I am MisterJim

Now for this week. Very simple: …is it me or are bells ringing?…. My 100WCs have tended to be either serious, or sad. I thought that I would attempt to do something slightly more interesting. I must say that the original draft for this challenge was over 300 words, so a lot has been removed, but I hope enough has also been left for people to fill in the gaps for themselves. "Boy," growled the stranger, "get to the bell tower and tell the monks to ring that bell for all they've got. I'll to the rest." He narrowed his cold, blue eyes and in that moment, the boy didn't know who he was more afraid of. He nodded vigorously and ran. The stranger turned his back to the boy and stood resolutely at the foot of the bridge, arm casually resting on the hilt of his sword, staring at the enemy. The attackers smirked and drew nearer, almost surrounding him. Without a hint of fear, the stranger smiled, "Is it me, or are bells ringing?" He c

This week's challenge is a picture prompt. I quite like picture prompts, they allow so many tangents. Our classrooms are windows. Children's views are shaped by the pictures we paint, the opportunities they envisage. We are responsible for the window's upkeep: treat it with consistent care and attention and it will open seamlessly to worlds that are beyond their wildest dreams; leave it untouched and those worlds will remain forever out of reach.  The window is open to the world to view, some outsiders simply point out what is missing from times they spent inside. Others like to castigate and deride. Most smile knowingly, remembering with fondness the people who opened windows for them. People like us.

I found this chapter I wrote a while ago, for a book that has never been finished. I would really appreciate some feedback. I've uploaded it as a pdf, which is to protect the original work (just in case I ever finish it!).

The prompt this week is to use at least one of these for inspiration. …the powers that be  /  the apple of his eye  /   the writing on the wall… It was early in the Autumn When she took herself away. The trees in our orchard cried leaves for her; She was the apple of their eye , their Mistress. She said it was, "Inevitable". Powers that be had deemed it so and so it was Fruitless to pursue it. Her one way trip. The marks of her passing are writ large on the cold orchard wall s. They are writ larger, though, in me.

On Tuesday, I set the class a task for homework. Build a rocket or spaceship Simple, right? Well yes and no. I asked them to spend two weeks and they weren't allowed to cop out and buy a kit, they had to make it - the more homemade the better. There was also a catch to it too, Tuesday next week (29th November) we would have an after school gallery where parents will be invited to attend and see their child's work. But wait! What about those who have obviously had help? That's allowed - as long as they admit it. There's this stigma attached by some educators to homework because of the notion that parents 'interfere' with homework tasks, so the work isn't a true reflection of the child's capabilities. I'm really looking forward to bringing the parents into our class and letting them share what we do. Transparency is very important to me as an educator and engaging the parents by enthusing their children is the best tonic for our jaundiced educa

This week's 100 Word Challenge for Grown Ups has an apt prompt this week. Lest We Forget My grandfather fought in The Great War. He signed up at 15, forging documents to do his duty. He spoke to my father about the tremendous guilt he felt about the things he did in order to survive. He was a kind and patient man, a quiet man with quiet ambitions. I never asked him about the war. In a way, by not asking I was honouring what he did. He knew he was lucky. I think that was possibly the heaviest of his burdens. Under the clouds of war, humanity hangs on a cross of iron.  ~Dwight D. Eisenhower

I set up a Linoit page on my class blog, asking for the children to come up with things they wanted to learn about in the upcoming weeks. I must admit, I expected the ideas to be a bit naff, like "Let's build a rocket and fly to the Moon for lunch." etc. How wrong I was. Here are some examples of the ideas they came up with: I was so impressed with the quality of the ideas that they had, that this Wednesday afternoon, we are going to pick the best ideas and put them into the topic for this term.  Power to the People. 

After a conversation on Twitter with a few people (specifically Nicki Allman & Dawn Hallybone ) I had some help in brainstorming things I could teach over the next few weeks. I should mention at this point, that I've not taught so far this academic year, due to breaking my leg just before the end of the summer holidays, so I still need to get to know the class. Nicki very generously sent me some fabulous plans for work based around Dr Who (the BBC Schools links are here ). I'm definitely going to do a few weeks based on that, but I felt I needed a buffer, or a 'getting to know each other' week - but one that would allow a good deal of learning to take place. I've created a topic plan for a week's worth of lessons (not including Maths, which I keep as stand-alone lessons) based around the book The Way Back Home by Oliver Jeffers Please bear in mind that there are gaps & not a lot of detail, but if you can pinch an idea or two, then please feel free

Both images courtesy of Julia Skinner's blog  http://jfb57.wordpress.com This week's 100WCGU has to use the following picture prompt from the view of vegetarians. I couldn't decide what to do, so if you'll forgive me, I've attempted it twice. Good luck to me... Attempt Number 1: Vegetarian:(waving leaflet) "Do you know that McDonalds bid against Pedigree Chum for their meat consignments?" Me: "Actually yes, I did." Vegetarian: "And that there's more chicken in the packaging than in the nuggets." Me: "I wouldn't be surprised." Vegetarian: "You should try mung bean burgers. They're scrummy." Me: "Why? I like the other sort - with meat." Vegetarian: "That's disgusting. Do you know how many cows died to provide meat for your burgers last year?" Me: "No, but..." Vegetarian: "..7 million- and that's just the UK! Do you want to sign my petit

A few weeks ago, I stumbled across ICT Teaching & Learning Framework 2011, which was written by Matt Lovegrove and included contributions from Steve Greenfield, David Sheppard & Claire Waite. Here is the Framework which can be found on his blog . The beauty of this work was that it was licensed for sharing, remixing and adapting. This is exactly the type of thing we should all be doing in my opinion and I must sincerely thank those who wrote it for saving me a tremendous amount of time by not having to write my own. What I did do, however, was to create a self-assessment booklet that can be used in conjunction with the framework. I hate assessment, but this book allows the children to assess their learning at the end of the week. I've factored in time to my timetable to allow reflection. This, in turn, feeds into my planning & because it's done on a weekly basis, it's easy to keep on top of and lasts about 20 mins. Here's an example copy of what

Little puffs of brown meander their way to the hardening ground. The vibrant colours of endless summer have abandoned the world. Muted, the autumn leaves lead us inexorably towards the bleakness of winter. Our world is numbing. Fingers creep inside pockets. Coat buttons are done up. Smiles become grimaces.

