May 09 2012
2 Comments
Teaching and Learning

Displays For Learning

We plan many things to ensure that for the time that a class is in front of us learning can occur. We plan the questions that we will ask to probe pupils’ understanding. We plan activities, seating plans, starters and plenaries. We try to plan as much as we can so that we can provide the best learning experience that we can for the pupils in our care. At the beginning of my career there was one aspect of the learning experience that I very rarely planned or even considered at all; the environment in which that learning experience took place.

It wasn’t until I started working in my current school, just under two years ago, that I discovered the delights of creating displays. The school where I work, a  converter academy in North London, has a fairly strict policy with regards to classroom and corridor displays:

  • Displays MUST be changed at least once a year – normally in time for open evening every October.
  • Displays SHOULD NOT contain pupils work.
  • Displays should be linked to particular areas of the curriculum. Displays should be focused on particular elements of the subject or pedagogy.
Displays are checked by SLT every year and amendments can be ‘suggested’. There are also prizes given to departments and individuals who produce the most creative, innovative and interesting displays.
Above is a picture of the first display I created. It took up one of the spots on the Science department corridor. It took me HOURS to think of an idea, plan, draw put the display up. It may seem incredibly silly but I was so incredibly proud of the display. My very first! I even managed to sneak in a picture of one of my idols – Eddie Vedder, the lead singer of Pearl Jam.
Like all displays in the school, the purpose of the display wasn’t just to brighten up the corridor, but to help pupils learn. With my ‘Energy is Everywhere’ display pupils had to find an example of each energy transfer from the fairground scene pictured.
Having talked to many teacher friends about the display policy in my school, many often reel back in horror at the thought of spending so much time creating displays and being under so much pressure to create high quality displays. At the beginning of the academic year there are plenty of grumbles about the hours that staff have to spend preparing and putting up displays. Of all the things a teacher has to do in September, sometimes stapling large pieces of coloured card to the wall doesn’t seem the best use of your time. I have however grown to love the process of designing, preparing and putting up displays.
 Below are some of the displays that I have created this year.
This display has two purposes. It is placed at the front of the room. The section where you can see the word REVISION is the ‘Keywords’ part of the display. A word goes on the board every lesson. The word can be used in many ways. Sometimes, as a plenary, pupils are asked to define the word. They can be asked to write a summary of what they have learnt making sure they include the keyword in their summary. Sometimes pupils themselves decide what the keyword of the lesson has been. The aim is to, in a small way, highlight the importance of literacy in our learning.
The traffic light colours are glued on to boxes which have been fixed on to the wall. I use these often to gauge pupils understanding. Each pupil in my classes has a lollipop stick with their name on. I use the sticks as part of the ‘hands-down’ approach I often take with questioning in lessons. Sometimes I will give pupils their sticks before they leave the class, and they place their stick in the box that best represents how well they feel they have achieved the learning objectives. I can then use their feedback to plan the next lesson.
The ‘Science Wordsearch’ display contains individual letter cards that are fixed on to the wall using velcro. The letters can be taken off and moved in to different positions. They can also be used with the keyword section of the display described above. I use this display in revision lessons to highlight topic keywords. Pupils have sometimes built their own wordsearch to test their colleagues.
Below is a picture of our ‘Science Question time’ display. This was designed as an engaging way for pupils to think about Science outside of normal lesson time (registration/tutor time etc.). There are a number of questions on the display including, ‘ Will we ever have an invisibility cloak like Harry Potter has?’. The answers to each question has to be found in various random areas of the classroom.

Above is the display I am most proud of, partly because it drives much of what I am working on in my own practice at the moment. The SOLO display was inspired by blog posts written by Tait Coles. It is a constant visual reminder to pupils of the principles underpinning the taxonomy. It also attracts the attention of other teachers who don’t have knowledge of SOLO and is a good way to get people ‘hooked in’ to the SOLO ‘army’!
I love the creativity of the process of making displays. Most of all I love the fact that every year I will work hard to try to make my laboratory a welcoming, inspiring and productive learning environment. I truly believe that the displays I have created help, in a small way, to improve the learning that places place in my lessons.
Tagged , , , , , ,
Mar 06 2012
Leave a comment
Teaching and Learning

Helping Pupils Become Their Own Teachers

I have recently been reading John Hattie’s fantastic book, ‘Visible Learning for Teachers: Maximizing Impact on Learning’. I am only half-way through at the moment but I know it will be one of those books that I dip in to constantly. Reading the book, one of the key messages that really stood out for me was the idea that, ‘…the greatest effects on learning occur when teachers become learners of their own teaching, and when students become their own teachers’.

