Where have all the happy teachers gone?

Every Sunday morning, with a latte in hand, I read through an array of education blog posts.  These are posts which, during the week, I favourite on twitter using my phone as I'm on the go or when I don't have the time to read them.  Then on Sundays I scour my favourites to ensure I've read the ones I wanted to (and then unfavourite them when I have!).  It's a relaxing start to the day but it also serves two other purposes.  Firstly, I feel it helps me keep up-to-date with what's going on in education in the UK.  I know I don't need to do this, in fact there are many teachers who don't, but I want to have some idea as to what's going on around the country in other classrooms and above my head, among school leaders and politicians. Secondly, it's a great way to start off a day which is mostly dedicated to planning and assessing and often posts inspire me to do this better and in a different way.

But (and there was always going to be a "but") in the last few weeks these posts have mostly taken on a different tone. This morning, as I clicked on link after link through Twitter and other posts, I found myself feeling more and more down about how teachers are feeling in the profession.  I read about enormous workloads, draining accountability, problems with change, the pressures of PRP - in fact the pressures from many areas of teaching: OfSTED, observations, school leaders, etc.  It seemed, from my collated blog posts, that there are many in the profession who are unhappy.  My morning of reading, meant to kick-start my teaching week, left me utterly uninspired to do any work.

The teaching/blogging/tweeting community started off 2014 with #Nurture1314 posts.  These showed the power of positivity within an ever-changing profession.  People were forced to look back at the positives of the previous 12 months. Not the positives of the government or OfsTED but of the teachers and children in the classrooms - the front line. The teaching/blogging/tweeting community sounded happy.  What has changed?

Is it the Amazon Review syndrome? I.E. people only blog about things when they've got something to negative to say? Or is it that there really aren't that many of us left still enjoying the job? Is it that there are so few teachers who can still be happy in the job through the crazy changes we are experiencing? Or is it that I'm just not following the right people? Or that the positive posts aren't making their way into my news feed?

I know I'm a fine one to talk, with my previous post being an ode against the mention of the 3 Michaels from education speakers but I know that I'm a happy teacher and I hope the posts on this blog reflect this. I am a happy teacher, even though I am sure that the "powers of be" are not doing right by the young people of the UK.  I am a happy teacher, even though the pressure is crazy, the workload is ridiculous and the rate of change is insane.  I am a happy teacher because, for me, it's all about the kids.

So my question is: Where have all the happy teachers gone? I want to follow them, tweet them, read their blog posts and be inspired by them.

Dear "Inspirational" Education Speaker...

The room's filling up with bums on seats,
The buzz of anticipation.
You're here to teach us something new,
To help us with this "education".

But you ruined it early, the barriers rose,
You went in over our heads.
You uttered those words and they went down,
Like balloons filled up with lead.

So, to help, I have got a challenge for you,
Accept it if only you dare.
To enable you to keep all us teachers on board,
To help us engage with what you share.

Next time you deliver this CPD,
In front of a group of teachers,
Please don't use words like "OfSTED" or "Gove",
Or "Good with outstanding features".

For that's not the reason we do this job,
It's not why we turn up each day.
Not for men in smart suits, who sit behind desks,
And receive more than triple our pay.

They judge us and say that we're falling behind,
And they push us and push us until...
Half of us leave before our sixth year,
The rest of us - still climbing uphill.

You see, the reason you find us here,
For your "inspirational" CPD.
Is because of 30 kids we spend quality time with,
Monday to Friday, 9 'til 3.

We're here to help them succeed in life,
In whatever way that may be.
We do this by knowing them inside-out,
It's about individuality.

Those "above" don't know what we really do,
Just what we achieve day-by-day,
With the children in our classroom family,
Not a number, to us, they're a name.

So if you really want to keep our attention,
Try this next time you come here:
Start with the kids at the heart of this job,
That way, you might get a cheer.

Sorting Out Sentences

This year I have a group of children who are really struggling to write in sentences.  At some point along the way they have not understood how to write clearly.  They are not the weakest readers in the class and nor is their speech and language lagging behind - they simply haven't grasped how and where to put full stops in the right place.

I have tried a few techniques for getting them to correct their work and learn to start a new sentence correctly.  There is not one solution to this problem and neither will the same technique work for every child but you will see that these strategies can and have made a difference to these children.

Firstly, I started correcting the sentences for the children but this wasn't effective.

Next, I began drawing a line to show the children where the sentences go so that they could add in the capital letters and full stops.  This was more successful but they still didn't understand where to put the sentence end in the first place.

