Day 324 - Must Try Harder

Saturday March 6th

I spent all day writing Year 10 reports. The good news is that I got them done in one day which beats my earlier attempt with Year 8. The bad news is that they took me all day....all day. well, all day with frequent breaks for food and sport.

Ellen had 15 close personal friends over to celebrate the end of their exams. It looked a little dicey early on but settled down nicely to normal teenage behaviour by about midnight.

Day 292 - Drawing Perfect Circles

Tuesday February 2nd

Started a new topic with 7.2.1 today - angles. I was being observed and I think it went ok although once again I didn't quite get through everything I wanted. I did, however, use the 'plastic suction cap perfect circle drawer thingy' on the whiteboard without screwing up so I'm feeling quite proud of myself.

Year 10 have their exams straight after half term so this will be the first big test of whether I've taught them anything. They have worked hard on surds and histograms, both A grade topics so I am hoping we haven't neglected solid B and C grade topics along the way.

Day 270 - Indolent Pupils

Monday January 11th

This truly is a big chill. The temperature remains below freezing so nothing is melting and they are not sure how many teachers are going to make it in so......only Years 9,10,11 today and no uniform. It feels like Christmas week all over again.

Everyone is lethargic today, especially the kids, I can hardly rouse my Year 10s to do anything which is a shame as I am being observed. In the end, it goes quite well and DVS gives me a good rating. She is looking for more involvement from the LSA (Learning Support Assistant) in the class room. This is a fair point. I have lofty intentions of doing this but they are currently falling short as I barely have the time to organise myself let alone anyone else. Taking the time is worth it as they are a essentially an extra teacher who can help with classroom management, differentiation, focusing on some pupils so I can get round the rest.

Day 223 - Gifted & Talented

Wednesday November 25th

Helped BYS escort a small group of gifted Maths Year 10 pupils to Portsmouth this afternoon. We went to the Dockyards for a very short afternoon workshop. The kids were all from Ellen's class so I was very interested in what constitutes gifted and talented. As befits the state sector, there are specific definitions. "Able" means that the child has scored 120 or more on 1 or more of the three CAT tests every child takes. Ellen and Ted both scored 120+ in all three putting them in the top 2% of the population. "Gifted" means a child has a specific ability in an academic subject. "Talented" means a child has a specific ability in a sport or art. There is meant to be a register in every school.

Back to Portsmouth. it was short, interesting and not a whole lot to do with Maths. The kids seemed to enjoy it, partly because they were out of school and partly because they got to see a 60 pound cannonball smash a thick piece of wood in half

Day 208 - High Praise Indeed

Tuesday November 10th

The house is quiet again after our visitors have left and one thing I can guarantee as a teacher is the same classes come around week after week. On both the down and up side, I know what to expect! This morning I embarrassed Ellen as I went up to the front and answered a question in Year 10 assembly. She'll get over it.

A brilliant afternoon, when I did a group task with 10.2.2 on prime factors, which they seemed to enjoy and stay focused on, followed by a shiny new 7.2.1 class. This was interesting as it was my second attempt at teaching sequences. I learnt a lot from my first experience and it went very well. In fact, OSM loved something I did so much, he stole it for his class. That felt very good.