It's Christmas already?!

I can't believe it.

Doesn't time fly? The last thing I remember was arriving for my first day at IoE in September... although that might be something to do with the wine.

Tomorrow is the last day of term you see. Today we had 'fun afternoon' in which I supervised the Year 7 and 8 disco and was forced to do the 'Gangnam Style' dance by some girls in my classes. It was interesting how quickly the other girls backed away from the really old, embarrassing, dancing teacher... little do they know of my not-too-long-ago Cardiff clubbing escapades. If you want an idea of what our dancing was like, here's a glimpse of the awesome power of disco.

http://tmblr.co/ZK-Ovx3DLLtl

 

Anyway. So since my horribly downbeat blog from last time, school has been getting a lot better. I've been in a much better mood (which had probably helped with interaction between pupils/other teachers/mentor) and my uveitis hasn't been affecting me for nearly two weeks now... score. Slightly worried that this new-found good mood is partly to do with end-of-term, but let's enjoy it for now.

I've been given my second placement school! Haberdasher Aske's. Unfortunately not the horrendously posh independent boy's Haberdasher Aske's school to the North of London somewhere, the mixed-but-with-randomly-single-sex-lessons comprehensive in New Cross.

Looks nice doesn't it? That's just the front.

We've been to visit, one recent rainy Wednesday afternoon. I have to say I was slightly disappointed with my new school allocation, because the atmosphere of the school is quite weird. Main things which concern me are;

• They have an on-site primary school. With little-'uns running around with the big-ugly-'uns. I just have images of tiny squashed 5-year-olds all along the corridor walls.
• The school is based on multiple campuses. Which are linked by a bus. Which I've been told is not always reliable. And pupils frequently turn up to lessons 30 minutes late as a result.
• Some of the buildings look like old primary schools, with horrible cramped rooms, and dark, narrow corridors. And still with the old furniture. I saw a Year 10 sitting on this tiny fucking chair scrunched over a miniature desk doing a detention. Perhaps that's what those rooms are reserved for.
• The school is mixed, but they split their lessons into all-boys and all-girls. Which doesn't concern me too much, will just have to see how that goes. Please don't give me a Y10/11 class of bottom-set all boys. The girls are bad enough.

I'm sure I'll fail to keep a regular update of my second placement, but I'll make sure I write something at least. Must try and keep track of my teaching life and it's goings-on!

In other news, I booked my Numeracy Skills Test for Christmas Eve. I knew there was something occurring on the 24th but I couldn't remember what it was.

Merry Christmas all!

Truthfully...

So.

So much for keeping up my reflective journal of school-time, it's been more than a month since my last post... reason being it's been a pretty shit month. The post is called truthfully because truthfully...

I've been seriously considering giving up this PGCE. So seriously that I've applied for about 5 jobs which have nothing to do with teaching in any way shape or form. The reasons are plentiful, and I know they're valid because everyone else on the Maths PGCE has agreed with me;

1) The children are horrible. They have no qualms about saying "Miss this lesson is really boring" or "You're a shit teacher", and I'm sensing a 'blame culture' which has resulted in everything being the teacher's fault. If a pupil does badly in a test, even if the rest of the class did well, it's the teacher's fault. "I wasn't taught properly...". Pupils (particularly my Year 10's) refuse to work if the lesson isn't 'fun'. Which brings me nicely on to  my next reason.

2) There has to be a big song and dance in every lesson. Thinking about Maths in particular, if pupils have to work through questions from a textbook for a lesson, it's not a 'fun' lesson and they therefore aren't being taught properly.

Well I'm sorry. Sorry that there's no colourful puzzle to fill in, no exciting little activity for you to faff around with for 50 minutes while I desperately try and get you to do some mathematical thinking. But if you're going to sit a 2-hour Maths GCSE exam in June and get at least a C, you're going to have to develop some sort of discipline to sit and actually do some Mathematics. Because really, that's a vital skill you need for Maths; to be able to patiently work through problems, going along carefully and usually for long periods of time. How do you think Andrew Wiles proved Fermat's Last Theorem? Sitting around on his arse waiting for someone to show him how to do it? With a colourful presentation, and pretty little pictures and boxes to tick?

