The Fifty-third Republic - Ides of March Part 2

[StaffRepFeistyClub]

You are most welcome to this school staff support thread to get us through stressful times. It is meant for school staff only – a sort of room of requirement. Baiters, haters, goaders, and bashers can jog on somewhere else.

If you are NOT staff and just have a general education query please start your own thread.

Do not give the staffroom password to non-staff as it attracts the wrong sort of crowd.

Other requirements for staff room entry include the ability to find the staff room, the ability to find a clean mug in the staff room, knowledge of the photocopier codes, and the ability to sniff out where the booze is stashed - Thirsty Tuesdays, Fizz Fridays now in operation. Do not sit on the chairs and do wear a mask

Aww @namechangedyetagain poor you! Deep breath! You can do it - it's so, so hard at the moment. It really is! I can't help with the starter as I teach neither English nor KS1 but other posters will have ideas. Or have a look on TES. Keep.it simple.

Today has been ok but everyday feels like groundhog day. Desperately trying to evidence Y11 and Y13

On a positive note, I observed my NQT today and he was fab. Plus finished his assessment form and looking at the progress and how much he has grown makes me feel so proud!

Just been jabbed!

Awaiting release....

@namechangedyetagain, that's a pie Corbett idea. I've done it several times before.
I'll pm you.

@namechangedyetagain

I’d be tempted not to have something too exciting for a starter in an obs lesson.

If you want to recap nouns and adjectives I’d do that. Write down the definitions of a noun and adjective on the board and discuss in pairs what two words the definitions are describing. Then get them to split their whiteboards into two and write noun and adjective at the top as headings. Then read out 10 words and get them to write each word in the correct column and go through afterwards-choose children to give some of the words in a sentence?

Yay for jabbing piggy!!!!

Name your experience sounds like mine during one of my PGCE placements - it was unrelentingly awful and I got through it by the skin of my teeth. And I wasn't even in the midst of a pandemic.

Just keep it simple tomorrow. Do you have a book or picture stimulus for your lesson? I haven't been in KS1 for a good long while but wherever I've taught I've had more reliable writing when the children have something to look at!

Congratulations Piggy! I hope you feel ok and don't have any side effects.

Put part of a sentence on the board - say, 'a blue hat' - ask them to verbally make it a grammatically correct sentence. Questions: what makes a sentence? What word classes. What is missing from this? Do that a couple of times, ideally about something else they've been learning about for retrieval practice. For eg we've just used 'The human skeleton' and 'absorbs nutrients from food'.

And then I remembered no one has registers any more anyway....

I do!!

We're doubling our bubble size from 23 to 45. It's the only way we can sort out this huge maths issue. After Easter. Figure we have to take the opportunity while local transmission rates are low. Erk. Hard decisions to make, but its best for the kids.

Anyone else got y11 who have given up. So fed up with the shit attitude. I'm literally spoon feeding you a grade now fgs. If you can't be arsed now, then you don't deserve it. Written off 2 of them today, they sat and did nothing. Spent my time with the ones who want to learn. I'm feeling less pressure from a PM pov which is nice. Less incentive to make them work. Truly a case of 'its your grade, not mine'.

@HercwasanEnemyofEducation

Anyone else got y11 who have given up. So fed up with the shit attitude. I'm literally spoon feeding you a grade now fgs. If you can't be arsed now, then you don't deserve it. Written off 2 of them today, they sat and did nothing. Spent my time with the ones who want to learn. I'm feeling less pressure from a PM pov which is nice. Less incentive to make them work. Truly a case of 'its your grade, not mine'.

Yes!!! Mine are top of Foundation, aiming at grade 5. I've got half the class working their socks off, doing everything I ask them to, asking for extension tasks, etc. And the other half of the class sit and want to chat and disrupt, because they're ok with getting the 4 they got in the December mocks and assume we won't give them a lower grade in the summer than they got in December. One boy thinks he's such a charmer, and every time he's told to be quiet he says stuff like "yeah, but I'm going for quality over quantity though, it's just the basics that". Funnily enough, the ones doing no work in my class are all boys. The girls are working really hard.

