I am MisterJim

Every classroom I've been in has rules. Some are phrased as a positive statement "we are good listeners", others are more clear cut, "Don't rock on your chair". Teachers view these are the backbone of the classroom. Their proverbial rod of iron, so to speak. In one class I went into, they had a full display board of rules. 15 of them. In my opinion that's way too many. As an NQT my main focus was to be a good teacher by ensuring my teaching happened. I needed rules that allow me to teach the lessons I'd planned. Nothing  unusual about that. But the interesting thing was, one year, I didn't put up my class rules display (I had 7 rules on my display and I think it's probably lurking on TES resources or primary resources or somewhere) and the strangest thing happened... The class did as I expected them to do without the big list of things they had to do. Instead, I invested in them. I created private spaces in class that they owned, tha...

When I was fourteen, I went to Ireland with my dad. We stayed at one guest house and, while walking up a few flights of stairs to the room by the owner, he gestured left saying, "The breakfast room's there." A few more flights of stairs later and I couldn't remember which floor the breakfast room was on, so I asked him to tell me. He looked at me, thought for a moment and said, "Well, I guess it depends where you start." I never thought about this as a educational point before, but it's a thinking one. As educators we are stuck in a rigid system where numbers, levels and data indicate position, both within class and league tables, yet that can inhibit thinking. His approach to answering my question was to remove what we naturally perceive to be the obvious absolute: the building is rigid & therefore we must move around the building. He put me as the rigid element and moved the building to fit my requirement. To him, the problem wasn't c...

Today, a group of Year 9 students from Hodgson Academy, came in to run a 90 minute session with my Year 5 class. They were self-penned "Leaders of Learning". I like that. A lot of schools, mine included, have digital leaders or similar, but in a way, it restricts the good work they can do to one educational avenue - digital/technological based stuff. I think I'm going to steal the Leaders of Learning thing. I like the multi faceted nature of the title, implying that their role is to be a broad and informed tier of leaders - much like schools are trying to implement with management structures. Why not make use of children's abilities in a much more efficient way? I think digital leaders just expanded for me.

I wanted this to be eloquent. I wanted this post to whizz through the ether and bounce onto Michael Gove's desk and for him to smile at the clever turns of phrase and rhetoric. I haven't got the bloody energy. You'll have to make do with this: I am lucky that I am in a career that I love. That statement is one that many, many thousands of people cannot say. It is, unfortunately, increasingly difficult to believe it anymore. Teaching isn't about just, well, teaching. In the last two weeks I have cleaned cuts, dealt with arguments, healed broken hearts, acted as judge and jury, cajoled, supported, fed (yes, fed), parented, reassured, inspired and taught. The main problem is that my profession is viewed as a political football. This is historic, I know, and I should state I knew this was the case before training to become a teacher. But most recently, the analogy of a football is defunct. Teaching is not a political football. It is the tennis ball in the longest and ...

Thank you for your lovely comments on the last piece of writing. It's been one of those weeks, as I've only just got round to publishing them now - sorry! This week, Julia has given us a picture prompt. Here goes. Red Rum - Favourite of the masses, Master of the grasses. 03/05/65 to 18/10/95 Red Rum, originally owned by Noel Le Mare but bought by his trainer Ginger McCain, lived life to the full, overcoming obstacles in the way Dan Dare would do.  He fell just once in over a hundred races.  His training routine, masterminded by McCain, led him to victory at the Grand National in 1973, then 1974 - becoming the first horse since Reynoldstown back in 1934. He came second twice more and, at the ripe old age of 12, won by a masterly 25 lengths.

...Take a Leap of Faith... Close your eyes. Breathe            D             E               E                 P                   L                     Y                        . Heighten your senses and FEEL things around you. Shuffle forwards and curl your toes around the edges. That's it. Relax. Everything is fine. You're fine. You've got this.  It's okay. There's no rush.  You have to come to it in your own time. Remember everything you were told and just go with what feels right. I know you can do it. Close your eyes. Breathe            D             ...

Now for this week. Very simple: …is it me or are bells ringing?…. My 100WCs have tended to be either serious, or sad. I thought that I would attempt to do something slightly more interesting. I must say that the original draft for this challenge was over 300 words, so a lot has been removed, but I hope enough has also been left for people to fill in the gaps for themselves. "Boy," growled the stranger, "get to the bell tower and tell the monks to ring that bell for all they've got. I'll to the rest." He narrowed his cold, blue eyes and in that moment, the boy didn't know who he was more afraid of. He nodded vigorously and ran. The stranger turned his back to the boy and stood resolutely at the foot of the bridge, arm casually resting on the hilt of his sword, staring at the enemy. The attackers smirked and drew nearer, almost surrounding him. Without a hint of fear, the stranger smiled, "Is it me, or are bells ringing?" He c...