Cor. Haven't had a good rant like that in ages. Next point;

3) I, personally, am trying to run like the wind before I can even pull myself up on two feet. I've always been like this; I hated being shown how to do something, I always wanted to just get on and do the fucking thing. But I'm now realising with this that I've just made things much harder for myself, and I'm actually slowing down and asking for help. Which is always good.

4) I think I'll make this the last point, since I've talked about it already in my last blog. The total and utter hopelessness and futile attempts at lesson planning. I've been spending (as I've said before) about 2-3 hours on each lesson I teach. And that's 9 lessons a week (when it's not disrupted by some shit like Target Setting Day or International Dress Day) so mathematically that's 18-27 hours a week of planning. On top of the 36 hours spent at school/IoE. And it always turns out that what you've done is shit. You think it's great! Look, here's a great graph I spent ages creating from scratch. But no. It is shit.

Also I've only got one working eye, and a shitty laptop which corrupted all my hard work. Although one of those problems has been sorted now, through some kindly and most timely financial assistance. Unfortunately my eye's still squonk, and has been for about a month now. I've been commenting that it's hard enough to keep control of a class with two functional eyes, let alone one. Ideally I'd have three, but that won't be happening any time soon.

Anyway. Today's been the first day I've not felt like staying in bed crying, in over a month. So I feel I must record this day, and refer back to it when the real hard work starts after Christmas... I think it was mainly down to a Year 10 lesson I took today. You know, the class with Shania* in.

The class didn't start well. With my Title, Date and Lesson Objective ready to note down, Shania* and Melanie* entered the lesson having just had a fight, and about 3 seconds after entering the classroom Melanie stormed out, commenting "I'm not staying in a classroom with that fucking prick." I couldn't run after her and leave the class, but luckily another class teacher had spotted what had happened and rushed after Melanie to calm her down. That just left me with Shania and the rest of the class, at which point I thought 'Oh fuck' because I thought it would all kick off from that point.

But from observation, I know that Shania is actually extremely bright. She shouldn't be in set 7 Maths, but she's there only for her behavioural issues. When she actually managed to get stuff written down on paper, she finished her work before everybody else, got onto extension tasks, helped others (if somewhat brusquely; "WHY CAN'T YOU DO THIS SHIT MAN IT'S WELL EAAASSYYY") and contributed to class discussions. So I'm thinking I'm dealing with her in the right way - lots of other teachers seem to comment about her madness in their lessons most of the time, and she is always being put on report. As for the rest of the class, under my new-found stern manner, they were much better behaved and actually managed to pay attention when I asked. After about 3 minutes of stern instructions.

But crucially, this lesson has helped me actually see progress in my teaching skills, and some proof that actually not everything I'm doing is complete and utter bollocks. The pupils did inform me today that they hated Maths, but when the buzzer for lunch went off they said "Oh, is that the end already?!" which was something I really wanted to hear.

I think the only thing that's stopped me from going insane and emigrating to Wales (again) is the fact that, once I'm up in front of a class teaching, I absolutely love it. It's so good to see pupils go "OOOOH that's so obvious now!" and to watch them all follow my instructions and get on with some work under my direction. I am quite bossy after all... and when they're engaged in the lesson, you get a real buzz from it. I think it's just all the other stuff that's happened, around the teaching, that's got me down recently. I'm hoping from today it'll all be uphill from here!

I didn't realise lesson planning was so hard.

I think this will just be a short one - the point I'm making is self-evident in the title really.

