'Of Mice and Men' - 5 ideas to help make the final two years of teaching this text the best

 

#1 Crowdsourcing

I'm loving the shiny name given to this idea by @EducatingCCC, so am adopting it as my own! This is an idea that could work as starter or plenary, to generate new ideas or consolidate understanding of previous learning.

 

Simply give students a crowd outline and a question. They then label each figure with the name of someone in the class and their response. The challenge is to make every response different!

 

 

#2 Black out analysis

This idea was developed from the fab 'black out poetry' that was circulating on Twitter earlier this year.

 

Take one collapsed extract from the text. Not sure how to collapse text in Word? Use the 'Replace' tool to turn spaces into ^p i.e. new paragraphs, then reverse!

 

 

Then ask students to black out any word that doesn't relate to a particular theme or effect. In this case we were looking at sympathy, but loneliness, violence, dislike etc. could also work. When this is done, they annotate to explain their choices.

 

 

I collapse the text to try to get students to think creatively about the connotations of individual words, before considering them in the context of a passage. Clearly, context will change the meaning of some words, but this in itself leads to useful discussion!

 

#3 Onion analysis

Born of exhaustion from essay writing practice and exploding quotations, this is again inspired by something I saw on Twitter: revision foldables. The idea goes that to encourage close language analysis, students need to appreciate the 'layers of meaning' within a quotation, of which this is a visual representation.

 

You identify a useful quotation and then print it landscape across the bottom of a page 8-10 times. Staple these together to create a booklet.

 

Students then select which words/phrases they will analyse, cutting out the others on that page. They write their analysis of this in the space above it. They then repeat this with a new word or phrase on the second page. And then the third... etc.

 

In theory, flicking through the booklet will reveal closer analysis of the quotation. Does it work? I'll tell you after tomorrow p4!

 

 

#4 The least popular word

This one came out of desperately trying to illicit original ideas from a middle ability set, all too keen to have me provide the 'answers' for them.

 

Pop a quotation up on the projector in a grid like this: 

 

Give students a post-it and ask them to pick out one word that implies or suggests something about the character/theme. Crucially, if they are the only person to select their word, they receive some sort of reward (for us Vivos). This should encourage them to think more creatively.

 

The bonus of this is then when they are given individual copies of the grid and can 'steal' the original ideas of the class - a ready-made CA paragraph if ever I saw one!

 

#5 Evaluation octagon

Ok, so this isn't one strictly for OMAM, but I five is so much more a satisfying idea than four, isn't it?

 

This one was inspired by the much-loved 3D essay plans created by a brilliant teacher in my Faculty. No one can resist fiddling with a tactile three dimensional object, not least teenagers.

 

In this version, questions are used as prompts for students to evaluate their work, with greater scaffolding through sentence starters magically revealed if they pick up the octagon.

 

 

Making Matthew rich: practical strategies for building word wealth

This blog could also be titled ‘An Ode to Geoff Barton’ as, like many other English teachers, his elegant and emotive speeches are how I first came across ‘the Matthew effect’. However, the concept, as far as I’m aware, originated in Daniel Rigney’s book of the same name.

‘The Matthew effect’ is the idea that those who are bought up in 'word-rich' environments ultimately become part of the ‘literacy club’, reading/writing and getting more ‘word-rich’ as a result. Whilst, conversely, those who are 'word-poor' become doubly so due to a reticence to read and inability to enjoy ‘word-rich’ texts. There’s a much more eloquent and extensive synopsis by David Didau here.

This blog post – whilst recognising that what happens in one classroom will not change the ‘world’ of a school alone - is not an attempt at address the Pandora's box of whole school literacy. If you’re interested in that then I recommend visiting Chris Hildrew’s blog.

Instead, it’s an attempt to pull together some ways I’ve been attempting to address building word power in my own classroom over the last term. All of these strategies require minimal planning, but used together have maximum effect. However, they all start with one important proviso: the world of language is not a democracy; some words are more valuable than others. It’s therefore important to take a moment to define which words are at the top of this autocracy: what makes a ‘rich’ word?

