New Beginnings

It's that time of the year when everything is new and full of possibilities. Resolutions are made with the best intentions, diets are started, goals are set. I'm not averse to this idea of aiming to improve aspects of my life. While I recognise that a lot of goals fall by the wayside once the reality of day to day life sets in after Christmas, the very act of assessing and reflecting can be a positive experience.

So what are my intentions for 2015?

1. Have a healthy pregnancy. Get my 5-a-day, drink less caffeine, go to bed early, take my vitamins. Seriously, I'm growing a little life inside, and it deserves a bit better than the After Eight mints, cheese and mince pies I've been gorging on for the last few weeks. Plenty of fruit and vegetables on the next Morrisons order and less dairy and fat will be a good start.
2. Enjoy my family. My little man is growing up so fast, he surprises me every day with the things he says and does. I love spending time with him and Ed, I definitely want to make the most of our leisure time this year. We have always been pretty good at getting out and about to be fair. Fortunately this goal should be easy this year as we were bought National Trust membership which will mean lots of days out on the cheap for us when maternity pay kicks in.
3. Get work into perspective. It takes over my life during term-time, more through the stress of thinking about it rather than the doing it. I'm going to streamline my marking to make it more manageable but also hopefully effective. I'm going to stop worrying about lesson observations or the elusive outstanding grade. I'm going to be more efficient where I can. I bought an app, iDoceo, which will hopefully help me keep on track with this. I have an iPad, I should make better use of what it can offer in my work as well as free time.
4. Make stuff. When I don't, it coincides with periods of increased stress for me. I don't know if a lack of creativity is the symptom or the cause of the stress, but there is no excuse not to do something I enjoy if it makes me happier in general.
5. Be grateful. I have a wonderful family, an amazing husband, a beautiful little boy and another little one on the way. So we don't have a lot of space to move in our little house? So what. This is not important. Sometimes when I get frustrated or start to compare my life with others, I need to remember all the great stuff I have going for me and smile.

Now that's blogged, I'll update a little about what is happening in my life as the holiday draws to a close.

Today (this wouldn't post for several days and was actually on Friday) we went here:

 

Baddesley Clinton, a Tudor property owned by the National Trust. The day was beautiful and we all had a lovely time wandering around the house, grounds and of course the cafe!

My blanket currently looks like this:

I decided to drop the dark brown shade as after completing half a row I realised the tone was too dark for the rest of the blanket. I'm happy with the rest of the shades though and get a row crocheted in each spare moment.

I also had this yarn arrive. The Knitting Goddess had a sale and I decided to treat myself to a Christmas present of some DK in this gorgeous plum shade. I plan to use if for Veera Valimaki's Coal cardigan.

 

My other treat to myself this Christmas was a pair of these in the sale at Clarks.

I think it is an unfortunate sign of age that I now find myself shopping for most of my shoes at Clarks, which has a reputation for quality and comfort. But my feet have had enough of cheap shoes! And the sale price is really not so bad. At least that's what I'm telling myself.

Now for the madly depressing run up to Monday, when it's back to work and early mornings and rushing around. Hopefully I'll follow points 3 and 5 above though and deal with it positively!

 

 

 

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Reflections

Every now and then I get the urge to return here to my blog. Sometimes it's because I've been feeling especially creative and have lots to share. Sometimes it's because I'm feeling sociable and want to reach out to all the people who share similar interests to me (or who read my blog for other random reasons!). And other times it's because I feel the way I do now.

I've been struggling a bit. There has been a lot going on in my life over the last year. Things that have been difficult and stressful and at times even traumatic, though ultimately very positive. Exciting and happy times lay ahead. I may share them here soon.

But getting to that point has taken a lot from me. I feel like my natural creativity has been sucked out of me somewhat. I feel like I have lost the happiness that I used to find in the everyday things - in particular my work.

I have been teaching since my PGCE in 2004. Despite a couple of difficult years learning my craft, I came to enjoy what I did. Kids enjoyed my lessons. I know because they told me. I enjoyed coming up with different ways to teach things. I enjoyed telling the stories and little anecdotes that helped make history come alive.

When I returned to work after my maternity leave just before summer in 2013, I had completely lost my confidence in myself. The first time I stood back in front of a class, I burst into tears afterwards. The world of teaching had changed for me. I felt like I had to measure up to something and prove myself. I felt like I had to fit my lessons to a certain mould. I couldn't teach in my way any more.

I got through last year by working harder than I ever have (despite being part-time!) and desperately trying to jump through the ever-growing number of hoops that seem to be placed in front of teachers these days. Teaching in this way didn't feel natural to me. I couldn't get a sense of flow. I was terrified of being accused of talking too much - the latest big no-no in the teaching world. I stopped having the long discussions that used to form a large part of my lessons. I stopped enjoying passing on my love for and knowledge of my subject.

