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Showing posts from December, 2014

A letter to me: Your journey so far...

Dear Me When you first started teaching 11 years ago, you were truly awful at it!   You were scared of everything – scared of the students, scared of LT, scared of failing, scared of not being good enough and, as a result, you really weren’t good enough.   Luckily you started teaching when education was different.   Competency must have existed but it wasn’t on your radar.   You were given lots of support – mentored by some of the best teachers in school, regular observations to help you to improve, heads of year who would sit in your classroom to support you with behaviour and other heads of year who just shouted at children who left you in tears.   Cleaners who cleaned up the mess and mopped up the tears, a reprographics department who always got your resources to you in time and a department who kept you going when you didn’t think you could.   People were kind and they were supportive and they fixed you.   Members of LT would check on you to see how you were doing and encourag

Nurture 1415: 2015 - The Year Ahead

I have been toying with how best to write this.  I want the goals to be specific enough that they are achievable but I also want to limit the number I set.  Last year I set a list of 14 and some fell by the wayside.  I don’t want that to happen to this year.  So I have chosen 6, each one based around a theme.  As long I meet the theme I will feel pretty happy.  2015 is a brave new world for me.  I am living in a new house, in a new town where I know no one and I am starting new job at a new school for only the second time in my career.  My default setting is to be a bit scared of life and fear the worst so the overall theme of my nurture this year is to be brave and embrace opportunity. “Teaching is an act of hope for a better future…the reward of teaching is knowing that your life has made a difference.” (William Ayres) As I move further up the leadership ladder, I move further away from the classroom, something which makes me feel quite sad.  My favourite part of being in ed

Nurture 1415: the year that was

I have been thinking about writing a nurture post for a couple of days now. Part of me thinks it is a strange way to finish Christmas Day but another part of me thinks it is quite fitting.  I always feel quite reflective at Christmas and this will be reflective. This post is important to me. Last year was the first time I had written a nurture post and I found it really helpful to keep me grateful and appreciative but also to keep me focused. I am going to bend the rules by reviewing last year’s 14 and then setting 5 for 2015. I will do it in two posts – one to review and one to look ahead.  Here goes… Firstly I pledged to carry on learning abut photography and trying to master some different types of shots and ideas.  Whilst in DC I attended a workshop on landscapes with Navin Sarma which was awesome. Still journeying… But that's okay. Secondly I pledged to read and I didn’t. Don’t get me wrong, I have dipped into books and blogs and tweets but I let myself down on this one. I