As a starting point, for me, ‘rich’ words:

• have not been heard or read before
• unlock more sophisticated concepts
• build self-esteem and aspiration
• create autonomy and power in the user

And, yes, least importantly, achieve more marks in a GCSE English Language exam…

‘Big yellow box’ them

Increasingly nowadays my Powerpoint is my lesson plan. With one group, I've made sure every lesson there is a yellow box on the right hand side with 'rich' vocabulary in to scaffold their ideas and discussions. It also acts as a useful aide memoire for my future planning as I can see words they have previously been exposed to.

Drop them (in)

 

It's a truism that the simplest ideas are the most effective: ensuring rich words are part of your day to day communications with students is a perfect example. It may be tempting to ‘dumb down’ our vocabulary when talking to 'little people', but students who are ‘word-poor’ must be exposed to the richness of language in order to become 'word-wealthy'.

To secure understanding the 'rich' word needs to be followed by a pithy explanation of the meaning. The best definition for encouraging confidence has to be the single word summary - see above. There's plenty of time for refining that definition once the word has gained some familiarity.

(Interactive) display them

If you don't yet follow @ChrisMoyse, you need to start following @ChrisMoyse. This is my 100% plagiarised version of an awesome display of his creation. Each fry packet from a well known food chain, contains 'rich' synonyms for the word underneath. In my Faculty, we've also got paint colour charts that do the same job, but any Twitter search will reap a plethora of other imaginative ways to display these words in a way that shows just how exciting they are.

Hook them

By this I mean find a way of making them memorable. Here's a simple method from a lesson this term: words that start with the letter 'D'. This slide was introducing students to the relationship between Curley and his wife in that educational pariah 'Of Mice and Men'. We then divided them into three categories: male stereotypes; female stereotypes; the effect of these ideologies. This vocabulary framed the lesson and ensured that, at all points after this, students were using vocabulary sophisticated enough to articulate concepts related to gender roles, misogyny and patriarchy.

Return to them

It's one thing to walk out of a lesson proudly (and metaphorically) clutching a new word, but it's quite another to return on a new day still brandishing that word like a verbal blade. Making the next lesson's pre-starter remind students of their wonderful new word-y weaponry will make all the difference.

Cover sheet them

With the coming of the new National Curriculum for English from September (that some of us still have to adhere to, Academites) we've introduced a standard cover sheet for all of schemes of work that will clearly identify 'rich' words that students should be exposed to over the unit. As Wayne from Wayne's World once said: 'Plan for it and it will happen'. Or at least I'm sure he said something to that effect.

Debunk them

One of my favourite phrases to teach students is 'the dominant ideologies associated with' as it can simply be explained by 'the main set of ideas linked to' - e.g. stereotypes - and is directly applicable in a variety of literary and non-literary discussions related to text, audience and purpose. Watching young people play with the phrase, using it to show-off to other teachers and students, is a joy. I always leave them with the challenge to go home and when their parents ask them what they have done at school today to reply, not with a grunt, but with "Well, mother dearest, we have been analysing the way that Curley's wife both adheres to and rebels from the dominant ideologies associated with femininity in 1930s America."

WOW word them

On the door of my office I have a WOW ('Word of the week') word which also gets printed on the weekly Faculty bulletin. Soon to go whole school, if nothing else then this initiative will flag up the importance of vocabulary for accessing and engaging with any aspect of both the curriculum and the wider world.

Reward them

 

Be it scrabble or Sports Day, I love a bit of competition - and so do students. Whatever your reward system, ensure that no use of a 'rich' word goes unnoticed, acknowledged and praised. For us it's Vivos with points literally meaning pennies to spend in the Argos catalogue. We also have rather lovely 'Literate learner' stickers (and any teacher worth their salt knows the power of a good sticker).

 

Trite but true: teenagers are ace.

