I feel as though I am am undercover agent sometimes. I check to see if her back and coat are in the room before I say anything.
At several points I have been known to dance around like crazy when I have known she is not around.
Monday, February 14, 2011
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Me an my tutor
I have been trying to get a feel of the new course...as it is a bit different this year. Lots more paperwork and more achievments.
K reminds me : I bet every single thing they do is accredited.
Yeah it is pretty much.. The escence of allowing language to flow and relationships to develop has been lost although there is much more structure to it.
PD: You dont speak to me anymore. I dont think you want to know me.
It is more of the case that I am unable to speak anymore. The sessions are now panoptically controlled and the students feel disjointed to the teachers.
K reminds me : I bet every single thing they do is accredited.
Yeah it is pretty much.. The escence of allowing language to flow and relationships to develop has been lost although there is much more structure to it.
PD: You dont speak to me anymore. I dont think you want to know me.
It is more of the case that I am unable to speak anymore. The sessions are now panoptically controlled and the students feel disjointed to the teachers.
The Narrative of the exam no shows
Again I feel that numbers have created a negative discourse around why my students have not passed (or even shown up to) their exams.
I am constantly trying to get other departments to help me. Just to send out a notification that my students have an exam would be nice.
This did not happen and now my line manager is not happy as noone knew when they had the exam.
I sent all of the students a text, left messages on their phones and even facebooked them.
No................. I did my bit..... no support from my colleagues in college tho...
I am constantly trying to get other departments to help me. Just to send out a notification that my students have an exam would be nice.
This did not happen and now my line manager is not happy as noone knew when they had the exam.
I sent all of the students a text, left messages on their phones and even facebooked them.
No................. I did my bit..... no support from my colleagues in college tho...
Critcal Incidents
Some of the things I have observed this week have been said by people I had not had any contact with before. Only they have provided me a new viewpoint I feel is an additional lens to observe situations.
KW and I have talked about the behaviour of some students. The college structure has included a team to support staff with challenging students. Unfortunately this has not really supported me, but pushed me through more layers of bureaucracy. KW wants to deal with the situation in a clear and correct way. Shows that if one thing in the systen does not work correctly then more problems may result.
KR tells me that she is upset with the way I organise my desk. THERE IS SO MUCH PAPERWORK ON YOUR DESK I CANNOT ACTUALLY SEE IT. I feel that this is how my life is around my work this way. There is not a single minute where I am able to tidy anything away. Except during half terms, when my line manager wants to have more meetings! I need this time to tidy my paperwork. No this is not good enough. PLANNING NEEDS TO BE DONE!
S gives me a grade 2 for my teaching observation. Would probably have got a 1 if my students did not waltz in late! Anyway part of me feels smug, and another hates being this number. In the organisations eyes I am a number. I help their statistics, and although my line manager is extatic with my grade, I cant help feeling that my achievments are much greater than this!
KW and I have talked about the behaviour of some students. The college structure has included a team to support staff with challenging students. Unfortunately this has not really supported me, but pushed me through more layers of bureaucracy. KW wants to deal with the situation in a clear and correct way. Shows that if one thing in the systen does not work correctly then more problems may result.
KR tells me that she is upset with the way I organise my desk. THERE IS SO MUCH PAPERWORK ON YOUR DESK I CANNOT ACTUALLY SEE IT. I feel that this is how my life is around my work this way. There is not a single minute where I am able to tidy anything away. Except during half terms, when my line manager wants to have more meetings! I need this time to tidy my paperwork. No this is not good enough. PLANNING NEEDS TO BE DONE!
S gives me a grade 2 for my teaching observation. Would probably have got a 1 if my students did not waltz in late! Anyway part of me feels smug, and another hates being this number. In the organisations eyes I am a number. I help their statistics, and although my line manager is extatic with my grade, I cant help feeling that my achievments are much greater than this!
Conservative councillor on my doorstep
I answer the door to Oliver Colville MP. Newly elected he is doing the rounds with his Conservative Councillor (Joan).
We enter as discussion about getting equal status for QTS and QTLS teachers. She agrees with me. She also says " You are doing some great work at the college!"
Such a compliment, although it does not feel like that when I go to team meetings. I feel like I am an unauthorised alien who needs to be ejected.