I was mostly out of ideas so at this point I turned to Twitter for help.  I cannot find who gave me this idea but someone suggest they write each sentence out in a different colour.  They tried it and enjoyed it and it made the sentences really obvious to them.  It also was kinesthetic; physically putting the pen down at the end of each sentence. For most children this made a difference and, with my help reading through their work, it enabled them to write in clear sentences. 

 However, the journey of one boy in my class was not so straight forward.  I let him write the piece of work independently before I read it aloud as it should read - with the full stops in the wrong place. Next, I would get him to read it to me and I would put in sentences (indicated by a line in the picture below) when he took a breath.

Then, like the other children, he would rewrite it with alternating sentences in different colours.

Unfortunately this still wasn't working so we tried another technique which was suggested on Twitter: highlighting.  He wrote this independently, then we went through it together, highlighting alternating sentences.

He then rewrote it correctly and highlighted the sentence punctuation using the colour key at the top.

After the Christmas holidays, he was doing much better and would independently highlight the sentence punctuation, reading aloud to ensure it was correct.

Below is the most recent piece of work he did.  Not only has he used the correct sentence punctuation but he has also included commas in a list and to show a clause. Big cheer, happy teacher, sentences: sorted!

The Wonderful World of Pinterest

Until I got an account, Pinterest was the complete unknown to me.  I had no idea what it did, how it worked or why people used it.  Having now gone through the Pinterest-addict phase, I now feel I know how to use it and how to be efficient on it, especially with regards to finding effective educational ideas.

Pinterest is, simply put, an online pinboard.  You can pin images from websites, photo feeds and uploads to your own themed pinboards.  You can also pin photos from other members' boards to your own pinboards.  For a feel of what this looks like, take a look around my pinboards (you do not need to login to do this).  Pinterest also has some generic categories of pins, including "Education", which you can browse at your leisure - beware: this is where you can become a pedagogic procrastinator!

I decided to organise my pinboards by curriculum subjects, although I could have had separate Reading, Writing and SPAG boards instead of Literacy.  This makes it really easy for me to find things I have pinned previously.  I also chose to have boards for Displays, Classroom Organisation ideas and First Day activities.  Some people decide to organise pins by the type of idea in the image, for example Post It Ideas, Outside Activities.

Pinterest Profile Page

Once you've set up your account and have made some pinboards there are three ways of finding and pinning ideas:

1) Browse the Education category.  This is the most time-wasting of the 3 options but it is probably the most fun.  You end up finding and pinning ideas that you'd never imagine you could do.  You'll discover ideas from around the world and in classrooms of many age groups.  There will be ideas you can adapt, ideas that need certain resources, links to lists and activities which you can try tomorrow in your classroom.  You will also pass by bad ideas, worksheets and things that could not work in your classroom - this is where you end up losing time.

2) Search for certain ideas.  For example, this week I am planning some maths lessons on adding fractions.  I simply typed "adding fractions" into the search box on my Pinterest homepage and it filtered to all the relevant pins to me.  I was then able to search through much quicker and save time.  I found some great pins and planned quickly.  This is the most efficient and effective way of using Pinterest to help you plan.

3) Pin from websites/blogs.  This is something you will find yourself doing once you've been on Pinterest a while.  You may read something or see an image and wish to "save" it.  Pinterest is your means of doing this.  Using a Pin It button on the page or, if there isn't one, the one you installed to your browser, you can pin the page to a board of your choice ready to find when you need it.

To pin images onto your own pinboards, you need to find the "Pin It" button.  If you are browsing on Pinterest itself, this is easy and is very visible from every pin.  However if you are on a website, it becomes a bit tricky.  Some "pin-friendly" websites install a "Pin It" button on each page or image so just require a simple click.  If you want to pin something from a website which doesn't have clear "Pin It" buttons, you need to install a "Pin It" link to your bookmarks.  I have managed to do this in both Google Chrome and Safari and found it quite straight-forward by following instructions here.

As well as for educational ideas, Pinterest is also a great place for if you're planning a wedding, doing DIY or cooking.  There are also some inspirational quotes and many hilarious internet memes on there! To see how I've used Pinterest ideas in my classroom, please see these posts.

One Step Back and Two Steps Forward #Nurture1314

One Step Back - A look at 2013 and what it meant to me.