This week's challenge is a picture prompt. I quite like picture prompts, they allow so many tangents. Our classrooms are windows. Children's views are shaped by the pictures we paint, the opportunities they envisage. We are responsible for the window's upkeep: treat it with consistent care and attention and it will open seamlessly to worlds that are beyond their wildest dreams; leave it untouched and those worlds will remain forever out of reach.  The window is open to the world to view, some outsiders simply point out what is missing from times they spent inside. Others like to castigate and deride. Most smile knowingly, remembering with fondness the people who opened windows for them. People like us.

The prompt this week is to use at least one of these for inspiration. …the powers that be  /  the apple of his eye  /   the writing on the wall… It was early in the Autumn When she took herself away. The trees in our orchard cried leaves for her; She was the apple of their eye , their Mistress. She said it was, "Inevitable". Powers that be had deemed it so and so it was Fruitless to pursue it. Her one way trip. The marks of her passing are writ large on the cold orchard wall s. They are writ larger, though, in me.

On Tuesday, I set the class a task for homework. Build a rocket or spaceship Simple, right? Well yes and no. I asked them to spend two weeks and they weren't allowed to cop out and buy a kit, they had to make it - the more homemade the better. There was also a catch to it too, Tuesday next week (29th November) we would have an after school gallery where parents will be invited to attend and see their child's work. But wait! What about those who have obviously had help? That's allowed - as long as they admit it. There's this stigma attached by some educators to homework because of the notion that parents 'interfere' with homework tasks, so the work isn't a true reflection of the child's capabilities. I'm really looking forward to bringing the parents into our class and letting them share what we do. Transparency is very important to me as an educator and engaging the parents by enthusing their children is the best tonic for our jaundiced educa...

I set up a Linoit page on my class blog, asking for the children to come up with things they wanted to learn about in the upcoming weeks. I must admit, I expected the ideas to be a bit naff, like "Let's build a rocket and fly to the Moon for lunch." etc. How wrong I was. Here are some examples of the ideas they came up with: I was so impressed with the quality of the ideas that they had, that this Wednesday afternoon, we are going to pick the best ideas and put them into the topic for this term.  Power to the People. 

After a conversation on Twitter with a few people (specifically Nicki Allman & Dawn Hallybone ) I had some help in brainstorming things I could teach over the next few weeks. I should mention at this point, that I've not taught so far this academic year, due to breaking my leg just before the end of the summer holidays, so I still need to get to know the class. Nicki very generously sent me some fabulous plans for work based around Dr Who (the BBC Schools links are here ). I'm definitely going to do a few weeks based on that, but I felt I needed a buffer, or a 'getting to know each other' week - but one that would allow a good deal of learning to take place. I've created a topic plan for a week's worth of lessons (not including Maths, which I keep as stand-alone lessons) based around the book The Way Back Home by Oliver Jeffers Please bear in mind that there are gaps & not a lot of detail, but if you can pinch an idea or two, then please feel free...

Both images courtesy of Julia Skinner's blog  http://jfb57.wordpress.com This week's 100WCGU has to use the following picture prompt from the view of vegetarians. I couldn't decide what to do, so if you'll forgive me, I've attempted it twice. Good luck to me... Attempt Number 1: Vegetarian:(waving leaflet) "Do you know that McDonalds bid against Pedigree Chum for their meat consignments?" Me: "Actually yes, I did." Vegetarian: "And that there's more chicken in the packaging than in the nuggets." Me: "I wouldn't be surprised." Vegetarian: "You should try mung bean burgers. They're scrummy." Me: "Why? I like the other sort - with meat." Vegetarian: "That's disgusting. Do you know how many cows died to provide meat for your burgers last year?" Me: "No, but..." Vegetarian: "..7 million- and that's just the UK! Do you want to sign my petit...

This evening on #ukedchat, the discussion was about 'independent learning' or 'IL' and it's importance in the curriculum. In my opinion IL is an umbrella title, one so multi-faceted that we probably need to invest a lot of time determining the rationale behind it. One point that came across was from Miles Berry that Independent Learning is something innate, present from birth as a survival mechanism so teaching it is contradictory. This is something that I agree with and yet we are in a system that has institutionalised our lives to the point where children are taught out of this. They become so reliant on being told what, when and how to do things, that they forget what they are genetically programmed to do. And there's my mistake. I'm talking about these children in the third person. The point is that we have all fallen into the habit of providing knowledge as teachers. There is no blame associated with this, we are as caught up in the status quo as...