We enter as discussion about getting equal status for QTS and QTLS teachers. She agrees with me. She also says " You are doing some great work at the college!"
Such a compliment, although it does not feel like that when I go to team meetings. I feel like I am an unauthorised alien who needs to be ejected.
Exam meeting 2
The whole department starts to air their feelings in this meeting.
Even people who do not normally speak up are sayingt their piece. One of the staff emotionally let everyine know that the bombardment of paperwork has meant that she nearly ended up in tears the other day. I actually wanted to walk out, though did not get the chance to express this.
The issues were glossed over for the more imprtant issue of familiarising everyone with the new exam style. Implementation from above with a disregard for the staff below. We were advised that the tasks required were in our job description. Although they are an impossibility. Even the minutes of this meeting a few days later did not mention the hour long discussion we have had about extra workloads and no extra time to do it in.
I feel the emotions of my team are never considered. Management agendas always supercede staff feelings.
Even people who do not normally speak up are sayingt their piece. One of the staff emotionally let everyine know that the bombardment of paperwork has meant that she nearly ended up in tears the other day. I actually wanted to walk out, though did not get the chance to express this.
The issues were glossed over for the more imprtant issue of familiarising everyone with the new exam style. Implementation from above with a disregard for the staff below. We were advised that the tasks required were in our job description. Although they are an impossibility. Even the minutes of this meeting a few days later did not mention the hour long discussion we have had about extra workloads and no extra time to do it in.
I feel the emotions of my team are never considered. Management agendas always supercede staff feelings.
Rui 13 Jan 2011
So as I get the class to fill out yet more forms, their heads hang in dismay.
Rui spurts : Not more paper all we ever do is paperwork.
I echo his thoughts and wonder why I am giving him and his classmates ths stuff. He is probably the brightest in the class, but I feel like I am stiffling his creativity and language production.
Rui spurts : Not more paper all we ever do is paperwork.
I echo his thoughts and wonder why I am giving him and his classmates ths stuff. He is probably the brightest in the class, but I feel like I am stiffling his creativity and language production.
Thoughts on Management
My first thoughts about management in an educational establishment where that it encompassed the following:
1. Most of the common trends and thinking indicate that is organisations need some sort of dictator or principal or chief executive officer who controls what is going on. However if one is to adopt an anarchical perspective then more of everyone's ideas might be encompassed.
Summerhill School indicate a student policy where classes are not obligatory however the students develop themselves enormously. It is not necessary through academic means that their own personal development.
2. Management also has a personal perspective. By this I mean that is anyone with any sort of behaviour issue whether it be extremely subtle or overtly obvious will infuse their behaviours into their management style. In other words if someone has not got control over themselves they try to develop control over others. It's the control over the others that is most important here.
3. Leadership also has an ideological perspectives. The leader once this is ideal situation to arise however what they have considered is not necessarily a possibility. There is only constraints and tensions on the individual and the organisation in which they exist that an ideal scenario does not exist.
1. Most of the common trends and thinking indicate that is organisations need some sort of dictator or principal or chief executive officer who controls what is going on. However if one is to adopt an anarchical perspective then more of everyone's ideas might be encompassed.
Summerhill School indicate a student policy where classes are not obligatory however the students develop themselves enormously. It is not necessary through academic means that their own personal development.
2. Management also has a personal perspective. By this I mean that is anyone with any sort of behaviour issue whether it be extremely subtle or overtly obvious will infuse their behaviours into their management style. In other words if someone has not got control over themselves they try to develop control over others. It's the control over the others that is most important here.
3. Leadership also has an ideological perspectives. The leader once this is ideal situation to arise however what they have considered is not necessarily a possibility. There is only constraints and tensions on the individual and the organisation in which they exist that an ideal scenario does not exist.
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Interview Panel
I am being asked to help out as an interviewer. To help choose a member of staff for my college.
I am in two minds about this. When I am asking the questions I feel that I wish I could teel the the interviewees that they are getting themsleves into a crazy job if they take the post.
I also feel an accomplice in getting someone into the bureaucratical mess I find myself in everyday...
