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I think that I have to accept I have an interesting class with two very strong characters, I need to accept that they are children and will push me.  I do not believe in shouting in the classroom I think that a look and a quiet word often say a lot more.  The children in my class know what I expect and that there will be consequences if expectations are not met.  They all know that I care about them individually and that I will be more disappointed if they do something wrong rather than cross.

I think my overall tip to myself and others is to go and read (for me again) Assertive Discipline by Lee Canter.  It is where all my behaviour skills come from.  Among many messages in this book the key is to be calm, fair, firm and consistant.  I know how much of a battle this can be and perhaps sometimes I need to take a check and realise that on the whole my class are ok and I need to stop being so harsh with myself.

ISFP – The Artists

The gentle and compassionate type. They are especially attuned their inner values and what other people need. They are not friends of many words and tend to take the worries of the world on their shoulders. They tend to follow the path of least resistance and have to look out not to be taken advantage of.

They often prefer working quietly, behind the scene as a part of a team. They tend to value their friends and family above what they do for a living.

I do have to say I do take the worries of the world on my shoulders just never new it would come through so much in what I wrote!

I really am finding working as part of a team as the hardest bit of my job, that is not to say I am not a team player, I just find working as part of a team to give children in the year group the same experiences hard.  The head of my school is really into every child having the same experience throughout a team and has been having a real push on it so far this year, she even like all role play areas to be the same.  I do get her point that no child in the year group should miss out or feel another class is more exciting etc.  BUT I am left feeling frustrated and disliking my place within the team.

My major issue is teaching styles, they are task card crazy!  Everything seems to need a task card – now here is the thing with a class that are over a quarter EAL and really poor readers at that they cannot access what is on the card – so what is the point?  I need to explain the task anyway so why waste paper and ink to produce something that they cannot read.

Also I find theme so boring and if I find it boring how can anyone else not?  The potential in the topics is there but it is always linked to a skill that must be able to be assessed!  I know children gaining skills etc. etc. is important but is life experiences and making learning fun and remembering fun learning not important.  This frustration comes from the curriculum change in Scotland where we had got away from skill teaching and taught from what the children where interested in.  Perhaps if the Scottish way of thinking came down to England that would be fab!

I should say that working in a team is good for me in as much it is teaching me that perhaps I am not always right!  Overall though I find it frustrating and wish I could close my door and teach in my own way!

1. I have been too to catch breath
2. My hubs laptop broke so trying to get time with mine is like trying to breathe at work

I think a little update is needed while I have breath and the hub is out for a bit so time with my laptop can be reclaimed.  I can only begin to tell you how busy I have been and therefore how tired I am.  I feel like I am an NQT all over again trying to learn what I am doing and even perhaps begin to understand what I am doing.  I really cannot get over how different the two systems are so different, really you would think teaching is teaching but no, no it is not!  There are a million and one more expectations in England than there are in Scotland and that is on the teacher as well as the child.

The big thing that I cannot get over is how different the attitudes are to testing.   The pressure is already on to get children up the two sub levels and they are expected to achieve big things.  I have one boy in my class who speaks no English and I have been told he will be judged in three years time on if he gets a Level 3 or 4.  I just cannot get over this!  Perhaps it is the school I am in, but surely a child that speaks no English, that has NEVER been to school should be given time to develop just like they do in Reception.  Instead I feel I am spending time trying to rush him through his understanding of letters, recognising his name etc. in order to get him to some form of level.  In Scotland yes there where tests but they are all done in house and the pressure is not on the teacher at all – if a child achieves they achieve.  It is strange how there is such a difference.  Again perhaps it is the school I have found myself in but I do feel testing and getting up the levels is the most important thing.

The other thing that I do struggle with is being part of a team.  I am a control freak at times I do best when I am in control of a situation doing what I want to do.  Now I find that  am in part of a team my voice can often be unheard because I am new or it is not what the Team Leader wants.  Things are done in a manner that I would not do and I really struggle with this.  I am sure that as time goes on my voice will be heard more and more of what I think is for the best will be considered.

Although the above sounds negative I do have to say I am enjoying my time in the school – the 14 hour days can be long but I am doing what is best and I feel that is important.  I have had experiences that had I remained in my old school in Scotland I would never have had.  The way in which we treat the children is fantastic and I have to admit I love that children strive to want to do their best because of what is instilled into them.

I really like that I am being challenged and I am hoping that this continues – although knowing my head teacher I am sure the challenge will never stop.  I hope that everyone is having a good time back at school.

Things I still need to do:

• A few labels to make for the classroom
• Get some new clothes
• Get a new pencil case
• Read through others planning for the first few weeks and get my head around it (team planning)
• Make sure I relax a little as I do not feel that there will be much time when I go back

I hope that you all take the time to relax some while catching up and doing those last minute jobs before you go back.

Children should be talking 70% of the time and teachers 30%.

Now this is something that I still haven’t managed to perfect but I am getting better.

Now onto the groupings – these can be done for either groups (which in an ideal world would be no more than 4) or can easily be adapted to 2.  I should point out that a little work is required for these groupings but once made keep them safely and they can be reused.

