Happy Halloween!

End of the month and I've almost missed posting! Just in the nic of time :D

I've had a week off for half term well deserved (or needed lol). This school years been a buzz and still not perfect. Better than year 1 & 2, but not without its mishaps. Biggest thing is still consistency consistency consistency. I'm learning but its a tough one to master. I still try to get back into teaching rather than policing when clearly the kids want to see what they can get away with... grrr kids!!

I'm still busy writing lesson plans as the curriculum has just changed and units are shifting around. Eventually I should be able to recycle material??? right???? right???? But its not as bad as i've made it out to be. I'm starting to connect with the kids building on my teaching skills with each lesson.

Outside of school i've joined the gym and plan to start going regularly. It's been nice having options for recreation. So far i've done a volleyball league, Brass Band, French lessons and now the gym. The best part is I have full access to the football stadium and can run the stairs when I feel like a little bit of calostetics... then again who ever just 'feels' like some calostetics?? lol.

It doesn't look like christmas in Canada is going to happen with the price of flights this year. After dishing out the airfare, I wouldn't be able to afford anything else. I'd love to go back to Canada and head out visiting, skiing, hiking, touring and have relaxed time. Hopefully the spring will be a different story :D Looking at a cheap get away to Germany instead. AND if i'm lucky, catching up with Heather in Huddersfield too :D

Over the weekend I have the pleasure of writing a unit about hip hop and dance music. Should be a 10 hour job or so? Besides that I'm building up the strength to finish the term and fight the christmas rush.. o wait it's only november! but then again they've had decorations up for weeks... wierd!!

3rd year teaching - first week!! woot woot

The theme of this year is "do it right or do it all year long"... it's time to mean business and get a kick start with discipline. No more silly arguments and back chatty kids. I'm guns ablaze that I NO means NO. The kids have been seeing what they can get away with and I've had none of it. So far they've been lining up and entering the room in silence with a starter activity already on the board while I take the register. Some groups get it right the first time and others are taking about 30 minutes of practicing lining up and being silent. It's been a grind this week but consistency is tough work. Once they know I mean business I'll ease off a bit, but it's high standards this year!!!

On top i've set up some good reward systems to get the kids excited and overhauled the classroom displays. I'm feeling a bit more on top of things this year. Lots of work ahead, I'll be keeping you posted.

3rd year focus

This Blog will describe my 3rd year of teaching in the UK: i've taken the bumps and bruises and am ready to get things right from the start. Routines in September and ride the crest through to summer :D

Summer Summer Summer

Summer Holidays begin!! I've just wrapped up my second official year of teaching and live to tell the tale. It's been a difficult year and i've learned a lot about myself, teaching, responsibility & relationships. There's definitely no perfect solution, but over time things seem to get smoother.

I leave this year being fully qualified to teach in the United Kingdom. They even gave me a nice certificate stating so. My contract at work is now permanent full time and I have the pleasure of taking on a full timetable because the department is now divided between two teachers instead of three like last year.

As for now summer is about to begin. The first two weeks i'm going to get all my prep done, put up new displays at school and reorganize my teaching files. That will leave me with the last four weeks to become completely relaxed, able to do whatever I want and feel condfident/prepared for September!

What am I up to? Besides visiting a couple friends in London, I will be cycling across Ireland for the middle two weeks of August, picking up my guitar chops on the back patio, reading a couple books and learning the finer art of making sushi :D

Let summer begin!!!

Qualified Teacher Status

A year and a half later! I am now Qualified to teach in the UK... well, I've officially had my Canadian qualifications recognized and have been observed, assessed and deemed qualified by a UK university. What does this mean?? full time contracts, qualified pay (was already receiving this) and a heavier teaching load next year. yay??

