Life's Most Important Lesson

Four weeks into the New Year and we're standing on the brink of another teaching practice. Anyone still reading this may remember I had a bit of a health disaster in my first teaching practice - prolapsing a disc and missing nearly two weeks of valuable teaching time.

This time round I'm fully fit and hopefully facing a clear run that'll take me to mid-March and the promise of some Spring weather.

The school for this placement is different in many ways to my last one - it's in Glasgow and has more by way of social challenges for its pupils. However, having visited it last week for a day I'm really looking forward to my time there. The pupils were by and large well behaved and keen to learn and the building itself is brighter and newer than my other school.

My targets for this term (to misquote Blair and his band of hobgoblins) consist of Assessment, Assessment and Assessment. No, no written tests and exams (usually referred to as Summative Assessment) but Formative Assessment which aims to provide much more by way of regular feedback to pupils and encouragement to become actively involved in their own learning. It's about sharing learning intentions at the start of each lesson, effective questioning to explore and gauge understanding, qualitative feedback upon task completion (fewer ticks in red pen and more comments) and a properly planned strategy to demonstrate successful learning at the end of the lesson.

Research shows that such an approach dramatically increases pupil attainment - well who'da thunk it ?

Anyways, my decision to take a madcap career jump was brought into sharp focus this week when I received the news that an old work chum died suddenly from a heart attack. John had plans to do other stuff in a few short years time when his pension kicked in - it's desperately sad that he's not going to get the chance.

Learning time people: if you've something you really want to do, do it soon.

Taking (And Making) Stock

So I finally "get to Christmas".

The quotes are important here: apparently if you manage to "get to Christmas" the chances of failing or dropping out reduce to near-zero. Each year a considerable number of PGDE students run screaming for the Exit door either during their two-week school induction block (no actual teaching required) or during their six-week teaching placement block (loads of actual teaching required). They either realise that they simply can't do it, or make the decision that standing in front of 20-30 teenagers simply isn't something that they enjoy.

"Getting to Christmas" is predicated on passing both your crit and being marked as Satisfactory in your Report From School. Having achieved the former last week, on Friday I achieved the latter. I'm proud of this - having only managed to teach for half of the placement due to my duff back.

Six weeks ago I wrote that by this date I would know whether or not I was capable of doing this, and whether or not I enjoy it. The facts would seem to verify that I am indeed capable of the first. However the answer to the second is more complex.

I really (like, really) enjoy being in front of a class and the kids seem to at least tolerate me. There's no doubt that you get an enormous buzz from seeing children learn as a result of what you are doing.

However - and I think this is a factor of student life rather than teaching life - it's hard not being properly part of a team. I miss my old work chums and I miss the social aspect of shared goals. Realistically, it's going to be at least a year or two until I experience that again.

Still. Teaching ? Love it. And I can do it.

And, er, the three weeks I now have to put my feet up, reel off a 3,500 word essay and drink too much beer would seem to be at least some compensation for the professional isolation. With Christmas dinner on my to-do list for this year, I'll also be spending the next week prepping for fifteen extended-family mouths, starting with a pot of soup the size of Meadowbank pool.

Now that I've taken stock, time to make some too.

Yaldi

Apparently, when the kids of today get something good happening or get a good piece of news, the accepted reflex response is "yaldi".

Today I passed my crit (see blogs passim). Yaldi.

Eighteen smiley twelve years olds beavering away frantically with frictionless ramps, light gates, digital timers and four-wheeled bogeys, trying to gather some results to see how the final speed of said bogey varies with its starting height.

In twenty minutes flat. In front of my tutor.

Try planning that, multi-million pound IT delivery dudes !

Anyways I even managed to get a "merit" in one of the four categories ("Professional Teaching Abilities") which apparently is a reasonable achievement for a first crit. My class were wee gems and the sweat I expended until late last night developing a spreadsheet that allowed them to enter their raw data and automatatically produce the nice curve graph for this experiment (feel free to prove it on the Comments page) paid off handsomely. A tableau of nine minigraphs all with the same curve displayed proudly on the Promethean board for all to see. Mission accomplished.

