just what it is init.’
He began waving at his classmates through the window of the door.
I pounced on this opportunity to play the uniform game where the class used this student as an example and made him look neat and tidy. We all made an extra effort to make him look particularly neat and tidy this afternoon. That is, with a long, thin tie not a short, fat one!

Black History Month

2009-10-01T23:50:00.000-07:00

There are some great events coming up--get involved!

Similes and metaphors

2009-10-01T23:47:00.000-07:00

After a few lessons on similes and metaphors, I asked students to reflect on their uses and shortcomings as a plenary. One student, more or less, wrote the following:
‘If a metaphor is when you use a word to describe something that it isn’t, is a metaphor a metaphor? It’s very confusing. Raining has nothing to do with cats and dogs and it makes me forget what the writer is talking about. Also, you said a lot of names are metaphors but why would you want to use a metaphor to name someone, I would want my name to mean me, nothing else. That’s why similes are better than metaphors.’

The comedy sanction

2009-09-24T08:28:00.000-07:00

This was an idea I came across from Sue Cowley. When I got one student to stand in the corner on one leg, with his hands above his head for 30 seconds, it worked remarkably well. It worked as a sanction whilst also keeping the tone light and amusing. This particular student is particularly wily, and he gets away with it—his hairdo does incredible diplomatic work for him. I’ve often wished for a similarly benign head to show the world!

As long as the student accepts the sanction with good grace, it adds a nice touch of humour whilst also making your point.

Supportive colleagues

2009-09-24T08:25:00.000-07:00

This whole journey would not have been possible if it were not for the support of colleagues.

‘Young people, Jonny,’ said my esteemed colleague, as if beginning a Caribbean children’s story I had no interest in hearing today but desperately needed to, ‘they like their teachers to be figures of authority, though, not authoritarian’.

What do you do?

2009-09-14T10:00:00.000-07:00

When I seldom manage to drag myself out during term time, somebody inevitably pipes up with that question: "So, what do you do?"
"I teach", I reply.
"Bloody hell… good for you. Private?"
I shake my head. The trouble with these people is that when they speak without thinking, they say what they think. We all do this. The hiatus before the official censor moves to correct the record can be the moment when we make assessments that we didn’t know were ours: the moment the unconscious mind blurts it out.

This says so much about the perception that many have about the quality of education and educators. However, most of it is a hangover from past times.

"So," I'll ask when the chat starts to drag, "how about you? What do you do?
"Me- oh goodness, terribly boring, grown-up kind of job. Terribly dull. One of these awful corporate firms, it’s very tough at the mo."

Most important is that I work at something I care about. I care because trust is put in me to have a good influence on the lives of a group of young people, and I am determined to do that to the very best of my ability. To those "what-do-you-do-ers?," I believe it is far better to build healthy relationships in which your increasing knowledge of a place, skill, person – or even yourself – provide an evergreen source of satisfaction. There is quite a sense of progress to be had from knowing better than buying bigger.

My blog wordle

2009-09-14T09:53:00.000-07:00

a href="http://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/1127959/www.jonnytimms.blogspot.com" title="Wordle: www.jonnytimms.blogspot.com">

Time management

2009-09-10T09:08:00.000-07:00

Coming from a three week stint in the private sector over the summer and straight back to the classroom, I had forgotten how much time is wasted on inessential tasks and how self-disciplined you have to be to spend time effectively. As a teacher you are sort of your own boss--certainly one of the joys of the vocation. However, it is also true that, to an extent, the job will expand to meet the amount of time you are willing to devote to it. There are so many things in teaching that you, I feel, have to learn on the job: problem students, awkward parents, time spent on marking, a teaching style that suits you and your students. One of the greatest challenges has been developing self-discipline and time management skills to avoid working until midnight every night. Being a perfectionist does not do your social life any favours and doing 1 thing at 110% when you could do a handful at 80% is sometimes a better option.

Boundaries

2009-09-10T09:06:00.000-07:00

So important at the outset, but I still find it tricky to know exactly what I can and should expect. In my first lessons, I have taken to drawing a line on the board, asking students what it is. When they say ‘a line’ I explain how they can avoid stepping over it.

Teach First, cry later

2009-09-02T09:24:00.000-07:00

Some more interesting reflections. Thanks to a friend for bringing my attention to this.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/education/article6808341.ece

The complex journey

2009-09-02T08:56:00.000-07:00

I remember as a child the first time I looked into the bonnet of my Dad’s car and looked at its viscera. I remember the multicoloured wires twisting from one part of the engine to another, the grey, blue, transparent, black boxes, enigmatic tubes hissing out steam, oil and grease—it seemed so mysterious and magical. When I reflect on my first year’s teaching, I feel the same way. If I’m asked to explain how one event connects to another, or how I went from thinking this to that, or how one motive strengthens or weakens the next—I quite simply cannot! This is part of the reason that those around me cajoled me into blogging.

