You’ll appreciate it when you’re older

An argument that ingeniously bypasses the fact that many of my male students--with manly chins, upon which hair has been growing for a few years but has not yet confidently established itself--are already older and do not appreciate it.

The story of the past

Having said what I've said below, I recently came across a school website that claimed that they had all the newest, latest and best facilities. I am wary of the pressure to sweep away the stories of the past in favour of a gleaming, parent/customer-friendly future. Schools are, or should be, places where there is a distinctive heartbeat from old, story ridden uneven furniture which is quickly lost in an Ikea look alike. I suggest that cherishing the roots of a school, the collective wisdom of its history, is as important as pruning and polishing the branches.

I am by no means against change. I could certainly think of a few buildings I’d like to bulldoze! However, I believe teachers should ensure that former pupils are included in preset day school life for the contribution that they have made to the school and for the story they have of their own value formation through participation in school life.

I think it important to think about how schools tell the story of their past as well as how they participate in the present and embrace the future.

learning space

I love the idea of creating learning ‘spaces’--a community of enquiry where a teacher’s voice is a voice not the voice in that ‘space’--, we need to harness better the world’s resources and weblogs, I would like to podcast lessons for students to revise, run more vocational Simulation Days, ‘Dragon’s Den’ projects, trips, concerts, talks. These things epitomise the fantastic creative potential of teaching.

Uniform

I stretched my arm out as one of my students tried to enter my classroom today, blocking their way. Not only was he wearing his tie like a bandana but this was worn over the top of a balaclava!
‘What’s this?’ I asked.
‘Nothing.’
‘What’s the deal with this?’ he asked, flipping the interrogation round and touching my well-chosen tie for the day.
I said nothing (literally).
He said gnomically, ‘nothin’, Sir. It’s just what it is init.’
He began waving at his classmates through the window of the door.
I pounced on this opportunity to play the uniform game where the class used this student as an example and made him look neat and tidy. We all made an extra effort to make him look particularly neat and tidy this afternoon. That is, with a long, thin tie not a short, fat one!

Black History Month

There are some great events coming up--get involved!

Similes and metaphors

After a few lessons on similes and metaphors, I asked students to reflect on their uses and shortcomings as a plenary. One student, more or less, wrote the following:
‘If a metaphor is when you use a word to describe something that it isn’t, is a metaphor a metaphor? It’s very confusing. Raining has nothing to do with cats and dogs and it makes me forget what the writer is talking about. Also, you said a lot of names are metaphors but why would you want to use a metaphor to name someone, I would want my name to mean me, nothing else. That’s why similes are better than metaphors.’