Half an hour of debrief - along with the review of the official report form - and a cuppa with said tutor, and it was on to my next lesson. No time to bask. No time go for a celebratory beer. No time for an extended lunch.

Next up, amongst other things, I have series and parallel circuits to cover with younger pupils, amplitude modulation to cover with some standard graders, and the potentially deep embarrassment of starting AC circuit theory with my Higher class. I am rapidly finding out that teaching your own area of academic "expertise" is actually the hardest thing to do.

However I now have an official document that says I am capable of doing this.

Yaldi.

Watch Your Back

Back in the saddle and teaching for real (instead of all that nambypamby "observing and cooperative teaching" flimflam).

The back is pain-free and my leg is only occasionally making me sit down. Listen up class - if you ever put a "tweak" in your back, pay heed to these learning outcomes: don't fanny about with it, get it seen to, rest it for a couple of days. A disc-prolapse is the most depressing pain I've ever experienced.

Anyways, student teaching is a complete feckin' nightmare. You are expected to really teach. This means producing between two and four lesson plans for every day of the working week and - although I knew this before I started - the reality is still like a punch on the nose.

Following every lesson, you get your feedback which essentially consists of being told what you're not doing right. Most of the "correct" alternatives can only seemingly be gained with experience - so essentially I am getting a near-constant stream of criticism for being inexperienced.

So loads of work, much of it being pulled apart. Twelve to thirteen hour days. Waking at 5am and not getting back to sleep. Learning a lot, but feeling persistently stupid. Did you know that sound is quicker these days ? Apparently it's not 330m/s any more, it's now 340m/s. And even when I'm on "home-turf" (electricity) my teaching is too complex. Don't (ever) try to teach internal resistance as being essentially a voltage divider circuit. And don't (ever) talk about energy if you're teaching about forces. Current is always big-I never little-i. Never use upper case on the board. And don't write with a red marker on a whiteboard. Don't go too fast. Don't go too slow. Share your learning outcomes. Check your success criteria.

(My teacher colleagues are actually excellent to work with - knowledgable, sympathetic and professional. Direct with feedback - which is what I asked for).

However, being in on-line touch with my fellow students is saving my sanity as it seems to be a common thread. At least I haven't burst into tears on the morning train, and I have yet to fail a crit (OK, so I've yet to sit one but we'll gloss over that), I have yet to have any pupils swearing at me or make lewd comments about my breasts. I have also yet to seriously question my being here. Yet.

However. Ouch. It hurts.

A Bit Of A Nerve

I can't teach.

Having finally got off the ground this week with a couple of "real" lessons, having subsequently been given some good feedback (along with the mandatory Areas For Improvement), the tweak I put in my lower back last week has finally reached out and grabbed the main nerve bundle serving my left leg.

The pain in my leg is feckin' terrible, primarily when I am standing or walking: two of the main physical activities required of a teacher. This has stopped my teaching in its tracks.

Consultations with both my GP and my local Chiropracter have resulted in a diagnosis of a disc prolapse along with a course of diclofenac and amitriptyline. I am sore, worried and grumpy - not least because I have a "crit" in a couple of weeks time and I'm going to be severely limited as to the amount of teaching practice I can actually complete.

The past couple of days have seen me laid up at home, lying on the sofa doing lesson plans and watching old DVD's on my new upscaling DVD player (try watching Bladerunner on a decent HD telly - top notch).

However, I'm now left with a bit of a dilemma. I can haul my ass back to school as soon as possible (in order to get as much experience as I can) and maybe make it worse; or take more time off in order to fully recover but get heehaw teaching practice before my crit.

The nightmare scenario is of course that I can't complete this placement at all and fail to graduate this year.

Oh, arse.