So at Norbury Manor, there are 16 student teachers. Yes, 16. We've pretty much invaded the staff room, with our enormous cafetiére and shared coffee mornings (I now know why teachers smell of coffee - without it teachers die), and also our stories about our first teaching experiences. But, we two in the Maths department (Caroline and I) have been feeling slightly left out, in that most of the ST's in other subjects have taken over their given classes already. I was thinking it might be to do with the nature of Maths, that you can't really chop and change too much with the topics you're teaching - you can't teach 'Equations' before you've taught 'Algebra' for example. But I've been there for three weeks now and I'm getting a little bit bored of just observing.

So I mentioned it in my mentor meeting, that I'd quite like to get stuck in and start teaching. Personally I quite like being chucked in at the deep end and told to get on with it, something about the pressure of it. Might also explain why I preferred exams to coursework. So we've been given a nice little folder with the pupils' scheme of work in, and told to start preparing some lessons to give before half term, with the aim of taking full responsibility for classes after half term (one week to go!)

So I read the advice from the IoE regarding lesson planning. It says that, initially, planning for an hour lesson will take us 2-3 hours. This was my expression at first;

But it actually does.

You have to think about, and plan for, many different scenarios apart from the actual teaching of the subject itself. What pupils might struggle with. If any pupils in the class will need extra support. How long certain tasks will take. Extra provision for those really nerdy kids that finish really quickly. Also continuous assessment is a big thing at the moment.

Next to every task or activity you set, you have to explain how you are going to assess the pupils' learning, and whether they have learnt anything from you in the measly 50 minutes you have with them. Mini whiteboards are bloody great.

So this is a Year 7 class 2 times a week, a Year 8 class 3 times a week, and my wonderful Year 10 bottom set 4 times a week. That's 9 classes a week, and I just know that proper teachers are thinking 'That's nothing...' But they've got bare skills (yes, I'm down with the kids) in lesson planning, some saying they plan lessons in their heads. Except when Ofsted pay a visit. 

So in conclusion, I started my lesson plans for Year 8 'Pie Charts' and Year 7 'Angles' at 7.45pm tonight. I started writing this blog post at 11.23pm. And they're not finished yet. 

The day Shania* was in a REALLY bad mood...

I know every teacher's dream is to teach a class which is completely compliant, hard-working and amiable, but actually this is not my dream, as a student teacher. It's soooo boooring observing a lesson where no pupil is out of place, no pupil needs help because they all know how to listen and follow instructions, and no pupil wants to talk to you because they're too busy working. I just end up looking like a nuisance, as much use as a fridge in an igloo.

I have to say I'm loving the more challenging classes, the ones who act up and seem like they are impossible to control. I admit to being only ever so slightly dismayed after being timetabled to take over a bottom-set GCSE class ("WHYYY?" I recall myself saying) who will, at best, get a C in GCSE Maths. But I think they are actually the most interesting.

Firstly, they're so easily distracted. If they are upset or roused, it will take the rest of the lesson to restore a good working atmosphere which isn't punctuated by song/dance/banter/friendly abuse/etc. Their usual teacher is so good for them; she's got glacial patience, never reacting to their bizarre mannerisms and is calm, clear, and concise. That is going to be my mantra for this class in particular - be calm, clear and concise.

Or just calm will work.

They also need a lot more pointers. They will not see that there are two triangles in this picture;

one with two sides of length x and a, and another with two sides of length x+y and a+b. Things need to be repeated again and again, using various approaches. But in the end, when they are actually engaged with the work, they are all perfectly capable.

One student in particular, who for confidential reasons I shall name Shania*, has a reputation around the school and the staff room for being an absolute nightmare. I can see why; she talks very, VERY loud and fast, is very intimidating, and has a really bad attitude problem. She goes like this a lot; "MmmmHMMMM" and huffs around the classroom like a tiny bad-tempered elephant. I decided compile a small list of other things she said during today's double lesson;

"Don't even TALK to me today."

"Miss it smells like, rank in here today. I'ma put the fan on."

"I need some BARE sweets man, if no-one gives me none I'ma BUY them from the shop, you get me?"