My father rang me up last week and explained he had found my old school reports and would I like to keep them. My reaction was adamant. No. Never. Full stop. There are reasons for this instant decision. I did not do well academically at school. My reports are littered with examples my failures punctuated, rather unceremoniously with pompous and sardonic comments that did not, in any way, show who I was then, or am now. That got me thinking. I was fortunate to go to a rather selective (and expensive) private school. I was told that it would provide me with a platform for the rest of my life. The school did provide good, solid ‘sit up’ education; I learned the classics, took 3 languages and played sport using facilities most people would give their right arm for. But by the age of 17, I was failing in every imaginable way. I found that the education system I was in required a level of self discipline that I just didn’t have. If there was a crack connecting Set 1 and Set 2, ...

"Now children," began Mrs Jobs, smiling, "today we have a very special visitor. His name is PC Harvester and he's going to talk to you about car safety." “Reme...” As she spoke, the door opened and PC Harvester walked in. "Good afternoon, children." exclaimed PC Harvester. "I have a question. Does anybody’s Mummy or Daddy drive quickly?" Hands shot up and a voice from the back squeaked, "My daddy drives fast, he has a Ferarri." "Golly," said PC Harvester, "and does your Daddy wear his seatbelt?" "Only when the bas***d coppers are around." ...out of the mouths of babes...

It's been a while since I put fingers to keyboard and wrote something on my blog, or any blog for that matter. I think it has less to do with workload & more to do with overload. Social Networking on various levels had begun to take over my approach to a lot of things, most noticeably my work, but it had begun to encroach on my personal life as well. Frank, educational discussions were taking place after clocking out time, I would lie awake at night and follow a hashtag stream from an earlier Twitter debate. I would be sitting on the sofa with my wife, ostensibly watching the TV, but my head wasn't. I was actually becoming so obsessed with all things that were educationally cutting edge, that I was beginning to neglect my marking, assessment and correcting my planning where necessary. In essence, my desire to push the boundaries was threatening to impact on the children in my care. But how did it get to this? Honestly, I don't know. I suppose I was trying to keep ...

Beginnings I’ve always liked using the web to find tools that help my class to learn – even if at first the learning takes a back seat to the playing! I first discovered BrainPOP at BETT in 2010; where a fellow teacher, Tom Sale, was exalting its merits on their stand as a BrainPOPer. If I’m honest, there was a lot I didn’t understand or chose to ignore at first. I spoke to Chris & Eylan, two fanastically enthusiastic people, who convinced me to go home and trial it. I left BETT that day dazzled by the array of talented teachers that BrainPOP had invited onto their stand to simply talk about the impact it had had on their respective classes. With their testimonials & Chris’ sales pitch, I vowed to use it straight away. I went back to my school, walked into the finance manager’s office to find there was no budget left until April (the school was in the final phase of rolling out laptops across all classes & with a school of 570 kids, there wasn’t much left). I also had th...

Before I go into detail of the event itself, I'd like to thank everyone that turned up - physically or virtually. It was really great to see you all. Tom and I had such a blast in January that we thought it'd be a good idea to run another TeachMeet. Well, that was the beginning of a whole horde of silly ideas we had. But do you know what? They were the best type of silly ideas. They were silly ideas that worked. Last Wednesday, just shy of 140 teachers descended on our school. They came both locally, nationally & internationally. In fact, one teacher from Germany was so impressed that he's gone back already plotting his own take on it. I'll admit now, I don't really remember much about the event, which is why it's taken me so long to actually post on it - I've had to read other people's blogs and go, "oh yeah, that was good." or "I presented...really?" This post isn't going to be a generic recap of the event, however. I'...

Every so often, you start to think about things in more detail. With me it is not a regular occurance. I have what my wife calls selective ignorance syndrome (my apologies if this actually exists - as far as I know she made it up). All the more reason why this particular wave of fresh thinking has perturbed me. Over the last few years, I have been amending my teaching based on the needs of the children I taught and my own desire to better myself and become the teacher I wanted to be. No harm in that, but I was looking inwards, seeing myself as the only one who needed my help. Selfish. In a way, yes. What I perceived was that by furthering myself as a teacher, I would be better able to meet the needs of the learners in my care. If I had been a deeper thinker, or a more humble person, I might have considered how I could help my colleagues by looking outwards. Be that as it may, I have reached a point in my career where I feel that a strong, well-rounded collective is far more beneficial...