It's a good thing. The school's happy with me and It feels like i've earned my place at the school. I've come across a lot of mentoring and conversation about classroom discipline for the better. I think leaving University, classroom management was always my biggest question mark. I'm no pro at it now, but i've been through the ringer a couple times and can deal/reflect about it in a more mature way. I've really internalized the responsibility and importance of educating children this past month. It's as though a light switch was turned on. Teaching was a lot of fun & games at the start with a very easy going attitude. Kids who don't want to learn look at this like a pack of piranhas ready to eat you alive. I keep things fun, fast paced and energized, but I'm beginning to promote a serious undertone that pupils are entering a learning environment. I never really thought how children's reasoning for coming to school could be so vastly different from what I would expect (for pupil's to learn). It varies, but there's a large group who come to school primarily to chat with their mates including during lessons. This assumption has to be addressed, and an expectation for learning established. It sounds so simple, but if a kid can't answer "why are you here", and not internalize the responsibility/expectation to contribute without distracting others, they can and will continue to disrupt lessons.

Another big thing i've learned in classroom teaching is that a lesson is won/lost in the first 3 minutes. If kids aren't following instruction before entering the classroom, or while introducing the learning objectives, you have no prayer that the next 40 minutes will improve but will deteriorate instead. It's easy to just plug along and get frustrated with poor behaviour, but i'm starting to see my classrooms as a huge science experiment with observable, empirical and measurable evidence. If I can set up the right parameters of structure, expectations, routine, rapport and feedback I will find the right equation for success. The monkey wrench is that some kids come to lessons with emotional baggage, low blood sugar levels & poor manners. There's no perfect approach to find success every time. But if i'm successful 95% of the time, I think life will really start to pick itself up :D

2nd year crossroads

I hear they pay well in government jobs?? Military??? Less headache bigger salary! I've gotta say that that I've hit this years low point teaching in the UK. My two big hang ups are a) kids aren't making a great amount of quality music - 99% classroom music is learning about different kinds of world music, playing the recorder and Latin percussion instruments & composing, but besides some extra curricular stuff I don't see a musical product of the same musical caliber as teaching large ensemble music. b) Cultural motivation is so different here - the general public doesn’t have the same ambition to learn and many complain they don't care to learn about music. I do feel that pupils should elect what arts subjects they study in greater detail - so that the ones who couldn't care less don't ruin the practical lessons for the one's who do. Students can't fail and many put the responsibility of learning upon the teacher rather than taking the onus of success upon themselves. I strongly believe that dishing off personal responsibility to achieve is the fastest way of losing ambition.

The other headache I've been facing is classroom discipline. It's so difficult to be consistently stern. I naturally want to get into a quick flowing lesson and have the students creating music with everyone involved. It's been said that perhaps I want pupils to like me, but in reality I just want to teach and move forward. I can't do this when I have so many kids talking, not prepared for the lesson, not participating or distracting others who are making an effort. As a result they are slowing down the lesson as I'm forced to deal with the problems. I admit I still want to teach before I police, but perhaps one of the biggest lessons teachers give is routine and appropriate behaviour. I'm approaching this from the beginning of the lesson where the start of every class is consistently compliant without any discipline problems. This sets the tone and with repetition, I can slowly move this expectation into the middle and end of every lesson. To survive teaching I must consistently police every class. Policing must also be cost effective so I'm not always putting myself into detention.

The final hiccup I've had in the last month is total bureaucracy. Up until now I've generally always had a pretty positive response to my ability to meet deadlines, follow instructions and work in a team. My confidence in these aspects has taken a bit of beating as I've recently been told I've "dropped the ball" in the music dept. This has made me reflect a lot about what I'm doing, if I’m being proactive enough, whether requirements of me are clearly defined, who is responsible and is that clearly understood by all, if I'm asking for help when needed and whether I’m projecting insecurities upon the situation. The reason behind this has to do with sending off externally moderated coursework, debriefing with planning for success, and rehearsing the school musical. I could write 1000 words about the details but what it comes down to is lack of two-way communication. I didn't do what someone expected, I did what I thought was correct without questioning it. Things were left last minute where they became a problem. Hard lessons learned, but I've come out of the situation with a better idea of how I am managed best, I now know what I’m currently responsible for, and I’ve also gained insight as to how I would manage others in the future. When I've achieved things like "most outstanding recruit" at military basic training, top staff member & top band division at summer music camp, and graduating with distinction from University I can fall back upon these successes knowing I will pull through. I make mistakes and am not perfect, but I'm quick to learn and will champion obstacles in my path.

