Learning Journal

Hurrah! Another observation passed!
I must admit to having felt especially trepidatious about this observation, as it was first-time-failable. Do you recall the tweely racist 'two thumbs fresh' tea character who liked to remark upon the two thumbs freshness of tea? Well, this observation was first-time-failable. Big thumbs and grins all round.
However, I didn't fail it. It raised some salient points upon the improvement of my overall teaching, but what I really am most concerned with is how to prepare for a lesson within a more normal time-frame - i.e. twenty-four scrambled minutes of half coffeebreak, half barrelscrape break-your-nuts activity to whip three hours of contact time into a stream of balanced, rational, and planned activity that will result in maximal learning.
I lavish my lessons with hours - and in the case of this observation, two days - of concerted action. First, I must make sure to have learnt what is being covered and find out what will be covered next week, to seem authoratitive. Then I must simplify my own learning experience from the dire textbooks (either too simplistic and hence missing out on some of the very things the syllabus demands, or far too interested in particulars to the expense of any sense that might run through the consecutive peas of thought) into a set of handouts and expositions and activities and questions. It's most draining.
So, how to simplify? I think I will make sure to read through a module of work during holidays, to make it less opaque when I come up against it again. I will use the textbooks themselves sometimes, when they are adequate, rather than rewrite everything myself into handouts. And I'll give more responsibility to the students towards the end of lessons, so that they can further their own learning and not be relying on me all the time.
With this extra time I will write even bigger learning journals!

A Christmas explosion of bumper gifts has relegated what part of my conscious that enjoys trashy, celebrity-wreckage-strewn TV to the dustbin of Self Improvement. For I have been bought all manner of serious, non-fiction books that threaten to - gasp! - make my brain think.
In Trust: From Socrates to Spin, by Kieron O'Hara, Greek scepticism is mentioned, especially the work of Sextus Empiricus (translatable as Sextus the empiricist). Being a doctor he was confronted by all sorts of crazy theories of how the body worked and how best to treat its problems, and became sceptical - when considering different theories with no way to choose between them, he would refuse to enter into philosophical debate. He believed that, without evidence, there was no way of settling the question. One must rely on one's 'common' sense and experience, and this will produce a relaxed wellbeing.
What could this mean for the teacher, the Zen master of learning who is stung by the wasps of so many theories and asked to choose between them? Obviously, that the sceptics amongst us will study what is in front of them and decide on their own course of action based on the evidence. This is a better course of action, say the sceptics, than attempting to choose between the theories (impossible) or being allowed to be seduced by one in order to simplify our lives (irresponsibile, as it will induce one to ignore one's own experience by fitting it in arbitrarily to a theory).
During my degree, I tackled with an essay on counselling that led me to consider 'eclecticism'. 49% of counsellors consider themselves eclectic, taking anything from any approach that would seem to work best for any given patient, considering their past experience and using trial and error. They say that this is better than allying with one theory because patients expect different things, and react differently to different theories based on their own beliefs and prejeudices.
Perhaps a good teacher should consider eclecticism too. You treat different individuals, well, differently. You treat different groups differently. When one person leaves a class - for example, because of exclusion for naughtiness - it can change the whole group dynamic. Reality and practice, what we have before us and what we have experience before us, might be able to inform us better than any theory, and lead us to diverse conclusions better for the diverse situations we encounter.
Of course, this necessitates understanding many theories and being reflexive and trying to understand what is happening in the class. Surely it is easier to plump for one thing and follow it slavishly, to link our fad diets and fad lifestyles with fad professionalism? It's the lazy way!

Examinations have both a good and a bad side for the teacher.
The good side was drastically reduced class sizes, as students were either in the examination hall, or exempt from class due to having an exam next session. I had a splendid few hours tutoring a young pupil intensively with revision exercises. I'm very hopeful that it was a process that will engineer an adequate exam result.
The bad side was invigilating. The hall was susceptible to all sorts of noises, such as car alarms and uncannily loud stereos playing phasing swooping electrosynth beats. And when a student needed the toilet, I pressed the bell that signals someone from student services and they didn't bother coming for 45 minutes. Evil stares all round as the student felt as if I was somehow failing her. At least it wasn't so bad - there wasn't anything to mop up after. Yes, Tom, keep up the optimism!

My first class was an AS group. They have their exam in a week- in exactly a week from the class. How can students be expected to revise for their first exam over Christmas? I didn't do any work over Christmas and I'm a teacher.
The system is most unfair and I shall be writing to the deputy prime minister!
Otherwise, I'm cracking on with it and etc.