The Sixty-Second Republic - Pop da pop pop, the beat don't stop until the break of term

[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 for school staff to let off steam.

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. Finally, upload your covid test results twice a week on Wednesdays and Sundays.

More consistent summative assessment is interesting. The old Scottish curriculum worked like that, but it just led to ‘optimistic’ assessment, for want for a better word.

We do assess online now at P1, P4 and P7, but it’s an extra not a fundamental part of the curriculum. Maybe that is the problem?

I think time is easiest taught (or at least reinforced) at home. Eg. Having a proper clock in the house and saying what hand is little hand pointing to etc on a regular basis and things like at 3 o' clock I'll make you a snack and that will be when the big hand points up and the little hand....

Obviously some parents probably don't do that though which would explain it seeming 'abstract' to some kids still at year 6. It has a practical application and intrinsic value if it's used at home with incentives.

I'm amazed actually at all the little things that you assume all parents do and then realise they don't - like counting the buttons on their coat as you do them up or saying now we're putting your left shoe on - which is your left foot

That posted without me hitting post! Weird. Was going to say that when ds was little we'd play I spy with phonic sounds, like I spy something beginning with a 'puh'.

When my niece was little I remember playing with her spending an age trying to find out what the 'puh' she could spy was until it turned out to be the 'pooter as in computer

Money is also getting harder to teach with tapping cards constantly.

@TheHoneyBadger

I think time is easiest taught (or at least reinforced) at home. Eg. Having a proper clock in the house and saying what hand is little hand pointing to etc on a regular basis and things like at 3 o' clock I'll make you a snack and that will be when the big hand points up and the little hand....

Obviously some parents probably don't do that though which would explain it seeming 'abstract' to some kids still at year 6. It has a practical application and intrinsic value if it's used at home with incentives.

I'm amazed actually at all the little things that you assume all parents do and then realise they don't - like counting the buttons on their coat as you do them up or saying now we're putting your left shoe on - which is your left foot

This year, when i taught time, I surveyed how many of the children had an analogue clock at home. It was a LOT less than half the class.

They're so cheap though - I hate clocks and don't own one generally but I bought one when ds was little for that purpose. He has inherited my loathing of watches and won't wear one and none of the clocks are ever right at school so it's a good job it's not a 'use it or lose it' skill.

I remember having to grudgingly buy a watch when I first started teaching. The clocks never worked and this was before laptops/computers were standard in the classroom. We did the registers on a little hand held epos type thing.

How weird. I've decided that while child is at home this week, time is what we are going to do. I've just bought a time teller clock from Amazon (we already have an analogue clock on the wall), which we'll compare with her digital alarm clock.

I've got a clock stamp at school that I can bring home - they all love that.

Figured it's a useful thing that is easy for us to teach her. Then looked on White Rose planning, and ta daaaa... officially time is in for these 2 weeks for year 1 anyway.

She already got a time teller watch for Christmas.

It’s all meant to be, rule. Apart from the all living in one room obviously....

Problems with telling time on an an analogue clock (because problems with clockwise/anti-clockwise are similar to problems with left/right) and/or calculating with time is one of my “possible dyslexia” indicators.
(My own DD took a very long time to realise that clock hands travelled in a clockwise direction at a constant rate.)
That said, people’s sense of time seems to vary wildly. I almost always know what time it is without looking, but I know people who wouldn’t be able to say if it was morning or afternoon without obvious clues, eg have I had my lunch yet? But I subconsciously count all the time - steps, breaths, lampposts, trees. I don’t know why this is.

But I subconsciously count all the time - steps, breaths, lampposts, trees. I don’t know why this is
I do this too!!!

Because insane. I count in 12s.

Can tell you how many ceiling tiles there are in classrooms.

When we got year 10 back in in lockdown one we spent a spare 30 mins with me and 3/4 students teaching the other one how to tell time on an analogue clock. Probably the most productive thing we did that month.

Here you are, Rule. Cheerfully bonkers and spot the spelling mistake about half way through.

Crikey, that Twitter thing really is going nuts.

A very lovely HLTA at our school is on her third operation now following an injury from about five years ago - a child who we repeatedly stated we couldn’t manage in mainstream side swiped her in the neck with an iPad (that had been given to calm him down) and did massive damage to her shoulder.

I absolutely accept that every child has a right to an education, however not every child can receive that education in an unsuitable, overcrowded and underfunded mainstream setting without someone getting hurt.

I've missed the Twitter thing.

Just want to send a little Sunday evening love to all my wonderful colleagues and fellow teachers on this thread. Especially those facing challenges tomorrow.

It's tough, it really is, but you (we) are getting it together and getting on with it. In the face of some pretty major obstacles. Well done. 💐

Ouch! Nobody should be put at risk of being assaulted (students or staff) in school.

No, no, no to duodecimal system. Might be better for fractions but what about percentages? Decimal system fits great with those.

I'm now pondering what we use fractions for in day to day life that can't be done with percentages or decimals instead? Can a Maths teacher explain the importance of fractions to me?

I have to look at an analogue clock when someone at school asks me a simple question about the day. So, "what time shall we swap over for PE?" results in me counting round the dial to work it out fairly.

I couldn’t tell the time until I learnt French in year 5 - I knew what the French vocabulary was, and I knew deux heures moins quart was quarter to three but I had no idea what that looked like on a clock because digital watches were all the rage so I never looked at an analogue one. The teacher would ask what time it was with the analogue clock and I’d have no idea about the time whilst knowing the French perfectly. I clearly remember my mum sitting me down at the dining table and showing me what to look for.

Fractions can often give you an exact value where a decimal couldn’t. Think of 1/3 for example. Of course you could write that fairly neatly using recurring decimal notation but what about 1/17 or 1/217 etc…

Fractions are beautiful, Honey.

They're a beautiful pinnacle of human craft and thought - as wonderful as the pyramids or the Taj Mahal.

They were created and perfected over centuries. If you live human beauty, the careful work of hands and minds: love fractions.

They're more accurate than decimals.

Percentages are fractions. A particular type.

Fractions are manipulable.

And they make things, they're tools. They were born from the human need to feed, build and know.

They're beautiful. Isn't that enough?

Can a Maths teacher explain the importance of fractions to me?

Cut something, say a cake into 3 equal parts. Take one part. You now have 1/3 of a cake. Or 0.33333333333333333333333333333(recurring) of a cake or 33.333333333333333333333333333(recurring) % of a cake.
Decimal representations of common fractions are horrible unwieldy things.

On a more technical note, a proper grasp of algebra - and therefore most higher mathematics - is almost impossible if you don’t understand fractions.

And they're just fabulous. You can think of them as little 2-engine function machines, or as values in their own right.

And I have to confess, I like to imagine them having conversations. I think of numbers as having personalities (4 is very sensible, for example), so I think of what the numerator and denominator say to each other.

And you can while away a bus journey, dreaming up fractions and then simplifying them. And you have to love something that provides amusement at no cost, surely?

And, yes, they're one of the key gateways to algebra. They're like gymnasts within the grammar of maths.

But I subconsciously count all the time - steps, breaths, lampposts, trees. I don’t know why this is.

Me too, since at least primary school. I remember being a bit distressed if I didn't end on an even number or multiple of 5 as a kid, and would try to cheat to make it work. I don't get upset about it now but I'm still counting.