It's the worst time to write this blog. I'm frantically trying to create a new timetable, a new engaging KS3 curriculum, a new accessible route through the ever-demanding and increasingly ludicrous demands of GCSE specifications, whilst choosing a new A Level spec., recruiting a new Deputy and Key Stage Coordinator - oh, and planning a wedding in four weeks time.

But, somehow, that all just makes it more necessary.

I think it was when an incredibly frustrated Year 10 student had just taken out his emotions on my quivering plastic display case in the corridor outside my classroom that this blog post finally came into being.

Having flourished since September - moving from a copied couple of lines to a full page of his own ideas - being faced with his first taste of a GCSE exam paper had landed him right back at square one. He was unable to put pen to paper; quite simply, he felt like a failure. Despite my concern for both my rather lovely display, cataloguing the last year of English trips, and his own, now bruised, fist all I could feel for him was pride: 1. that he cared that much; 2. at the realisation that he absolutely could do that exam and that I was going to do everything in my power to convince him of that over the next year.

Because, you see, teenagers are ace.

Unlike most adults, their emotions are plain to see. Happy. Sad. Frustrated. Proud. Grateful. Lonely. Reading a classroom is a pleasurable skill for an experienced teacher, spotting who is about to metaphorically (or literally in this particular case) 'hit the wall' and bringing them back from the brink. Grabbing good work and whacking it under a visualiser and then spotting the side-smile of pride from the recipient of class jealousy and praise. It might be given the jazzy title of 'emotional intelligence', but I don't think it's the teacher's intelligence that should be the focus.

You see, for me, it's simply that teenagers are ace.

Before I put finger to key for this blog, I tweeted about whether I should write it. I'm very aware that the title alone could be perceived as somewhat nauseating. And I'm sure repeating it has brought up a vom-bubble or two for some. As a result, I had a couple of alternative blog suggestions from the Twitterati, one of which was: 'Are teenagers a product of their environment or creators of their reality?' My response was simply: both. Which leads me to my next reason that... well, you get the idea.

Teenagers are sponges; young people soak up praise and the ideas and attitudes of those around them. As my brilliant first school had on the toilet wall: 'Teachers create the weather...' Every lesson is a fresh start, be it in terms of behaviour/relationships or learning, if only we can convince ourselves of it, greeting that child with a chirpy 'Hello' or tackling again that problem topic (presentational devices for me!).

Maybe teachers should be a bit more like sponges too. And I don't mean that we should all start saying 'LOL' or 'YOLO' (although anyone who works in a school will inform you that it's a media-mythology that they go around spurting that tosh) or stretching out our ear piercings (again, ahem).

I mean that we should be open to learning from our students. I'm sure it's not the complete reserve of the English teacher to nick an idea from one class and pass it off as to another as their own unique insight. Maybe we should also listen to them about the changing experiences of being a young person in 2014 too. I'm pretty sure I didn't know my sub-level in Year 8 or start my GCSE course in Year 9. God help me if I'd been asked to study Maths until 18...

And when we are learning from them, we will definitely be taught, once more, that teenagers are ace. Because, despite the challenges they face, they still make cheeky jokes about my name, do amazing pieces of homework and show kindness, passion and excitement in our schools.

And that's what'll be getting me through the timetable, new NC, specs, Gove's many whims - and be at the centre of every blinking decision I make.

The final words belong to the Lead HMI for English who has said recently the key question in judging provision should be: 'What is it like to be a student in this class?' And what I think she meant was: 'Teenagers are ace. Are they made to feel - and be - ace in this class?'

GCSE revision that REVIVES! (Updated March 2015)

Are you losing the will to live in your final lessons with Year 11? Join the club. Here are a couple of the more creative strategies I've tried to use to fan the flames of the flagging in the final days before E-day.

Note: the vast majority of these are not my ideas! They are ones that have been magpied from a variety of sources including many awesome Twitter users like @siancarter1 and @englishlulu, as well as members of my fantastic Faculty like @mrszshah and @missrcapper.


Knowledge Vomit

A good way to ascertain your starting point for revision, the 'knowledge vomit' challenges students to splurge out everything they know on a topic in the grossest way possible.