... and so on. I was warned that she likes to test new teachers, and push the boundaries to see how far she can get. So then the conversation turned to me.

"Miss, what's your name?!"

"I'm called Miss Mitchell. What's your name?"

"I'm Shania innit. So are you like from Eastenders?"

at which point the rest of the class (Mean Girls style) said "Oh my God Shania you can't just ask people if they're from Eastenders." 

The conversation continued.

"Miss, where are you going for lunch?"

"Erm the staff room probably. Why is this relevant?"

"Because I want MacDonalds really badleee,  PLEASE will you go and get me some because I'm not allowed to leave the school and that because I'm like only in Year 10."

"No I'm sorry, I can't do that."

"Go on Miss, get me Nando's or sumfink!"

"Sorry Shania."

"Oh well FUCK you then!"

...

What I hadn't realised was that her regular teacher was out of the room at this point. Leaving me to react as I saw fit. Which was to give her my most incredulous, dangerous look and say;

"ExCUSE me?!" 

I was delighted to see her face crumple into shock when she realised I wasn't going to let THAT one go. Not in a million years. She proceeded to explain that she'd actually said it to her friend, who was trying to steal the £10 note out of her hand. I gave her a look which said "Don't even DARE saying anything like that in front of me again or I will kick yo' ass in front of the class", although I wouldn't really know how to go about that.

The point I'm trying to make is that even though on the face of it, they sound like the class from hell, they're such a good class to work with if you're in training. There's not such a terrible amount of pressure on you, so you can test out your teaching skills and approaches, and also test how you react to misbehaviour, and it won't matter too much if something doesn't work so well.  

I've also had the chance to have little chats with a few of them, which is encouraging. I had a really in-depth discussion with a pupil who was upset that she had been predicted an E in her GCSE Maths; she thought it was the by-all and end-all, but when I explained that it was the grade she would get if she continued to spend lessons asleep with her head on the desk, she started getting on with some work. The all-important C-grade, great motivator.

They feel like they can tell me about quite personal things, too, like their home-life and relationships with parents/guardians. It's really sad to hear that the latter is becoming quite common; it also explains a lot about their attitude at school. When you realise what some pupils have to deal with outside the already-stressful environment of school, it's hardly surprising they really just want to make their time at school as relaxing as possible. Which rather suits me in one sense. But it's very hard to get them focused and motivated. Especially last lesson on a Friday... *shudder* ... Nevertheless. I'm really looking forward to taking over this class.

PS: The picture of the Russian-hat-and-Persian-scarf-wearing shocked-looking woman above. It's actually me. And that's not even a joke.

I used my teacher voice today.

Yes. I finally got the chance to perform some disciplinary vocal maneuvers on some misbehaving Year 8 pupils today, which had been designated by Norbury Manor School as a 'Deep Learning Day'. This involved sitting in Ma4 with the same 30 Year 8's ALL DAY, and so no wonder the girls were getting slightly rowdy. I felt like putting someone in a headlock too.

That's what happened basically. Two girls were having (what looked like) a playful scrap (surely that's what should only happen at an all-boys' school? You'd be surprised at the things that go on in this school...) in the corridor, while making their way round the Maths department, looking at the others' work. The mathematics deep learning day involved building familiar structures out of different 3-D shapes, designing nets to form these shapes out of card and paper, and which were then presented at the end of the day. It was a really good day actually, not only due to the fact they need to know 3-D shapes for their exams, or that it improves spatial reasoning, but they had to be really organised, knowing how many of each shape they would need, and how big it would end up being. Lots in the hidden curriculum there...

Our group had 'London' as their designated theme. Others including 'Futuristic', 'Shanghai' and even 'Marioland'. I couldn't help but feel slightly cheated.