I'm definitely ready for some positive energy as the summer approaches. It's easy to get caught up in the heavy stuff, but the point of this blog is to be a record of my experiences good & bad. Bring on some good!!!

Latest news in becoming a 'Qualified' Teacher!

That's right - i'm still officially that crazy foreign teacher who's not actually qualified to teach in England! In my defence I've got four years to get it done - but today "dun da da dhuuuuun" I was observed by a professor from the University and my lesson was assessed as 'very good'. Wouldn't Eileen Cooper & Dave Dunnet be proud :D

It's fun getting feed back on good teaching in another country. There's hoops you've got to jump through to meet the minimum requirements. For instance every lesson must have a clear starter activity; you must state verbally and write out clear learning objective for the lesson and identify what pupils will achieve by the end of the lesson; the main activity must include differentiated tasks where higher and lower ability students can find success and be challenged at the appropriate level; & there must be a plenary (confirmation of learning at the end of the lesson). If these corner stones aren't met you can't 'possibly' have a good lesson. They have so many standards to tick off. Did you make cross curricular links? Was self, peer or teacher assessment used? Was there timely, accurate and constructive feedback? Does the lesson identify prior attainment of pupils and show links to national levels and expectations?

My lesson was pretty good. We discussed the main conventions and instrumentation of African Music. I had a couple video clips I ripped off youtube to demonstrate the different instruments and then made pupils make a web diagram before creating crossrhythms, polyrhythms, hockets and call & response on hand percussion. It was kinda funny because my class can be total monsters but they seemed to step it for the evaluation. I was pretty impressed because they have been pretty difficult in the past.

I did have to tell the evaluator that I'm still working on classroom discipline. It's tough being consistent!! That's my biggest down fall although some improvements been made. I just hate nit picking stupid things like lining up, correct uniform, being prepared with all your equipment, not distracting others or talking out, not throwing things, completing assignments or participating in tasks. These things detract and divert my energy from maintaining high energy levels and delivering excellent lessons. I've got to figure it out, but it's pretty exhausting. I think if I had a police officer in my classrooms teaching would be awesome!!

I have 2 more observations left before they decided if I'm qualified or not. Either way I get a pay check and feedback's always nice. I'll keep you posted :D

Billy Elliot the Musical

I saw Billy Elliot at the Victoria Palace Theatre in London. I am usually not one for child actors - they're generally sloppy with no sense of humour or personality: I've been proven wrong. Billy Elliot was fantastic. 13 year old kids dancing, acting singing (well the singing wasn't the best) but the show was amazing!! Lots of swearing by the mine workers but the show is authentic and does service to the 1980s and reforms under Margaret Thatcher. The accompaniest doing the splits was pretty impressive too. Just think of someone like the "Family Guy" doing the splits on stage. I would never believe it until I saw it happen.

This was a school trip and we took 42 teenagers along. Well worth it for everyone. I'm looking forward to planning the next one :D

4 days in Rome

Rome - Mamma Mia!!

I've returned from a most excellent 4 day trip to Rome. My adventures included Capuchin Monks & skeleton art; Fountana del Tritone; Spanish Steps; Fontana Trevi; Colosseum; Palatine Fields; Roman Forum; AMAZING PASTA & PIZZA; Vatican; St. Peter's Basilica; Pantheon; and large amounts of Gelato :D yuuuuuummmmy!!

Wayne and I rented an apartment on the outskirts of Rome - definitely cheaper than hotels and it only took us 15/20 minutes to travel into the City Centre. Nice place to stay and a relaxing environment. I became well acquainted with public transit - €1/trip. That's like 1/5 the cost compared to the UK. We're totally getting ripped off on this side of the Channel :(

I've never tasted Italian food like that in Rome. I went to all the little restaurants recommended in my tour book and was never disappointed. The pizza, pasta and gelato was beyond belief. Sooooo tasty I'd go back just for the food. Most menus were in Italian so it was a bit difficult making the right choice and Wayne generally ended up with some pretty crap appetisers lol! When you order mozzarella it comes as a chunk of wet cheese. Not really what you might expect sitting in the middle of a little plate.

