Book diary 2013

January 2013:

The Night Circus – Erin Morgenstern

Yellow Wallpaper – Charlotte Perkins Gilman

February 2013:

The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared – Jonas Jonasson

March 2013:

Something Fresh – P G Wodehouse

April 2013:

Around India in 80 Trains – Monisha Rajesh

Reading, reading, and… more reading.

I’ve been on a one-woman mission to try and get my students passionate about reading for some time now. Through showcasing my own passion and love for literature, and talking to students about their interests and hobbies I have slowly been opening up avenues of reading for them which they will hopefully enjoy and stick to. I was thrilled to discover last week that our department have put reading firmly back on the agenda for our year 8 and 9 students specifically in a bid to boost reading ages for all. We’ve been tasked with trialling and reporting back on the effectiveness of a variety of reading strategies with all of our classes but have been given total autonomy on how we approach the task.

I set out with my lower ability year 8 group to stage a series of reading activities based on a short story that I read to them. They took to it considerably well, so bouyed by our success I’m sticking to this strategy with this particular group.

It’s fair to say I was nervous about tackling ‘reading’ with my year 9s. They are reluctant learners at the best of times and the very prospect of asking them to sit quietly with book in hand for half a whole lesson filled me with dread. I was forced to face my fear last week off the back of an IT issue where I lost my planned lesson. “To hell with it,” I mused, and armed myself with my self-made box of books and magazines and walked briskly and purposefully into our classroom. I told them straight up what the plan was, and as I called their names on the register they were to come and select reading material from the box. One by one they all became armed and returned to their seats to fumble and finger through pages of pictures and text.

I told them they had to read for 10 minutes in silence and give their books “a good go”. If after that time they really couldn’t get into it then they could swap it. I took up a book myself and sat in the back corner of the room watching my wristwatch and passively reading. 5 minutes – still quite. 10 minutes – still quiet. 15 minutes later and the room was still reading. I decided to time them; leave my readers undisturbed until they naturally became restless and started to chat to each other. Taking this as my cue I then asked them to talk to their neighbour about what they had read whilst I circulated the room and asked them for their opinion on the lesson. By and large they all said they were happy but would be happier if we could have short bursts of reading segmented by different activities, not unlike the structure I had tested on my year 8s. It was a wonderfully co-operative period and my fears were more than allayed.

Now I have the students on board, but I had more of a struggle with colleagues. I was disappointed to learn that 3 students had been returned to my room empty-handed from the library. The librarian had turned them away because she could register loans due to the aforementioned IT failures – all computers and networks were down. If I’d have been able to leave the room I would have challenged her about this: what’s wrong with a good old-fashioned pen and paper to record loans? Surely it is better to have students with books in hand than not, particularly with our department focus? I’m going to take this up with her when I see her, because I just think it’s sending them the wrong message. And I don’t want to feel like I am once again on a one-woman mission to get our kids reading.

Turning a corner.

I’m starting to get things right. Inevitably, there are still vast canyons filled with room for improvement, and I’m still not sure how Ofsted will feel about me when we finally meet, but I’m beginning to see the fruits of my labour come to fruition. (Oh come on, who doesn’t like a mixed metaphor?)

I drove home on Monday on the verge of tears. Tears of happiness, of joy and serenity. I finally felt like I had cracked it. My students were safe, happy, engaged and learning and I was energised and on form. I even had a colleague suggest that I had the makings of a good head teacher. I’ve never even considered it; when you work at the coal face it’s hard to imagine being the boss. Besides, I think I’d miss the kids too much. But it was my greatest compliment to date in my teaching career because she claimed I ‘got them’ and my way of thinking is ‘good for them’. I’ll never claim to have the best subject knowledge; I’ll never say my teaching is flawless and that I tow the line every minute of every day, but I can say I’m there for my students, and from what they tell me and other members of staff they know I am there for them.

Above all else that’s why I’ve ended up here. Sure, I care about the considerately placed comma and the poor abused apostrophe, these things are important and any day now I will stop comma splicing! But being a constant for a young person who faces difficulty is what gets my out of bed every day.

I am always amazed by the resilience and tenacity our young people show; the things they have to deal with on a daily basis are remarkable, I don’t know where they find the strength but they do, and they inspire me because of it. It’s so easy to holler at a student and challenge them “Why are you late?” and when they reply with alarm didn’t go off, mum didn’t get up, ran out of electric, I had to get my brother to school, etc etc, it’s easy to see how we should be patient with them. It’s plain to see that it’s a miracle they even get to school at all some days. It’s simple to understand that their lives are bigger than the school day and getting to registration is not always going to be their most pressing priority, and often for good reason.

