Countdown to the new term..

Today the date is Saturday 1st September 2018.

Tomorrow it is Sunday 2nd September 2018.

And then it all starts again. Theme park officially opens and the roller coaster ride begins again!

Welcome New Term!

I had wanted to do a lot of work and planning in the holidays. The optimist in me is saying "Don't worry - you still have two days". The pessimist has long since jumped off a sinking ship! Lastly the realist in me has drawn up a list of things that need doing which has reassured me as a lot can't be done without x, y, z so they WILL have to wait till Monday!

In my NQT year I worked throughout half terms, Christmas etc. I would sometimes go into school and do my marking rather than bringing it home, but I didn't really class them as holidays. Thankfully my mentor sorted me out when she noticed I was slipping a bit, because I was spending too long in planning lessons to try to make them "perfect/outstanding" to maximise student learning.  And obviously the fact remains that there is no such thing as every lesson being perfect! After a few harsh home truths, I realised that I was being unfair to myself and my family and it was affecting other areas of being a teacher (namely REPORT WRITING!).

So now I always take the first half of any holiday as an actual holiday and leave the last few days or last week for work (where possible). I used to do it the other way round at the start- work for the first few days/week and then have my holiday during the second half  -  then I realised that the "week before stress mode" is automatically activated and I am yet unable to fix this glitch! So I might as well relax first and enjoy whatever I can!

The main purpose of my existence this year is about Maths Buzz. It's about getting students engaged with their mathematics outside and inside lessons. I hope to write about that here (next post!) but as you know I am a massive waffler... it runs in the blood honestly... so please bare with me!

I am always after ideas so if there's something great out there that your're doing please do share! It's all about standing on the shoulder of giants - I should change my name to Sophie...