1. Work/Life Balance - This year I vowed to reclaim my work/life balance.  It was terrible in my NQT year so I was at the "I can't continue this forever" point.  I'm a very solution-minded person so, rather than moan about it, I set to finding ways of rebalancing.  Finding weekly things to do has been a big part of this - I'm now part of a stoolball and a netball team.  I'm not sporty at all but I've loved learning new skills and being part of a team. There is a drafted blog post about this waiting on my hard drive as I feel I'm about halfway there.
2. Learning - I started this year with a new blog, Learning365, in which I learned something new everyday.  It should have lasted all year but it was taking up too much time (see 1) so I went to 6 months! I have learned loads this year, some of which will feature below (see 4 and 11).  Highlights have been learning the guitar and bowling my first wicket in stoolball! 
3. Assessment - This really clicked for me this year. I learned the value of assessment for learning and have found many different ways to assess work and alter my plans. I've become much quicker at marking (see 1 and 12) and any blog post on assessment that's ever been written, I've read it! It's become the most important part of my teaching, and my methods are always evolving.  This will continue into 2014 I'm sure! 
4. Making Bread - I have always wanted to bake bread. It's my favourite food, especially when combined with full fat butter or olive/balsamic/chilli dips.  My first loaf was a Rosemary and Sea Salt one which tasted divine.  Since then I've made a variety of loaves including bloomer, granary and doughballs and even lead children in making it (see 7).
5. OfSTED - Yes! They came, they saw, we conquered! After a year and a half of OfSTED-related staff meetings, they made their visit.  We came out as Outstanding and you can read how, here. 
6. 30 Day Shred/C25K - I fancied having a go at my wedding-prep workout, the Couch to 5K plan, but this year I combined it with Jillian Michaels' gruelling 30 Day Shred DVD.  It was amazing and worked so well that I'm going to have another go this year! I blogged about doing them here. 
7. Favourite Week of Teaching - After OfSTED's visit, I had an off timetable week with a group of years 5-6.  We spent a week making and baking bread to sell as part of an Apprentice task! They loved it, I loved it and they learned loads.  Read about it here. 
8. Moving Schools - After 2 years of a 30 mile commute each way and a 5 hour journey home in the snow, I decided it was time to move to a school closer to home.  Although I miss and love my first school, it was a brilliant decision and I've moved to a wonderful school near my house.  I've settled really fast into a super team and I'm so excited about what next year will hold there.
9. TeachMeet Sussex - In moving schools, I was moving to an area where there were no TeachMeets in primary schools. So Ben and I set up TeachMeetSussex. We had the first event in Worthing. Over 50 people came and heard some inspirational ideas.
10. NQT - My husband started his NQT year this year and I've been supporting him through his first term.
11. Hour of Code - I've loved learning about computer programming and coding with my class.  They really enjoyed taking part in the Hour of Code this year and I was blown away by the amazing, free resources provided on the website.  
12. Stampers - This year, I became Stamper Queen! When assessing books, you will see me armed with my plastic box full of stampers that have helped me to reclaim my work/life balance (see 1!).
13. Christmas - I was SO disorganised for Christmas this year - I'm ashamed of myself! School was sorted but home was a mess - I think I still need some work on number 1!

Two Steps Forward - A glance at 2014 and what I hope it will hold.

1. New York - my husband and I are fulfilling a lifelong dream and heading to the big apple! I can't wait to see the normal touristy attractions and, of course, go and see my favourite musical - Wicked - on Broadway.
2. Family - my sister lives far away so I hope to go and see her more often.
3. Running - I'm hoping to train for a few 5k runs this year. I'm not a runner but I like the chilled-out time I get to myself when I run!
4. Learning To Lead - having done 2 years in a one-form entry school I'm now in a larger school which has year leaders.  It's something I'd definitely like to do and so my wonderful year leader is letting me shadow her and learn the ropes. 
5. Moving House - maybe...maybe not...but maybe! 
6. Baking - I hope to make more bread, cupcakes and keep making my house smell good! 
7. Blogging - I try not to blog for the sake of blogging. I only write posts when I feel there's something I want to say. This year, I'm going to try and make that happen a little more often. 
8. Reading - this is surely one of the best pasttimes so I'd love to do more of it! 
9. Pirates - my year group are putting on an awesome piratey musical and combining it with a mini pirate topic! I love pirates so I can't wait.
10. Christmas - I was rubbish this year so in 2014 I'm going to make sure I'm mega organised - with stamps to send Christmas cards and everything! 
11. Theatre - I mustn't go too much because it gets expensive but I'd like to go a bit, and maybe see Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time after our tickets got refunded because of the ceiling collapse.
12. BETT - I'm so looking forward to going this year and getting my head around computing and the new curriculum. Also, I can't wait to go to the teachmeet afterwards! 
13. NQT - I will continue to support my husband through passing his NQT year.
14. Work/Life Balance - this will be on a similar list every year until I retire so here it is! 