With those words in mind, I have been working with a Year 8 Maths class that I teach and  trialled some of the ideas developed by the PLC group I have been working with this year (see previous post about Developing Independent Learners).

The first strategy I introduced to pupils was the idea of ‘C3B4ME’. Before pupils stick their hands up during a lesson and exclaim, ‘Sir, I’m stuck!’, they are being encouraged to see three of their classmates for help. The idea of this is to encourage pupils to become more resilient and resourceful.

The second strategy I have trialled has been to have ‘Masterminds’ for every lesson. The Mastermind is one pupil that takes on the role of a teaching assistant during the lesson. We started out by having one Mastermind per lesson. This pupil would complete the same work as everyone else but they would complete their work on a large whiteboard at one side of the classroom. During the lesson pupils were free to go to the Mastermind and have a look at their work. They would discuss with the Mastermind how they achieved the answer that they had written on the board, and could look at the Mastermind’s working out.

Finally, I have begun using the Wallwisher site with my classes. I am hoping to be able to use this site as an opportunity for pupils to ask the questions they don’t feel like they
I trialled both of these strategies for two lessons. At the end of the second lesson I asked pupil to share their views on how these ideas had impacted upon their learning.

The table below summarises their views:

WWW

EBI

The Mastermind because A was very helpful

More time

Having a Mastermind, C3B4ME, 5R’s Wallwisher

The Mastermind didn’t really explain the answer deep enough for me to get the hang of it.

We had a lot of help.

Two Masterminds would be better.

I learnt new things.

The Mastermind could walk around.

The Mastermind helped a lot.

There was more different questions e.g. on a different topic to help us.

I liked C3B4ME because 3 different people helped us understand the work.

Be a bit quicker.

It was good when we had A doing the work on the board so we can go and ask him how he did the working out.

It was too easy.

We got the work done

Make a game at the end of the lesson.

Mastermind was good

We could have had two Masterminds.

C3B4ME really worked well.

We worked in groups or on the computers.

I found it helpful when I asked 3 people before Sir because KJ helped me.

C3B4ME was okay but some people don’t give the right answer or did not help.

I understood the lesson and I was working well. It was very easy and calm.

To work more independently.

The Mastermind and C3B4ME.

It was explained more.

I thought C3B4ME was helpful most of the lesson.

Easier to get the answer than show the working out.

Mastermind, C3B4ME, Wallwisher.

We could have two Masterminds.

Having the Mastermind because it is helpful and easier to ask them for help and see how they did it.

If I had finished the work.

I found it helpful to go and talk to the Mastermind.

If at the end of the lesson we played a game to see if we remember what we learnt.

I found it very easy because I saw my friends and we all worked together and when we got something wrong we helped each other.

Do my working out at the same time not after.

I learnt how to convert imperial to metric and the reverse.

It wasn’t clear about the units, times and divide.

People can ask questions and can ask the person near to them and stay calm.

To work independently.

I found it helpful to learn from other people, study groups.

If I had finished all my work.

The lesson was good because it was really easy and I had loads of people ask me questions and I had my own group.

Could have explained conversions better.

The Mastermind. Helping people. I learnt new things.

More examples.

I learnt about metric conversions.

The Mastermind, Wallwisher, and C3B4ME.

WWW – Mastermind

EBI – Mastermind

You can help other people and they can spot the Mastermind’s mistakes.

You don’t get as much work done as usual and you have to keep on stopping.

As you can see from the summary above, some interesting points were raised by pupils after this first trial. One positive point emphasised by pupils was that they felt that they were being given more help during these lessons. Some pupils also enjoyed helping others during the lesson and thrived in the role of helper. It seemed that although there was one pupil working as the official Mastermind of the lesson, unofficial Mastermind’s sprang up in different groups around the class.