Tuesday saw one of my more reluctant readers asking about ’1984′ after I’d mentioned it in class. He wanted to know if it really was as good as I’d said. I told him I’d lend him my copy and he smiled. It was a simple yet brilliant moment in my career so far. He’s fired up about reading again and he enjoys coming to English.

My students think I’m fair and that is a good thing. They know I am investing in them. There was a moment when I was concerned they didn’t think I meant business, but they do. And I’m content with this balance. I’m proud that my natural strength is my relationships with my students and that they feel they can come to me and be honest. It’s a privilege to earn their trust and enjoy their company each day.

One year (and a bit) on

The fact that I haven’t blogged in a long while is testament to how all-consuming my new teaching life has been. When I haven’t been teaching – or doing something teaching related – I’ve been making up for it letting my hair down with friends, or making cupcakes with my niece. But there never seems to be enough time to do other things, and I’m not yet at the stage when I could confidently say I have a healthy work/life balance.

There’s always some meeting to get to, something to file/log/mark, someone to ask questions of or answer questions to, and of course the students are always asking “What are we doing next?”.

I’m one full term (or half term in old money) in to being a ‘real’ teacher now. Yes, I am exhausted, and yes, I underestimated quite how hard this would be. But something keeps me going in spite of the perpetual challenge and the ups and downs. Something stops me from throwing in the towel even when I’ve had a day which went belly up and I’ve hated myself for doing/saying something stupid.

My teaching skills leave much to be desired and I’d be surprised if Ofsted judged me fit to teach at all some days! I feel the constant pressure from the ‘data’ and ‘progress’, and every so often I crumple under the overbearing weight of responsibility I feel for their futures. Never more so than this week when I sat with my HoD and decided which of our Year 12 retakers would resit their Controlled Assessments. Decisions were based on what they had achieved so far and whether I thought they would a) resit 5 pieces of work and b) succeed at it. I ended up putting all of them back in the pot. I didn’t want my judgment to limit their achievement, it just didn’t seem fair. They’ll hate me for it, I know this, but the alternative was telling them we didn’t think they were good enough to secure their required C and as such they would not be allowed to continue with their Post-16 endeavours.

I sat down to write this blog with every intention of writing something pithy and poignant but instead it’s just a virtual sigh. I hope to make this more regular, and stick to topics and themes a bit more, but for now, this is me, NQT blogger back in the fold. Look forward to recording some of the most exciting days of life right here.

To be or not to be, a journalist

I took a trip to the Guardian this week. It was actually a bit of a day out for me and my fellow trainee teachers to that there London, and I enjoyed it immensely. It was all part of supporting us in a project we are doing with two schools whereby we set up a newspaper simulation day for the children to get a glimpse at what it’s like to be journalists for the day. They have to arrange interviews, come up with story ideas and on the day will have to write copy, take photographs and create a print and online version of their paper.

Given my background, i.e., my degree in journalism and 12 years in the industry, I was faced with the obvious questions from my peers about my previous life. Where better to ask a so-called failed journalist if they regret not making it than in the hub of one of the most respected newspaper in the UK?

So it got me thinking, and on the train home I asked myself, and I asked for an honest answer of myself: am I ashamed of or regretful about my failed aspirations as journalist? And the truth is no, I’m not. When I set out to be a journalist I had the goal of a 15-year-old in mind. I wanted to use language to spread and share knowledge and being a news hound was the best way I could think of at the time. It all seemed so logical. So off I went down that path. But I can trace my ‘failed aspirations’ to a single moment in class. A time when we covered what is known as the ‘Death Knock’. And I knew from that moment on I wasn’t cut from the right cloth to be a journalist, in spite of pleas from my tutors to ‘toe the line for a couple of years’. I didn’t have what it takes to knock on the doors of people who had just tragically lost relatives and loved ones all in the name of ‘getting the story’. I’m not built to impose on people’s grief like that, and I never will be.

So it begs the question why did I continue with my degree? Well, I’ve never been one for quitting anything for a start. And for another thing I began to choose options which would send me down a different path, one of online and specialist journalism which eventually did lead to me having a few interesting and exciting jobs in the media.

