Mandiba (Nelson) Mandela

Nelson Mandela, born 1918, sadly left this Earthly planet December 15 2013. A ninety five year lifespan; most of which bore courage and tenacity and the balance: strong faith in the truth, a love for mankind and an earnest enjoyment of family and young people, worldwide. Twenty seven years in jail: 1964 – 1990. Who would know that after that length of incarceration any human been would emerge with a warm and forgiving heart? Nelson Mandela did! Returning to civilian life without much of a family to speak of he continued his burning mission for equality for humanity. What was it that made him so special: of outstanding mind and body? - Did he even know himself? His life was, without doubt, amazing, inspiring and deserved of most prodigious accolade. Because of this, I have written a poem to demonstrate my absolute and highest level of respect for the great Mandiba (Nelson) Mandela. Due to this man’s unfaltering commitment to human rights and justice, regimes, namely apartheid, have been thrown to the pits of hell! All men now stand side by side, rather than one in front of the other. Find below an excerpt from my poem about this treasure of a man that has crucially left a legacy of truth and love. Mandiba (Nelson) Mandela ‘’Mandela, Man-de-la, Mand-ela - Rolihlahla Mandela, we elevate you in every way. Your life’s work has elevated many of us, world-wide, to safety, emancipation and freedom! May the tallest, finest elephants raise you up onto to the most magnificent and illustrious chariot. Mandela, Man-de-la, Mand-ela - Rolihlahla Mandela, we bequeath you our hearts, soul and a promise to emulate at least some of your courage and drive to seek equality, decency and undulating love. You used your strength of character to stand up for the weak and oppressed. You used your undying conviction to protest for Gods desired equality. You did not flail! . . .’’ Comments are appreciated

Juggling Jargon

Schools’ language can be baffling. Most desire a language of their own – Many of our London primos use a combination of their own; the local authorities and titbits from a variety of courses. With pride they speak of; they display; share and impart buzz terms and phrases, in the hope that the children grasp sooner, the necessary learning. Laminated, bold displays adorn each classroom: each notice peering at you as if to enter your brain telepathically. One of the latest school trends is to uniformly display educationalists’ buzz words and phrases. Classroom walls, windows and ceilings are now besieged by them, in place of children’s work. The idea is these spangled, carefully-laminated Literacy terms support children’s writing. Emphasis clauses, onomatopoeia, WOW words; sentence openers; time connectives and subordinators are but a few of the groups of grammatical terms surrounding our youngsters as they learn. Maths (a struggle for many) boast terms such as: Chunking Method; Bus Stop Method; Grid Method; Place Value: Hanging Man; Decomposition; Fizz-Buzz; RUCSAC and all sorts of terms are familiar to children as they develop maths skills through games and the latest calculation strategies. A lot of the maths ideas used in primary education, today, have been very beneficial to so many children: better helping them to easily grasp some much older methods that did not always show, for example, the relationship between operations and the value of each digit in a number. In the same regard literacy resources today consolidate the high level of vocabulary and textual composition children encounter in the vast array of books far more available than they ever were, twenty or thirty years ago. Juggled any jargon recently?

Returning after the summer

After working a full year at a south east London school, as PPA cover,(quite the ideal role for someone that has done years of the donkey slog), I returned after the summer break. The 'temporary' feel was ideal for me and is ideal for my state of mind. My evening and weekends are absolutely mine; no compromises necessary. -- Back to the main point: I received a hug from the headteacher to whom I was extremely grateful. She had given me immense support through some tricky situations as a visiting teacher. Many of the chidren, some well-rared (and a few less so) greeted me with beaming smiles. 'I must have done some things right then,' I thought to myself:. One particular child that I had had to speak to quite firmly, on occasions, met me in the corridor (mid-lunchtime). With gleaming eyes and keeness he greeted me. When I asked how HE was and called his name. He was gob-smacked that I had remembered his name. He gingerly walked away from me, with several others, saying, 'I'm touched!'. This really tickled me. I had never seen this young lad (now Year 5) so demonstrative; and in fact melodramatic. Some new faces (children as well as adults); some new classes (one previously the detention room) added to the feel of unfamiliarity, a feeling I suspected would be short lived. After all, once you're not on contract and you don't have that class of your own, you're bound to take a little longer to settle back in. WISH ME LUCK for the next two terms!

Where do I put the class' Christmas tree?