We were shown pictures for inspiration. Like;

and;

In reality, the kids' work looked like this;

It wasn't that bad really. But I digress. On their way around to view the other constructions, two girls managed to get each other in a headlock in the middle of the corridor. I just happened to come out of our room when confronted by this horrific scene of masculine demonstration.

I'm quite surprised that my instinctive reaction was the correct one; not screaming and shouting at the top of my voice, projecting an extremely low and threatening boom of a voice which spake thus;

"GIRLS. WHAT ARE YOU DOING? SHOULDN'T YOU BE IN YOUR DESIGNATED CLASSROOM?!"

This is just some photographic evidence of me being really angry and really mathematical and sexy all at the same time.

But in all seriousness, I've been worrying recently about me trying to implement the multitudes of teaching practices we've been instructed to do, whether I'll be able to remember everything and whether I'll look really foolish in front of everybody. But it was quite a boost in my confidence that my voice naturally went very stern, and that the perpetrators sprang apart immediately looking very sheepish.

Although this may be to do with the karate training I used to instruct. Or the fact that I'm naturally very bossy.

A new school...

Oh dear. It's been a while since I've written anything down, mainly because of the madness of moving house, gigs, a 2000-2500 word essay called an MCP and starting at a new school, all within a week! All of which have resulted in a slightly rotten cold... 'orrible germy children.

Not really. On Wednesday I started my 4-month placement at Norbury Manor Business and Enterprise College for Girls, and I have to say the pupils really are lovely. It reminds me quite a lot of my old school actually (Bexley Grammar School in Kent), with the exception that it's all girls (BGS's boys definitely made their presence known...) and that there is a much wider range of ability. In one day I observed a year 9 class who were already starting their GCSE work, to a Year 12 class who were having to resit their Maths GCSE and were still counting on their fingers.

I also made the error of coming into school in my nice grey suit and a blouse. True, it would have been worse were it the other way round (me coming into school in a tracksuit while the other teachers had on their tailored suits) but it was very odd seeing a Maths lesson taught by what looked like a PE teacher... at least now I know the appropriate dress code.

This is not it.

Thursday was pupil shadowing day. Meaning a volunteer Year 8 pupil (so tiny!) had agreed to take us around with them to all their lessons, just to get a better feel for the school and a better idea of a general school day for pupils. So yesterday I had ICT, Art, Maths (yay), Geography, Science and PE. Would have been quite a good day for me if I were back at school. Except for Maths.

You think I'm joking don't you...? I am really.

It was so lovely to see 'young ladies' (what we're supposed to call them) with such good manners. My shadowing pupil really made sure I felt looked after, assuring me she would take me to the staff room and pick me up again after lunch, and so on. I know the school's ethos works hard to promote this kind of behaviour, and that we must all lead by example as teachers. Therefore I must try and keep my South London voice under wraps at all times. I can see it now. "What do you mean 3 + -4 is 1? Shut it you shlaaaag..."

Once I get really stuck in next week I'll start doing some proper observations, rather than generic ramblings about the school. Although, one thing I was able to see yesterday was a pupil in a class with ADHD, and how she interacted with her learning assistant and others around her. At first I thought she had autism - in her Maths lesson, she seemed very calm and quiet, sitting doing a mid-term test, where everything was planned and structured. Then when it came to Science, is seemed there were a few things out of place, for example there being two student teachers (myself and my friend Lucy), a new teacher, and thus a different layout to the lesson.

I overheard some of her conversation with her learning support assistant at the back of the class.

"Miss where's Miss Crawford? I have to go and find her. She says her office is just next door to the staffroom. If I don't go and find her right now I have to go to West Croydon. Unless I can go and get her. NO I DON'T WANT TO SIT DOWN. I have to find Miss Crawford! If I don't find her I have to go and get the bus into West Croydon."