Do I regret never becoming the Guardian journalist I always dreamed I would? Still the honest answer is no. I was passionately chasing a dream, but it was the wrong dream. The essence of what I wanted to do as a journalist (and why I chose it as my degree) was that I wanted to impart knowledge, share experiences and ideas, do something important for mankind, and what better way to do that than the way I am now doing as an English teacher? I can’t think of one. And that degree and brief journalistic career helped get me to this point. As my dear old Mum always says, ‘nothing is ever wasted’, my background has become the mainstay of my vision of what kind of teacher I want to be, how I want to share knowledge and encourage fresh and independent thinking.

Now I dream about fuelling inquisitive minds, and helping young people on their path towards their own dreams. And that is now the single most important thing that has ever happened to me.

Planet Word – J P Davidson

This being my first book review of the year (and Lord knows I should be getting on with plenty of other work instead of indulging here, but…) I couldn’t let time pass without recording my thoughts on this book.

For the first time in a long time I found myself not wanting a book to finish, and yet I whipped through this one at such a pace even though I was convinced I was taking my time with it.

It explores five topics – or more appropriately overviews – in great detail and with grace. Davidson makes no assumptions about the reader’s prior knowledge.  He doesn’t even make any assumptions about the reader’s interest in the evolution of language and etymology, even though it’s surely a prerequisite of purchasing this type of book. I mean, I know enough people who wouldn’t buy a book on words because they’re just ‘not that into it’. Whatever that means!

The book moves seamlessly through the ages of communication and celebrates every language and communication cornerstone and visionary. Its beauty is that it does not stick to a linear, chronological story-telling of the journey of language but rather ensures that one poignant moment remains connected to another regardless of its time in history. And this is what makes this work so delightful in its telling: it’s surely a reminder that no single event or revolution in language is in fact singular, but rather becomes part of a legacy or the means by which more progress and development can be made.

There is only one short mention of William Tyndale – a man who I became fascinated by through the work of Melvyn Bragg – and Shakespeare is referenced as he should be and no more: this is not a book about the contributions of one man or one era, this is about the shaping of the spoken word from the written symbols and pictograms of old and it’s power and exuberance.  I swooned when I turned the page and saw in full one of my favourite poems of all time ‘Funeral Blues’ by W H Auden, and delighted to learn more about Esperanto and the languages of Ireland before the Hunger.

In short I would argue, as I sit here so Englishly in my pyjamas on a Satuerday morning sipping tea and smoking a cigarette, that this book is not merely for those who have an interest in the English language and it’s perilous and at times tyrannical past, but rather this is a book for anyone who enjoys fairytales, languages of the world and their people, poetry and lyrics and their importance in our lives, and above all else communication. Davidson never strays far from his belief that communication is the single most significant part of being human. The single most important part of evolution and what makes us different from one culture to another. I am envious of Davidson’s research: the trips he has made, discussions held with people I will probably never have the pleasure of meeting, and documents he has had contact with in the making of this book but I am grateful that he has created a piece of art which is accessible to all and which has left me with a burning desire to continue my discovery of language and communication.

Book diary 2012

A continuation of my book diary.

January 2012:

A Sense of an Ending – Julian Barnes

The Memory Cage – Ruth Eastham

Planet Word – J P Davidson

February 2012:

The Graveyard Book – Neil Gaiman

Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov

Noughts and Crosses – Malorie Blackman

March 2012:

Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen

The Picture of Dorian Grey – Oscar Wilde

April 2012:

Lady Windermere’s Fan – Oscar Wilde

The Happy Prince – Oscar Wilde

The Hunger Games – Suzanne Collins

May 2012:

Catching Fire – Suzanne Collins

The Mockingjay – Suzanne Collins

An Inspector Calls – J.B. Priestley

June 2012:

When God Was a Rabbit – Sarah Winman

Face – Benjamin Zephaniah

The Ruby and the Smoke – Philip Pullman

The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane – Kate DiCamillo

Chickens, Mules and Two Old Fools – Victoria Twead

July 2012:

The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald

The Understudy – David Nicholls

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow – Washington Irving

A Thousand Splendid Suns – Khaled Hosseini

Holes – Louis Sachar

August 2012:

Skellig – David Almond

Kensuke’s Kingdom – Michael Morpurgo

September 2012:

Private Peaceful – Michael Morpurgo

Cirque du Freak – Darren Shan

Touching the Void – Joe Simpson

October 2012:

Moll Flanders – Daniel Defoe