Back to School: NQT strikes back

High Tunstall, it has been an absolute pleasure! Here’s to the future and new mysteries, new lessons and new laughter in a new school!

As I cleaned the dust from this old blog on a cosy Sunday afternoon, I took the time to look back over the old posts.
Before my post about Catholics having a blessing for beer (yes that still makes me feel like a kid at Christmas!) I read an emotional post on how much I had enjoyed my time in my Diagnostic Placement at High Tunstall, College of Science.

So it is with a happy heart that said new “mysteries” have led me right into the NQT year at High Tunstall, College of Science!

After what can only be described as a turbulent 2015 I can barely recall the last 5 weeks of my first half term with QTS.
What I can recall, however, is feeling like a phoenix from the ashes with a return to creative teaching and spending a great many hours trying to get into the heads of my weakest, and strongest, pupils trying to figure out what makes them tick. Mathematically speaking!

As for creativity, I’ve been bowled over by more ideas than I could count, thanks to the playful nature of the High Tunstall team.
Yes it is a serious profession. Yes the future of our pupils is a serious matter indeed.
Yes pupils should learn through play and exploration.
I have found that the moments where I struggle to quantify what pupils have learned have been when 30 pupils have all learned something new in an open way, thanks to an investigation or some open ended puzzle.

I have also found that dressing up like Captain Jack Harkness, with a sonic screwdriver in hand, is a brilliant way to keep kids attention in a BIDMAS lesson after the Daleks have exterminated my operations. Was that purely for my own amusement? Decide for yourself…

I mentioned the turbulence of the last year. While I could not possibly comment on my main placement, I can certainly thank God for St Leonard’s school, Durham. Suffice to say, they were instrumental in my recovery after being left crippled in well-being and confidence in the job. Their warm, welcoming atmosphere and own playful nature, alongside prayers and a cup of tea at the start of the day, brought life back into my heart.

The loss of my college principal, Dr Joe Cassidy, and nan very recently, Dorris Margaret Austin, have both served as sore wounds this year that could, alone, have brought me to heel. It is not however my intention to mourn here, but these solemn examples serve to show the strength of the school I now serve in.  After the sorry loss of Dr Cassidy, I had the loving embrace of my family, church, friends and college. After the loss of my nan, I had the loving embrace of my family, church, friends, college and school. What a difference it makes being in your workplace, knowing that your colleagues are interested in you for more than your professional contribution, but also your well-being.

I think the greatest lesson I learned from the PGCE is that in order to thrive, the best choice is to ensure that, wherever you choose to work, ensure that you are surrounded by those who are as compassionate for you as your are for them. Those with whom you can laugh and cry in equal measure. With the coming of a masters, greater development in my new (/old) school and prolonged life in Durham city, I can only believe that I have done just that.

Expect to see in the future my, sometimes informed, opinions on:

• teaching for understanding
• teachers – can we have counselling training?
• teachers – can we have counselling?
• Creativity & Evidence for Learning
• Independent Learning – time for a cuppa!
• many many more rants!

Here’s to the future!
DMyers

There’s a blessing for beer!

While the title has very little bearing on what I’m prepared to write, it was a very interesting fact that I learned in 2014.
For those interested, the blessing can be found here: http://www.catholicgentleman.net/2013/10/the-official-catholic-beer-blessing/

I always find New Year to be an interesting time. For one more evening in Christmastide, we lean towards bringing out the best in ourselves with New Year’s resolutions. We aim to be better in one way shape or form and who am I to criticise this?

In fact, I would criticize two things:

1. How genuine are we in making these promises. For all we may claim that it is the thought that counts, it is not the thought that we take stock of when we feel the guilt of failure two weeks down the line.
2. New year is considered a marker for new beginnings. What happened to the other 364 days?

My greatest worry is the latter, that we forget in the other 364 days of the year that we have the power to make little changes and should strive to do so. Perhaps instead of a New Year’s resolution we could make a plan for how to achieve our NYR?

How good could we feel if in two weeks time, we know where we want to be by the end of 2015?
How tough would it be to dedicate some wall-space to a graph showing where we are and where we aim to be over time?

I’ll start the ball rolling. My NYR is to learn more humility.
When do I start? Two weeks ago in Ampleforth where I found a template: St Benedict’s 12 steps to humility.
How will I achieve my NYR? With a small poster on my board, I’ll reflect for 5 minutes on which steps I’m doing well in and which I’m not. Over each month, I’ll make little notches on where I think I did well.