Another encouraging point raised by some pupils was that the lesson was ‘calm’. The development of a calm learning environment was a consequence that I had not anticipated when starting this work.

There could be many reasons why pupils felt calmer in these lessons. Receiving help and talking with others during the lesson could help pupils realise that everyone in the class has difficulties from time to time, and that it is rare for people to understand everything that they come across the first time they see it. The fact that pupils also don’t have to wait for the teacher to give them help could also reduce the amount of time they may spend sitting in ‘isolation’ and struggling with the work. Whatever the reason for our new-found ‘zen-ness’ (!) it can surely only be a good thing. It would be interesting to investigate this impact of the work further.

Some negative points that I will have to investigate include…

The Mastermind noted that they didn’t get as much work done as they usually would. This does not necessarily mean that the Mastermind is not learning, however I will have to pay careful attention to tracking the short-term progress of pupils who carry out the role of Mastermind.

After receiving the feedback described above, I have implemented a few changes to the strategies I have been using to develop the independent learning skills of pupils:

  • I have decided to employ two Masterminds per lesson instead of one. This follows on from suggestions made by pupils in their initial feedback.
  • Masterminds are now better prepared for their role by having an opportunity to use homework time to complete the work they will be helping the rest of the class with.
  • Masterminds no longer complete their work on a white-board so the rest of the class can see. Instead, the Mastermind pupils have the completed work in their books which they can take with them as they circulate the room helping individuals or groups of classmates.

I have decided to stick with the principle of these strategies that everyone will have an opportunity to be Mastermind. I also intend to continue my use of Wallwisher and see how this could be further developed.

As Hattie argues in ‘Visible Learning…’, it is incredibly important that we, as teachers, constantly evaluate the impact of our interventions…so expect an update on this work in the future!

John Hattie’s book, ‘Visible Learning for Teachers: Maximising Impact on Learners’ (2011) can be found here amongst other suppliers.

Tagged , , , , , , , , , , ,
Feb 24 2012
Leave a comment
SOLO Taxonomy

Going SOLO! (Part 2) – A Plea for Help.

So I have been ‘Going SOLO’ for a few months now. After introducing the concept to one class initially (see previous ‘Going SOLO!’ post) I have continued my reading and started to develop ideas as to how I will embed SOLO in to my schemes of work.

My exploration of SOLO taxonomy has coincided nicely with the start of the second year of the MA Education course. The second year of the course is entitled ‘Action Research for School Improvement’. I am keen to use my SOLO work as the basis for my action research. The provisional title of the research I am planning is:

‘An investigation into the impact of the use of SOLO taxonomy as a teaching and learning model on the learning experience of pupils’.

This is a deliberately broad title. I aim to focus on how the use of SOLO impacts on pupil engagement and pupil perception of their own ability. There are a number of aspects of the research I still need to investigate and plan but I hope to get underway soon!

So here comes the plea for help! Part of the research will involve looking at how SOLO can be used in subjects other than my own (Science!). I am looking for people who are either currently using SOLO taxonomy with one or more of their classes, or are thinking of introducing SOLO to a class. Once the final design of the research has been finalised, I would hope to work with a few other teachers on collecting some data. Anyone willing to offer some help will use SOLO in any way that they think is best with their own classes. For my research I would just need some information on how SOLO was introduced to pupils and how it is regularly used. I would also require pupils to complete questionnaires about their experiences of using SOLO.

I am hoping that this research could be refined and published at a later date so that the SOLO model can be used by more teachers. I really see this as a collaborative project with other teachers rather than MY work for my MA!

So…if you think you could help, or know of anyone else who would be interested, it would be great to hear from you. You can contact me via twitter (@sciteachcremin) or by emailing me: dwcremin@gmail.com.

