Back in May I wrote a blog post and shared the “Maths pages” for the student planner that we had put together for the school that myself and Seager are moving to (here is the post) and yesterday we went into the new place and I managed to snaffle a copy of the finished product (to my new gaffer: I promise to replace it when I’m back in later this week!) and the pages look fantastic. They really are so much better than the usual times tables/generic stuff that you usually find in planners.
I’ve promised to be open and honest in this blog about our progress and the journey we are about to embark on and that starts with the mundane stuff like sorting out classrooms. For us, this task is bigger than what most teachers encounter when they start a new job as the whole Maths department has moved within the school, and additionally it’s almost a completely new team in terms of full-time teachers too so it’s a fresh start, with lots to do. The aim yesterday was to form a plan, and make a start with the departmental stuff but when we got there we just couldn’t resist sorting out our new classrooms – basically, Seager got it into his head that it was the best place to start! There is actually a room chock full of boxes that we haven’t yet touched but we have a plan and that’s the important bit. One of the existing team, Karen, came in and helped (Thank You!!) and I am sure she was wondering what the score was as we were quibbling (all in a very good natured way!) between ourselves and I had to try to keep him focussed on one job at a time. He gets something in his head and of course, it needs dealing with straight away and that is why we spent time sorting out the corridor display board and not sorting boxes – to be fair to him, this trait is what gets stuff done and is a real strength of his (I hope he isn’t reading this as I don’t want him getting bigger headed!)
I thought I had a plan for my room too, so moved my tables into my trademark “U shape” and Seager stuck with his “tried and tested” (read that as “boring”) rows and then we moved some of the storage cupboards out (there were more cupboards, shelf units and filing cabinets than you could shake a stick at!) into the corridor, having sweet-talked Sam the caretaker to find homes for them. We then stripped the display boards ready to re-cover in a couple of weeks and then realised how vast the area to be filled with “stuff” actually is and that’s my next job. So below is my “before” picture in full panorama glory, and closer to the start of term I’ll show you what it looks like when I’m done with it.
Having only worked in one school, and been the newbie just once it’s nice to have someone else going through the same things as me. At the minute it’s a cocktail of daunting and excitement with a little dash of fear of the unknown … what more can you ask for?
