Not really a blogger

I haven't written on here for months, I am certainly not a blogger! I wish I had the skill, creativity and imagination to update it a couple of times a week! Or is it time I don't have? I don't think that's the case because I read blogs by people at least as busy as me! I just need to get organised!

So I won't bore you with a five month catch up but just talk about my most recent excitement! Having got myself a spot on a leadership course for the next academic year I was thrilled to meet a twitter heroine of mine @shelibb and know we will be crossing paths frequently, so I can steal lots of fab ideas!

I went to a book launch of a friend of mine, Susan Wild, who has written a wonderful book about her grandfather Alderman Sam Peel, who was an innovator in education, the welfare system and council housing in Norfolk for many years. If you're interested the book is called 'Sam Peel - a man who did different.' http://www.waterstones.com/waterstonesweb/products/susan+wild/sam+peel2c+a+man+who+did+different/9782976/

On Saturday I went to a beautiful school called Bluebell primary in Norwich for my first ever Teachmeet #tmeast. What a wonderful day! The best cpd I have had in ages. I met lots of wonderful people and even had a go myself, not great but ok for a first timer!!

http://youtu.be/PKT6OATMDtI here is a link to the first half of the presentations, mine is the very last one at about 35 mins!

I was so impressed with the organisation and generosity of the teachers who set this up for teachers, and the sponsors for providing the treats! Can't wait for next year!

After a chilled out day, I am ready for next week, including a two day E2BN conference, where I will be undoubtedly inspired some more! Certainly not getting up in front of anyone there!! I will be teaching my class at some point! Good job they are off and about at taster days etc!!

So here we are, I will try harder, I will try to blog more about my learning as a leader and as a teacher, changes in my role, yet to begin and the exciting challenges I have coming my way!

 

 

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Half term haste

Can't believe it is the end of half term. Why do half terms for teachers involve catching up on dentist appointments, spring cleaning, the inevitable planning? Normal life catches up on us, all my sills are dusted, all my ceiling corners are de-webbed! I have a new list as long as my arm for things to do in school in this next short half term! Red nose day, World Book Day, World Education Games days, class residential trip, assessments, reports, parents' evening, class assembly (which obviously I've decided to do in the church and invite parishioners to!). It's all part of our busy lives at school and the children have at least this much to do, many have half a dozen sporting fixtures as well!

Sometimes I just have to force myself to sit and think and enjoy the busyness of my life. I am lucky, I have great kids, I teach great kids and I work with some great people. I have the dream job. Is there anything better than being a teacher? I think not.

Graffiti maths

We have had some brilliant work today in Maths. As we are getting closer and closer to May my thoughts turn to how children interpret questions. I decided this week would be a good time to revisit the RUCSAC mnemonic for remembering the processes for working out what a problem is asking.

RUCSAC stands for : Read, Understand, Choose (operation), Solve, Answer and Check.

We were observed today and I decided to take a risk and try something new I'd read about on a blog by a teacher on twitter known as @ohlottie. She had tried a version of graffitti maths, read about it on her blog here:

http://clairelotriet.com/blog/2012/12/15/graffiti-maths/

We used paper on our tables too and worked through money word problems from past test papers. Children were differentiated in four groups and worked at levels 3-6, the idea that they would move up into higher level questions. They loved the freedom to scrawl their working out and even attempted new (for them) methods.

 

It was a great lesson and got an outstanding which was an added bonus! Have a look at some of our work.

 

 

 

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Great learning and Snow!

We've had a fun week at school. The snow didn't deter us and we got out there early on doing some tug of war matches and linking it with some science work - forces! The children had such a laugh and there were some surprising tuggers!
We've set up our class blog to work alongside our digital leader blogs, have a look!
http://digidudes.wordpress.com/
http://marthas6.wordpress.com/

I'm hoping to get lots of red dots on our globes because the children have friends and family all over the world - India, Sri Lanka, Philippines, Nigeria, Lithuania, Ireland to name but a few!

Please look and comment! It's too cold to go out after all :)

21st century learner

The word cloud above is created by me using one word shout-outs from my class about what they think learning in the 21st century means. Technology is an often chosen word there, something that would not have been used had we had such things as word clouds when I started teaching in 1997! Back then, many years ago I didn't have a mobile phone or computer, not even a computer in my class. I actually used a blackboard! There was no smart phones, apple products, touch screens interactive whiteboards etc. it was very different. That is not to say worse or that now is better, it is what it is and we are in a technologically advancing era, which shifts all the time, and in ten years time this blog will be very very outdated - maybe even antiquated! The point is that as the children learn so do I, and I cannot be the type of teacher who churns out the same old thing year in year out, a) because it would bore me and therefore bore my class and b) because we have to keep changing and adapting to new technology, theories and practices.
I'm doing some homework too now, a short online course about 21st century learning. It really is just the beginning but already I've been inspired by @DeputyMitchell's work on blogging and he evidence he has that the children's understanding and enjoyment of learning has improved. Just look at the results. I'm hoping this course will inspire me to get my class blog going, as well as the digital leaders. I'm doing some homework too now, a short online course about 21st century learning. It really is just the beginning but already I've been inspired by @DeputyMitchell's work on blogging and he evidence he has that the children's understanding and enjoyment of learning has improved. Just look at the results. I'm hoping this course will inspire me to get my class blog going, as well as the digital leaders.
I just thought I would ponder the changes. When I started teaching I had barely sent an email. Now I am blogging on an iPad and I will tweet a link to it later. It is actually another language - honest kids!!I just thought I would ponder the changes. When I started teaching I had barely sent an email. Now I am blogging on an iPad and I will tweet a link to it later. It is actually another language - honest kids!!

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Enterprising kids

So we had handmade Christmas cards - beautifully packaged; Christmas candles - made from tumblers, tea-lights, a bit of doily and ribbon (remember these - 27p to make - for sale at £1.50); Peppermint creams packaged in handmade papier-mache pots wrapped in cellophane; polystyrene snowman with ear muffs to hang on your trees; home-made sachets of hot chocolate in cinammon, mint and orange flavours; hand-painted baubles, bookmarks and badges.
The children worked industriously and feverishly to get their products made and ready in time to sell. They decorated their stalls and as each stall got bolder, other stalls were buying last minute bits of ribbon from me!
The stalls were ready, the children were on edge, the doors were flung open at 3:10 pm. By 3:30 pm every item was sold even paperchains used to decorate the tables. The peppermint cream group had even raffled off their last tin of condensed milk at 20p a raffle ticket!
One child said to me "It was like a market place - I couldn't see any of the other stalls, I didn't have time to look!"
What a great success!
The next day we totted up our totals, the children put all their information onto spreadhseets and worked out their profits. The smallest profit was £14 and the highest £35!! That was those candles I told you about!
Brilliant experience, super learning and such fun!

Using ipads to make Christmas cards

I need to quickly interrupt the enterprise project to show off some art from my class. At Christmas we usually created our own Christmas cards based on Paul Klee's 'Two dromedaries and a donkey'. This year we used the app 'Brushes' to create the background colours and then the children either added the camels and donkey by hand or with the app (which was tricky as you can't do particularly fine lines). Nevertheless, they are beautiful and I'm sure all the families will be thrilled to receive their cards this year. Please have a look and take some time to comment for the children's sake. Next post shortly about our hugely successful enterprise sale!