GCSE Poetry LIVE!

Word of the day: Qualitative.
We’re sitting in the middle, sandwiched between the two main places of unrest.  A no-man’s land of Poetry Live!  And like all good soldiers, we ventured forth into battle, straining to see, to hear through the mists of foggy clouds of noxious gases and crisp packets. 
Armed with booklets and anthologies, we [...]

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Eternally An Amateur

Ten years
That’s how long it will take you to be a good teacher.
At least that’s what they claim.  They have this obsessive idea that one cannot be good at one’s job until one has grey hair, unsightly wrinkles and have put sufficient number of hours in.  They of course speak about the hoards of teachers [...]

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In School, Silence is a Virtue…

Staff turnover in schools.  A major issue for schools across the country. 
 
Many teachers claim poor behaviour is the cause of their leaving the teaching profession; others speak of rowdy classrooms, violence against teachers, intimidating Year 11 boys, charged with testosterone and looking for a fight.  Sometimes teachers leave the profession over workload, stress and [...]

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Being “Foreign”, Yet A Very “English” teacher…

So, you’re a teacher?
 
 
I never get tired of the questions about teaching; my favourite ones come from my students. When I first started at my current school over a year ago, students went through mixed emotions about being taught English by someone who appeared “foreign.”
 
Firstly, the immediate denial: “No way are you an English teacher [...]

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Chocolate Muffins and A Womanly Pursuit

Work.  Otherwise known as school.  
“What?  You’re still at school?” the auntie-types ask when they meet me.  
“I’m a teacher.” 
Nodding their heads in approval they murmur, “Nice, nice; great profession for a woman,” they applaud, patting me absent-mindedly on the arm as they silently muse over who would be a suitable spouse for me; would Jamila’s son [...]

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Life Gets In The Way…

 
When life gets in the way I find I have no time to sit and look at the simple things. Look at the patterns on the prayer mat, so intricately intertwined, after praying; the shadows cast over the garden by the trees, a temporary mark on the face of the world; the look of content [...]

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Little Jimmy Strikes Back With a Vengeance!

Remember Little Jimmy and his comma?  Well, he’s back and this time it’s personal!
As it happens, teachers have fewer rights than I once thought.  It seems that Little Jimmy, not content with questioning the marking of his poorly punctuated piece of prose (and I use the term “prose” loosely) has taken it upon himself [...]

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Preamble: Residential

So we had a residential at work this weekend.  The main objective I guess was to complete a lot of work with the new head of department – now known as the CDL (don’t ask what the acronym stands for!  “Ciddle”?)  So the Ciddle, the rest of the English department and I set off for [...]

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Job Dillema Part II: Back With a Vengeance

So to keep you updated; I went, I applied, I conquered. 
 In the same shcool I might add.  Possibly the only way I could get a teaching job in the North East of England is a strange case of nepotism.  Having taught for a year in a school rife with its own problems, I was deemed [...]

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Job Dillema

So you like to believe there is no such thing as institutionalised racism?  Or even a subtle form of discrimination?
So would I.  In fact, I often defended schools are wholly inclusive institutions, against charges of racism levelled by my brother-in-law – the family Maths teacher.
That was until I applied myself.  Alhamdullilah I have nearly completed [...]

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