Stampers in Action

My previous post explained why I use stampers.  Below are some pictures of the stampers I use, with short explanations of how I use them and why they're effective for me; sometimes for formative feedback, sometimes to save me time and often for both reasons!

Firstly, here are some group shots (!!) of the stampers I have in my trusty marking box! See below for the stampers in action in order from most formative to least formative (in my very humble and inexperienced opinion!).

Personalised Stampers

Pre-Inked Stampers

Stack-N-Stamp Stampers

1) Let's chat about ______ on M Tu W Th F

The red pen shows how she thought she did in the lesson and the blue shows her comments after I "chatted" with her about carrying.  I try and tick the stamper when I've "chatted" with the child but obviously I forgot to here.  With many things in education, it's important to make a habit of checking whether children have this stamper in their books OR make the children get into the habit of always requesting to chat!

This was purchased from Primary Teaching Services here. Please be aware that with these personalised stampers, Comic Sans font is the best - others can smudge.

2) Well Done! Your next step is:

This is so simple but it helps children know where they're going and also helps me group the children for the next lesson according to their next step.  I tend to move groups around all the time so there's no talk of "moving up" or "moving down" a group.  Every few lessons they move into "the right group" with children who are doing the same activity and learning the same thing.

This was purchased from Primary Teaching Services here.

 3) Verbal feedback given.

I don't use this one very often, but it's so useful when I do.  This stamp comes into its own if, as I'm floating around the class giving mini-inputs to groups or individuals, I come across children who have had a go but are totally stuck and very wrong. I stamp where they have got up to, explain where they are going wrong, model the skill again and then they carry on.  That way, when I come to mark their books later, I ignore what was done above the stamper as I have already seen it and know that it's wrong and I can focus on what they did after my input.  Thus saving me time and reminding me who I helped and when.

This was purchased from Primary Teaching Services here.

4) Teacher assisted work. / TA assisted work.
There aren't any pictures for this one but it's fairly self-explanatory.  This isn't for the children's use but for the use of any adults who look at the books (including me!).  It helps when it comes to completing summative levels - I can tell what the child can do independently and what has been done with help. Simple, effective, time-conserving but not particularly learning-based.

This was purchased from Primary Teaching Services here (Teacher) and here (TA).

5) Practice makes perfect! Repeat ___ times:

I made this stamper in my second year of teaching as a way of quickly getting children to practise spellings without me having to write more than the word.  I was writing the same thing over and over again so, hey presto, I made it into a stamper! This one is mainly effective in saving me time but, without it, would I have the time to get them practising their spellings if I had to write that all out: NO!

This was purchased from Primary Teaching Services here. Please be aware that with these personalised stampers, Comic Sans font is the best - others can smudge.

6) You've achieved your learning objective. / You're working towards your learning objective.

A no-brainer - it's simply to save me time when children have "got it" and perhaps we are moving onto a new topic.  It gives me time to focus on children who haven't "got it" and spend more time explaining in their books:

This was purchased from Primary Teaching Services here (achieved) and here (working towards).

7) Checked by your teacher.

This stamper is so useful for homework diaries, reading records and anything that you have to check! Bang, stamp, DONE! This photo shows how I sometimes use it in lessons.  I think here I asked children to tell me if they had done it before, how they found the learning and what they'd like to do next.  Obviously, all the questions were asked to the class as a whole so I didn't have to write them down - lazy, I know, but easy! 

This was purchased from Primary Teaching Services here. 

8) Headteacher's Award (I know the stamper has no apostrophe - it annoys me too!!)

Just a simple stamper in a totally different colour which I use for amazing pieces of work.  The kids love opening their books and seeing a red stamper and wander off to the head's office, rightfully proud! A quick note on the highlighters - this is what we use for more detailed feedback.  Pink = tickled pick = I love this.  Green = Grow me green = this needs improving.  We highlight over work that is skill practice and write it under for neat pieces of work.  As you can see, this child has thanked me for her "tickled pink" comments and has ticked to say she has gone through and checked (and hopefully corrected!) her spellings. 

You can buy one with the correct apostrophe here (black) or my grammatically awful stamper here (red).

Please do let me know if you have any other stampers which you find particularly effective - I'm always in the market for a new stamper or two.  Also, leave me a comment if you think there are any stampers that you use in a different way - I'm always up for magpie-ing other people's great ideas! 