I also start to give my opinions based on certain criteria (which the college has listed) rather than on my gut feeling... My gut feeling has helped me in situations before and this time I use the college's job description as my rational for my choice in candidate.
At the end of the discussion. I find out that there are other reasons why someone might get chosen. The fact that the college desperately needs a staff member, and that if a certain individual fills teh post it will leave another post open.
People are being used as items to complete a technical puzzle.
I am in two minds about this. When I am asking the questions I feel that I wish I could teel the the interviewees that they are getting themsleves into a crazy job if they take the post.
I also feel an accomplice in getting someone into the bureaucratical mess I find myself in everyday...
I also start to give my opinions based on certain criteria (which the college has listed) rather than on my gut feeling... My gut feeling has helped me in situations before and this time I use the college's job description as my rational for my choice in candidate.
At the end of the discussion. I find out that there are other reasons why someone might get chosen. The fact that the college desperately needs a staff member, and that if a certain individual fills teh post it will leave another post open.
People are being used as items to complete a technical puzzle.
Kasia's stress
I meet with Kasia this week. She wants to know what is going on with the class.
We are sharing a class and I have to relay some information about it.
During our meeting she tells me how stressed she is. She says she only comes in two days a week and feels unbelievably stressed from just turning up. She cannot understand how it would be for a fulltime post.
She asks me if it will get any easier. I tell her that the prepping for teaching becomes easier, but that the paperwork and answering emails and carrying out administrative tasks becomes more difficult.
We are sharing a class and I have to relay some information about it.
During our meeting she tells me how stressed she is. She says she only comes in two days a week and feels unbelievably stressed from just turning up. She cannot understand how it would be for a fulltime post.
She asks me if it will get any easier. I tell her that the prepping for teaching becomes easier, but that the paperwork and answering emails and carrying out administrative tasks becomes more difficult.
Sustainability police!
I am on the sustainability team in my faculty...
Interestingly I am asked to print out hundreds of pieces of paper for my course files.
I have copied them all onto DVD... so that paper is at a minimum and that people can access presentations and photo/video files.
Sadly they dont like a slim folder with electronic files :(
They want me to print it all out ....
Interestingly I am asked to print out hundreds of pieces of paper for my course files.
I have copied them all onto DVD... so that paper is at a minimum and that people can access presentations and photo/video files.
Sadly they dont like a slim folder with electronic files :(
They want me to print it all out ....
Speech by Principal
Great speech from the Prinsipal of the college.
She says that she does not want paperwork repeated two or three times. Wants increased efficiency, by reduce the bureauracy in the college.
That was three years ago. I can only see paperwork increasing..not decreasing
Sometimes I get to teach my students! An insane mechanism...is at work....
She says that she does not want paperwork repeated two or three times. Wants increased efficiency, by reduce the bureauracy in the college.
That was three years ago. I can only see paperwork increasing..not decreasing
Sometimes I get to teach my students! An insane mechanism...is at work....
The Review before the Quality Review
I am going crazy with this trail of paperwork... Trying to play the game but finding it a bit difficult.
We were in the meeting to discuss the Quality Review. This was a new idea which meant that we had to have certain paperwork in place by 7th Feb 2011. The QR was so that if things needed to be adjusted before an OFSTED inspection, then they could be implemented.
I suddenly find myself in an office with lots of people...being asked to resubmit my folder with all of its imformation clearly marked. However this was the week before the QR... A pre quality review. If everyone is rushing around getting this stuff together then why are they hiring consultants to administer the quality review?
Am I going mad or do some people just love repeating tasks????
We were in the meeting to discuss the Quality Review. This was a new idea which meant that we had to have certain paperwork in place by 7th Feb 2011. The QR was so that if things needed to be adjusted before an OFSTED inspection, then they could be implemented.
I suddenly find myself in an office with lots of people...being asked to resubmit my folder with all of its imformation clearly marked. However this was the week before the QR... A pre quality review. If everyone is rushing around getting this stuff together then why are they hiring consultants to administer the quality review?
Am I going mad or do some people just love repeating tasks????
Teaching or administering
So a wonderful start to the term is that I have to pass on the paperwork exercise to my students. I hate doing this.... partly because we all know it is an exercise in bureaucracy, and partly because I want to get on a get my students involved in some real activities. Something they feek they can engage in... and they are able to utilse new language.
