the glasses that defied gravity

I had a fabby day today. Was organised to the point of being obsessive. Got all my photocopying and resources for the entire week sorted. Had a lovely lesson with my fantastic year 7s who I LOVE because I can pretend to be an awesome teacher with them and they believe it and do whatever I ask. I wore heels today too which only added to my height, and thus my authority. Problem is, from such towering heights, the teeny weeny year 7s are almost invisible to the naked eye. But I didn't step on any which is a bonus in my book. I also made a little lesson booklet containing seating plans and class lists (complete with homework dates, book collections, holiday dates and a space to record who I give learning points and red marks to each lesson). I also recorded all the SEN data for the pupils in my classes. I led three starters which very nearly almost stayed within the allocated time (I'm getting closer!). AND..... I had a Tesco's finest double chocolate chip cookie for lunch.

Then, just when I was patting myself on the back and reaching towards my yummy scrummy ultra delicious mars bar (my own personal learning point) disaster struck.......

we had an OFSTED meeting.

NO! I hear you cry, HOW DID YOU POSSIBLY COPE?!

With great difficulty, I wasn't particularly clued up on the whole OFSTED inspection malarkey anyway but this presentation only plunged me deeper into the confusion pool. All I know is that it's changing, we think. I tried to listen, sir, honestly I did. But the lady giving the presentation had her glasses balanced precariously on the very tip of her nose and, being a scientist, I was fascinated by what magical forces were keeping them there. I thought it must have been glue or other such sticky substance, but then she took them off, with no apparent difficulty, so that hypothesis was disproved. They say that necessity is the mother of invention but I saw no obvious use for those glasses other than keeping the tip of her nose snug. Anyhoo, that distracted me long enough for me to completely lose track of the colour-coded and cross-referenced diagrams flashing up on her presentation. Then when I caught snippets of dialogue such as "this is not as important as the last but actually very important...", I waved goodbye to any hope of remaining concious. It just made me think that this woman, and many other professionals are training us to be effective teachers, and yet I feel like I want to peel off my own skin just to have something to do! I have noticed that with boredom comes a drive to find something to do, and the resultant activity is usually disruptive. There has been no greater eye-opener into the importance of producing engaging, energetic lessons that are chunked into bitesize open activities which are mainly pupil-led and extend the more able pupils. If there was one thing that I learnt today it was ALWAYS KEEP THE PUPILS ENGAGED AND THINKING or else risk having a lot of caged chimps to control. Oh, and get to grips with OFSTED inspections!

: 17 Oct 2011 23:43 |  Comments (2) |  Report a problem