I got to hear the Pope yammer on at the Vatican well I walked around Piazza San Pietro. It was cool seeing him on the big screen but he wrapped up his speech just as I was about to snap a photo of him... boo-urns. I had the chance to heckle with the road side vendors over sunglasses and knock - off purses (presents for back home). It was awesome - buddy was like "25 Euro" - my response "15" - He says "20" I say "15" - he says ok 15 :D hah I never thought it could be so easy. I probably could have taken him down to 10... can't be too greedy.

The best part was that we went the last weekend of the month when all Museums are free (well on the last sunday of the month). It averaged out to be rather inexpensive getting into the big attractions and soaking up the culture. Definitely pay the extra 4 Euro charge to have a tour of the Colosseum - you save yourself 1hr 1/2 in the line and when it comes down to it - it's the price of a Gelato. ALSO take a back pack with water bottles in it. By the end of the day the bottles are empty and the pack is a lot lighter so it's not too much hassle and you save yourself €5 for a bottle of water that costs .39 cents at the grocery store :D

My flights were alright mainly because I slept the whole way (the only advantage of cheap early flights) but booking ahead saved us around £250 so that's also highly recommended. I think I'll be laying low on the Travel radar the next few months to get the budget balanced. My next target is Ireland in the Summer followed by an up and coming weekend trip to Amsterdam I hope. You never know where the wind will take me. As for now its back to teaching another 7 week half term. Sounds short and sweet... I might use other adjectives lol.

Midland Area Regional Brass Band Championship

This weekend my Brass Band played at the Division 2 Regional Finals. There's Division 1-4 across the UK and Championship Division is for the Pros. For instance at Midland Area Regionals there were about 10-15 brass bands in each division - Division 2 having 11 entries.

ANYWAYS - you practice 1 piece for about a month straight and everyone in your division performs this piece at the Competition (a bit monotonous for the judges eh??) The judges sit in a curtained off booth in the middle of the concert hall and ring their bell when they want the next band to perform. They have a random draw to see in what order the bands play (just to keep it fair) and our band performed last meaning after the 830 draw we had to sit around until 130 to perform.

Finally it was our turn to perform - I was playing 2nd Baritone and our conductor rewrote the horn feature in the second movement so that I had to play it. (PS horn parts are really high all above the staff!!). I had enough practice but to make a clean go of it took some panache.

The performance went fair enough with a few minor mistakes. I really didn't think we played it our best. After we performed the judges left their 'padded booth' and announce the results. They go through what they heard throughout the day how some bands had the articulations wrong, how some played the wrong tempos/style etc. etc.

He then says it was very apparent who the top two bands were and that the first place band was 5 points above 2nd place. You start with 200 points and every mistake made is minus one point. He said the First place band was an exceptional example of a Division 2 band and did a superb job. At this point I'm rolling my eyes thinking about the little glitches here and there in our performance. They announce the 4th place band - -- -- not us. 3rd place --> not us but whoever won went crazy excited!! 2nd place ---->not us. At this point I was thinking "sh*t" not even top four. Then out of the Blue he says "First place with 186 points, one eight six points, City of Coventry Brass Band!!! hah hah that's right - I'm officially a Division 2 Brass Band Champion :D Heading to National Championships in September!

They also take an average of your score at Regionals each year to see which bands get promoted up a division and which band move down a division. In a most excellent way we've also been promoted to Division 1!! Pretty cool eh??

We Say Peri

HAH my French was pretty darn good - I even chatted up our Waitress where Avril had a two part date with some French Canard lol!!

Paris was a great little adventure with good friends.

I arrived late in the evening on Valentines Day and had a Romantic Date solo atop the highest peak in Paris – Sacre Coeur. A couple Gargoyles kept me company so life wasn’t too bad.

Day 1 – while I awaited Laura’s arrival I adventured around Notre Dame Cathedral, Sainte Chapelle and the Conciergerie (where they kept all the prisoners awaiting the guillotine!!!) There was even a silly little man dressed up in Quasimodo garb scaring unaware passer-bys.