LOBBY OVER LOADED! and continuing to grow at an horrific rate. As I dash through the lobby; leaving for another day of supply work, I notice that the 2 foot Christmas tree jutting out of a navy-coloured, heavy-duty, rubble bag. Not that the description was necessary, but this detail was simply staring me in the face as I realise the preposterousness of the situation. Bought the mini tree a year and a half ago, when I had a long-term position in a SEN school - that's how commited I was - wanted the kids to feel the spirit of the impending seasonal celebration. Albeit, I was naffed-off that my home is becoming overrun with stuff from the job. Please don't look in the boot of my car! Ummm, so embarassing when I go to the car was and my car boot is the only one that can't be hoovered properly from the cr_ _ expoding from within (it seems). Oh no! - face up to it girl! It was me putting the hoard in from outside. I DON'T WANT TO BE A HOARDER! boo-hoo! - I'm going to have to approach one of the TV programmes for help - It's the only way. Will any other teacher (or other professional) fess up to having hoarding tendencies due to the job?

INTRODUCTION TO THE HEAD?

Worked at a school recently; someone walked in to the Y6 class where I was (in full swing of teacing Literacy) and annouced succinctly announced, as she glanced at me for a nano-second and then diverted eyes to a paper register, 'These children are not late - I just found these children taking the register down - It stays in class until SIX minutes past 9. -Wow-we! I though, 'Thanks for that bit of tat - How absolutely NOT FABULOUS, but RIDIC! More crucially, ever thought of saying 'Good morning'? - even to set a good example to the pupils whose education is ultimately in your, clearly unprofessional, hands As the day went on the plot thickened in terms of over-zealous staff, that evidently wanted to be noticed as part of management. BEST PART OF MY DAY WAS: 1- Bumping into an old colleague, who was a gem, however, was ill-treated by a particular headteacher. - She took off; walking out of a 17 year long role in the school. 2- The end: as several Y6 children, who I had reprimanded for being disruptive (early part of afternoon), came to me and said, 'Oh miss, are you leaving our class now? - oohhh! - You were so funny - We're sorry for our behaviour.' these are the sorts of experiences that keep you ticking over in this profession that is continually putting so much demand on our personal lives. - LONG LIVE THE TEACHER!

Traffic Lights? -or- Raffle Tickets?

Still looking for that virtually fail-proof Behaviour Reward Scheme. Which do you use: individual points, table points, raffle tickets, traffic light chart or the archaic behaviour card? Yes, we all know that different strategies work for different children in relation to their work and behaviour, but what works overall as a class strategy? Do you think certain strategies work best for certain age groups? - or certain abiities? - or even certain types of schools? I personally feel that TOUGH LOVE is long lost and needs to return swiftly in order to deal with some current styles of classroom behaviour management - Yep! That's right, don't let Johnny go on the school journey if he's got himself into double deep poop trouble and again after the 15th warning Johnny's long gone, off the Richter scale for all behaviour charts - Namely, the traffic light system . . . . . . 'and why is Johnny still going out to play in fact?' . . . 'What example are you setting for his future expectation of societal norms - NONE! - ' - 'Brace yourself and toughen up, for Pete's sake!' - (only joking - You've been PUNKED!!! he-he) I would also love to know what teachers do initially to calm the class. Is it: shake/tap the tambourine (Oh! these hippee days!) or do you clap a tune, expecting the little blighters to follow suit? - How much time do you have in a day? Yep!-Oh Yep :) 'Anyway, there's planning to do .....'

How much MAKATON do you remember?

Makaton has certainly grown in terms of its use across the different areas of education; first created by the Speech and Language Therapist, Margaret Walker and (her two colleagues) Katherine and Tony. Can you see where the names of the three were used to make MA-KA-TON? As part of some early educational training I was introduced to Makaton - I began to learn some basic symbols; a few of the 450 that exist - It felt, strangely empowering to begin to learn such a form of communication that could support so many with learning or communication difficuties. The absurd thing is, today, I don't know if I can remember 10 of the symbols! It would be of collosal benefit if schools could send all their staff on courses to learn Makaton, and secondly send them on regular refresher courses. I have witnessed myself, that even children with attention deficit have been focused by the partial or complete use of signing. Makaton is, as was intended, to be used with other forms of communication eg. oral speech. - Perhaps, the quantity of talking we currently do in teaching is excessive. With that said we are, perhaps, over stimulating pupils, just as an over decorated classroom (one that is loaded with large and colourful wall displays and notices) can prevent a pupil from focusing on the task at hand or what is being communicated. - Ever thought of learning Makaton? - Already know it, but feeling a little rusty? http://www.makaton.org/training/default INTERESTING IN MAKATON TRAINING: training2@makaton.org