foolfillment: the blog

With only two weeks to go until the new term, I’m feeling a lot more relaxed than I did this time last year. That may turn out to be me being foolhardy, as in so many ways I’m in a very similar situation. I’m about to start at a new school that I barely know, with colleagues and pupils I’ve not really met properly, except this year I have a full timetable and I don’t have weekly meetings with a supporter and the safety net of calling myself an NQT (except I think that term applies more now more than last year). Of course the big difference is this year I have a huge amount more experience and confidence to draw on.

Doug Belshaw wrote a great post last night, 4 quotations that will guide me next academic year, and it focussed my thinking a little. I’ve had loads of ideas running through my head ever since I got the job at Hawick about what I want to try and achieve. It’s easy to go into a department for just a few minutes and think that you can make changes, when of course you never get the full picture in such a short visit. There’s loads of good practice going on in Hawick and while I want to make changes and do a lot of my own things my first aim is to really make the most of the experience that is there already. Here’s another quote for you, one that has been all pervasive in my year at East Lothian : “We learn from our experience…..if we reflect upon our experience” John Dewey.

As I said Doug’s post focussed my thinking a little. Mainly about what I want to do with my first few months at Hawick, and I’ve now got a more organised set of targets. Doug also got me a little more focussed on another idea which I’m working on. I’ll tell you about that in a future blog post, I hope you’ll all be interested in it.