Educating the Dragon

 

 

Awoke in a bit of a panic today, just the thought of people coming in to see the skype talkand write in action. My previous experience shows that whenever people come in at a particular time to see Web2.0 in action I am plagued with technical problems.

Today was no exception. All went well this morning except I had ‘LOW CONNECTIVITY’ showing on the wireless. ERK! Our technical support came in first thing this morning, my Principal was keen to have them see it run smoothly so he called the guy last night to get him in. Thumbs up for that. What he found was that some kid had bent and loosened one of the aerials for the wirelesss which accounted for it limited connectivity- He went and got a new one and it was all humming in time for the session beginning at 9.30 am. Sweet.

The trial version of talkand write had expired too and neither end of the call could write on the whiteboard. They improvised and produced notes in the sidebar ‘chat’. Better get the PRO version sorted pretty quick!!

 

Needn’t have worried myself so much…. they did not show for that lesson anyway. My kids (and I) were very disappointed. They were humming with it and others were collaborting on the IWB too. I was feeling a little mixed feelings about the session because those kids of mine who were not engaged in the technology but doing their writing in their books were not at their best.

 

Maths- My kids were great, groups productive, IWB work singing, Lots of on task and no growling. We were discussing our learning together. Did anyone come in to see this model of brilliance? No. Stink!

 

Getting a straight answer

After school I happened to walk into the staffroom while an ERO person was using the last of the green top milk. She turns to a colleague of mine and asks “Do you recycle milk bottles?” Now if it were anyone else the answer would be “Nope, just stick it in the bin.” but not on an ERO visit; the answer goes something like…. “ Well, we do have a recyclying policy, the All Brite truck comes once a week to collect the paper waste from the school. Currently though our recycling does not extend to…….it is something that we are in the process of….. in the near future our health promoting team……” and so it goes on. There must be times when they are not inspecting something and just want know where to put the flippin’ milk bottle….

 

This morning we opened with an assemby- what a show case of talent! We had the band play a couple of numbers, the health promoting team gave a presentation as well as the weekly Merit Marvel certificates and ‘The song’:

 

Attention Attention

Read all about it

Peterhead’s the best

There’s no doubt about it

We’re all having a celebrate

for the best kids in the nation

 

They do all the right things

the very best they can

They’re the Merit Marvels

and they deserve a hand

Last week was a good one

they never let us down

They’re the Merit Marvels

and they deserve a hand.

 

Hey Peterhead, hey What?

Hey Peterhead, hey what?

Hey Peterhead, Hey what you want?

Three claps/salutes/round of applause for the Merit Marvel!

 

Trust me it sounds better with the song rolling around your head.

 

The kids were beautifully behaved and even the staff refrained from whispering at the side (apart from me, obviously)

 

 

My first lesson was a Reading lesson and I had everything running like a dream, I’ve decided to showcase the technology stuff and demonstrate how I use it in my classroom in a formative feedback sort of way. So I had PRS going with my Big Book and an IWB activity for taskboard time, I even sat down and took the correct number of focus reading groups ( normally I talk to them for too long and run out time, but not today) However, when it goes well they don’t show!

 

Maths session- All was going well, like the reading lesson before a mixture of technology added learning, whole class and group. My kids worked hard… Then a parent came in, there had been an upset yesterday that I was oblivious too and this parent wanted to “sort the other kid out”- I freaked and ended up standing outside with this parent while one of my kids ‘legged it’ to find the AP. They came back a few minutes later saying she was busy and was it urgent? “Hmmmm….yeah!” So she came across and took parent and appropriate kids to her office. They whole time it was going on I was thinking- “Any second an inspector is going to come round the corner expecting to see a model maths lesson”. Fortunately for me the vast majority of my kids were on task and the inspector never showed. Phew!

 

A quiet after noon- still no sign. Which was good because our Buddy reading time got cancelled and it threw the last 30 minutes of the day… doesn’t matter normally but freaked me out today!

 

The Junior and Middle Syndicate met with the ERO folk after school 12 staff in all.

 

They wanted to know about formative practise in writing and how that was beginning to spill over into other areas of the curriculum.

The other major question they asked was about focus on Maori/ Pacific students and what we are doing to ensure their achievement- It is a bit of a nonsense question in one way as those two groups make up about 90% of our student population so everything we do in the classroom is geared to those students needs but making it sound extra and special when it is just daily good practise is really hard. They other aspect of it is the staff vocabulary on this subject. I have never fealt so Pakeha in my life, I know nothing other their language and culture, well not nothing as such but certainly not enough to feel any confidence in talking about education provision for Maori and Te Reo and other such things I can’t write because I don’t know. Our student population my be 90% Maori/Pacific but our staff are 95% Pakeha.

 

Well its 10pm again I need to get to bed. The plan is for a visitor to be in my room 9.30-10 tomorrow looking at Skying in the writing programme! ERK!! Good job I got Chrissy and a sensible Intermediate at the other end.

 

This is the first day of the ERO visit. Apparently they rocked up at 1pm. I say ‘apparently’ because I never saw them at all. They were not allowed to come into the classes until they had met with the Board of Trustees which they did at 4pm today.

It’s interesting to note that two members of staff were informed of the time of their visit into their classes. I was not one of them…. and pleased about it too. Imagine being informed that they were to come into your class at 10am but the person who heard that had got the time wrong, or the day, or the ERO staff changed their minds and did not showed up at all. Yes, I think that would have been worse than expecting them anytime.

I got a chocolate in my pigeon hole this morning from the boss. That was thoughtful.

I also ‘ran into’ the chair of the board on their way out. She is such a bubbly, positive individual and she made me feel so relaxed about tomorrow. That was until she informed me that she had encouraged the ERO folk to call in to see Simon on the Interactive Whiteboard. Oo-er! I should expect a visit and conversation about the whiteboards. That’s what I have just finished doing now, running through my IWB element of my lessons, got to make it look cool!

Here’s another point about the inspectors they must sit down for dinner at some local eatery and just laugh! “Staff hair and makeup. What do you think? 7/10? No. more like a 6. I remember this one teacher I saw over in Wellington once, made this lot look like they’d made no effort at all, you should have seen it!” “ Ok, let’s move on, what about the “Growly-hope the inspector hasn’t heard-whisper”?

Well, it’s 10pm and I’m signing off now, got to try to get some sleep tonight. (Didn’t get much last night).

I haven’t been worried about their visit- in fact I’m kinda looking forward to it. This is my 10^th inspection in 10 years of teaching- some of us are just born lucky;-)