I saw an article that essentially instructs us to forget NYRs and make a jar in which we can place all our good stories and memories from the year. At the end of the year, open the jar and realise what has happened for you over the year.
Actually, I really like that idea but rather than wait, I’ll try taking advantage of my own memory for 2014, here and now:

• I graduated! After all the fighting and wrestling, I found a love for Mathematics that brought me to a 2.1
• I directed my first play. In spite of it being labelled ‘bonkers’, I took a dear friend’s script into the Prior’s Hall of Durham Cathedral with a lively cast and had a ball!
• I began work on the PGCE. I’ve said enough on this from this blog but it suffices to say I love it!
• Edinburgh Festival. Without doubt the toughest experience I’ve ever known, but working with very close friends, stellar reviews and a stand against homophobia it was so rewarding!
• I joined novitiate for the Lay fraternity of the Dominican Order. As Fr Timothy Radcliffe would say, ‘Keep asking those questions’.
• Saw my little sister off to Uni. St Andrews, she’s about as far away as I can (lovingly) get her!

Without doubt, 2014 has been tough on many of us and it’s always tempting to look back on the tough parts and think, ‘maybe next year, none of this will happen’. Let’s not throw away an entire year of our lives. Let’s not pretend that 2015 will be our new best friend until it lets us down at the first hurdle.

But together, let’s step forward and declare every morning and evening that we want to get better; that we want to see each other get better. Let’s turn New Year’s resolutions into New Day’s resolutions. Let’s make every moment of 2015 count.

Together we will tackle the rough lows of 2015 so that together, we can bask in the highs of 2015!

Happy New Year folks

Back to School: Looking Back

If anyone would like to catch an essence of the last few months of my life, the following video will cover all that I can say quite elegantly:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUepEkHelk8

To say the last few months have flown by is both cliché and an understatement for this last term with Durham University and High Tunstall College of Science. I was warned at the start of the course that my ‘undergrad holiday’ is a thing of the past, my days of leisure were over and days of hard toil had begun. I’ll need someone to explain to me why I feel like I haven’t stopped dancing since September! Perhaps I slept through some lectures but you know what they say about old habits…

• Apparently I could kiss goodbye to such pleasures as dining and debate long into the night; tell that to St Chad’s SCR who willed to put such a notion to the test!
• Apparently, room for following other pursuits would be restricted by an absurd amount of paperwork and stress; tell that to the Catholic Society, the Dominican Order, Freeman’s Quay, St Cuthbert’s Choir and Durham Student Theatre!

I can only imagine what someone with a trained body feels like when they arc their body and glide across the dance floor. Their talent must make the complicated rhythms and demanding steps feel like play, that I can imagine! My life has kept pace with all pursuits that my heart enjoys, I’ve learned to arc around some of the emotional stresses and tensions of the world (though not always avoiding them completely), and I’ve leapt to feelings of comfort and satisfaction. Developing my understanding of my faith is always a singular pleasure, taking some attention in the theatre will forever play to my ego, debate and laughter with my dearest friends is always sensational. This term a new place in my heart set the stage in the likeness of a classroom.

I walked into High Tunstall terrified with little clue what would happen; would I stick with it or run in terror to some half-constructed idea of working with a PlayStation until any stage-work became available. That is, in no way, playing down my love of the stagecraft, or PlayStation for that matter!

I couldn’t claim divine providence in what followed but I quickly found myself blessed in meeting several teachers (unnamed for legal reasons and one, like me, simply doesn’t need the ego boost!) who transformed my life and opened a third possibility for the term; that I might just come to love the profession. Two teachers had clear caring instincts which shone through in their watch over this young idiot who discovered he hadn’t a clue what was happening; thank God one had volunteered to be my mentor; always asking if the young teacher was okay, sharing a joke, advice, wonderful feedback etc. The foundation stones for comfort, confidence and development were well and truly set.

One teacher had a cool clear demeanour, a clear example of how to lead a lesson making it look effortless in the process. Extra duties were similarly taken in stride. Advice was handed over freely on extra duties that come over time as well as advice on how teach one lesson or another. When one finds out that such a teacher had the same mentor that currently looks after you, the horizon immediately gets a lot brighter!

