ICEBREAKERS TO GET TO KNOW YOUR CLASS

Of course these can also be altered for adult party games and I have used them for fun at a charity event I organised. You can even use them when you’re bored at home with your family.

• If you could be anybody for the day, who would it be, and why?
• If you were an animal which animal would you be?
• If you were in a book what kind of book would it be?
• If you could have a superhero power – what would it be?
• If you had a magic wand, what would you do with it?
• If you could preserve a piece of land forever what would it be?
• What’s your favourite quotation?
• What’s your favourite song?
• If you had a magic carpet, where would you go on it?
• If you had an invisible cloak, how would you use it?
• Who would you like to turn into a frog and why?
• What would you do if you shrunk to the size of a thumb?

Hmm now I'm going to think what my answers would be - the kids always ask! xxx

Born to teach?

I was drifting off after another hard day watching Jeremy Kyle and 60 Minute Makeover when a  programme came on about student drs. They were at a university hospital, one which I had been to when a student doctor sent me to the Oncologist after misdiagnosing my tonsillitis. Well, the student drs in this series tended to be the children of drs. This made me think ... do most teachers have parents who are teachers? Was I destined to be a teacher even before I was a glint in my dad’s eye? My mum was a teacher and my granddad did some form of teaching. Which also made me think – Oh no!! I’m turning into my mum...a future of bad hairstyles (helmet hair) and being bossy (bless her xx)... I didn’t really know about any other careers apart from; Drs (too much studying involved), nurses (don’t like blood), secretaries (tried it for a bit) or engineering (nasty experience with the Physics syllabus)...so teaching it had to be. It happened unconsciously. After thorough researching, i.e chatting to my teacher friends, I found out many teachers have teacher parents; or parents in education but many don’t too, so that was an end to my theory. But there is definitely more likelihood...

So I am now researching another theory: Are teachers’ kids ever cool? My old photos are evidence that this teacher definitely was not cool but luckily nobody recognises me. Who is the strange looking boy? That would be me but I’m making up for it now!

Have all teachers’ kids had the same experiences? Walk into any classroom and you will be able to guess which ones are the kids of teachers - just look for the joker with a pudding bowl hair cut. A past of shit hairstyles, jigsaws, educational holidays, awful clothes, participating in every extra-curricular activity going- ever single night – tuition, brownies, hockey club, violin lessons, scrabble club...One thing teachers’ kids tend to be is funny, well, you have to be to compensate for being so uncool. BUT guess what? You really appreciate it as adult and I’m a secret scrabble fiend on the sly. I love it. Nowadays I just tend to play it in my high heels rather than in my brown lace ups and lopsided NHS glasses.
xx

Riots in London

So...who's to blame for these riots? It must be the teachers!! ;-p
xxx

Good Jake Bad Jake

Some bedtime reading....?

I meant to put this on a while ago, but typically, I was ill as soon as the holidays began and then distracted....by books, magazines, alcohol, tidying cupboards.
This is our class story with ideas bounced off Willy the Wizard in shared writing sessions. The kids really felt for poor old Jake even though they knew I'd just made him up. Check out Pie Corbett's Talk for Writing. The 5 year old kids wrote some fantasic stories from it, which I would be proud to have written as a (kind of) grown up. I would add their stories too but feel I would be taking advantage of their lack of knowledge of copyright.

GOOD JAKE BAD JAKE

Jake was late for school again because he wouldn’t get up. Within minutes of arriving, Jake was sent to the back corner again. He wanted to be good but he was always bad. He tried to be good. But he never was. ‘I just can’t do it!’ he said to himself. Everyone called him Bad Jake but all he wanted in the world was to be good.

At school, he wanted to get a sticker BUT he kept chatting. He wanted to get a certificate in assembly BUT he kept fidgeting. He wanted to be Star of the Day BUT he never got picked.  ‘I just can’t do it!’ he said to himself and nobody wanted to play with him.

At home, he wanted pocket money BUT his room was too messy. He wanted his mum to read him stories BUT he wouldn’t go to bed when he was asked. He wanted sweets BUT he wouldn’t brush his teeth. ‘I just can’t do it!’ he said to himself and then he thought, ‘But I really want to be good. I’m just not’

That night Jake had a wonderful dream imagining he was good.

The next morning, he woke up smiling and leapt out of bed. When he arrived at school, there was a new boy sat in his seat. The new boy was smartly dressed and already had a sticker on his jumper. ‘He must be good,’ thought Jake. ‘I wish I was like him.’ The new boy said that his name was Good Jake and he wanted to be friends with Bad Jake. Bad Jake couldn’t believe it! He was so excited to have a friend. Good Jake told Bad Jake that he was going to teach him how to be good. Bad Jake told Good Jake that he couldn’t be good. ‘You can do it!’ said Good Jake.

That day, Bad Jake didn’t chat or fidget and he got a sticker, then a certificate and then a merit point. He was getting better and better. When he got home, he couldn’t wait to tell his parents about his new friend. His mum and dad winked at each other. ‘I used to have a friend called Clever Jean,’ said his mum.

‘And I had a friend called Sporty John,’ said his dad. They grinned.

That night Jake fell asleep whilst his mum read him one of his favourite stories.

The next morning, he was excited to get to school and see his new friend. But when he got there, Good Jake wasn’t there. He cried, and cried and cried... ‘What’s wrong, Jake?’ asked Mr Spook, his teacher.

‘W, w, where’s Good Jake? I can’t be good without him,’ Jake whimpered.

‘You can do it!’ said Mr Spook and smiled.

And to Jake’s greatest amazement he could! He got sticker after sticker...until it was almost impossible to see the colour of his jumper. Then something terrible happened....

Jake got caught chatting.

‘I just can’t be good! I am so sorry!’ wept Jake.

‘Don’t be,’ said Mr Spook ‘Give up trying to be perfect. You can do it!’

‘I can!’ said Jake.

Jake got sticker after sticker, day after day, until it was the end of the week.  Jake didn’t get Star of the Day like he wanted....BUT he was picked for Star of the Week! Jake smiled. Mr Spook smiled. Jake’s mum and dad smiled. Everybody smiled.

That night, as Jake was brushing his teeth, he looked in the mirror, Good Jake smiled back and winked at him.

Laters xx

Willy the Wizard

Aaaah bliss!! In full flow of the holiday! After 2 weeks, it has gotten to that stage where it has actually got boring. I am not complaining about that! I am embracing the boredom and enjoying it. It is not very often I have the opportunity to be bored. One year, I planned so much for the holiday that I needed another holiday afterwards. Sometimes nothing is good, from nothing you can do whatever you want! In typical teacher form, I am finding it hard to sit still and keep feeling like I should be doing something. My friend rang me and said, ‘What have you been up to Miss Phitt?’
My response was, ‘absolutely nothing.’ I began to make excuses and give reasons and she said,
‘Don’t feel guilty for it, for *^^( sake!’
It kind of feels like my right leg has been chopped off without a pile of planning and marking...
I forgot to mention that I got the feedback from the marking scrutiny. From the feedback, it was quite evident they hadn’t scrutinised a single one of my books. Everybody’s feedback was identical. In the end I had actually been looking forward to my feedback after sneak peeking at the other teachers’ books. My books might have had naff smiley faces but at least the children hadn’t carefully drawn willies on them like in some of the other classes – well, that’s what comes of telling the kids the story of ‘Willy the Wizard’ By Anthony Browne. Having said that, it’s an amazing story. I love a story with a moral.