Archive for September, 2008
Tease
The number of primary and nursery school vacancies in England rose by nearly a third over a year.
Official figures show vacancies in these types of schools rose 210 to 870 in January 2008. In secondary schools, vacancies rose by a fifth to 1,470.
No idea where though.
Going to sort my applications to a couple of schools in Manchester next week, plus going to start getting in touch with some agencies. With a view to moving in the new year.
New Facebook
You want to know why I don’t like it…
http://screencast.com/t/3w7lp8aBbM1
That’s me waiting 30 seconds for the status updates tab to load. Yeah, funnily enough I don’t use that anymore. I liked it more when I could see status updates straight away and just them. They’re the little snippets that are worth being nosey about.
Supply
Mr Bartley was also concerned at the drop in the average age of supply teachers. More are choosing this route early in their careers rather than as a prelude to retirement. There has also been a fall in the number of supply teachers. Although over50s account for half of supply teachers, significant numbers of new recruits are in the role.
(The article doesn’t seperate primary and secondary. So I can only speak from a primary point of view…)
Well duh significant numbers of new recruits are. It’s what you do, when you can’t get a job because there’s a 100 applicants for every job in the area (true). So its seems wholly stupid to be concerned about the age of those doing supply. Admittedly, for me it was never a ‘role’ and was more of a stop-gap to finding a permanent position (still looking…).
“I do have concerns about the group of recently qualified and less experienced teachers working in supply roles. This is not ideal,” Mr Bartley said. “A good support network for new teachers’ professional development is greatly valued. It is much easier to form and maintain these networks in a consistent environment. I believe that all newly qualified teachers should have the opportunity to complete their induction period in a substantive post.”
I think I must be underestimating the number of teachings on permanent supply? In any case the General Teaching Council of England and Wales says that after achieving qualified teaching status (QTS) you can only do 4 terms of supply. After that, any job you do MUST contribute to completing your NQT (newly qualified teacher) induction year. So the very thing he’s railing against is being accounted for! Plonker.
Related to that, I think that the 4 terms rule is stupid. It’s there so that people are put in the position that they have to complete their NQT year, which I can appreciate. I agree that you shouldn’t do supply forever (though I don’t know why you’d want to, there’s a lots (loads in fact) of part-time job shares (see, the fact the split of the sexes in the profession)). I’m in the position that, my 4 terms ends before Easter next year. If I get to that point, I’ll either need a job that counts towards my induction or I find a job outside of teaching.
Except I haven’t spent 4 terms doing supply, I’ll have spent half that time working towards completing my NQT induction. Regardless, I’ll be considered no different to someone who has spent 4 terms doing supply. When I’m in a whole different position to that person.
See also this scary statistic >
There were 34,678 newly qualified teachers in England in 2007 but, by the end of this March, 33% of them were not working as teachers, the GTCE report shows.
Wow. 1 in 3.
(Not in Gloucester…)
Up, up…
http://photojojo.com/content/diy/diy-aerial-balloon-photography/
The url says most of it. Strap your camera to some balloons, take photos on a time-lapse setting, pull the camera back down.
Trying to get Chris involved, I like the idea but he’s an engineer and I hope his help will increase the chance of success!
Just to pick a location!
Heads
Women are taking fewer of the top jobs in teaching in England and Wales, an annual recruitment survey says.
Among head teachers appointed to secondary schools in the last year, only 32% were women, compared to 40% in the previous year.
John Dunford, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), said that it was too early to say whether the decline in the number of women getting head teachers’ jobs in secondary schools was “a blip or a trend”.
But he called for action to tackle obstacles that could explain the under-representation of women in the top jobs in school.
Fair enough, but then how is this then not requiring of action?
In primary schools, 75% of head teachers appointed during the school year were women, a lower figure than the female proportion of the teaching staff.
Maybe, all the women who want to be heads are in primary?
Burning brightly
I’ve had a really good weekend. Hanging out with families is fun, because by extension you get drawn into how well that get on. It was nice*.
*and i mean that in the best possible way.
Simple is often best.
Advice to teachers is generally about teaching, rather than on promoting learning. This has led to an overload of good ideas - OK in themselves but often seen as ‘the more of them have the better the teaching’ and many mix together into a toxic combination’.
I was meaning to write down a thought I had but kept putting it off and then I got that quote from a staff meeting. The point was that I keep reading good advice, there are sites dedicated to the stuff (Lifehacker/Zen Habits) and I keep reading and I keep coming across things that make me go, yeah I like that, that makes sense. I invariably blog about it (see previous post) and then I forget it. Too much of a good thing.
The quote continues
However we decide to teach - and there many ways to do this effectively, we will ask HOW WELL we do what we have chosen to do. Don’t be tempted to pack the lesson with everything - just concentrate on promoting learning. Simple is often best.
If you try to do everything, all-at-once, it doesn’t happen does it. You tend to loose track of what it is you were doing in the first place. Better to concentrate on promoting that one thing that is important above all else, learning, getting fit, losing weight, making time and find the way that works best for you.
The quote helped me, or the teaching relating stuff that it leads on too because from my point of view. I think I had lost sight of what the point was and was instead focusing on what I could/should do to achieve learning. My lessons were caught up in the practicalities of it, what will we do, how will we do it. When I should have been thinking about two things, firstly what’s the point of the lesson and secondly have the children learnt what I was teaching. That’s all. Such a simple point.
Think about what I want to achieve, consider how I will know i’ve got there. Still got to think of the how, but that’s not the most important thing
Simple is often best.
Reclaiming time
We live our lives around the clock. We wake up at a certain time, work on a schedule and base our performance on the amount of time it takes us to do things. More things done in less time = good. More time needed? Deadline not met? Unacceptable.
But it’s not just the clock that gives us anxiety; it’s basing our worth on how productive we are. We have this false belief that if we just finish everything on our to do lists, we’ll be done. After that, we can finally be happy, right? Unfortunately, that time never comes.