Finally, the teacher that encouraged me to execute every conceivable mistake, to get it all wrong, to learn at every possible step, brought me to see every moment in the classroom as a dynamic one. I learned to make the slides simple, explanations elegant, plenaries pleasant and so on. The phrase ‘Brains Book Buddy Boss’ will forever be cemented in my mind, among a plethora of other ideas. He knew me well enough within about 5 minutes to lift my ego, in readiness for the less-sympathetic pupils, whilst keeping me grounded and able to learn. Little phrases like ‘Don’t take rebellion personally’, ‘It’s easier to distance yourself from them to capture their interest’ and ‘That’s just what Mr Myers needs, more confidence!’ were enough to learn that I was being looked after and handed priceless advice; yes of course the third comment was set with complete sarcasm!

I’ve learned the value of relating to kids strictly without becoming their friend (a necessary lesson I feel, especially for a young teacher), how to set the stage for enthusiastic learning, and crucially, that using balls as a method for teaching SUVATs requires some precautions and common sense!

I’m forever indebted to the teachers in High Tunstall, the Maths dept. in particular, for allowing me to get it wrong, picking up the pieces around me, and picking me up when I needed it. One should never forget the greatest thing that I found in that school however: the pupils.

I taught a range from lower set year 9’s, higher set year 8’s and stellar set year 10’s. Each group came to me with challenges and gifts, be it in their personality or mathematical ability. In the end, I saw in each of them, sparks of love for Mathematics and a growing sense of laughter between us. When my year 8’s shared a moment for understanding the basis of Trigonometry, I thought my heart wouldn’t stop singing!

Before I began this course, I received many warnings from well-meaning friends, that I was stepping into the world of the “over-worked and underpaid”. I’m pleased to say I didn’t hear such a phrase once at High Tunstall. I did receive a more down-to-earth note that I would discover what hard work means if I commit myself properly. The second half of that note, I received and learned for myself; the unanticipated joy in seeing a happy, curious, educated class or individual pursuing that same academic love you know so well. There’ll be no sound for a long time that matches the grace in a pupil simply saying ‘thank you’ at the end of a lesson.

High Tunstall, it has been an absolute pleasure! Here’s to the future and new mysteries, new lessons and new laughter in a new school!

Merry Christmas folks!

Back to School: When they get it!

Every actor has their moments when everything goes well.
When Macbeth tells the stars to hide their fires with his worried tone, eyes raised fearfully to the heavens, the audience catches a glimpse of his vulnerability before seeing utter resolve brought on by a lust for power; let that be which the eye fears, when it is done, to see.
The audience are entranced for that moment where the actor plays the part perfectly and the audience responds perfectly. We all have similar scenarios where, for a few seconds, everything is tuned to perfection and things couldn’t be better.

It only lasts for a moment.

Then it is gone. Before you have the time to savour the joy and triumph, time has ushered away those few seconds. You must stumble on in the wake of that wonderful moment.

Naturally, I think, we stumble on quite joyously!
We tend to be pretty pleased with ourselves and in fact stride on, head high, proud tone etc.
But certainly we will remember that moment and dance with its memory for a long time.
For me, the latest of these invaluable occasions took place in a Year 8 Trigonometry Class…

For those who have happily forgotten SOH CAH TOA or the relationships between angles & sin(ϑ); for those who would like a weird and wonderful way of teaching Trigonometry, I found a beautiful lesson plan for it online.

I began the lesson as requested in the plan and moved through the work as necessary:

• My youngsters did the measurements of their triangles as requested,
• They established the fractions (Opp/Hyp for instance) were the same for similar triangles,
• They seemed quite pleased that they only had to remember 3 numbers (for one particular triangle)…
• I informed the youngsters that it should be somewhat easy to recall 270 different values,
• I put the first 30 values on the board for degrees 1-10,
• They looked to me in terror, rage, misery (or a combination of the three).

The stage was set!
My heart was pounding in my excitement whilst the teacher observing grinned knowingly at the back of the class.

I asked someone to punch sin(3) into their calculators as well as tan(5).
Simultaneously I moved the presentation on to reveal sin(ϑ), cos(ϑ) and tan(ϑ) above their respective collumns.
A moment of silence passed while the kids looked to the board before the resounding:

“AWWW, I GETTIT!”, “Blummin ‘ell”, “Oh is that what it does?!”

The resounding relief and excitement hit me like a tone of bricks. SUCCESS! Now I sit here in joyous reflection of that moment where, from teacher to pupils, everything was in its rightful place. I continue in the wake of that moment teaching 12/13 year olds who know no more fear of the word that hounded us all in school: SOH CAH TOA.