I've seen this done really well on desks, floors, windows etc. - just make sure you use chalk pens or NON-permanent markers!






Quality Revision (get it?!)

OK, not every student has a smart phone, but in this era of marginal gains if you get three or four more students revision I'll take that as a win.

Just whack a hyperlink - Youtube video, website, Dropboxed document etc. - into a free online QR code generator like http://www.qrstuff.com/ to make your QR codes. Then, copy and paste them into a Word document (I recommend using a table to keep them in neat little rows) to turn in a worksheet or poster. I've stuck ours up  at A3 postersin rooms frequently used for revision and given out A5 versions for exercise books!







Twister and Shout

I've had this germ of an idea for a while. I want to use it as a way of revising GCSE anthology poems, but I'm sure it could be adapted for anything where students need to make links.
In my version, they write the names of the poems across each of the coloured dots. They then take it in turn to spin the spinner to identify the finger they need to use and then use it to link to the poems, explaining the similarity or difference they're identifying. This could be a theme, idea, language technique, the tone, or structure. If they can't go (either because they can't see a link or their fingers won't stretch) they lose the round and their opponent scores a point.

You can nab an editable version of the play board and spinner from my Dropbox here.
Feeling brave? Why not try the whole body version (using same sex pairings) with the this online spinner.


Revision cubes

Use these how you want! To generate questions, prompt individual or group responses, as the start of a mind map...

You can find the ones I have made here:
GCSE English Language
Poetry anthology
'An Inspector Calls'
'Of Mice and Men'


Mind pegging

'Peg' what needs revising to something memorable like their bedroom, house our journey to school. Simples.


Student-created revision guide
My favourite incarnation of this was the 'William Golding's Guide to Life' I created at my last school. I divided students into groups and gave them a subject e.g. 'Friendship', 'Adolescence', 'Food', 'The Environment'. They then had to work together to write from the point of view of the author about these topics. What they produced was creative, witty and insightful. I'll try to dig it out when I get a second...

Here is a simple proforma for a stripped down 'An Inspector Calls' version and an example.


Stick or twist tasks

Whack some revision tasks in a bucket or bin (preferably clean). Students choose one and if they don't like it get to 'twist' by choosing another one - just once though! Will they risk choosing a harder one...?

You can find the writing tasks I use here:
'Stick or twist' writing tasks


Snakes and ladders

Gah! Just realised I haven't photographed these! Students basically were given the grid and added revision questions to the squares then swapped and played the games. I'll add the grid to my Dropbox soon.


Spider web analysis

Great for any revision that requires students to make connections. Whack what needs comparing around the legs of a desk, add strings with blu tack for the link, wrap around a post it to add explanation.

 

'We're doing English now."

The title of this post comes from a comment I received following my recent Performance Management observation: "You make it clear We're doing English now." I think it was a compliment. Given the need for positivity at the end of what is, as always, a somewhat draining term, I'm certainly going to take it as one. Anyway, what this seemingly innocuous observation triggered was reflection about how we can get students all in, all on task and, fundamentally, all learning, in the crucial first five minutes of a lesson.

It's a pet peeve of mine that some lessons begin with a register, locating a pen etc. Want to kill your subject? Ask your students to first copy down the learning objectives. However, simply starting with an engaging stimulus alone doesn't ensure that you engage the thirty plus brains sat in front of you. So how can we marry this need to both inspire and challenge students with very different needs both in terms of ability and engagement?

Here are a couple of suggestions that might make this seemingly impossible task a little more achievable.

Wicked whispers
I am an absolute unashamed thief when it comes to teaching strategies. This one (I think) is an original. And, as such, it's mega easy. Step one: ask a hard question. A really hard question. One only the bravest and boldest in the class will attempt. When three or four of your bravest volunteer an answer ask them to stand up and silently whisper their answer in the ear of another student. Crucially, that student must be able to explain the answer. When they can they then also silently whisper in the ear of another student. Before you know it, the whole class will be standing... at which point you ask them to sit back down and ask the question again. In theory, all students should now have their hands up with an answer!

