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Alan Coady

Tuesday 23 May 2006

"The least initial deviation from the truth is multiplied later a thousandfold". Aristotle (384 BC-322 BC)

This being activities week, I had the prospect of a day at North Berwick High School (NBHS) almost free from teaching to get on with administrative tasks. The biggest such task of the year is preparing record of work books for five schools for the forthcoming session. These will contain a record of attendance for lessons and rehearsals and a description of the content of the latter.

If there’s one thing I hate more than a cliché, it’s reinventing the wheel. In a school day divided up into 12 half-periods one would have to enter the date 14 times per day (the extra two are for the registers). This is no great chore, but the chances are it would be done at the beginning of a lesson while chatting to pupils and that’s when auto-pilot error occurs – in addition to which, this is not much of a welcome for the pupils. I prefer to map out the whole session in advance. Emboldening boxes round terms and half-terms gives a graphic reminder of the passage of time – essential for approaching exams and concerts. The pre-entered dates also allow me to enter a reminder when pupils forewarns me of a forthcoming absence - preventing forgetfulness from allowing me to set out on a fruitless manhunt.

All of which leads me to Aristotle. The method I normally use is:

  1. enter dates from School Session Dates into MS Works Calendar on laptop
  2. use the calender which now includes these dates to draft out register for the year
  3. use the register dates to enter into the record of work pages – which saves scrolling through the calendar again

You can see the danger.

I’ve often wondered why copies of initial drafts of term dates are published. As far as I know, we are not invited to comment on the choices. Certainly, I’ve never been made aware of such a possibility. The copy I used today contained the term Proposed Dates. Has the passage of time and the lack of a replacement document rendered these final? What would be comforting would be to see the words Final Draft. In addition to this, it would be nice to receive the final draft (perhaps by email) as instructors normally have to borrow one from a class teacher.

It was nice to see one 6th year pupil turn up for a lesson even although the central reason for his visit to the school was his Biology exam. I choose to believe that the distraction can only have calmed the mind for the afternoon's travails.

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