Staff Room!!!

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If you go tO the sticker factory on line you can get personalised stickers made up, Cod.

Mrs Cod sez Fawk off!

Coz sez, Like your scarf

etc etc

Would speed you up no end!

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knocks tentatively on door and wonders if it's ok to come in - have a place on PGCE course for september to teach secondary science (majoring in biology) so am very excited, and a little nervous.

oh dear.. i've actually got to plan double the lessons as they dropped some revision thing on us FRIDAY and we still have to plan our normal lessons to leave for cover so i really should have done lots of work. i had had enough friday though. Really just wanted a break from it all! Am having a rather lovely weekeng though- until around 7 tomorrow when ill try to do everything no doubt lol. ah well. we work to live eh, not live to work!

so i keep telling myself...

It feels so lovely, knowing we've got a day off tomorrow. Exams are looming though and most of my Year 11 seem to think exams are a strange fictional concept invented by teachers and nothing at all to do with them!

I've prepped all bar one of my lessons for next week. So I feel mildly virtuous

why has our staff room stopped? Hope your having a good bank holiday- i'm guna be in trouble, im in half term mode already! done no work and i'm out all day tomorrow... why am i on here? hmmm

Ok you aren't who i thought you were then, Sorry!

Just popping in to say, no, I'm a Sarf London lass, London borough!

No sense about Hay, booked kids stuff am not happy some were sold out before we were even sent the stuff. Adult stuff still not on sale though man last week said Thurs/Fri.Don't think I will see much as both can't go to stuff

I thought she was up north near C???

I don't think MMLove is in our County N? Is she?!

I'm in ATL: I think it's a good half-way-house teaching/support staff union so can handle the mixed role of CS (and welcome them). You can't join NUT, not sure about NASUWT. Our school doesn't have a Unison rep atm, so most support staff join ATL.

Btw Nymphadora have you got any sense out of Hay Festival yet?

I am UNISON,, though not had great experiences when we were all threatened with redundancy last year IIRC MMLove you are same county as me (& roisin)? so watch that if you need them ,NAG!

Oops! No, scrap that, I've found it!

Email hasn't arrive MMLove - can you try again, as my email is pretty dodgy atm!

I've just got a big pile of papers in the post today, which I'm sure will include stuff like that and I will look through it at the weekend. I'm soooo tired! I know I've only been sitting at the back of a classroom for 3 days, but its mentally exhausting! I thought that working 8.30 - 3 would free up the late afternoon for doing things, but I'm too knackered!

I have e-mailed you Roisin.

Btw, their union is Unison.

I meant to ask, with all the posts about the strike on Thursday, have you joined a union? Our cover supervisors are and every teacher I know is, for the protection and insurance they offer.

Thanks Roisin! I have definately seen a major difference in the effectiveness of different teachers already! The same class was quiet for an entire hour, with an incredibably quietly spoken teacher and like a pack of wolves for one that started by shouting!

I did manage to get one lad to sit and get his contact book and pen out, by pointing at his chair and suggesting that he did as he was told, so that's a good start!

Doing shadowing/observing is crucial to see how the school usually functions.

Try and be as observant as possible. In the good lessons, the teacher will be actively using lots of little techniques, routines, expectations. Think about the 'stage presence' of a teacher as they enter the room and start the lesson: this is vital. You need to put on an act.

Hope things go well for you.

MaureenMLove - when I started as a CS I was really shocked by behaviour in school, in classrooms, and so on. Tbh every time I go back to school after a couple of weeks' holidays I'm shocked by the behaviour, and our school isn't even in special measures.

And - be warned - children will try it on even more for any sort of cover teacher, and behaviour can be even more challenging!

The time of day does have a huge impact. One of our yr7 half year-groups (4 classes) are very difficult P5. They go to bed late, don't get enough sleep, and by that stage in the day they are just shattered. It's shocking.

Thursday P5 is definitely the worst time of the week for any lesson.

Yes I think that is all planned. As I said, the school was put on special measures, at Christmas, and we are the first Cover Supervisors they've ever had! They can't even decide which faculty we should belong to yet! This week is obvisously a difficult one to join in, as we will be effected by the strike on Thursday. We've got just Yr 9 & 11 in. The plan is to shaddow this week and hopefully start getting some more formally training from next week.

I really haven't been given any guidelines yet, to work to, but we have been promised it'll come.