And so on. When she was finally coerced into sitting down, she became extremely disruptive, and started throwing pieces of paper around the classroom, shouting, and wandering around the room shouting at the others. It was shocking only because it was such a huge change from her Maths lesson two hours previously, in which we heard not a single peep from her. It just went to show how important having a well-structured lesson is, even more so when there are children with ADHD in your class. The picture above illustrates my worst nightmare as a teacher, but hopefully my lessons will be so good everyone will just want to get involved and not act up...

"Miss you look like Harry Potter... but a girl."

I was actually told this by a pupil today. When I said "What?!" He said "Yeah Miss, coz of your glasses and that, you look like Harry Potter but a girl."

... I need to get some new glasses.

In case you're wondering what I was doing talking to a pupil, a group of us spent the day at Langdon Park School in Poplar, observing lessons and talking to pupils and teachers, eventually getting onto leading a couple of activities in the afternoon (although I don't know what they were expecting from children at 3pm on a Thursday afternoon). The school is situated within a large Bangladeshi community; as a result about 80% of the pupils were Bangladeshi, many with English as a second language.

It was definitely an eye-opener for me - I've only ever had experience of grammar education, and I'm not saying that grammar kids are all 'cleverer', or 'posher' or whatever (because it's not true!) but you can definitely tell the difference in terms of their motivation for working, and their attitudes to learning. We were told that a very high proportion (they even went as far to say all) the pupils had some sort of issue at home, or issues which they were dealing with, and you can tell it greatly affects their learning.

The activities we were given to lead were exceptionally dull. I mean, really dull, so no wonder they couldn't really be bothered. Also we only had a fifteen minute slot, and all six of us were talking the activity in the same classroom. I think this is why the pupils felt they could mess around; they behaved just fine for their normal class teacher but saw our time with them as an opportunity to push the boundaries. And to ask really personal, stupid questions.

I worked with one particular student of self-proclaimed 'disadvantaged' Bangladeshi background, who took particular relish in asking me lots and lots and lots of these rapid-fire awkward questions. It was very amusing actually so I'd like to attempt to reconstruct the conversation as follows:

Pupil: "Miss are you English? Are you rich? Why are you here? Are you at University? If I go Uni will you help me wiv my tuition fees coz I'm like really poor innit. We don't get any food because we're really disadvantaged. I, like, live in a bin, and my friend lives in the bin next door, and we only get given rubbish and litter coz we don't get proper food. Have you ever played Call of Duty? Miss did you know there's a new Wii coming out? Have you got a son Miss? Are you married? When you get a husband and a son you should buy a Wii so that they can play Call of Duty on it. Miss I CAN'T DO THIS QUESTION. It's ruining my self-esteem. Do you support the Tory party? Or is it Labour? I know it's not Lib Dem coz you're at Uni and Nick Clegg sang that song about being really sorry for making you pay loads of money and that. Miss your glasses make you look like Harry Potter. But a girl. You look like a girl version of Harry Potter. Miss my friend's being racist because he's saying my mum works at Asda but actually she works at Sainsbury's. Miss I don't see the point of this can I go home now?"

Me: "..."

ALL of these things were said. I remember because 1) it was only about 3 hours ago and 2) I had to try so hard not to crack up. I can't wait to start my placement at Norbury Girls next week.

"So has everybody understood?" "...Yeah." "So what's the answer?" "... I don't know."

Every Wednesday at the IoE, we're given the chance to attend lectures from illustrious guest-speakers on areas of teaching which are relevant to all teachers, regardless of which subject you choose to teach. So far we've covered Teachers' Legal Obligations, Classroom Discipline, Voice Care, Special Educational Needs (SEN) and English as an Additional Language (EAL), the last two of which we have been told firmly are not related in any way. It's not surprising children with EAL struggle to learn and develop at the same rate as their English companions - have you ever been given part of a History lesson in rapid French and been expected to understand what was going on? 

We have. Even though I have a little grasp of French, I was so busy trying to translate what I'd just heard that I missed the next part of the lesson. That was a great way to help us empathise with EAL pupils, who are regularly considered slow learners and not very bright, and we received some very valuable information about how to help such pupils. 