Perhaps this year will be a little clearer. Back to school tomorrow!!!

Dissonance

2009-08-14T01:18:00.000-07:00

I often spar with friends of mine who are in the private sector and we throw stereotyped insults at each other. I come out with the usual “greedy, expensive, ruthless, soulless, backstabbing” insults and he comes back with “inefficient, lazy, slow, hierarchical and poor.” Now, this is quite interesting. Before I was just bantering with a friend without really thinking but the stereotypes probably apply to both sectors. It is true that, at the core, the private sector is about money and the public about power, but there is more to it than this.

I asked my girlfriend about the Civil Service code--she didn’t know, she had to look it up, but apparently--civil servants are expected to carry out their role with dedication, commitment and in line with the core values: integrity, honesty, objectivity and impartiality. Interestingly, if we compare that to the code of most of the big four which generally centres around excellence, objectivity, integrity, honesty, teamwork and leadership; the fundamental difference lies in impartiality and competence/excellence.

I said at the start of these 3 weeks that I would be testing whether the firm has integrity in the way it does business and I would say that it most certainly does. However, I would interpret it as this: in order to do good work, it needs a good reputation and to get this it must show integrity and honesty. As Dame Sue Street says, most important of all is that we hold on to our personal values.

For now at least, I’m excited to be going back to the classroom in September.
http://www.economist.com/world/britain/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14133684

The private sector

2009-08-05T00:36:00.000-07:00

I started a 3 week internship in the private sector on Monday. The private setor--certainly money-making--is not in my bones, but, I do see this as a real opportunity to explore some variety; to look at instituional change; to look at how the private sector can change the public sector; after all, education is all that I have known.

The first thing that struck me was how quiet (and boring?) office work is. I have to say, though, that so far I have been excited by the pace and the professionalism that is omnipresent.

I'm sure both the public and private sectors focus on the deliverables/outcomes and try to do more for less. However, I will be closely scrutinising the integrity and the way business is done.

Watch this space...

Poetry slam

2009-07-29T05:44:00.000-07:00

Taylor Mali on what teachers make:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxsOVK4syxU

At the point of writing

2009-07-22T09:06:00.000-07:00

One thing I discovered while teaching writing discreetly this year was that writing is too often taught by correction--that is, teaching AFTER the event--instead of teaching at the point of writing.

Teaching at the point of writing, I found, focuses upon demonstrating and exploring the decisions that writers make in the process of composition. I found it useful to plan my agenda as teacher whilst the students were writing. By doing this I could demonstrate/model and make students aware of their decision-making. It also worked better than getting students to redraft their work since it's an easier adjustment to make.

Highlight of the year?

2009-07-22T08:57:00.000-07:00

One of the 'moments' from this year was when I was teaching narratives with my year 9 group. I got them to write part of their autobiographies. This was a struggle for some of the weaker students. However, I thought this a good opportunity to get to know them better too. I decided to interview those weaker students and I said I would type up heir words for them. This was mainly done with the few EAL students and although it took quite a while it was most revealing; when I asked the right questions some of the stories I heard about were fascinating and moving. Some of their experiences, particularly those who had only been in the country a matter of months, were frightening. When I finally typed up their work and presented it to them, they seemed to beam with pride. Enabling students is key.

Low level disruption

2009-07-16T01:25:00.000-07:00

One of the most useful ways to think of challenging classes, I have found, is to think about them in 4 sub groups, I find this more empowering. Some 'groups' will always be more challenging than others:

1. The high flyers - The top 5 who always do the right thing.

2. The workers - The "salt of the earth" who generally do the right thing, the majority 15.

3. The either ways - Those that can be influenced, the lower middle 8.

4. The desperate 2 - The 2 (maximum 3) that cause the fundamental disruption.

This is based on behaviour not academic ability and the caveat being that children do not fit neatly into groups and they often change groups, but I try to think of the group into which they most often fall.

Group 1 are the second target group, they must be praised for their consistent conscientiousness.
Group 2 I try to maintain a warm positive glow with.
Group 3 I see as the target group: this group have the potential to change the learning environment one way or the other. I see this group as the target audience for the desperate 2 and they often return maximum dividend for minimum effort. If this group are on task quickly, excuses are removed and you know them well, this can make a huge difference.
Group 4 I find will either then conform or not turn up; starving them of attention through the management of sub-group 3 is key. However, I try not to judge my quality as a teacher by my capacity to manage the desperate 2!

emotional intelligence

2009-07-12T23:56:00.000-07:00

Planning lessons is one thing, but for me, the biggest challenge is understanding the kids and their issues. I think success may lie in the ability to think deeply about what's going on in front of you as a teacher. This means having the right state of mind; asking the right kinds of questions--for example, asking what needs are being met by their behaviour; developing a strategy and evaluating it.

