Proportion

Proportion is a very important and surprisingly interesting concept. Whether it's the mathematical application, the political idea of a just form of representation, a golden ratio or simply a sense of proportion, it's useful and thought provoking.

Mathematically speaking, do you spend a proportionate amount of time on the different teacherly tasks you approach every day? Is marking and assessment given its due weighting? Is 30 minutes to plan a 45 minute session wise? Perhaps it is, but it's impossible to keep that up. Can you work smarter and prioritise the most vital aspects of your work?

Briefly, imagine if we had PR in this country. Ah. We'd probably have a Tory / UKIP coalition. Maybe the North should secede? You'll want to if you've read that last link, to Wikipedia's most frightening page.

The golden ratio, also known as the divine proportion. It makes a lovely wave like picture. Can we find this in our work? Is there a lesson which perfectly balances didactic instruction with independent learning and focused demonstration of the knowledge and skills developed? I think there is. Try to teach that lesson. Focus on refining and honing that golden lesson structure, different for each class, until you know you're close.

This google search won't get you there. Your own ideas, shared and improved in discussion with real teachers will.

Finally, as sense of proportion. If you don't have one, get one. If you do have one, use it. Each week is thrilling, challenging, thought provoking, inspiring, frustrating and enjoyable. Each lesson, some might say. Whatever happens, remember the words of Rudyard Kipling:

Interpretations

As you are no doubt aware, 'tis four hundred years since Shakespeare's death. And what a four hundred years it's been: imperialism, exploitation, science, football, mobile phones, a racist government or ten, and at the end of it all, the arts still want patronage and involvement from big-eared inbreeds who bring nothing but stupid questions, bad hand-writing and an illegitimate ginger war-mongerer to the national scene.

This video links to both the title of this blog and the ranty, scarcely literate sentence above. Why bring that foolish plant-whispering wasteman onto the stage, in the midst of genuinely talented people?

However, it's the interpretation element that interests me. That line, so famous, yet subtly different with a twist on the stresses.

Your lessons. Successful, but how do you stress a different aspect? How can a subtle change of approach yield different outcomes? The same for your marking, for meetings, for all you do as a professional.

How can you reinterpret your practice?

And finally, the soliloquy in full. Interpret it how you wish. Conscience does make cowards of us all, ultimately, which is why I always choose to take arms against the sea of troubles.

To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, ’tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish’d. To die, to sleep;
To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there’s the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause: there’s the respect
That makes calamity of so long life;
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
The oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s contumely,
The pangs of despised love, the law’s delay,
The insolence of office and the spurns
That patient merit of the unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin? who would fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscover’d country from whose bourn
No traveller returns, puzzles the will
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great pith and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry,
And lose the name of action.–Soft you now!
The fair Ophelia! Nymph, in thy orisons
Be all my sins remember’d.

The Shining Path

Guess who's back? With NFl popping off to pop a baby out, I thought I'd pop back on to the blogging platform for a few weeks. That's enough pop for now.

The title of the blog isn't a reference to Peruvian freedom fighters / extremists / guerillas (delete as applicable according to your world view). It's a reference to the path we follow as members of his righteous profession, a reference to the path our pupils follow, and to the path we follow as people in this game called life. And also apt in this spring sun.

Without doubt, it's the obvious key time of the academic year. Our eldest pupils are motoring towards that defining time. However, as I've stated in years gone by, this is the time to ensure we focus on every pupil in every year. Our modest success in the past few years is built on a cohesive, long term view: a relevant curriculum, purposeful lessons, focused assessment, excellent relationships and team work. Simple, really.

To paraphrase the almighty Bob, we don't work in iniquity to achieve vanity. Quite the opposite, in fact.

Purpose, relevance, simplicity, effectiveness.

We're tasked with the seemingly impossible task of doing more with less - less time, money, support from the government. They want to create greater systemic inequality, to protect that wealth they've been stashing in bricks and slush funds, made from our forebear's labour, all around the globe. We work to undo that, to create hope and opportunity where it lies dormant.

How do we do this? With simple effective systems. Purposeful marking, which focuses on key skills. Relationships with each other and pupils based on trust and respect. By taking collective responsibility for the outcomes of our pupils, recognising that it's not just the year 11 work which secures the outcome, but the combined effort of 5 years labour: conversations on corridors, intervention organised by a key stage manager, coaching, their year 7 teacher. Respectful relationships with all pupils are the key - hold your line and they will respect you, be consistent and fair, but hold your line. Build that momentum from the first and you will be rewarded.

Lessons must be simply structured, powerful and effective. Resources should be shared. Lesson aims should be focused and precise; the goal must be incremental progress, over an extended period of time. Double check - have you nailed a specific skill, covered every eventuality? This can only be done through effective teamwork and listening to others, whoever they may be. For example, are you certain that your year 11s are confident in how to approach a shorter exam writing task? Do they know how to overcome the fear of the first line?

Lightness. A shining path, illuminating a pupil's progress through the challenging adolescent years, meeting challenges head on, as members of this community. This is our school, not anyone else's.