Rough as an ol' badger's arse

So I haven’t written for a while. Things have been going far too well! I’m glad I don’t have the dramas of my old job; it was such nonsense! So it’s half term, I had a fantastic observation, which I kinda knew would happen but at the same time it is habit for me to worry for weeks beforehand, and finally I have been on a week’s residential with the kids – great fun! I was rough as an ol’ badger’s arse afterwards tho.  Nights of being woken up by whispering children outside my door plotting to run away – ever the concerned teacher, I rolled over and fell back fast asleep. Our last day was the most exciting for the kids – a disco!!!  AND shopping for gifts and souvenirs! We let them loose around the shops; and once we rounded them up again, I asked to see what they had bought , expecting postcards, keyrings or magnets – They bought plastic dog turds.

Anyway, the rumour is the new OFSTED guidelines are all about making children independent learners – I’m not sure what they learnt from independently buying plastic dog turds but I learnt that it was much more fun for me to go and get a cuppa than try and stop them buying them. 20 years ago I had the excitement of buying a plastic dog turd myself. Independent learning: sounds good to me! Sounds about time too! Something which will actually make a difference! We need to change this culture of young, dumb and living off mum and get ourselves outta the credit crunch. After years of working my ass to the bone to have resources so that no kid could possibly fail, this was music to my ears.  So we let the kids be independent on our residential trip and one had a play fight and broke his leg. Sleepless teachers’ nights at the hospital and we returned him home (after his parents couldn’t be arsed to pick him up) to....guess what? ;-p

xxx

Observation Panic!

So it’s now the period of observations – the time teachers love most. Calm, professional, able teachers suddenly become panicking, nervous wrecks looking for anybody they could possibly blame if they don’t pull off a good one. Our head is incredibly supportive yet this is scary shit!  But do observations mean anything? Do they really reflect how good a teacher you are? And how useful are they really? They are perhaps, the biggest factor affecting stress and teachers’ emotional wellbeing. I’ve had every grading: Unsatisfactory, Satisfactory, Good and Outstanding. At the same time, it is important to monitor the quality of learning although it could be done in a different way. Ofsted have changed the guidelines. It’s more about the overall big picture, which suits me and makes more sense. It’s no longer based on putting on a good show. Life is on hold until the observation. But it’s all worth it for the intense elation you feel afterwards. Right now, I am anti-observations. If I pull off a good one this week, we know my view will change.xx