I did some window shopping and toured the Picasso museum before catching up up with Lovely Laura and her sister Megan. We spent the evening chowing down French Sushi and wandering the Louvre – ps the Louvre takes many, many, many hours to tour – you can’t do the whole thing in a day and we only had 3 hours!!!

Day 2 – We met up with Avril & Chris and checked out the Musee d’Orsay, Eiffel Tower & Arc de Triomph :D Followed by some din-dins at the aforementioned restaurant au flirty waitress.

Day 3 – We met at the Pantheon and did some garden touring, Café frequenting and walked the French grave yards. It was an early morning as I had to leave for my flight around 12 o clock.

My big revelation was gazing into Van Gogh’s self portraits. I really appreciated the detail of self-reflection. I value that quality in people and had a great little afternoon looking into and interpreting his insights.

I would definitely do Paris again but a bit more on the piss next time – and maybe even see some can can girls at the burlesque shows :D As for now I truly look forward to Rome!! In 39 days :D ;D ;D

Check out my photos

3 Point Discipline Plan

I forgot to post my 3 Point Discipline Pan from my New Years resolution :D

The "plan" is pretty basic - have and maintain the expectation that students will not talk/interrupt when you are teaching: this is for two main reasons - it stops others from learning & its fuc*ing rude :P

I used to think if my lessons were high energy and engaging that students would be so "into it" they wouldn't have time to misbehave - unfortunately kids don't always come to class emotionally/psychologicall

y prepared to learn. Instead of hoping negative behaviour wouldn't happen - I now have a 3 point plan with the expectation it may occur... this sets a routine for students so they know exactly what will happen if they are messing about. When you're consistent this routine will become a deterant for negative behaviour (along with effective lesson planning that keeps them engaged).

1) Warning - correct the behaviour but let the student know its unacceptable and ANY additional problem will result in step two. Be firm.

2) Send out or Move - depending on where you're teaching - either way remove the students for 5 mins from the environment. Let them know this is their last chance and if you have to speak to them again you will move to step three. (Be consistent and don't let anything slide - this is seriously the hardest thing because you want to teach rather than play policeman - but until discipline is under control it is impossible to teach).

3) Remove from lesson - at my school we have a slip to send extremely disruptive students to see a senior member of staff who will keep them in a detention for the remainder of the lesson (along with anyone else in the school who has been removed). In Canada we generally don't have as high a level of disruption - so what you could do is have them sort music or do another simple menial task. I have a work sheet titled WHY MUSIC outlining philosophy and research into the effects of music education that students copy out by hand. Some have copied it out several times :D this way i'm not using music (such as theory) as a punishment but they are still learning something.

THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT - phone home for any student who reaches step three. Its freaking scary at first talking to parents but you HAVE to do it. Write down exactly what their kid was doing and explain how this is negatively affecting other students from learning. TRUST me when I say students talk - as soon as I phoned home the next day the whole class knew I was playing hard ball and not putting up with any BS. Being consistent greatly reduces any negative behaviour in the classroom.

England is a bit of a shit-show - so I have to take it one step further. I record any disruptions (step 1-3) in my Behaviour & Discipline log. At the end of each term I have evidence for parents just how much disruption their child creates in the classroom. Your daughter has interrupted my teaching 7 times in 12 lessons!!!! But I also have evidence of students who deserve praise for having perfect behaviour and attitude for learning and can also reward those individuals.

Another great trick is for any kid who's reached step three - have them come in at lunch to speak with you (or if you can do it immediately after the lesson). Pick up the phone and dial their parents number at home/work in front of them - then pass the student the phone as its ringing and say "You will explain why you were given 3 chances and removed from my lesson today. After that the parent might want to apologies to you or the kids silence says it all.

Old UVic Buzz words

Before I jumped into this first teaching post of the year I must highlight some up and coming events.
A) Spice Girls Concert January 22
B) Trip to Paris in February 14-17
C) Trip to Rome March 28-31
What a kick ass start to 2008 eh??? I'm pretty stoked. After the Christmas hump - I know I can make it to summer holidays :D

All right so a couple buzz words (or sayings) have rung through my head ever since I left University and recently they've totally started making sense. So much of Uni was hear say or just something to 'memorize' but these little gems have finally been internalized and make a hell of a lot of sense in the practical world.

