Day 341 - Mud Glorious Mud

Tuesday March 23rd

Observation number 4 with the Head of Maths. It turns out that he played hockey with Jon Potter, my old boss at Diageo. This is now the 3rd connection I have with Jon through people I have met on my return to the UK. It shouldn't be Kevin Bacon, it should be Jon Potter...or maybe it should be me!

Observation goes really well (Tarsia genius again!) although the lesson is curtailed by a late assembly. Once again I get kudos for dealing with disruption and adapting on the fly without panicking. Little does anyone know that I was paid thousands to do exactly that in  my old life. I made a career of it. the only difference now is that I don't get paid thousands for it.

The afternoon is spent face down in glutinous mud in borrowed clothes as I join Year 9 and the Royal Marines on their Rewards afternoon. They organise this every term for those boys that accrue enough credits. I'm not sure how much of a reward this was as everyone got very very muddy but they all joined in and seemed to enjoy themselves. I will miss this lot.

My brother's pristine BMW gets caked in mud on the way home. Oops

Day 335 - Tarsia Genius

Wednesday March 17th


This time last year I was on a spectacular St Patrick's Day bender, I mean quality audit, in Manhattan with the out going DGUSA Exec team. This year I didn't even manage a pint.


Terrific observation today with Year 8. I am being observed by the same teacher across the same lesson each week so the trick here is to show progress by addressing the targets she set me last week. Today we did a Tarsia puzzle that is in the form of dominoes - they have to match the unsimplified algebraic expression to the simplified one. They did it brilliantly and make me look like a genius. 

These Tarsia puzzles are brilliant. You download some software that loads up a range of templates for matching anything. You input the content and the software mixes it all up and churns out a printable output that the kids cut up, match and then make posters to put up on the wall. These can last a whole lesson or just 10 mins at the beginning or end.

Day 244 -Christmas Lunch

Wednesday December 16th

Good day at school today and it even snowed a little.

I learnt that solving equations is a whole lot easier than creating them. I set my 8.1.3 class the task of creating 8 linear equations in pairs, and then creating a Tarsia puzzle. Tarsia puzzles are great - different shapes that you can create from a template piece of software, print out, cut up and then hand out for them to solve. You can use them for anything and can last for 10 minutes or a whole lesson. This was meant to be a whole lesson to create and then solve. They only got through the creating but it was good as it got them to think about algebra from a different perspective.

Had my first school Christmas dinner in a fair few years. If anything defines the difference between celebrating the Holidays in New York and Christmas here, it's the Christmas lunch served at every school and office canteen around the country in the lead up to the big day. Turkey breast, roast tatties, sprouts, stuffing, cranberry sauce and gravy all washed down by Christmas pud and custard. School lunch was exceedingly good, especially for £2.