Reflection on that lesson showed me the value of guiding pupils to see through the screen of “here’s what you need to know” into the cogs and wheels that make Mathematics. If I ever needed justification for teaching for understanding, Dan Pearcy provided it; many many thanks to himself for that!

It is now left to contemplate new ideas of teaching for understanding; not in all topics, but in those areas where our intuition with numbers aren’t quite enough to get us where we need to be! It is also left to entwine this success with festive cheer and make that my early Christmas present to myself!

Back to School: Half Term Musings

School’s. Out. For. Autumn!
School’s. Out. For…. A week.

Not quite as catchy as the original and it must be said the sentiment is quite different also. Alice Cooper sold the song celebrating our freedom from the dusty classrooms! nagging teachers and useless lessons. I’ve found that I already miss the not-so-nagging teachers and the useful maths lessons (yes they are!).

Admittedly, the rooms are quite dusty but as a Catholic mathematician, used to swinging incense and chalk on blackboards, though not at the same time, old and dusty is to me what a laptop is to a cat; oddly cosy!

I had wondered how the transition away from a three year undergrad holiday, to the pangs of despised alarm clocks, would effect me.
Turns out that I grew to enjoy the lessons more than my own learning.

I don’t enjoy the alarm clocks any more than when I started, that would be absurd, though I’ve grown to love the trip to school, half listening to Nick Grimshaw playing the abysmal music that the kids are into these days!
I’m a fan of participating in the lessons and seeing such a range of character in the teachers. High Tunstall isn’t reputed for being top 10 in education, but I would certainly rate the teachers I’m currently working with as top 10.
I haven’t heard a single “overworked and underpaid” since I arrived.
Greetings have been warm and welcoming. Words of encouragement surround me and the energy in the classroom is fantastic.

Clearly, when I arrived, I hadn’t expected to be dressing up for a ‘maths is fun’ day to inspire year 6 kids visiting the school. Nor had I expected to be given charge of an additional maths class for year 10 pupils whose grasp of the subject is inspiring. Their enthusiasm once they were introduced to problem solving and mathematical discussion is a wonder to see and a celebration when they find their way to a solution.

Of course, there are the nerves of a first time teacher and the novice worries about all the simple things:
What if they don’t like me?
What if they don’t understand?
What if I say something totally stupid?
What if my resources work? Etc.

You can forgive my lack of professionalism, then, when the last words you hear just before the door closes are, ‘that was so good!’. I think there were no words in my mind, but the image of champagne bottles pouring hundreds of glasses as the party begins!
I may have been dancing around the classroom as I was cleaning up, rather than walking in an orderly manner; mea culpa!

My supervisors couldn’t be better either! I wanted to take on some other classes rather early and they have been happy to accommodate. The support I’ve received around the lessons is remarkable, to the extent that I could consider these as warm and welcoming as the Dominican brethren that I love dearly in Durham and Edinburgh.

I’ve seen laughter, excitement, resilient work and commitment in these teachers and I think I will have remarkable models to work with for the seven weeks after half term.

The University has been a similarly grand experience. I laugh heartily recollecting the ridiculous threat of having a slave-driver as a subject mentor. Quite beautifully, our small band of young maths teachers have a Saint for a mentor, dedicated to bringing out the best of our qualities as well as sharing these qualities with each other. A trip to the Centre for Life, challenging us to use our talents to reform mathematical education is just the challenge I’ve been looking forward to. Watch this space!

I sense I will become one of those teachers that gets a little too excitable when I find some new resource on Nrich or manage to work out how to use these newfangled projectors; I still want my blackboard!

So here’s to half term recovering and a new exciting chapter to come afterwards. I think it’ll be, in a word, stellar!

Back to School: So it begins…

I didn’t think it had been so long since I wrote the first post.
In four weeks, I have see two with Holy Rood (beautiful beyond words!) and an introduction to the PGCE course. There’s a fair bit to cover here folks so we need to hit the ground running!

Holy Rood! Picture the scene:
Chairs, tables and doors are half the size you remember,
Children are suddenly incredibly small,
Children are incredibly curious,
Children are as subtle as a brick,
You have totally forgotten the things you ever had to learn!

Reminding yourself how you were taught to count is a bizarre enough task. The humour of the situation is apparent when some youngster gawping at you responds to any teacher’s question with, ‘But he’s big miss! He’s really big!’

Do I even mention the notion that 10 being a really big number makes the tender age of 21 seem, to them, a little more mutton-like?!