So that was last week. Today we were given some incredibly helpful tips on assessing pupils' progress, from a man who you might recognise from BBC2's 'The Classroom Experiment', and is Deputy Director and Emeritus Professor of Educational Assessment at the IoE... *phew that was a mouthful*. Here is a picture.

Dr. Dylan William. He was actually pretty terrifying. Especially stalking the lecture hall rows with a big red microphone getting people to answer questions. Fortunately I had some kind of sixth sense today, which told me to sit in the middle of the row.

But there was plenty to think about, safe with twenty trainee teachers to the left and right of me. The importance of good questioning was touched on, where you plan your questions beforehand to ensure you get pupils thinking and also, curious! There was a really good example, more science/geography than maths but I loved it anyway.

Ask your pupils "why is it colder at the top of a mountain, when it's closer to the sun?" and watch them rack their brains coming up with an answer!

Even better, there followed a great maths question.

"Can you have a triangle with two 90 degree angles?"

This elicited some very intriguing answers.

1) "The triangle would have to be infinitely tall. Because parallel lines meet at infinity..."

Clearly this teacher had put some very strange ideas into this pupil's head. At this point you'd probably try and explain that parallel lines never meet. Not in 3 dimensions anyway... 

2) "Well, angles in a triangle add up to 180 degrees. So there's 90 + 90 already. Can you have an angle of 0 degrees?"

This went on to a discussion about a 0 degree angle, and plain straight lines and so on.

The final answer... quite simply, I hope I get a pupil as bright as this.

3) "Yes you can. What if you start at the North Pole, and put the other two points somewhere on the Equator?"

... To have a pupil naturally refer to non-Euclidean geometry, without prior knowledge of the subject, I believe is quite something. This is why I can't wait to get into the classroom; pupils will always surprise you with completely unique ways of thinking! I now just need to get the skills to help pupils from all walks of life, with different brains, different ways of thinking, develop their understanding. Without just doing it my way.

How intelligent do teachers need to be?

Well hello. We meet again...

This will be me next Wednesday. I have been given the name of the school I'll be working in for four months, Oct-Jan: Norbury Manor Business and Enterprise College for Girls. I'm rather excited about it... mainly because LOOK AT ONE OF THE BUILDINGS

I'm thinking of getting the girls to work out the volume of the building. They could take one cuboid each.

But in all seriousness. If you have read this blog title, you'll know I've been thinking about teachers and their intellect, and whether people necessarily have to be brain-boxes with PhD's and insane mental arithmetic skills in order to become good educators in Mathematics.

In short, my answer would be no. Of course you can't teach something if you have no knowledge of the subject (well, I don't believe you can teach effectively if you haven't got that good subject knowledge) but, it requires a hell of a lot more in terms of fully understanding your subject, being able to make connections, and of course social and communication skills, in order to impart knowledge to your learners. 

To take an analogy from my own degree experience. Those who had extremely in-depth, extensive knowledge of their subject (not mentioning any Cardiff University Mathematics lecturers *ahem* Marletta) I felt, were in fact the hardest to learn from. They certainly were impressive to watch, with their 6 chalkboards full of calculations and 5-A4-page long proofs, but rarely would they stop to explain what they were doing, why "for any ε > 0, δ >0, and complex number w, there exists a complex number z in U with |z − z₀| < δ and |f(z) − w| < ε " (Casorati-Weierstrass Theorem, Complex Function Theory, 3rd Year, aka Worst Year Of Maths Of My Life)

I'll be honest - I didn't do terribly well in my degree. Well, in the Maths part of it anyway - luckily I had my Music to back me up and scrape me a tidy 2.1... but on its own, the Maths was dreadful. But I don't think that puts me at any disadvantage in becoming a good Secondary Maths teacher. As long as I have the sufficient knowledge to talk about GCSE/A-level Maths confidently, freely (and clearly!), I think I'm set. 

