#YourEdustory Week 2 - A better place

Inspired by MLK: How will you make the world a better place? @CoffeeNancy

Topics like this one scare me. I don't see myself as someone that will be an agent of change on the world stage, but that seems to be where my mind goes when I see topics like this - go big or go home.

My favourite TV show is 'The West Wing', has been since it first aired. I have the full set on DVD and it's soothing background noise when I am working. I know when I can just listen and when I need to look up to see the images. I know the big speeches, the soundtracks, the characters, it is all comforting to me. So often I find that TWW provides guidance in sometimes strange ways.

For those who have not seen the show, hopefully this will still make sense. For those who have seen the show, hopefully this resonates with you as it does with me.

Spoilers, I guess... Episode 17 of Season 1 - "White House Pro-Am"

The bodyman of the President, Charlie, has been dating Zoe, the youngest daughter of the President. He is discussing relationship issues with a member of the Press Corp, Danny. Danny points out that Zoe probably hasn't had the easiest childhood with her family history and her fathers political life, and he advises Charlie to be "the one guy who was hassle free."

When I had to write my teaching philosophy for a portfolio this scene came to mind straight away. Uncomplicated, hassle free. That is what I aim to be for my students. I want them to feel confident in their understanding of the expectations in my class and around me as a teacher, mentor, friend, whatever label it is that they place on our professional relationship.  

I aim to make the world a better place by being me, always, for my kids.

For the most part, we don't know what happens in our kids lives when they leave our classes, or in the minutes and hours before they enter. The statistics on child abuse of various kinds are staggering and depressing; statistically speaking, horrific things are happening to many of our students and we don't even know the half of it.

So I will make the world a better place by being hassle free. My students know that I expect them to work when I ask them to, but they also know that I will work just as hard for them. They know that once something has been dealt with it is 'done and dusted', it won't be dredged up later to be used against them.

Make the world a better place = scary for me, daunting. Make their world a better place on any given day? I can do that.

#YourEdustory #oneword

What is your "one word" that will inspire you in your classroom or school in 2015?

In 2014 our College Captains got every student and every staff member to think about their 'one word' resolution for the year.  I chose 'chill' - I needed to find work-life balance, I needed to remember to chill out a bit, I wanted to make my classroom a place for students (and me) to chill outside of lesson times.  I achieved two out of three, and made decent progress on the middle one.

For 2015 my word is '-self' - myself, yourself, ourselves, themselves.

We ask our students to be a part of so much, to participate in sport, performing arts, clubs, activities, service, and academic endeavors, and I worry that we don't let them have time to themselves.

We are bombarded with media stories and images that make us doubt our self-worth and value if we do not meet the impossible standards set by computer software and people who don't have anything to do except spend time 'looking good'.

We take responsibility for a class not doing as well on an assessment as we thought they should have, and wonder what we did wrong - I am often guilty of this!

We take on so much to prove that we are a good teacher - Masters, extra extra-curricular activities, other study, CPD out the wazoo.

We, and our students, often forget to make time for ourselves, time to just be.

So for 2015, I am focusing on -self.

I am not going to be so harsh on myself, and I am going to do my best to help my students not be so hard on themselves.

I am going to look after myself, otherwise I am no good to anybody!  I am going to help my students realise they need to look after themselves first too.

I am going to stop taking sole responsibility for my students learning, and help them to take on that responsibility themselves.

I am going to be myself, and be happy with who that is, and encourage, cajole and beg my students to be themselves too!

I am going to ensure that my classroom is somewhere that -selves can feel comfortable.

Adding some music to History

A majority of my students have heard of Horrible Histories before they enter my classroom, however, not many have heard of historyteachers.  While the HH songs are catchy in their own way, Amy Burvall and Herb Mahelona set their parodies to songs that the students and teachers are familiar with from popular culture.

Check out the reason my students draw musical notes next to some of their Medieval Europe exam answers, and not a one has ever misspelled bubonic!

I'm looking forward to introducing my Year 7 class to historyteachers well-researched, produced and catchy work.

Head on over to arttrav by Alexandra Korey to read how Amy used the songs in her own teaching.

Stepping up to Year 7

As mentioned in my previous post, this year I've got a Year 7 class for English and History/Geography for the first time.  When the possibility was first floated I was not entirely pleased with the idea, as it would mean that the classroom which is for all intents and purposes 'mine' would no longer be 'mine', but a Year 7 room.  During discussions with both my History mentor and Head of Department I came to realise that me taking Year 7 would actually be a great opportunity to bring our Year 7 Social Science program into line with the rejigged Years 8-10 programs that have evolved over the past 3 years.

So, here's my PMI (Plus/Minus/Interesting-I don't know) for me having a Year 7 class - I intend to reflect through the year on how things have shifted and how I have (hopefully) grown.

Plus:
*I actually get to keep my room, even with the Year 7 class, and only have 6 of my 40 lessons a cycle out of it (either next door or one door down).
*The other core teacher (Science/Maths) that I am paired with for this class group is a teacher I get along with quite well, both personally and professionally.
*Year 7 camp in Week 2 of Term 1, yay!
*Being part of re-writing a program again, I get really pumped gathering resources and tools to put a unit together.
*Geography will have Weather and Disasters in it, and I love teaching that.
*History is archaeology and ancient history, and I miss teaching ancient for senior.

Minus (Opportunities in most cases):
*NAPLAN pressure (from outside)- not going to comment any further on that, except to say that as long as my students have a go and present their best efforts I will be happy with them.
*Other people in 'my room', and feeling like I am encroaching on others spaces when I have lessons in their rooms (mentor and HoD).
*Dealing with transition issues from Primary.
*Changing over to IB MYP for 2 subjects = apprehension as I don't really know what to expect, but I fear it is more paperwork!

Interesting/I don't know:
*IDK - how I will go with getting the routines sorted early, I know that I am improving year to year and term to term, but Year 7 is a whole 'nother ballgame!
*IDK - if I want to run the Year 7 government activities that have been run by some teachers in other years, I think I need to discuss this with colleagues before making a decision.
*I am teaching many siblings of students in my other classes, so I'm not a total stranger to them which will hopefully ease some of the early nerves in Term 1.

More Plus than Minus, which is good! I am looking forward to meeting the new kids on the block and joining them on the start of their secondary school journey.

Looking into 2015...

Edit: - on reflection, I should take my own advice and keep my goals achievable and realistic, so the blog-a-day has been modified to a blog a week.  I'll be participating in the #YourEdustory Challenge 2015 - details here.

I've decided to try a blog-a-day challenge, and have to start somewhere!  They're not going to be massive entries, but hopefully there will be something to bounce of or reflect on later in the year.

I'm starting my fourth year of teaching in 2015, and it's going to be a challenging and full year.  I'll be teaching Year 7 for the first time (English and History/Geography), and Year 11 Modern History.  My school is also making the transition to the IB MYP program which brings its own complications and refinements.  I'm looking forward to tackling those cohorts and programs, and have been busy doing the holiday reading set by my colleague for Modern and my HoD for IB.

On the flip side, I won't be teaching any Year 8 classes, which will be a tad weird for me as I have had that grade for both English and History/Geography for the past three years.  It was strange at the end of last term to file those resources and classroom items - those crowns and plague rats have been party to many a raucous lesson!

Bring it on...