Rainbow chips: -

For this all you need are squares of card in 4 different colours.  Each colour of card has a different question associated with it – the question is totally up to you as the teacher.  Give each child a different colour of card and a short time to think about the answer they will give to the question.  They then get up (tucking chairs in) and start to walk around the classroom.  You as the teacher hold up the cards of the pairing you want to go together e.g. red with blue and green with yellow.  Children need to find someone who has the card they are looking for and then they talk about the questions.  Repeat this as often as you want.  Eventually if going for groups you ask for one of each colour or all of one colour etc.

Jigsaws:-

I think for this one the name is in the title.  Basically get some pictures (different ones)  and laminate them and cut them into the number of pieces you want in the groups.  Give them to children and get them to find who has the other bit of their picture.  Simple.  The reason that I like this one is because if you choose the pictures properly they can be related to your topic (or whatever) and it is an instant in to the subject you are looking at.  The more interesting the picture the better and you can pose questions about them.

Another take on jigsaws:-

I am not sure if there is a proper name for this but this is an excellent one for literacy.  Get poems, newspaper articles whatever!  Cut them up and as with the others give out, give children time to look at them and then find who has the rest of that thing!  (Which is why poems are good)  When they find the others in the group then there we are.  Instant way to talk about the features of poetry/ newspaper articles etc.  To make this easier if you wanted to look at the same piece as a class, back whatever it is in different coloured paper.  Get the children to find who has the same colour as them, then get them to assemble it.  This can work well with more abstract pieces that could take a while to assemble.

These are my top three ways of grouping students and as you can see they are all variations on a theme.  You could do similar for Maths e.g. someone has the answer and then others have questions which would equal that answer, this one would be good when you know the children a little and want mixed maths groups as you could differentiate the questions given.

Do you have any other interesting ways to group children?  Let me know.

The major thing I did when I left was make another blog, which you can find here it is to use with my class next year.  Mike showed us a really good tool to use when you have a class blog that links into WordPress.  I feel my dear readers I shall let you into the secret it is called LiveWriter.  It is a microsoft thing so I am not sure how that links in with Mac users.  What I like about it is that if you set your children up as a contributor they can write in this and hit ‘publish’ BUT it does not publish to the wide web until you ok it. Instead it goes to your wordpress panel where you can read through and edit/ publish as appropriate.  It also means that the children are not seeing the main wordpress interface which could have inappropriate spam comments which the children could stumble across.  I think as someone who is going to be undergoing blogging for the the first time with children this is important to me.  As it lets me check that what they are doing is appropriate yet let them get on with it – giving them trust in class but then giving it a final one over for surnames etc. when more time to check when the children are not about distracting me as safeguarding is really important.

We did also talk about something else…… however for now that remains top secret Mwhahahahahahahahahahahaha.

All in all a very positive experience and that if you are wanting to go and learn about it contact @mikemcsharry as I happen to know that he has another date coming up soon!  (i.e. 24th August 2010)

Update @mikemcsharry asked me to link to his livewriter guide (and after such a wonderful session how could I refuse) it is very useful so find it here.

The holiday arrives and quite frankly it is nothing that I ever expect it to be.   I always follow the same pattern, a lie in on the first day with a mooch about in my pj’s and then I start work again.  I work pretty much of the holidays depending what time of year it is depends on what I do.  This holiday it is making resources, sorting out test scores from KS1, planning etc. etc.  Added to all of this this year is Twitter if my computer is on, it is on and I cannot decide if this is a good thing or not.  People tweet really interesting Educational tweets and it makes you think so as a result your brain starts thinking, your fingers start typing and before you know it you have spent X amount of time advising, responding, debating something.

As crazy as I am it appears that there are people who work 20 times harder than me!  They are doing all sorts and I admire them but at the same time it does make me wonder what sort of work life balance they have.  Ok, Ok I admit mine is shocking but they seem to do so much more.  It is a real concern of mine work life balance – as already said I know mine is rubbish but I actually don’t know how to improve it.  It is actually a weird thing you know it is bad but you don’t know what to do to make it better.  Someone had said to me if you have a vocation then you are not working and perhaps to a degree that is true but ultimately my vocation was teaching not all the paper work etc that goes with it, that just happens to be an unnecessary evil of the job.  If it was not a job then why do I get so tired? AND on occasion so stressed?  Again it is not a complaint please don’t see it like that, just a simple observation.

I also feel the fact that I am not getting away on holiday (again) this year and my husband is at work makes it easier for me to ‘justify’ the work that I do.  I can’t make anyone take a break but I am sure if others think they will realise that they do the same thing.  I think for me right now what I need to do is take me time, don’t switch my computer on first thing in the morning, go for longer walks and I am sure there a few other things I can manage to do – maybe go shopping.

I hope that my fellow teachers are enjoying their holidays and making as most of it as possible.

So I am sure that there will be many posts on this however ukedchat is a fantastic CPD opportunity of all teachers and not only that but it is FREE.

So what is it? Well it is when a group of teachers get together online and for one hour a week and discuss an educational topic.

What do I need to take part? A computer and a Twitter account.

What time and date is it on? Every Thursday between 8 and 9 PM

How do I find it? Look for the hash tag ukedchat (you are best to download tweetdeck to help with this)

What topics have been discussed so far? How can we get more teachers to use technology effectively in their teaching?, If you could revise the curriculum, what would it look like?, How can we use collaboration tools to get kids to learn from and about each other? and What are we doing to promote creativity in the classroom?

Where can I find out more? Go to the ukedchat home page.

So I look forward to seeing you there – remember it is free, thought provoking and FUN.