Festival of Education

I came across adverts for a "Hay-style-festival" of education in the papers this weekend. The line-up looks impressive with speakers from the worlds of education, culture and entertainment. I'll certainly be heading across.

http://www.festivalofeducation.org.uk/

This one student...

He has a benign face when he is not scowling; he has quite a round face and a spattering of freckles across his nose which do an awful lot of diplomatic work for him. He is a strange juxtaposition of anger and embarrassment. He talks consistently, always politely apologetic, but always talking!!

His class always listen carefully to the text I am reading them but when it comes to listening to each other, proceedings fall apart. Several separate conversations strike up while individuals try to share small observations. The pattern goes something like this: I apologise to the person taking, turn to the students talking to each other, ask them to stop, explain that it’s rude to speak over others, they stop while I am talking to them before turning back to continue their conversations the moment the firs student started sharing his/her observations again! Grrr!!!!!

A secret

I told my year 8 class a secret today but made them promise not to tell anyone else. I told them they were my favourite class. I know this is wrong but, to be honest, there isn’t much competition. Theirs are the lessons that I really look forward to. We have also been on trips to the imperial war museum, they have written, produced and directed their own play, raising nearly £300 for Great Ormond Street in the process. I arranged for them to perform for the Teach First office before Christmas and then for a big city firm where I’d previously done work experience over the summer. Recently the lady from Great Ormond Street came in to thank the students and tell them about where their money would be going.

Glasses

Gradually, if not intentionally, I’m giving up contact lenses. At the end of a long day’s teaching the world looks like a 3D film without the glasses. Even my vanity can’t hold out against this level of visual confusion. I realised today while running a half term revision class that every so often I pause to push my glasses back up my nose. I have come to think of this gesture not as a practical necessity but as a pedagogical affectation worth cultivating, a way of underscoring salient points!