Note: IMHO it doesn't actually matter if the answers given are right at this point in the lesson, simply that all students have felt empowered to attempt to answer a challenging question without you intervening to tell them the answer.

Line of agreement
"Come in. Do NOT sit down. Question on the whiteboard. Agrees near the window. Disagrees near the door. Decide where you stand. I want at least one reason." You get the drift.

Three answers on three walls
The best tactics are often the simplest. I love this one because it is immune to the distractions of late comers, requires all students to participate and suits any topic. The title says it all: you blu tack three pieces of paper giving three possible answers onto the three walls of the classroom. Students come in, read the question on the Powerpoint and immediately have to go and stand next to an answer. No opt outs. Suspect they're just following their friend? Make it clear you'll be asking them for their reason as to why they've chosen that answer.

In the last couple of weeks I've been using this Year 10 who've been studying Macbeth. For example, as an intro to language analysis. Pop up three quotations. Challenge students to stand next to one for which they can explain the meaning. Then, move to another for which you can identify a language technique. Finally, stand next to one where you can explain the effect of a language technique on the audience. It also worked well for the start of their first lesson comparing the texts. Who's most likely to take a selfie? Lady Macbeth, Macbeth or Dr Jekyll/Mr Hyde? Who's most likely to pull the legs off a spider? Cheat in an exam?

Stand up/Sit down
Like all of the tactics here this is about ensuring that there is no choice not to respond. If you stay sat down you're giving an answer. If you stand up, that's an answer. And you will be picked on to justify why you answered in this way!

Post-it notes
So much better than individual whiteboards which seem irresistible to the doodler, post-it notes ensure every single child contributes. Maybe it's their child-friendly size that does it. Intimidated by a blank white page of A4? Here, try this sunshine shaded snippet that is no bigger than your palm. See, three words in and you've almost filled me! Again, this a late comer immune tactic, simply hand those who have completed their post-it a second one (and a reward).

No nonsense top tip: sick of students sticking their post-it notes at the top of the whiteboard/on each other/anywhere they're not supposed to? Add a box on your Powerpoint in which they have to stick it.




To be continued...
 

In pursuit of the holy grail: the ten commandments of frequent, high quality marking

1. Thou shalt know your audience
What the gloriously word-packed A3 APP epics did for us English lot was remind us that we are pedagogical professionals who can cope with the wordy and wieldy if it helps with the slippery task of assessing a child's reading, writing, speaking, or listening. Children can't.

It is this that has lead many schools to a solution that - in my mind - suits neither audience: an over-simplified list of criteria for teachers; three* intimidating lists of hurdles for students.

What is needed is to separate the two audiences. Be clear when you are recording your diagnoses for yourself and the teachers who will see the child on the next leg of their academic journey. Be clear when you are writing feedback for that child in order to help them make progress.

A pertinent example of this distinction is the annotation of controlled assessment tasks. Students must receive bag-loads of formative feedback but, come the final CA task, the audience for the marking of the final piece is distinctly the examiner. This is necessary both in terms of systematically deciding on a final mark, but also to communicate the thought processes that have reached this decision to successive moderators. 

*reading, writing, speaking and listening

2 Thou shalt give praise
It doesn't matter how you praise students in your marking, so long as you do it  - and tell them why you're chuffed to bits with them. Depending on my state of mind/the time of night/just how frustrating it has been to crack this particular skill with this particular student, my marking will include:

• Attitude to learning/effort grades
• Smiley faces
• Stickers of various persuasions (green 'on target' dots, our in-house PLTS-style stickers...)
• Superlatives and a hefty dose of hyperbole (my green pen's even been known to utter a 'WOW!')

Never would I want to homogenise that reaction through a repressive whole school policy; a teacher should be free to choose their own vehicle to communicate their joy at seeing a student make progress.

3. Thou shalt diagnose like a doctor...
...and then prioritise like a professional. Check out that alliteration, kids.

Good marking takes so long because it involves thinking. What is this student doing well? What do they need to do better? What is THE most important one or two things that are going to have the greatest impact to their success in English? 