I hated learning spellings as a child. My mother would despair of me, because I would learn 7 of the pre-requisite 10 weekly spellings, as I figured out that my teacher would accept 7/10. I hated the boredom associated with lists. Some people thrive on lists (my wife is the casing point) but I am more visual. It was a tweet from @halfpintgill  that sparked my interest. I thought that was a fabulous idea - and one that I could turn into an ongoing record for the children. At my school, we use Learning Logs for our homework, as a lot of schools do. I encourage the children to complete the work in a lot of different ways, online, through models, practically and so on. This is an 'add on' to their homework where we will create a word cloud of the half termly spellings, where each week they gain another part of the puzzle. The idea is they can see their knowledge building 10 words at a time and can identify the amount of work that can be built upon gradually. 

This evening on #ukedchat, the discussion was about 'independent learning' or 'IL' and it's importance in the curriculum. In my opinion IL is an umbrella title, one so multi-faceted that we probably need to invest a lot of time determining the rationale behind it. One point that came across was from Miles Berry that Independent Learning is something innate, present from birth as a survival mechanism so teaching it is contradictory. This is something that I agree with and yet we are in a system that has institutionalised our lives to the point where children are taught out of this. They become so reliant on being told what, when and how to do things, that they forget what they are genetically programmed to do. And there's my mistake. I'm talking about these children in the third person. The point is that we have all fallen into the habit of providing knowledge as teachers. There is no blame associated with this, we are as caught up in the status quo as

My father rang me up last week and explained he had found my old school reports and would I like to keep them. My reaction was adamant. No. Never. Full stop. There are reasons for this instant decision. I did not do well academically at school. My reports are littered with examples my failures punctuated, rather unceremoniously with pompous and sardonic comments that did not, in any way, show who I was then, or am now. That got me thinking. I was fortunate to go to a rather selective (and expensive) private school. I was told that it would provide me with a platform for the rest of my life. The school did provide good, solid ‘sit up’ education; I learned the classics, took 3 languages and played sport using facilities most people would give their right arm for. But by the age of 17, I was failing in every imaginable way. I found that the education system I was in required a level of self discipline that I just didn’t have. If there was a crack connecting Set 1 and Set 2,

"Now children," began Mrs Jobs, smiling, "today we have a very special visitor. His name is PC Harvester and he's going to talk to you about car safety." “Reme...” As she spoke, the door opened and PC Harvester walked in. "Good afternoon, children." exclaimed PC Harvester. "I have a question. Does anybody’s Mummy or Daddy drive quickly?" Hands shot up and a voice from the back squeaked, "My daddy drives fast, he has a Ferarri." "Golly," said PC Harvester, "and does your Daddy wear his seatbelt?" "Only when the bas***d coppers are around." ...out of the mouths of babes...

It's been a while since I put fingers to keyboard and wrote something on my blog, or any blog for that matter. I think it has less to do with workload & more to do with overload. Social Networking on various levels had begun to take over my approach to a lot of things, most noticeably my work, but it had begun to encroach on my personal life as well. Frank, educational discussions were taking place after clocking out time, I would lie awake at night and follow a hashtag stream from an earlier Twitter debate. I would be sitting on the sofa with my wife, ostensibly watching the TV, but my head wasn't. I was actually becoming so obsessed with all things that were educationally cutting edge, that I was beginning to neglect my marking, assessment and correcting my planning where necessary. In essence, my desire to push the boundaries was threatening to impact on the children in my care. But how did it get to this? Honestly, I don't know. I suppose I was trying to keep

After a request on Twitter for a link up with an Australasian school, my class have been linking up with Class 3 from Taupo, New Zealand . So far we've been exchanging videos using Dropbox & messages using Edmodo, but we're beginning to build a relationship up with each other now. Something that I think the children are going to benefit from, long term & something that will help to broaden my horizons, as a teacher & leader. Watch this space for more info.

Put your dreams in a box, Tuck them under your bed Away from sunlight. You don't want them to spread. Leave them there, out of sight. Touch them not. Put aside All your longings and wishings And feelings you hide. But I am the selfish, selfless man Who returns to his dream box whenever he can. Who looks at old visions each night, before bed And tucks them up carefully, then faces ahead. I am tired. I am worn down. My dream days are dead. So I'll leave my dream boxes here, Under my bed. Perhaps a stronger person will find them. © J. Maloney February 10th, 2011

I was looking for inspiration for my class blog. One of the children had written a story and I posted on twitter. Richard, a boy in my class who was 'allergic' to writing in detail, had posted a story off his own back and was developing his own style. I wanted to share this - for him. He isn't the most confident of children and I knew that if he felt that he was valued as an author, it would encourage him to write more. I didn't expect 13 comments. The response was overwhelming and it got me thinking. We should do this more as a class, but I only know a few blogs made by other schools. So I tweeted again, using a hashtag of #classlinkup to encourage other teachers to share their blog addresses and therefore provide a comprehensive list of blogging schools for everyone to use. This was taken up by a lot of people, who added their own class blogs to the list. Evolution. Then a chance comment by Oliver Quinlan @oliverquinlan  got me thinking. I