For an introduction to SOLO check out the following AMAZING resources I have been using:

SOLO in English - Lisa Jane Ashes

SOLO expert! – Tait Coles

SOLO oracle – Pam Hook

 

Tagged , , , , , , , ,
Jan 28 2012
Leave a comment
Teaching and Learning

Developing Independent Learners

As part of the work I have been doing as part of my PLC group (see this previous post about PLC’s) I have been thinking a lot recently about different strategies that could be used to help pupils become better independent learners.

The PLC group began our work by discussing what was meant by ‘independent learning’. Could you be an independent learner whilst working in a group? Could you seek help from other people and still be learning independently?

Pupils’ ideas of ‘independent learning’ seemed to very negative. When pupils were involved in discussions about independent learning they saw it as a solitary experience where no help could be sought at all. These views caused the group some concern but were also a stimulus for thinking about what outcomes we wanted to achieve.

After some research we decided to split our PLC group in to two; one group would look at a language that could be developed and used school-wide. This language should facilitate discussion in lessons, and beyond, about the skills needed to be independent learners. Having a universal language to describe these skills should also enable pupils to recognise that these skills can be employed in any subject or any form of learning that they do. The second group would be looking at practical strategies that can be used in the classroom to develop pupils’ learning.

Our ‘language group’ came across Guy Claxton’s ‘Building Learning Power’ model. [more info about BLP can be found here]. We decided that this was a very easy, very succinct model that we would trial with some of our classes. So far, the 5 R’s (adapted from Claxton’s 4 R’s and sourced from Cramlington Learning Village) have been introduced to one class – my Year 8 Maths class. My Year 8′s and I worked together on a lesson designed to introduce them to what the 5R’s meant, and most pupils seemed to have grasped the concept very well. [The lesson we used can be found here] It is still very early days and I don’t really intend on being able to assess any form of impact, significant or otherwise, until the summer term.

Our strategies group have come up with a central theme of ‘C3B4ME’. My colleagues in this group felt that there needed to be a few simple strategies that pupils and teachers could start using in all of their lessons. The idea of ‘C3B4ME’ is one that is familiar to many teachers – pupils need to seek help from 3 pupils before they speak to the teacher. This idea ties in with the ‘Resourceful’ section of the 5R’s as pupils have to develop their ability to utilise the resources, including the people, around. My colleagues have added a few twists to the ‘C3B4ME’ idea that are going to be trialled:

  • One pupil in the class will be chosen by the teacher to wear the ‘C3B4ME’ badge. This pupil will have a ‘teacher’ role during the lesson and pupils can work with that pupil on particular problems they may have during the lesson.
  • An ‘Oracle’ will be present within the classroom. The Oracle will very simply be a box that contains resources that pupils can use to help them with whatever learning is developing within that lesson.

Pupils will also be signposted to other sources of help such as:

  • The people they are sat next to.
  • Another adult in the room (a T.A etc.).
  • Their planners – pupils’ planners have extensive fact sheets, key language sheets etc.
  • Displays in the room.
Since starting the work, our PLC group has now developed a third strand. Having recently discovered SOLO Taxonomy (see earlier post), I have been trying to recruit as many people as possible to the ‘SOLO Army’! I delivered a brief presentation to staff at the school about my SOLO work and since then have had a number of people seem keen to try to implement the taxonomy in their own lessons. My HoD has recently introduced the taxonomy to one of his KS3 classes and he is keen to see how SOLO can be used to develop independence in his pupils.
 
We have a long way to go with our work, but I feel that so far we are on the right track. There are a HUGE number of questions we still need to ask ourselves:
  • How exactly can we judge the progress pupils make in developing their independent learning skills?
  • Do we need a similar rewards system to Cramlington Learning Village and various other schools around the country that is focused on the R’s?
  • Will the strategies and Building Learning Power language described above work for all departments?
  • How will staff take to the idea of Building Learning Power and could it be implemented across the curriculum?
Tagged , , , , , ,
Jan 18 2012
1 Comment
Ed Tech Creative Collective

Ed Tech Creative Collective

So, for some reason, despite having a seemingly never-ending list of things to do, I have decided to sign up to the Ed Tech Creative Collective project. Before telling you why I am a glutton for punishment, here is a bit of background about the collective…

The ETCC is a project being organised by Colin Maxwell (@camaxwell) a digital media lecturer at Carnegie College in Scotland. The idea of the project is to complete a number of ‘assignments’ that will help you to develop your creative use of digital technologies. A much better description of the objectives of the project can be found at the Ed Tech Creative Collective blog.