I can’t deny the children were stellar. Their ability to ask questions, hold reasoned arguments, show a burning passion for knowledge and thought and, best of all, their joy in simply living was nothing short of precious.

It does make one wonder where such intellectual curiosity vanishes to, but this remains to be seen. More importantly, what remains to be seen is how we can keep it alive.

I certainly think the principal of Collingwood gave a starting idea in his, seemingly magical, ability to entrance an audience of bleary-eyed disoriented freshers whilst discussing behaviour management. If that’s not a talent, then Barnsley lives in valley!

Seminars and banter keep one occupied throughout the day. I may learn that setting my internal clock to undergrad is now considered a bad idea and that the following phrase isn’t necessarily public ally acceptable;
Alcohol is not the answer, alcohol is the question, yes is the answer.

Nevertheless, a new chapter begins. Monday sees my entry at High Tunstall College of Science, armed with a good understanding of primary school development and teacher’s pay scales; what good possibly go wrong!?

Cheers.

Back to School: Day 1

I figured I would like to keep a diary about becoming a teacher so that I had something to look over in a few years time; it would be interesting to see how opinions and ideas changed with more exposure to the world of education. I wondered that the day might come where I empathize with the phrase,

‘Overworked and Underpaid’

but of course, readers, you will honour me by stringing me from the highest building you can find should I ever use that phrase without irony!

I also desperately need the practice for writing essays as my writing style isn’t exactly up there with Stephen King! Then I remembered how much I like debates and that the people reading this might, one day, have kids that I’ll be teaching. So I decided that I would share my experiences on this digital continent so that my good friends, old and new, can laugh at my terrible English, my professional faux pas’, and maybe even tell me that I should consider bringing back the cane at some point! So without further ado, I shall let you know about Day One…

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What a magical day! I do not jest, dear readers, it was a journey back through time, except my TARDIS landed on the other side of the desk and my old world seemed to look a lot smaller!

I wandered to the school with my sandwiches and apple tucked neatly with my work; 10 years doesn’t change everything! 
I won’t lie, I was excited. I was looking forward to remembering the experiences we have all mostly forgotten and exploring the role that our teachers have in our earliest years.

Teaching the concept of Estimating and Number Lines was a joy. It was amusing and informative to count the times that I explained how 0.5 and 0.50 are the same: No .50 isn’t 10 times as big as .5 but I see your logic!
I’d completely forgotten these misconceptions had existed and it was the first thing to catch me off guard with the new Year 6, trying to explain this, relatively new, concept to them.

So it seemed natural to be further thrown off-piste when I presented myself to Year 1.
Many I suspect were learning to count to 100 for the first time.
I, for the first time since my Dad taught me, had to recall how one explains to a child how to move from 60 to 61.

I assume young parents will know best that it’s overbearingly sweet to observe the excitement in a child’s eyes when they notice a pattern. When a pupil recognized that, regardless of the 10’s column, the final part always read the same; thirty-nine, fifty-nine, seventy-nine etc. Similarly it didn’t take them long to realize that ‘thirty-something’ might be followed by another ‘thirty-something’. I couldn’t help but grin when one girl, clearly bound for an MMath, knew exactly what was coming on every new set of 10’s.

Where does the energy of a child go?! It takes the combined energy of performers and tourists on the royal mile during Edinburgh festival to match the energy in a Primary School playground! They really were electric: running in any direction; no reason to stop; no care in the world; no sense of boundaries but boundless optimism. Tears over a bump vanished quickly when staff on duty told a funny joke or gave that comforting smile that reassures a youngster.

The final session of the day will stay with me for a while. Back in Year 6, RE, we discussed the concept of ‘Unconditional Love’, the notion that there is a form of love from one being to another that exists without any requirements or threats to leave. Christianity ascribes this notion to God with the idea that we can do nothing to make Him love us more and we can do nothing the make Him love us less. 

I was astounded when I recognized just how much querying exists in the childrens’ minds. 
Readers I was faced with more complex questions than, ‘Why does He let bad things happen?’ though that did feature.
Questions such as, ‘how can He love me more than my mum?’ or ‘if He doesn’t, then is He less powerful than my mum?’.

Now I know plenty of Dads who might hedge their bets on that last question but their ability to make the jumps from the second question to the third was pretty remarkable. Rest assured, I had no desire to indoctrinate, I ended up querying them further to see what they already know. If nothing else, they are well aware of how to ask questions!

I think we are off to a flying start; already I’m learning and already I know this journey will be…
Fantastic!
Cheers to Primary!