Stamper Snobs and Me

Recently, I blogged about my favourite assessment stamper.  Many people on Twitter commented that they liked the idea and could see the benefit, some even purchased their own and have kept me up-to-date with their use of it.  There are teachers, however, who look down on the humble stamper and, while pursing their lips, exclaim "I don't believe in stampers".  Claims like "the children don't read them", "they ruin work" and "they show laziness" flow from the mouths of these educators who I like to call the "Stamper Snobs".  One of the most frustrating things about these teachers is that sometimes they thrust their snobby attitude to stampers on their colleagues.  I would find it very difficult to work with a Stamper Snob and they would cry looking through my books.

I ♥ Stampers!

Anyone who's read "The Lazy Teacher's Handbook" will know that laziness can lead to effective learning, independence, meta-cognition and, the holy grail of all teachers, a better work-life balance.  For me, assessment stampers help me in my quest to become the ultimate "Lazy Teacher".

During my NQT year I found myself working late into the night, every night, and almost all weekend, yet I was still behind on my marking.  When I was assessing children's learning, they weren't reading it, let alone responding to it and so its effectiveness was very low, probably zero. That was, until I discovered the humble stamper.

The first stampers in my collection were "You've achieved your learning objective" and "You're working towards your learning objective."  Nowadays, these are among my least-used and least-effective stampers, however at the time they saved me many minutes a night writing the same thing on many children's work.  It allowed me to look in more detail at work where children hadn't achieved the learning objective.  I felt it was important not to have a "You've not yet achieved your learning objective" stamper because that wouldn't save me time or encourage or help the child.

Not long after making my first purchase, I realised I was writing the same phrases over and over again on children's work.  Having found that the first two stampers had saved me so much time, I invested in a few staple stampers.  They cost around £5 each and often I would buy them when there were % off deals but I knew I would reap the benefits as they would last a long time and save me so much time.  Why bother repetitively writing long phrases when you can stamp them?

As I learned more about effective assessment, brilliantly guided by an amazing mentor, I began to understand the value of pushing children on in their learning.  The next few stampers said "Great learning today! Now try this: " and after the stamper I would write a short activity for them to complete which moved them forward in their learning.  There was also a "Well Done! Your next step is: " stamper.  This one not only saved me time during the marking process but it also meant that in the next session, I didn't have to tell each child what they were working on; they already knew.

The inspiration for my favourite stamper came from my Headteacher at the time who used "Let's chat" in books to give detailed verbal feedback.  I really liked this as it was less aggressive as "See me" or "Please discuss".  Thus I created a "Let's chat about __________ on M Tu W Th F" stamper for me to fill in so I had a record of any discussions and children had a place to respond to their new learning next to the stamper. So lazy and yet so, so effective in moving children forward.

By the end of my time at my first school, I was two years into my teaching career and I was spending much less time assessing children's work.  There was still a lot of improvement needed in the effectiveness of all my comments and most of what was needed was down to the children.  I was putting in a lot of work and money to make these assessment stampers effective, but many children were still not responding to or even reading what I had put.

Enter the Gel Pen!

Armed with a class set of gel pens, and probably a few more stampers, I started in a new school.  This is the year I promised myself I would be a lazy teacher. I vowed to make the children work harder than me and, for effective assessment to reign, I created an important learning habit from day one.

The school policy states that children should write a title and the date at the top of their work for the session but, to achieve my goal, I added a twist to this.  Before my class do the title and date they need to use a gel pen to do 3 things.
1) Do any corrections from last lesson.
2) Read and initial comments (which often included stampers).
3) Respond to any comments or stampers.

This has transformed the learning ethos of my class. The children now have clarity in their learning; they know where they have come from, where they are at and where they are going to. They have become more independent and in control of what they are doing and this has meant they request my help when they have any misconceptions.

The children love having the stampers in their books and know what they all mean. Comments like "Thank you", "Ok Mrs P" and "I'll try" show me that they've read and understood them and occasionally they use a gel pen to tell me if they think they should have had a stamper (normally if I've forgotten).  The effect that the stampers is having on the children's learning has also been noted by colleagues and SLT.

The stampers I have help to guide me to give formative feedback.  They allow me to focus on giving the most effective comments.  They help my children to understand how they are doing and where they have room for improvement.  They stop me from writing the same thing over and over again and save me the frustration of this.  They help me to alter the next lesson most appropriately. They mean my comments are neater and more concise.  But most of all, they have given me time.
And, as any teacher knows, time is a rare and precious gift.

See photos of how I use the stampers I have and links to buy them on the next post.