Back to the question as to why I have decided to take part in the project. I am greatly interested in the use of technology in education. As a teacher, I try many different tools and strategies to enhance learning in my lessons. I also try to mirror the learning behaviour I would like my pupils to develop. I regularly have conversations with my pupils about what they are learning in other subjects, and also discuss with pupils what I have learnt during the week. Pupils often teach me as much as I am able to teach them!

I felt that this project would be an excellent opportunity to develop my knowledge of the technology that is available out there, and also to develop my creative talents!

I am already late with the preliminary task (this blog post was meant to be written by 17th Jan!) but hopefully I can catch up, learn a few things and put these in to practice in the classroom. Will update the blog with the outcomes of the project as I go along!

Tagged , , ,
Jan 11 2012
3 Comments
Teaching and Learning

Professional Learning Communities (PLC’s)

The concept of a Professional Learning Community (PLC) was introduced to staff where I work in May 2011. The aim of the development of PLC’s within our school has been to embed school improvement plan (SIP) priorities and to encourage staff learning. The communities that were going to be developed would consist of 8-9 members of staff. Throughout the 2011-2012 academic year, these cross-curricular groups would work together and focus on a particular area of school improvement. Our work would involve reviewing literature about our focus area and carrying out a piece of action research.

Work began before the summer holidays in 2011 to decide on the core themes for each of the groups. The following themes were decided upon based upon the SIP and also to support excellence in learning:

  1. Developing independent KS3 learners.
  2. Differentiation for students with specific learning needs e.g. dyslexia, autism, speech and learning.
  3. Extending Gifted and Talented students through homework/online activities.
  4. Alternative strategies to help students manage behaviour.
  5. Effective practices in Assessment for Learning.
  6. Supporting students through mentoring.
  7. Impact of using student leaders in the classroom.
Groups were formed for each of the themes. Various members of staff with varying levels of experience were designated ‘Leaders’ and ‘Co-Leaders’ of each group.

At the start of the 2011-2012 academic year all staff, including teaching assisstants and year managers*, were asked to identify three of the seven themes that they were interested in exploring. Members of senior management assigned members of staff to their preferred groups. Once groupings, timetables etc. had been decided, it was then over to each individual PLC to make the most of the late starts, twilight inset sessions and staff meetings that have been set aside for them to carry out action research on their chosen theme.

We have had one term of our PLC work and, so far, I personally feel that it has been an incredibly positive experience. The benefits of the work have included:

  • The opportunity to collaborate with colleagues I very rarely see during the hectic working week. The input from people who came with many different ideas and with varying experiences has enabled me to refine changes I wanted to make to my own teaching practice.
  • Having the time to discuss issues with colleagues. This has helped me to put some of the challenges I face in to perspective. I am not the only person who finds these particular issues challenging. Working together with colleagues on these issues has enabled the burden to feel that little lighter!
  • The opportunity to carry out some action research on an issue I am particularly interested in. I am also working on my MA Education at the moment and the work I have been doing with my PLC has complemented my MA work nicely. By focusing on an issue that interests us personally, we all have an interest in producing work that is of a high quality.
  • Contributing to whole-school improvement. There are times when you can feel that no matter what improvements you make to your own individual practice, it would be nice to see those innovations spread to other parts of the school community. The PLC work has fostered a feeling that you really will be making a difference to teaching and learning in the school.
  • Everyone has something to learn. One of the positive points about working in a PLC is that there is no hierarchy. Everyone has something to contribute, all contributions are given equal consideration, and we all have something to learn. This fosters an ethos within the school community that everyone is here to learn, not just the pupils. We all have a contribution to make towards the teaching and learning that occurs in the community. With that equal contribution comes equal responsibility for the outcomes and so people have taken pride and put effort in to their work.
It is hard at this early stage to gauge the impact of the PLC programme on all staff this year.  I have spoken to some colleagues in different groups who haven’t enjoyed the PLC experience as much as I have. The main factors contributing to these differing experiences have included:
  • Too heavy a focus on reviewing current literature and a lack of an attempt to trial strategies in class. I believe that for the experience to feel worthwhile, colleagues need to see that the work they are doing will have a practical impact on their teaching practice.
  • Group dynamics. We so often see it when we try proximal learning with pupils in class, but people can often fail to ‘gel together’ when working in large groups. This can obviously have an impact of the work that is carried out and the enjoyment of those participating.