First off - a great professor said - It must be physical before it can be musical. This could seriously be the thesis for music instruction because it leads so easily into everything I teach. It especially links abstract ideas to concrete practice and helps kids develop musical sense.THAAAAANKS Dave!

Second - I remember learning organization skills throughout formal education and from extracurricular involvements but recently it totally occurred to me how crucial it is to be organized to be an effective teacher. As I dragged my ass all last year I became more exhausted in a vicious circle that left me feeling pretty crappy about my job. Three simple words "do it now" have turned things around. Organization is contagious and after my Units and assessment tasks are planned out ahead of time - day to day teaching can leave me feeling energized. Each lesson can be put into context and I can see where I'm going each week, month and term. Also I no longer have piles of things to do later around my desk - a major stress relief compared to 2007. Little tasks can pile up and turn into demotivating big tasks when left to fester: trust me!!

Finally - I'm not sure why this stuck in my head but Dr.King once told a group of us that 3rd year teaching is one of the best years of our Careers because you've survived the bumps and bruises of starting off - and you're still naive enough to think you've found the perfect balance to teaching. After that, apparently, we're suppose to humble to the notion that there's so much more we can do with our teaching practices that the confidence buzz wares off going into the 4th and 5th year. I can see my self feeling really confident in the next year because I can start to recycle my Unit lessons and cut down on the Macro planning - I mean every year things will need to be tweaked and each class/student brings a whole new challenge but I do look forward to having things in place and not spend my term breaks writing the next Unit plan.

I guess University's about making a blue print to fall back on when you're stuck in the real world. I do feel well rounded when I approach teaching dilemmas - sometimes I'm not in the right mind frame to resolve conflict but a comforting discussion with a colleague gets me back on track. I just wonder if I’ll be eating my own words about "Never going back for my masters...."

New Years 2008

Happy New Year Folks!

My 2nd New Years in the UK. It's been a hell of a year and far from perfect. I think that's why a fresh start is so exhilarating because things generally get better the more you hack at them lol!! I spent New Years in a local Bar dancing my arse off and trumpeted 2008 in with a state of the art party horn :D

Compared to New Years 2007 -> 2008 started off ten fold better! I even won £100 in the door prize. Good company, great drinks and a fantastic new years smooch should put a smile on this guys face. I have some tricks up my sleeve for my students in the New Year and I'm hitting the classroom guns a blazing. Also looking forward to Mom coming for a visit in the Spring and I believe there's a Ms. Hickman appearance as well... Yippee!

My score on last years Resolutions was a mediocre 5/10... - My car blew up so rowing/erging plans were kayboshed; my Visa bill didn't survive the plane ticket home from this summer - although I haven't charged anything on it since; with the Visa bill no UK fashion could be justified; my fishing trip with dad didn't happen; and As for wedding music - Tanya's friends did a superb job sans moi. On the flip side I Got on Skype and chatted back home much more; joined a Brass Band; discovered Romance; Won my Div3 Vball league; and Completed a Rozzy recommended Detox. So this year I'm picking up some British Teaching lingo and aiming for 'smart targets'.

1. Cycle across Ireland
2. Improve my vball block - penetrating over the net
3. Compose a Baritone Duet feature for Brass Band
4. Pay off $5000 CAD against my CIBC Visa
5. Implement and Refine my 3point classroom management system to eliminate low level disruption in the classroom.
6. Travel to France or Italy
7. Decorate my Room
8. Drink 2 Liters of water everyday and have water bottles available at work & home
9. Not to skip lunch by stocking the fridge at work on Mondays.
10. What's a NYears resolution without the typical 'get fit' entry?? Well mine is to do 5 push ups before I take a shower at home. Each month this number increases.

All the best to my friends and family around the world. I hope 2008 brings great things - especially for all those Rower types back in Victoria/London Canada heading to Beijing!!!