Emergency

A bit of a hiatus today caused by family illness. The first lessons I've missed due to sickness for a very long time and it wasn't even me!

Still, it did give me the chance to prepare worksheets to cover three different lessons. I was quite happy that I had covered the main elements of the topics I intended to cover today, but I will make sure that I follow up next lesson. I did all three as workbooks I can take in and mark if necessary and I will do if the responses to Q&A aren't good.

A low ebb

Quite a bad day today, so probably worth reflecting on it.

The sheer volume of work, plus students handing in late and partially completed work really hit me today. I am (just) coping and thank the heavens for for good preparation. At this low ebb to go to my PGCE course and get the message that there's a very strong chance that all I'm doing is adding to misconceptions and creating confusion, especially amongst GCSE students is the final downer.

I am really, seriously, going to have to review my practise at half-term. I can't hang on the coat tails of another's preparation.

Testing week

It has been a very busy week, with all classes receiving a mid-term test. One thing I remember from my school and university days was how irritating it is to have to wait for your results.
So I have pulled the stops out this week and every class has known by their next class their result.

This has had an extraordinarily positive effect on the classes, though some of the poorer performers have been a bit 'low' and in need of gentle handling. So yes, it is worth the effort of the late nights!

ICT Conquest

I cover one ICT homework session, one evening a week, for younger overseas students. I have been trying to introduce them to useful websites, but have clearly misunderstood how tired they were and how jaded they can be with the Internet. So I had tried an informal, 'give them a site' and 'monitor each individually' for the first two weeks. Crowd control would be the kindest description of the outcome.

So much as I might not like them personally (it did raise a groan) tasksheets do seem to be the answer. I did find the silly things (finding out if they would like to try 'bubble and squeek' while researching dictionaries) seemed to work well so I will try to do something even sillier next time!

First full observation

Last lesson of the day - given that it's 5pm - isn't ideal for an observed lesson. I had set a fairly low level of achievement because of this and it went reasonably well until about 35 minutes. A weak activity, that I hadn't defined well or explained, lost the group very quickly and I never really recovered. This also flustered me and meant I didn't really summarise at all. Not great.

Lesson? I need to test drive or role-play new activities more carefully, especially when the attention of the group might be fragile. Still there were a good deal of positives, and I was very happy with the first half of the lesson. I have asked to be observed with the same group at the same time next term, to check whether my strategy has improved.

De-slumping

I was interested by a brief experiment on my PGCE course yesterday when my tutor suggested we try a 'Brain Gym' exercise before a class. Having suffered in the previous session from the slump myself, I did feel better for this session, which got me wondering. So I have tried our Dr Carla Hannaford's suggested approach with most of my classes today, to some effect. There was a distinct improvement in one post-lunchtime group. I didn't do the exercise with the next group, who remained their grouchy usual selves.

There are other 'Brain Gym' tips too, like making sure students drink water because of the effects of dehydration, which I can certainly attest to. However, there is an element of 'cod science' here, attacked, quite rightly, by commentators such as Ben Goldacre (2006) for such nonsense as processed food "not containing water" or "directly stimulating the cartoid artery". Allegedly supported by Ofsted as an example of "healthy school practice" there is no trace of such a recommendation, which would have been worrying.

So do I continue with it? Well yes, though I'm not convinced by the science. It is a great unifying activity for the class and seems to raise a smile at least. So I think this will be my opener and 'trademark quirk' for the next few weeks at least. I think all teachers need an idiosyncracy for students to hang their hats onto (this is true of most effective leaders - Churchill and cigar; John Harvey-Jones and his bow tie) and if by some miracle it does improve retention then I'll take that as a bonus.



Goldacre, B. (2006). "Brain Gym – Name & Shame" [online]. Downloaded 1 Oct 2009 from http://www.badscience.net/2006/03/the-brain-drain/