Some other issues surrounding the creation and implemetation of PLC’s are described in this TES article.

The idea of PLC’s (or Professional Enquiry Groups as I have often seen them described as) seems to be spreading widely across schools in the UK. It is already a popular model in the US. As yet, in my experience, the project is proving to be very successful. Some questions that we will need to start thinking about at this half way stage are:
  • What happens at the end of this academic year when the programme cycle is complete?
  • How do we decide which enquiries will be implemented school wide, if any?
  • How do we share our work beyond our own school community?
I hope to update the blog with an evaluation of the PLC programme in the Summer term but will be posting about the actual work we have been doing soon!
 
For more information about PLC’s visit the following site:
 
 

(*In our school there is no longer a ‘head of year’ system. Each year group is now ‘managed’ by non-teaching staff who spend their working time keeping track of pastoral issues that may arise.)

Tagged , , , ,
Dec 04 2011
Leave a comment
SOLO Taxonomy

Going SOLO! (Part 1)

For some time now I have been unhappy with how I assess the progress of my pupils in lessons. I have tried and tested various techniques including level ladders (KS3), ‘traffic lighting’ and have for a long time grappled with Bloom’s Taxonomy. Bloom’s in particular was enthusiastically pushed in the schools I have worked in since I started teaching 5 years ago. As much as I persevered with Bloom’s I found it incredibly clumsy and unwieldy. Admittedly, many of these issues may have been due to my lack of concrete understanding of the thinking behind the taxonomy. My biggest issue however, was the fact that the language of Bloom’s was not one that my pupils and I could easily converse in!

After the umpteenth observation in my current workplace in which it was remarked that my formative assessment was ‘Good’  but not ‘Outstanding’, I turned to Twitter for help. It was through the excellent Tait Coles (@Totallywired77) that I learnt about SOLO Taxonomy. After reading Tait’s fantastic posts I decided to give SOLO a go. Rather than go in to depth about what SOLO Taxonomy, here is the link to Tait’s blog – have a read yourself!

I followed Tait’s introductory lesson plan (which can be found HERE) to introduce pupils to the idea and concept of SOLO taxonomy. Surprisingly, the requirements to move from each level of learning and thinking were easily grasped by the pupils. At the end of the lesson I also gave pupils an opportunity to decide how the language of SOLO (in particular the title of each level of learning; Prestructural, Unistructural, Multistructural, Relational and Extended Abstract) could be changed to something more ‘pupil friendly’. Pupils worked in small groups to come up with a better way to describe each level of learning only to conclude that they couldn’t. As a class we had decided that in fact the language was easy to remember, use and understand.

At the end of the introductory lesson, pupils were set an open-ended homework task to produce something that demonstrated what they had learnt in the topic that we had just completed (C2 – Material Choices, 21st Century GCSE). Pupil’s had a week to complete the work and produced some fantastic pieces of evidence. Once the work had been handed in, pupils were given a lesson to work in small groups to mark each others work using SOLO. Pupils had to provide feedback of how the work they were reading had reached each particular level of learning, or how the work could move on to the next level of learning and thinking. Below is some footage of the pupils working on this peer assessment task.

At the end of the lesson I asked all pupils how useful they found the lesson. I was amazed to hear some of the insightful comments they made. The general theme running through most pupils comments was that the taxonomy allowed them to see what ‘real learning was meant to be’. It enabled them to focus on the idea that learning was more than just about learning a set of facts. Pupils were beginning to differentiate between surface and deep learning.

