Hello all,
I’ve been rather busy since last year writing yet more articles and oh…moving to London to start a new job.
During the Easter holidays 2015, I decided that I needed a new challenge. A few job searches on TES later and my dream job appeared right in front of me; Class Teacher and Computing Subject Leader. The only thing was that it was based in Redbridge, London. This was one of those sink or swim moments. Do I apply and, heaven forbid, actually get the job or do I stay where I am, nice am comfortable in West Yorkshire?
Having visit ed London on numerous occasions for various conferences and meetings during my own time, I had fallen in love with the idea of living in the Big Smoke but never actually had the guts to do anything more than talk about it. I also wanted to take on more responsibility at work and the very title of the job I had found seemed to have been telling me something. I spent a good two days writing my application and researching information about the school and local and as I press ‘submit application’ on the email to the Head, a sense of excitement came over me.
Living 200 miles away had meant that I hadn’t been able to do the usual visit to the school before applying which had niggled me enough to call the school and arrange an appointment to speak with Mrs Buxton, the then Head of Redbridge Primary (@RedbridgePS). Upon having a quick chat with her and after putting the phone down, I knew how much I wanted to work there.
Sure enough, an interview followed and after having only left the building for 20 minutes, the call came to offer me the job. My excitement was in overdrive until the moment at the motorway services where I called my mum and it dawned on me…I’m moving to London!
A busy Summer of house hunting and moving ensued and my excitement wavered a little when lugging boxes and making 8 round trips from North to South. Luckily, I had help and had soon moved in with another teacher as introduced to by the lovely Dawn Hallybone (@dawnhallybone).
A year on, and with new Leadership, I am still as keen to learn as ever and on the 3rd and 4th of November this year, I traveled to Toulouse for an education conference arranged by Russel Tarr (@russeltarr). More than 250 delegates from 14 countries came to the International School of Toulouse for the ‘Practical Pedagogies’ event. With so much on show and so much to learn, it was an excellent event with lots to feedback to my own staff and plenty to share via social media too. My most recent article about it can be found on Merlin John’s (@merlinjohn) Agent4Change website.
Eighteen months on from that initial decision to change something, I look forward to what’s to come as there truly is nothing to lose and all to gain…
Blogging for Learning and #Mozfest
I think it is fair to say that my New Year’s resolution will be to write more frequently on this blog.
In fairness, I have spent the last 8 weeks soley focusing on my new role as a Y1 teacher. Whilst the aged is not too disimilar from my previous 3 years in Reception, the change in daily routine and way of working has kept me busy. I have spent a lot of time writing the Year 1 page on the school blog, which can be viewed at www.bowlingparkprimary.net .
I have worked on showing the children how to access the blog and how to write comments. Some children have really taken this on board and write comments often, however, there are still many more children to encourage. I aim to double the amount of children’s comments by the next school holiday by making even more use of online resources such as images to describe, links to phonics sounds or play online games. My particular favourites, when getting the children excited about learning, are Zondle and Oxford Owl.
I have started to use Zondle to build games for children to practice their skills in maths and literacy. The feedback from children in my class so far has been positive and I have had children asking if they can ‘stay in at playtime to do blog homework’. Starting this week, I want to promote the use of the Oxford Owl website too as there are free eBooks and maths resources on there. I hope to reach out to more parents this way and will be offering advice and support for them when helping their child online. Watch this space…
Keen as I am to learn more about the way in which technology is evolving and how we can access it, I attended MozFest last weekend.
Having generally walked around, trying to get the best from all sessions, I found myself getting involved with a project about Girls in Tech. It was fabulous to collaborate on a project and record notes in the ‘Mopad’ alongside @amirightfolks, @kimxtom, @MissPhilbin, @priynag and @chadsansing (Sorry if I missed anyone).
Click here to see what the group created.
Later in the afternoon, I attended the amazing ‘Maker Party’. Swamped with children and technologist alike, it was fantastic to see various projects in operation and learn a few things myself.
Some fabulous things included;
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All in all, I have enjoyed a relaxing and productive Half Term holiday and have come away with lots of ideas about how to make next half term even better!