There are obviously so many other things which are important to becoming a good teacher. That is my ultimate goal of course, and I don't think I'm anywhere near it yet. But the idea of teachers' intellect was playing on my mind today after a particular incident in a session at the IoE today.

One of my course-mates - and I mean 'mate' in the loosest terms possible - I understand holds a PhD in Mathematics and Philosophy from Cambridge, and is currently teaching postgrad students there, part-time between sessions here at the IoE. In a presentation a friend of mine (Ben) was giving, about vocabulary in probability, the following conversation (accusation?) took place;

Lee-of-superior-educational-ranking (L.O.S.E.R) : "That thing you said about an equal, 50/50 probability being 'fair' is completely WRONG. You shouldn't be using language like 'fair' when you're talking about probability, it describes the situation like 'fair dice' or 'a fair coin'... *more philosophical nattering* ... but yeah, what you've said is just WRONG." 

Ben (B) : "..."

So is that how Lee is going to react when a pupil makes a tiny misnomer like that? Luckily Ben realised Lee was being his usual academic self and brushed it off, but a young 14-year-old really trying to understand this new topic of 'probability' would probably have been completely crushed, and disillusioned to further learning, for fear of being completely ripped apart like poor Ben was.

So I believe it's really not enough to have infinite wisdom on the subject matter, but to be open to learning how to effectively impart your knowledge, and how to help young Mathematics students reach their full potential.

... I mean, I still can't do mental arithmetic. There's an interesting doodle at the side of this page if you look closely; 1 + 1 = pencil. 

An introductory rambling.

Welcome, welcome! 

I've decided to start keeping a blog during my ITT (initial teacher training) year, not just to keep all you lovely folks partially amused but mostly to keep track of my experiences, thoughts and progress through the year. So really it's more of a diary. Which anyone in the world can read. You nosy people.

Anyway, I'm afraid you'll have to look elsewhere if you want some juicy gossip - today is the first day, of my third week, of my Secondary Mathematics PGCE. I have been attending numerous tutor-led sessions, regarding educational hot topics such as The Nature of Mathematics, Pedagogy (a strange word which refers to the way in which you teach your chosen subject), Microteaching, SEN, and of course, Behaviour Management.

Managing Behaviour. It seems to be the primary concern of all trainee teachers, especially after receiving this interesting snippet of knowledge: 

The working atmosphere in the classroom: a ten-level scale

Level 10 sounds like a dream. "You feel completely relaxed and comfortable; able to undertake any activity without concern. Class control not an issue - teachers and pupils work together, enjoying the experiences involved." Stevie Wonder's Ebony and Ivory is playing in my head.

Now have a look just a couple of levels down, at Level 6. "You don't really look forward to teaching the class." is the first line. It goes on to say "... At times you feel harassed... it is difficult to get pupils to stop talking... it is a major effort to establish and maintain a calm working atmosphere."

... You know you want to hear about a Level 1 classroom atmosphere. Well here you go; "Your entry into the classroom is greeted by cheers and abuse." 

Good start. 

It continues. Yes it does. "...you turn a blind eye to some atrocities(!) because you feel your intervention may lead to confrontation, or escalation of the problem." The punchline? "You wish you had never gone into teaching."

We have been assured that our lessons, on the scale, rarely drop below a level 6. I should bloomin' well hope so. 

But herein lies the crux of the matter - how do we achieve higher levels of this scale in our own lessons? It looks like an immense balancing act; there are so many things to remember. Such as, asserting your physical presence, acting confidently, use of contingent praise, whilst making your lessons interesting and engaging, not being too munificent with praise or punishment, establishing your reputation AND... breathing.

But we have been assured it takes time. We won't be experts straight away, but we have to simply try our best and the technique will come. 

Hopefully soon-ish. Since our first placement starts in a week and I'm worried I might resort to the ol' Karate Sensei Disciplinary Technique of giving push-ups. Mightn't go down too well.