Unmiserable

Glasgow was awarded the 2014 Commonwealth Games on Friday at around 7 minutes before the lunchtime bell rang.

I know this because the S3 Physics class - who were about to start the Health Physics module (thermome'ers an' that) - asked if they could be told what the result was when it was announced. Bugger it (I guess) the incumbent teacher thought - let's just fire up the radio and listen to it live.

So we did.

Twenty minutes of "comment" from the usual Radio Scotland worthies....eh ? Hang on. Twenty twitching teenagers held in raptures by Dougie Bleedin Vipond ? But aye, sure enough not a peep. I did have to confiscate a mobile phone (school rules) but was it out in order for me to be videoed getting happy slapped ? Nope - it was out to record the announcement. I felt like a complete arse.

And then the announcement itself. Now, having spent the last god-knows-how-many-years in the professional company of right-on (and some not so right-on) adults, I had naturally (and involuntarily) been through the miserablist approach of considering how much better the cash might have been spent developing sport at grassroots level (if that was really the aim). I mentally tuttutted at the notion of Empire/Commonwealth and reflected on the fact that if we hadn't spent the last few centuries plundering the homelands of other nations then they might be in a position to produce slicker videos (and have better, more "athlete-friendly" infrastructure) blah-de-blah-de-blah.

Kids ? They don't give a monkey's nudger about all that. And to be part of their unmiserable celebration, to see the fire in the eyes of those pupils who do some sort of sport (and those now thinking of taking it up) starting to believe that they might be part of something big was one of those "deeply rewarding" moments we've been promised repeatedly during the formal University part of the course.

Whoopin' and a a-hollerin', the kids were overjoyed at this annnouncement and their completely unselfconscious celebrations will stay with me for a long time. As things are getting tough on the workload front, a timely wee reminder of why we're doing this.

Feeling The (Latent) Heat

Having been lobbied by my numerous readers, I have finally managed to get reblogged.

Things have been quite quiet on the blog front, since the month of October was split asunder by a sneaky wee week off. Seven days in the arborial splendour of Center Parcs down Sherwood Forest way - some lesson planning being done between the archery, swimming, Turkish hamam and Kronenburg 1664. How do you make the concept of latent heat and change-of-state interesting to a bunch of 14 year olds ?

I settled on the idea of using reusable heat packs which use the latent heat produced by the crystallisation of sodium acetate gel. Preparation was good for me in that I had forgotten all about the whole change-of-state thing and the associated weird things that happen heat-wise.

Here's a wee query for all you armchair physicists: if I take two ice-cube trays - one with ice cubes and one with water - outside when the temperature is precisely zero degrees, what happens to the contents of each tray ? Consider this your homework for next week - answers on the comments page.

We're now on the semester-1 home straight. Back out to school for our teaching practice placement proper. This will last six weeks and will take us to mid-December and a three week holiday (which will be taken up writing a 3500 word essay due for January 7th). During this teaching block, we'll be responsible for three or four class groups delivering around ten lessons per week in total - which doesn't sound very much until you consider we're all taking around three to four hours per lesson plan. This three-four hours needs to become sub-60 minutes very quickly or it will very rapidly become completely unsustainable.

Also during this teaching block, every student gets their first "crit" - you are visited by your tutor who watches you deliver a lesson and then tells you why it wasn't very good. Essentially I have about three weeks to reach a minimum competency standard in time for the crit itself, and avoid the dreaded NYS grading. Not Yet Satisfactory.

Regular readers will recall that my two lessons so far were - in my opinion - NECTS and FB. Hopefully the latter will prevail in three weeks time.

The number of blogs over the coming month and a half will depend on how close I get to the sub-60 minute lesson plan, and how depressed I feel at not being able to do the job itself (which apparently is pretty much par for the course). I am fairly confident that by 14th December I will know two things about this career-jump of mine:

1. Whether or not I enjoy teaching
2. Whether or not I'm any good at it.

Here goes.