Classroom Tales

Wow, what a year 2011 was!   My 2011 was crazy, and full of lots of ups and downs.

I thought, in absence of much blogging over the past half term (that’ll be explained!), I would do the ‘traditional’ think look back over 2011 and then forward to 2012.

So today, already a bit late(!) I’m going to look back, and the looking forward bit will be posted later this week

So here goes- here was my 2011.

BETT – The year started for me ‘properly’ with my first experience of the craziness that is BETT.  I thoroughly enjoyed my 2 days at the show, and had fun helping out with the amazing people at BrainPopUK and also Espresso and 2simple too.  I also had a go at a TeachMeet Takeover and experienced my first TMBETT (a fantastic night!)  [I’m back at BETT this year, but sadly only on the Thursday- and this year I’ve been invited to lead a LearnLIVE seminar session with some children- more details on our BETT blog- wps-at-bett.posterous.com)

TMEast- We held 2 TeachMeet Easts this year, both of which were well attended and full of super ideas.  I was really proud of how they both went, and hope to run another TeachMeet East around April/May time- so watch this space!

Conferences- This year saw me (along with children both times) being involved with 2 conferences.  One for international school head teachers in the UAE, which we joined via skype (talking about using the interenet to engage parents and children).  We also attended the Creative Partnership Celebration conference at OPEN inNorwich, where 6 children made me really proud and ‘taught’ a poetry session to head teachers based on our creative partnership work.

Teacher training- I’ve also really enjoyed getting involved with the Primary PGCE course at UEA from ‘the other side’, which is rather strange in a way since I only left the PGCE in July 2010 myself!   In May I was involved in leading a couple of sessions about the Take One Picture project and my approach to using art in the classroom, which was great fun.

I was also delighted to be asked to deliver a session around blogging, web 2.0 and e-safety, which we called ‘Putting the ‘C’ back into ICT’ as part of the ICT strand this year.  I really enjoyed the first 2 days of sessions (even though teaching 2 x 3 hour sessions a day is exhausting!) and met some fantastic PGCE students- I even think I manage to convince some to start blogging (with children and themselves) and join twitter   Sadly school commitments (more on that below) meant I had to pull out of the last day of sessions, but I hope these will be re-arranged before July so I can met some more super PGCEr’s!

Jobs- as those of you who follow me on Twitter may remember, the middle of last year was full of lots of anxiety and stress relating to jobs!   I certainly experienced the ‘darker side’ of the education employment market can be and felt, at times, quite messed around.   Typically I ended up, 3 weeks before the end of term, with 2 job offers (both temporary again for a year) one at my current school and one at another local school, and finally decided to stay where I was (since the contracts were the same)- so all worked out in the end, but boy was it stressful!

I’m hoping the same stress can be avoided this year- fingers crossed!

Finishing NQT year-  This year was also saw me complete my NQT year.  Whilst my NQT year was, of course, hard work, I really enjoyed it and feel that I have developed tons of a teacher (my reflections at the end of my NQT year are here)… that said, it is a relief not to have to be constantly recording evidence now

Saying goodbye to my first class- I also said goodbye to ‘my’ first class, a class that I suspect (and hope) I will always remember for the rest of my teaching career.  It was quite ‘sad’ to say goodbye to them, but obviously saying goodbye meant I met another group of super young people too….

New set-up.   My new class, and new year group (year 4) brought with it a different challenge, caused by my new year group being a ‘dip’ year roll wise (I blogged about it here).   But looking back so far, it’s been a great ‘change’- it’s really great having 22 children in the morning, especially with 3 adults in the classroom (the level of support, guided group work etc that we can make sure each child experiences etc…).   But it is also nice to work with the whole year group for (most) afternoons, and to team teach with our deputy head (2 afternoons a week)- there are lots more opportunities that are suddenly available with slightly more children!  (I intend to blog more about this soon!)

OFSTED + Special measures- In October we got ‘the call’ and OFSTED turned up at school (exactly 3 years after they last visited).   Whilst, of course, it was very stressful, I didn’t find the inspection process as awful as the stories I’ve heard (despite a right mess up with my first observation where I ended up teaching a lesson when I wasn’t meant to be teaching… thankfully the inspector arranged with me to come an see another lesson the next day, which went considerably better!)- our inspection team were lovely and the feedback I received was really supportive and kind.

But, the school was placed in Special Measures as an outcome of the inspection.  This has made school a very interesting place to be for the past half term.  It’s been difficult at times, especially ‘coping with’ different  reactions to the category, but there has been lots of hard work already, and I’m really looking forward to benefiting from the extra support, guidance and training that ‘comes with’ a school being in special measures- and who knows what opportunities it might throw up!

MaST-  In September I also embarked on the Mathematics Specialist Teacher Programme, which I am enjoying so far- despite spending much of the Christmas holiday writing the first assignment!  This has led to me having a higher profile in school maths wise, and I’m starting to be given some responsibility and a ‘support’ role for KS2 maths, which is a major focus area post OFSTED.  I’m pleased with this as it is the (very) start of working towards core subject leadership

 

And finally for 2 general things that didn’t go quite as well this year…

Work/Life Balance – still hasn’t improved much, and I’m finding myself working longer and longer at the moment, with often not doing much other than work in a week- so this is certainly going to be a focus next year.

Blogging and Twitter- I feel like I have neglected my blog (big time!) and Twitter towards the end of this year-  it’s been difficult as I didn’t want to come across as ‘moaning’  all the time, which towards the end of the year might have been the case!  I really hope to re-engage fully with all the amazing people on Twitter and to blog more frequently next year!

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How was your 2011?

Here’s to a super 2012!

Tim