Got them? Good. That's what you need to communicate in your feedback.

4. Thou shalt not rely on students to set their own targets
Which is not to say that both self and peer assessment don't have their place. But there is an outer limit to the ZPD (see I did learn something on my PGCE) which means that students will reach a point where they simply don't know how to get better.  Even if they think they do. And unless their buddy is operating at a level which is usually attained through degree and post-graduate training, it's unlikely they're going to be able to help them either. Fundamentally, it needs a professional - see number 3.

5. Thou shalt word all targets as questions
It's a simple idea that was introduced to me by an outstanding (not the Ofsted version of this word, just simply bloody brilliant) teacher at my first school. The theory goes that asking a question demands a response. Like much good practice in the teaching profession, there's no empirical evidence to support whether this makes even the slightest bit of difference to whether a response occurs, but it's the intention that to me makes this so wonderful.

With zero additional effort, you're establishing that marking is fundamentally a dialogue. If nothing else then it reminds me to respect commandment number 6.

Note: I love the idea of marking work using only a highlighter for this reason. Like an irritating younger sibling it shouts out: "Here! Look over here! What did you forget? You can't leave me here like this!"

6. Thou shalt give students time to respond
It doesn't need to be given a shiny acronym like DIRT, although reading about it on Twitter has given me the kick up the backside I needed to make it a formalised and regular part of my teaching, but time does need to be set aside for students to read, digest and respond to your marking. 

7. Thou shalt use peer and self-assessment
So, if highlighters are the nagging younger brother of marking, peer and self-assessment must be the nit-picking auntie. "Little Jimmy have you forgot that target? Have you? Go back, look at it. Try again." By this I mean that here is the perfect mechanism for ensuring response to marking is not a quick ten minute job at the start of the lesson, but is regular, focussed and ensures students are accountable for their own progress.

In practice, the way this works in my classroom is that we tend to use peer and self assessment with the same criteria for the whole class - with individual targets adding personalisation and a link to the 'bigger picture' of an individual student's progress across time. For example, if we're looking at 'writing to argue' we may have learning outcomes related to the use of persuasive techniques, but a child's individual target might include being able to use capital letters accurately. That, for them, needs to be an eternal learning outcome: until it's met. Therefore...

8. Thou shalt not set additional targets until the last set have been met
In my role, I'm pleased to say, I often have the pleasure of seeing high quality, diagnostic feedback through work scrutiny. Two pages later and the same teacher has again given praise and sharply identified areas for improvement. Another page and again their green light shines like a beacon giving a further target...

Picture the scene: you're a Year 11 student suffering all the anxieties and burdens of a life in our Goveian exam system. Your English exercise books is returned. You read your teachers comments, sucking in the praise like a hoover. You read the target. You turn the page: another target.  And another one. This helps no one.

Two targets for reading at a time. Two for writing. One for speaking and listening. Do this and you stand a chance of them actually being met.

9. Thou shalt keep it simple, stupid.
I'm going to stick my neck out (contravening my own whole school policy) and say I'm not a fan of WWW/EBI. Similarly, you won't find me waving a flag for targets that require any sort of key. And I'm no cheerleader for marking codes. Anything that puts another layer or process between students receiving your feedback, understanding it and acting on it won't get my vote. Particularly as the students who are most likely to need the feedback are the very ones who can't or won't spend the time working out what the hell it is you're trying to communicate to them through your Latinate symbol.

I like to communicate feedback with good, old-fashioned words. And the fewer the better.

