Better day

I like Tuesdays.

I am in the same faculty all day so I don't have to lug all of my gear, including laptop up and down the stairs. I feel like I have a home on Tuesday.

On Friday's I feel the same, except my home is in ICT. The rest of the week I flit between the two like an indecisive imbecile!

My lessons today were good. The students are settling down somewhat and my Year 8 class are absolutely wonderful. They work hard, are settling into a routine, are acting on the feedback I give them and are now actively seeking my approval and trying to show me that they are doing what I have asked. Some of them tell me they 'love science', one of them left me a note today to say 'Science is the best!' and all but one of them smiled when they came into the classroom. THAT is what is rewarding about teaching :-)

Year 7 are starting to get there. Some old school classroom management, rearrangement of the classroom, reorganisation of the seating plan and the group that have been causing me to question my sanity managed to stay mostly on the right side of my expectations today. Possibly because plasticine was involved.

Amazing how suddenly students wanted to improve their work, when they were told it would lead to an opportunity to make their imaginary creature and its habitat! Even my 'brick wall' child from last week actually listened and although he tested the boundaries a little, he did seem to take on board my suggestion that he should at least give me a chance to give him some praise, by him doing the right thing. He did. I smiled a lot after that lesson.

This creature, which I have yet to find out what it actually is, was produced by a student that has found it very difficult to progress so far. Today, he just whizzed through everything in order to get his hands on the modelling clay. On Thursday, I need to work with him to get him to articulate what his imaginary creature is and where it lives. But, for now, I am please that we had an outcome for him, so that he can see that he CAN do.

Am knackered now and know that I have a busy few days ahead to make sure that I leave my students the right sort of work for the seven days I am out of school for the surgery and recovery. 8 days to go and then it's time to find out what the hell is happening to me!