unexpected inspiration...

i was dreading going into work on monday

which is unusual for me

i had had a difficult time with sophia till the early hours

and it brought up the problems i have been facing last term:

too much paper and virtual work

learning new systems and methodologies

and fitting in to the excellent mathematics department practice --

by the time i got my head around that

i had lost most of my classes

first day was ok on the whole

and ok is not really enough for me

otherwise i would be doing this as a job

rather than vocationally

i had just finished welcoming the class and giving instructions

and a student asked if i was ok...

which was heart-warming

another student

unexpectedly

seemed to respond to the respect i paid him

and the year 11's accepted getting back to work well

though a few seemed a little reluctant

i hope they manage to sustain themselves

and i will do my best to inspire them to their best

we have a lot of work ahead for all of us...

i had another blow-out with my year 8's

and though they did extremely well with conducting the mental test

their results ranged from 4/25 to 22/25

and they still break down into chatty groups at every opportunity

the most inspirational thing out of school for the first two days

did not come out of a kid

which is what sustained me through supply work over so many years

nope

it came out of an adult!

after the 24week project last summer

i am starting to think that i would rather work with adults now

i spoke with andy after the whole school meeting

which happened to be about discipline --

and my ideas were again reinforced

when the presentation blatantly pointed out the emphasis on discipline

the defined system that deals with a feedback loop which spirals out of control

eg students feels bad, student behaves badly, teacher feels bad, teacher behaves badly, etc

whereas the positive feedback loop is left for teachers to work out by themselves!

it was so obvious that a positive feedback loop could produce the social dynamics any teacher would kill for!

heheh

anyhoo

andy informed me about what his plans were regarding open mind

and i had the opportunity to talk about my ideas

and it was nice to have such engagement

but what was moving

was when we talked about the last day's assembly and the student's response to him...

i didn't know if it was something which happened regularly

something which he liked and used as part of his personality in the school

but he revealed that he did not appreciate it

and i felt

for a moment at least

that we connected

this gave me courage to present my ideas

since it is all about putting people first

we left it fairly loose

he is going to go ahead with his plan A

the open mind initiative in year 7

and i am going to pursue plan B

which is to introduce classroom coordinators in year 7

both of which use restructuring of timetables

his approach is formal

since he is in a power position after all

whereas

i shall approach people informally

see if anyone is interested in the ideas...

i am not sure who to approach

possibly the learning mentors

dave?

teachers doing cpd

james?

and the learning support people too

steven?

teacher assistants

imogen? no... can't place a name to the face...

staff support

linda or jenny

time will be an issue

for sure

but i hope i can track them down sometime during this week and next

i'd like to approach some open-minded teachers next week

david rob and there must be a lot of others i don't even know

if there is enough positive resonance in my initial contacts

i need to speak to darren to see if he'd support my initiative

since it would have serious repercussions within his department...

i've also started pulling out feelers for potential funding

since the chances are

the prospective post would not be consider a proper teaching position...

only if it starts picking up momentuum need i ask darren if he'd support my initiative