10. Thou shalt use shortcuts if they have a greater impact
Like many, I am currently counting down the days until Year 11 leave with all the fear of a mother hen watching her chick emerge from its egg-shelled cocoon for the first time. Two days before their final mock examination I was faced with a set of 32 responses to that pesky question 4 which there was no hope in hell of marking in time to give them feedback. Then a student said, "Miss, can you just check if mine is OK?" and the fog lifted. In this context, that was all this called needed to know. Have I got it? Is it alright? So, within ten minutes, I had two piles: OK  and not OK. Ten more minutes and I had 5 personalised notes written to the 'not OKs' explaining that they'd benefit from lunch/after school revision and giving them a quick one-liner of what they needed to work on. All of them turned up. All received feedback. And, I hope, as a result all did better than they might've in that mock exam. It's a quick trick I'll be using again.

Of course another 'shortcut' that I must name check here is verbal feedback. I won't be goaded into buying a rubber stamp with the moniker 'verbal feedback given' by the Ofsted-police. For me it's simply enough to know it happens. Every lesson. Every day. And if you talk to any of my students they'll fill you in.

How to develop a thicker skin

The way I became Head of Faculty is a long and winding narrative that I am not going to unburden myself of here. Needless to say, it wasn't  expected, planned for or happy circumstances that saw me become first Acting Head of English and then appointed to the post permanently.

I will, however, mention that, after advertising the position twice, there were just two candidates on the day of my interview and only myself left standing by noon: a fact that often seemed a harbinger of doom on some of the darker days that followed over the next twelve months...

As a result, I was perhaps even less well-equipped than the average new HoF to take the reigns of a Faculty that swelled that year to a hefty 18 teachers. Even with every ounce of bravado mustered, the task ahead was equal parts exciting and daunting.

Unsurprisingly, what followed was an extreme lesson in people management. "But what about leadership?" I hear the more experienced and perceptive of you ask. I'm not sorry to say it took me a lot longer to crack that egg. In the first twelve months it was more of a crash course in survival, of which my loving partner bore the brunt.

But, a lot has changed since the days of heavy doses of Bach's rescue remedy and more Kleenex Balsam that they stock in the local Asda. This job has changed me - for the better. I'm harder, stronger, older (Batman). So, to all new HoDs and HoFs out there I'd like to pass on the following nuggets of my experience:

1. Remember, it really isn't personal.
If someone doesn't like the a-mazing idea you've been refining through various stages at increasingly unsociable hours of the day: don't panic. They don't like the idea! Honestly. Yes, I know, it doesn't always feel like that, but it's true and unless you let people talk - and listen - your ideas will always be half-baked, worm-holed and likely to fail. Kick it around. Let it be criticised. Then put the pieces back together and watch it fly.

2. Switch off. Totally off.
This one's simple. I don't work on Saturdays. Find your own rule. Stick to it. No matter how crap your week was with a little time and space you'll be able to fix that grin, roll up your sleeves and mutter 'Nolites te bastardes carborundorum' before you know it.

3. Meet up with friends who aren't also workmates.
Let me start by saying that I think it's thoroughly important to have friends at work. I am lucky to have many, not least @evilg08, @mrszshah and @missrcapper. But, a bit like the one above, teaching has a way of swallowing you up if you let it. Nurture your friendships when you don't need them and your friends will be there for you when you do.

4. You don't own people/No one is truly irreplaceable.
It was a hard-learned lesson (in a McDonald's drive through of all places) this one. A year in and I'd finally done it: compiled the A team! This was the group of teachers that were going to send our 3LP soaring, Buzz Lightyear style. Then, it happened. One of my brilliant, talented, hard working teachers dropped the bombshell that she was applying for another job. Mid-year no less. My instant reaction was to cry "Betrayal!" and lambast the slightly traumatised McDonald's employee just then handing me my change. But, once the snot had dissipated, I realised that, even if she did leave, my school and Faculty would go on. Different, yes, but not defeated.

I am now pleased to say that my hide has a rather wonderfully elephantine quality to it. Which is not to say the explosive tears and accompanying unattractive red blotchiness don't make the occasional appearance. I'm lucky to say that, at these times, I have a Head teacher prepared to hand me a tissue or two whilst I descend into a blithering wobbly mess. Thankfully, these moments are now limited to just one or two episodes per academic year. And all I now find myself thinking is that I hope the next one won't be on that nail-biting Wednesday in August...