3 weeks (9 hours) I have spent on one subject getting students portfolios up to date. Not again they cry as I tell them they know what they have to do. Get portfolios out... and write up what we did over the last....X number of weeks..
Pavel notices that he has to fill out more forms and he says that he doesnt want to stay in class anymore because he has to do this.
Last year we didnt have to do all this. He was right... we didnt have to do it...because the class was small and there were no qualifications attached to the course. This meant very little paperwork but almost no structure.
The new course has paperwork, and structure. There is a qual we have to get students to do.
I feel that I am a part of the machine I detest. Administering the work...but getting students to administer themsleves.
3 weeks (9 hours) I have spent on one subject getting students portfolios up to date. Not again they cry as I tell them they know what they have to do. Get portfolios out... and write up what we did over the last....X number of weeks..
Pavel notices that he has to fill out more forms and he says that he doesnt want to stay in class anymore because he has to do this.
Last year we didnt have to do all this. He was right... we didnt have to do it...because the class was small and there were no qualifications attached to the course. This meant very little paperwork but almost no structure.
The new course has paperwork, and structure. There is a qual we have to get students to do.
I feel that I am a part of the machine I detest. Administering the work...but getting students to administer themsleves.
Covering for our line manager
During November 2009 to end of January 2010, both myself and my collegaue Sarah W covered for a line managers position.
The college had accepted the resignation of my previous line manager. She had said that they had offered her the same job for a lower salary (a classic more for less attitude!)
The relplacement (the COG) was to start a week or two after Sara T had left. Unfortunatelty the new recruit psotponed her start date to Feb .... 3 months after the schedule.
Had this been part of the plan...? No obviously not. The plan had been for the new staff member to slot straight into the space made by my previous line manager.
This discrepency had caused three people to take over the vacant role. Such a flaw in THE SYSTEM meant that extra pressure was put on 3 of us to cover that persons job. No one had thought about getting a temporary replacement part.
A bit like driving a car with three wheels! Well it doesnt matter there are three wheels. We can make do til the new one arrives!
There was not a single word of thanks for the work we did during those three months and not any financial renumeration (3 months of this persons salary should have been split between us!)
The college had accepted the resignation of my previous line manager. She had said that they had offered her the same job for a lower salary (a classic more for less attitude!)
The relplacement (the COG) was to start a week or two after Sara T had left. Unfortunatelty the new recruit psotponed her start date to Feb .... 3 months after the schedule.
Had this been part of the plan...? No obviously not. The plan had been for the new staff member to slot straight into the space made by my previous line manager.
This discrepency had caused three people to take over the vacant role. Such a flaw in THE SYSTEM meant that extra pressure was put on 3 of us to cover that persons job. No one had thought about getting a temporary replacement part.
A bit like driving a car with three wheels! Well it doesnt matter there are three wheels. We can make do til the new one arrives!
There was not a single word of thanks for the work we did during those three months and not any financial renumeration (3 months of this persons salary should have been split between us!)
ILP Training disaster
I cannot understand it. We are urged to attend this important meeting about eILPs.
When we get there the trainer tells us that there are no PCs for us to use and that we have to imagine what it would be like to log in to an account. This is something we are expected to do as part of our role, but we are unable to practice what we need to know.
Its rather like learning how to drive a car, in the classroom, without actually getting into a car.
It is crazy how such practices can take place.
We are all supposed to be using this software now.... The trainer I feel is carrying out a paper excercise. That the actual learning has been implemented regardless of what happened in the session. This is an exmaple of how paperwork rules and that the completion of a training form means that the imformation has been passed on.
When we get there the trainer tells us that there are no PCs for us to use and that we have to imagine what it would be like to log in to an account. This is something we are expected to do as part of our role, but we are unable to practice what we need to know.
Its rather like learning how to drive a car, in the classroom, without actually getting into a car.
It is crazy how such practices can take place.
We are all supposed to be using this software now.... The trainer I feel is carrying out a paper excercise. That the actual learning has been implemented regardless of what happened in the session. This is an exmaple of how paperwork rules and that the completion of a training form means that the imformation has been passed on.
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