Superheroes
A Barra Beach at sunset, Summer 2005
Monday 6th March
I have strained my back over the weekend. Too much sport as a teenager, and 5 a side football for the last 10 years. My body is feeling the strain. The Nursery is calm and everything goes as planned today, we have seven pupils in the Nursery today and we are making daffodils and painting a wall frieze. At 11:20 Pauline and myself spend 1 and a half hours planning the rest of the week, evaluating the previous week and writing up observations and next steps and targets for each of the pupils.
I manage to fire out a couple of e-mails that could not wait. I put a newsletter together with Christine. We have been awarded £1000 from East Lammemiur Community Council and Crystal Rigg to help fund the basketball court for the community in the playground. This will be a fantastic facility for a small rural community. It will also add to the significant ground improvements undertaken in the past 18months.
I am at JMH in the Afternoon for a meeting about the proposed move away from the Phoenix MIS that we all have in our schools currently. There is no doubt that we need to move with the times on this one and find a product that will deliver what the School, Authority and Scottish Executive want. We decide that in order to do this a project manager would require to be appointed as this job would be a huge undertaking.
Tuesday 7th March
I have to deal with an issue raised by CAMHS first thing this morning. It takes the next hour to unravel the detail. I then spend the rest of the morning painting and making in the Nursery. In the afternoon I am at JMH again, this time for the long haul of the Moderation panel.. I quite enjoy this meeting as there is some lively debate and general disagreement at times. A lot of debate about pupil behaviour and whether behaviour can deem a child exceptional. You decide the answer to that one as I am totally confused!!
The meeting takes almost 4 hours by which time I am almost crippled. I hobble to the car.
Wednesday 8th March
I am 41 today but feel 81 I can hardly walk today as my back is so sore. I manage to get to work at 8:30 after getting cakes for the staff, Nursery and House of the Month.
I struggle in the Nursery and in the end have to ask Sue to take over as I stuck a couple of times and could not move. I arrange o see a doctor and head into Dunbar to get some pain relieving gel. By 8pm I am feeling a lot better but it is not the type of day you want on your birthday. At least two good things happen today. We get all our Macs refreshed. And as if by magic a basketball court appears in the playground.
In terms of school work, very little is achieved today.
Thursday 9th March
I am almost back to full mobility. I spend the morning in Nursery trying to encourage the pupils to make crocuses. I fail. For some reason the pupils seem to be going on about superman, Batman and so on. Pauline decides to run with it and starts to make superheroe capes out of material for each of the pupils. I go online and get some logos. Pauline and the pupils make hats. By 10:30 we have 8 superheroes in the room and a Head teacher preparing the snack (for sanity). We take them to the gym to be superheroes and they all go home still dressed that way. None of this was on our plan from Monday but it got them all going and it came from them. What a morning!
In the afternoon I am at the IT group meeting in JMH. Although I have to leave early I am beginning to see a much clearer vision of where we are going with this. I have my own personal concerns about SSDN due to the debacle that was NOF training. Did that move the capabilities of all teachers on? Are all teachers ready for the challenges that SSDN will bring. I hope so but I have my concerns. In terms of hardware all schools should at least in my view have access to 1 modern computer between 4, two good quality laser printers with manuals or digital displays, an interactive whiteboard in each teaching area, at least 2 data projectors, a digital camera in every class, a digital video camera in each teaching area, a DVD player and TV in every classroom and access to Digital TV in the school. I could go on but this should be a minimum. At Inner wick we are well on the way to most of this but have had to be very creative in terms of funding this hardware.
Friday 10th March
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David
Monday 08 May 2006