In order to engage with disengaged students it is necessary to move away from the narrow view of achievement. I recall Sonia Blanford talking about the "moral imperative." This is fundamental. I endeavour to contribute to the moral leadership of the school and its community. I would see this as raising the bar and closing the gap of learning; treating everyone with respect; fostering positive change. This is about leadership beyond pupil attainment and there is a myriad of achievement beyond the public eye. I will be doing some team activities in the classroom this week, for example.

Brave leaders

2009-07-08T00:22:00.000-07:00

http://juliamiddleton.net/2009/07/06/be-brave/#comment-24

No more exercise books!

2009-07-06T08:36:00.000-07:00

I've run out of exercise books and won't be getting anymore until September. As a result, I've been a bit braver about getting students not just to record ideas/concepts discussed in writing but in pictures/drawings too. For example, I got my year 7s to summarise the themes of the lesson in a freeze frame which worked very well.

Cognitive learning

2009-07-06T08:21:00.000-07:00

I've recently experiemented with not giving my students a lesson objective at the start of the lesson. As a result, there is sometimes an air of mystery about the direction of the lesson but this worked well--students had a curiosity and there was a desire to discover and learn.

legitimising the chat!

2009-06-30T03:36:00.001-07:00

In an attempt to stop the off-task chatter with my Year 9 boys, I have legitimised 5 minutes sport chat at the start of a lesson. They, or rather we, seem to enjoy this and trying to teach first lesson the morning after Murray’s late-night epic at Wimbledon, say, just leads to confrontation!

Parents' Evening

2009-06-29T08:09:00.000-07:00

I have what we call 'Academic Monitoring Day' this week and this article seemed very pertinent.
http://www.pressdisplay.com/pressdisplay/viewer.aspx

Revolutionary quote

2009-06-25T23:49:00.001-07:00

I love this quote from Lenin, 'There are decades when nothing happens, but there are weeks when decades happen.'
A great way of understanding change but it also speaks volumes for teachers and end-of-term-bottle-necks!

Change

2009-06-25T23:44:00.000-07:00

I overheard some of my year 7s in the back row discussing my shortcomings while I was trying to load a video from youtube. One student said to the other that the internet was not invented when I was at school. This hurt!
It got me thinking, though, about how different school is from when my peers and me were at school. I think what has changed are the huge pressures that everyone has to deal with from all sorts of areas. For children as well as staff, whilst there are massive benefits in embracing new and various ideas; being able to absorb change and being comfortable with it, I suppose what that may have done is to make people a little self-centred perhaps. There are increasingly questions of ‘what am I getting out of this?’ and almost as if it is an assessment of energy versus reward. However, questioning oneself is definitely no bad thing and makes things much more dynamic.

saying what you think...

2009-06-23T23:51:00.001-07:00

You know that microsecond between catching the reflection in a shop window of a disagreeably tense-looking person — and realising it’s you. It’s that tiny delay before the official censor moves to correct the record. It is the moment when we make assessments that we didn’t know were ours: the moment the unconscious mind blurts it out. Typically this is associated either with a thought too awkward to acknowledge, or with a new opinion to which we are unconsciously moving but not quite ready to declare — even to ourselves.
Such moments are precious. I believe I experienced one yesterday. One of my classes were, as usual, off task and talking about anything other than The Tempest. I usually make a judgement call about these off-task-conversations and they eventually fizzle out and work gets done. However, one boy made a ridiculous comment about the merits of a particular football player and I piped up, without thinking, and said exactly what I thought. This soon escalated into a huge class ‘debate’ and the rest of the lesson was a write-off.

Q1--Expectations

2009-06-21T23:27:00.000-07:00

There is the story of the teacher who, struggling with a difficult class of disruptive children, checked their records and, to their astonishment, found they all had IQs of 120 and above. So they resolved to make their lessons more challenging, they were less tolerant of bad behaviour and they encouraged the pupils to believe they were capable of real achievement. The improvement in them was dramatic. It turned out the figures were their locker numbers! The story’s probably apocryphal but illustrates a universal truth. The challenging balance of setting the standard at the same time as exercising human forgiveness, almost without reservation, not least in the light of human frailty, in both the ‘offender’…and the judge. Dr. Carl Reinhardt’s response to the teacher who told him he had no faith in a particular child was unequivocal: “then you have no right to educate him”.

Journey so far...

2009-06-20T08:55:00.000-07:00

What do you say after nearly one year of Teach First? Now I realise how English students feel when they can fit into the examination only about 1% of what they’ve learnt! There was a Roman playwright who said that it is when the gods hate a man that they drive him into the profession of Schoolmaster! I can’t speak with any authority for the 5th decade AD but, for today, I beg to disagree and, in particular, to disagree about teaching in a Teach First school. This has been one of the biggest challenges of my life but the most rewarding too. A lot has changed during my first year. Sunday afternoon is a day spent at the desk and I get a horrid sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach knowing just how much energy I will need come Monday morning. More than one night out a week (sober and in bed by 11pm) is one too many and I get up at a time which was, just a year ago, bed time!