"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.