Busy Week/Next Phase

Last weekend I went to London for the London Festival of Education. I was fantastic. A great chance to catch up with an old friend; and to listen to interesting ideas about education and different approaches and what should happen in the future.

I was a little late, so I missed most of what Michael Gove was saying. Although I saw some of his interview that was being broadcast to a small TV. He looked every bit the politician.

I went to talk from the head of Swiss Cottage school. The approach there intrigues me. If I lived in London, I'd try so hard to spend some time there. Then I caught the end of a talk called 'Should we use the curriculum to impart values?' while I was waiting for the talk between John Hattie and Pasi Sahlberg on 'What makes great teaching- the global view'. Initially John Hattie was the reason I went to the entire Festival; however I found Sahlberg to be far engaging and on topic. I don't think some glitches with Hattie's mic helped matters.

I listened to Andrew Adonis and Christine Gilbert talk about the value of Academies. However, Gilbert barely got a word in edgeways.

And finally- Michael Rosen and Anthony Horowitz "How can we stop killing the love of reading". Absolutely fantastic. By far the best talk of the day. Rosen issued a call to arms basically, and Horowitz was on topic, understandable, clear and full of great ideas with possible ways to implement them, rather than just spouting unrealistic ideals. This talk was also absolutely hilarious in places- especially Horowitz laying-in to Dan Brown's writing.

Very pleased I went.

Aside from that, this week saw the end of University until February- eek!

I start full-time in TP1 on Monday. Thankfully, my mentor has reassured me that I won't be thrown in at the deep end with all full-time lessons and planning straight away; but that they'd be doing me a disservice if I didn't get anything to do. So I'm getting a y7 class, I have two weeks to crack on with the planning for their module. I'll have a Y8 class, which is the same class I used for my assignment lessons. I'm really getting to know this class. They're a tricky bunch, but lovely really. And I'll have a y9 class. We're doing Macbeth! I'm sitting down with their current teacher on Monday to plan; but I'm not sure when I'll be taking them full-time.

It really isn't long that I get there. Only 4 weeks until Christmas, and only 5 weeks there after Christmas. Quite a lot to learn in not a lot of time.

The first assignment was due in yesterday. I submitted it, but titled it wrong, and as a .docx instead of .doc GAH! I've emailed to explain to my mistake and offer my apologies and sent a correct copy; but I've not heard back from anyone. Will just have to wait and see.

The lessons I taught for it though weren't too bad. The first was better than the second- surprisingly. Still, I took loads of things from it; what worked, what didn't, and ways to avoid the same kind of scenarios.

So now it's time to crack on with the planning - not today, obviously. Tomorrow. Today, I tidy the general post-essay debris, and then pop to the shops for much-needed food.