When I started teaching, there were so many things that I expected. I expected to find that behaviour management was a struggle at times. I expected to work hard, work late and work at home. I expected meetings, parents’ evenings, detentions, marking, marking, marking and more marking. I even expected that every time I moved […]
Tag: #holidays
Why I’m Not Going To Lay Down The Law As The First Lesson Back.
It’s customary, I know, to get students back into the swing of things with a swift run through the rules and classroom expectations. We’ve all seen powerpoint after powerpoint with lists of rules or, for the more open-minded, questions allowing classes to come up with their classroom expectations. I won’t be starting term that way. […]
Back To School Already??
So, it’s the last week of the holidays. I always start getting jittery with so few days to go. I worry that I’ll have forgotten how to teach, I worry about whether this year will be too busy, I worry about whether I’ll be able to work with all of the classes I’ve got. I […]
Round Seven: ‘Sweet Pea’ (Adult Crime Fiction)
With A Level dedicating an entire paper over to the crime genre, diving into the ocean that is psychopathy during the Christmas holidays seemed entirely academically laudable. During the season of goodwill a little dive into Skuse’s murky waters was just what I needed. It never ceases to surprise people that one of my […]
Everyone Has Bad Days…
In teaching, along with any other profession, we all have our bad days. I can’t help but think that it’d be easier to get through them if we shared our experiences and were more realistic about the demanding nature of our jobs and the way in which it hits the fan. Regularly. I’ll give you […]
Teacher Days – The Definitive Survival Guide
Even teachers with relatively few teacher days under their belts will be able to reel off the necessary ingredients of the average inset. First, allow roughly half an hour of largely mundane and superficial holiday-based chat such as: “Can you believe we’re back already?” “Did you go anywhere?” (Bear in mind that by ‘anywhere’ they […]
Last Night Nightmares – Dealing With Back To Work Blues
With weeks of holiday behind you, so many luscious meals, so much beautiful countryside, so many books and coffees, it’s hardly shocking that any of us are reticent to go back to the grindstone. Why is it that, no matter how much you love the job, the night before going back to school is one […]
Round Four: The Colour of Bee Larkham’s Murder (Adult, not YA)
Having been lent this yonks ago, I’ve been feeling guilty about not reading it but, I’ll be honest, I find it hard to read fiction written for adults during term time. YA or novels I’ve read before, yes. Those I let myself read because I know that I can either finish them quickly or put […]
Round Three: Magisterium
For the entirety of this year, one of my year seven students has been telling me to read the Magisterium series. It started with her own excitement and a brief, “You should read this book I’m reading!” and became, as the year went on, much more insistent and much more disappointed as I failed in […]
Round Two: Skullduggery Pleasant
Recently, a colleague stopped me in the corridor. His face was a mixture of concern and outrage. Without knowing what was wrong or, indeed, what I had done wrong, I ploughed in with the question: “Is everything ok? Are you ok?” “Well,” he replied, “I thought that you were an English teacher.” “I am!” “But […]