This first experience of SOLO with this class was an incredibly positive one, both for pupils and for myself. It has enabled us to think more clearly, not just about what we are learning, but how we are learning too. It is also enabling us to have meaningful conversations in class about our learning and the progress we are making. The language of SOLO is one that has proved to be easily used by pupils. In the short time we have used the SOLO language I have seen a real improvement in the confidence of pupils. They have truly begun to take responsibility of their learning.

So what next? I still class myself as a complete amateur when it comes to SOLO. There is so much more that I need to read and discover about how SOLO can be used. I am planning to do a SOLO display in my lab so that when I start introducing it to my other classes there is a constant reminder of the language, diagrams etc. I am hoping to broaden the use of SOLO within my teaching to encompass more than just marking criteria and eventually I would like to embed SOLO in to our schemes of work.

I feel incredibly confident about the ability of SOLO to improve my own learning and that of my pupils. It is the most accessible model of learning I have come across since entering the teaching profession and I do believe that the positive results I have seen so far are just the beginning.

For more information about SOLO go to Tait Cole’s blog HERE or the Hooked on Thinking website (click on the image below!).

Tagged , , , ,
Nov 26 2011
Leave a comment
Work-Life Balance

Work-Life Balance Manifesto!

I am glad that, after an exhausting week,  I can still appreciate  the irony of writing a post about work-life balance on a Saturday afternoon! I am hoping though that writing this post will prove to be a cathartic experience.

I have always been aware of the importance of maintaining a healthy balance between work and play. However it was only after attending TeachMeet London (#TMLondon) and seeing the inspiring Kathryn Lovewell (@KathrynLovewell) speak, that I really started to think properly about what I can do to manage my time, and stress levels, effectively.

This year, my 5th in teaching, has been incredibly intense. Since starting back at work in September, I think I can count on one hand the days that I have left work before 4.30. The last two weeks of my summer holiday were spent ‘refurbishing’ my lab to create a more welcoming and positive learning environment. A large chunk of the half-term in October was spent marking work and writing schemes of work. There have been Parents Evenings, Open Evenings, Homework Information Evenings, Masters Meetings, Whole School Meetings, Department Meetings and Year Team Meetings to attend this term.

The thing is, I wouldn’t want to do any other job. I love teaching and learning. I feel like the luckiest person alive to have the opportunity to do what I love every single day. I am acutely aware though that it is because I love my job so much, because I am so interested in the profession in which I work, and because I do not want to let any of my pupils down, that I regularly neglect the ‘play’ part of my life. I know that if this continues I am in danger of suffering from the type of burn-out that Kathryn described at #TMLondon. After the meeting, I happened to start reading the ‘Look Who’s Learning Too’ blog written by an amazing teacher, William Lau (@lauwailap1), who was also at #TMLondon. After reading Lau’s,‘Manifesto for Effective Sustainable Teaching’ post I knew exactly what I had to do. A simple set of ‘rules’ that I could live by. Rules to ensure that I can carry on doing the job that I love as effectively and as efficiently as I can whilst enjoying the precious time I have with my family outside of work…

  1. Twitter is switched off and left unchecked after 8pm midweek and after 6pm of the weekends.
  2. No marking is EVER to be brought home.
  3. No more than 1 hours work is completed at home midweek, and no more than 4 hours on the weekend.
  4. In bed by 11pm every night!
  5. A cup of camomile tea every morning and ensure I am continuously drinking water during the day to avoid the usual headaches.
  6. I will leave work by 4pm at least one day a week (Fridays don’t count!).
  7. I need to complete at least  30 minutes of some form of physical exercise 6 days a week, with an aim of 3 runs a week.
  8. Look after my body as much as I am trying to look after my mind by ensuring I have a healthy balanced diet. No takeaways. No stodgy sandwiches or rolls from work canteen. Avoid the staff-room on ‘Cake Day’ Fridays.

Looking at the list above, they should be easy rules to live by. Hopefully it shouldn’t be too long to recognise a difference in my work and my ‘normal’ life. I will hopefully have time to reflect on and review the manifesto in the New Year!

‘What is the reason for living life, other than to love it?’

Socrates

(Thanks to Kathryn Lovewell and William Lau for the inspiration)

Tagged , , , ,
Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.