I know some of us are rather fond of a certain James McAvoy. He is on CH Bake Off. Delish.

In other news, am feeling a bit shit already. Eating toast.

Vaccinated. Not quite prepared for how emotional I found it.... though fully prepared for side effects as my classroom is ready set up for tomorrow just in case I can't make it....

The jabber at mine thought I worked in healthcare because of the way I chose my ethnicity! 9odd...). I told her I was a teacher and she told me she was so pleased for me to be vaccinated. Bless.

I was also very obviously the youngest one there! So I felt youthful.

Great news, @cantkeepawayforever! Hope you continue to feel well.

@namechangedyetagain good word class starters can be made from.pictures- write on your whiteboard a noun - now an adjective to describe it etc. Can be really easily controlled. Point at that bit of the picture- where is the noun? And so on. You can say boards up- easily pick out those who don't know what a noun is so good for afl.

I was wondering why phleb has a bell shaped like a big arse

Ooh, James McAvoy has got loads better looking as he's got older.

@namechangedyetagain
Delurking to respond. I really feel for you. It's tough but can get better. I'm an NQT in my first term. I had a really tough time in my training year and got more and more anxious with all the deadlines and so much to do. I ended up not getting an NQT job (got QTS in Summer 2019) and going on supply. I did apply for a couple, but my decreasing confidence and exhaustion meant I wasn't at my best. Like you, everyone else on my course was smashing it and getting jobs.

I loved supply and the two schools I did longer term in were very vocal in saying how much they liked what I was doing, it was a welcome boost. I've just had my formal observation (my sixth day in the classroom with the class). I haven't had my meeting yet but my mentor told me (so I wouldn't worry) that the main points - behaviour and making progress) were fine and he has some pointers for me. I know that in my training school for that lesson, I would have had a catalogue of what was wrong, especially behaviour. The behaviour was not brilliant (despite my bribe...) but nor was it terrible.

Different schools and mentors make so much difference. Probably doesn't help much at the moment but try not to take it personally, just do what you can. The circumstances at the moment are even harder.

It's probably too late now but for your starter you could go over definitions for nouns and adjectives then display a word at a time (maybe with picture for EAL/SEN). Children put hand on head if noun, finger on nose if adjective. Get children to explain why each time, ask HA first, then move onto others. Everyone is engaged, you have assessed what they know, lots of recall/explanation and you have fed them with vocabulary they can use in the lesson.

How exactly did you choose your ethnicity piggy? Surely you just tick/click/whatever the box that matches your actual ethnicity? Did you choose yours in the medium of interpretive dance instead? Or write it in blood (which would explain the healthcare comment rather better than dancing)? I hope your side effects are manageable. How young are you, if that's not too personal a question?

Congratulations on your jab can't 🎉

Interpretive dance! Damn, should have done that!

They asked. There was no list. So I guess people normally just say white, or British , English or whatever but I gave a precise category! So the fact that I knew the categories made her think I worked in health care!

I am 49. Usually lie about my age...

@Piggywaspushed

The jabber at mine thought I worked in healthcare because of the way I chose my ethnicity! 9odd...). I told her I was a teacher and she told me she was so pleased for me to be vaccinated. Bless.

I was also very obviously the youngest one there! So I felt youthful.

My son's orthodontist thought I was a healthcare professional because I referred to my son as 'Gillick competent' when the three of us were discussing the options for his treatment [one option was to saw his jaw into several parts and put it back together again, so his opinion was crucial!]. I replied that it was, instead, a marker of being Really Quite Old, being able to remember WHY it is called Gillick competence!

Ha ha! My arse is also big but does not ring! I bought a big wall mounted bell off ebay. It is most excellent. The kids LIVE to ring it.

Googles Gillick competence.

I used to have a little shop bell on my desk, it was amazing. A child broke it a few years ago, but you've reminded me to buy another one. This class needs something to cut through the endless chat.

Ooh, your area must be whizzing through the ages then. We attempted to book dh's jab earlier but he still isn't eligible at 51. I'm sure it won't be long to wait now though, I'm just impatient to get him jabbed as he really should have been group 6 but because he hasn't had a flare up of his condition for over a year he missed out.