A few weeks ago I had an observation that seemed to confirm my feelings. It was 'good'. Not bad in itself, but hardly inspirational. The trouble is, while some valid points were made, I disagree with quite a bit of the spirit of the feedback. I feel like we are trying to create a version of what teaching has to be in order to be effective. But there are so many ways to skin a cat. Last year I achieved outstanding sixth form results. I did not teach in the way that would have (currently!) achieved me an outstanding lesson observation. And yet it worked. My students did extremely well. They learned what I wanted them to. We enjoyed our lessons. Isn't that a sign of effective teaching?

And yet I find myself with my confidence in my abilities now at rock-bottom. Why have I allowed myself to feel like this based on other's opinions when I have plenty of evidence of the good I have achieved with my pupils? Partly it is what the government has done to the profession. Performance related pay and continual scrutiny have made it feel like teachers are in a goldfish bowl at all times, waiting to be pounced upon for failure. The word 'good' in relation to your work now means 'not good enough'. The passion and individuality feels like it has been replaced by fear and conformity.

This may be an over-reaction on my part. But it doesn't deny the fact that this is the way I feel. And it is no reflection on my school, which I feel is one of the best around. It is a reflection of the current environment of the profession. It is a reflection of my own self-esteem in returning to the classroom. It is a reflection of the difficulties of balancing home and work life and being a working, part-time mum, especially with small children.

So what am I going to do about it? I don't want to leave a job that I have loved in the past. I am fairly certain that, as is the way of these things, it will change. Things will come full circle. Someone will tell us that another way of teaching is more effective. We will move on. I will learn to love what I do again. And the only way to deal with it is to keep on doing what you know works, what inspires and engages, what reaps results. Even if this doesn't tick all the boxes of current educational dogma.

So why blog about this? Well, I sat down the other night and thought about the things that make me happy. That put work in perspective and give me balance. And it ultimately comes down to two things - my family and my hobbies. Spending time with my loved ones is always a joy. I love to watch my little boy grow and change and discover the world. Lately I have been so caught up with worrying about work, I haven't done that. I have allowed my worries to stop me from sleeping and stop me from taking pleasure in the everyday activities - a trip to the park, rhyme time, choosing books from the library, coffee and cake at the cafe. I need to embrace the little things again.

And I also need to be creative. At a time when I feel my creativity is stifled at work, it is even more important that I give it an outlet at home. I haven't done anything creative now for about two months. This isn't good for my health and wellbeing. I know books need to be marked and lessons planned. But ultimately, a stressed and unhappy teacher leads to stressed and unhappy pupils who won't learn as well as they should.

To that end I've decided to try to finish a few WIPs. I'm going to share them here. It will hopefully give me the impetus to actually finish some of them!

The first is a shawl I started knitting for my mum. I whizzed through the first half in a few days, then inexplicably put it down at the halfway point and haven't picked it up since. The yarn is some gorgeous Araucania Botany Lace which will look lovely when finished and blocked. I need to get this done!

Next is my Lady Penelope cardigan, made in beautiful Sublime Lustrous Extrafine Merino dk. Completed the back, both fronts and one and a half sleeves! Why did I put this down? The colour is divine and I know it will look fantastic (even if I messed up the lace decreases at the front...).

Next up is a pair of socks. The colours are garish (half price yarn at Hobbycraft) but the first sock fits like a dream and I got so far as finishing turning the heel on the second. I only have the foot to knit. One and a half socks are somewhat useless...

Finally we have this beautiful little jumper for J. All the knitting is done on this one. It just needs sewing up. It's been sitting there since March. Surely this is an easy win?!

Writing this blogpost has been cathartic in the build up to another busy half term at work. I need to get some perspective, I need to realise what is important, and I need to make sure I don't put myself under the kind of pressure that makes me an unhappy and unhealthy individual. I'm hoping that getting back to blogging and sharing my hobbies, a process I always used to enjoy, will help me to do that.

 

 

 

 

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Creeping towards Monday...

I'm thinking I'd better make the most of my opportunity to post on this blog for the next few days - Monday is creeping ominously closer and this is going to be one very busy half term - we are hitting the height of exam season after all. It is weird to think I am only going to have about eight working weeks left before I start maternity leave - school is such a big part of my life right now. Don't get me wrong, I hate getting up in the mornings and love my holidays and weekends, but I do like the camaraderie with my colleagues and working with kids is great (most of the time!).

I spent this morning in school at an event for next year's Year Seven pupils - it was quite fun as we focused on team-building exercises including a blindfolded obstacle course which created a fair few laughs. Tomorrow unfortunately I have to be at the hospital in the morning for a glucose test - two hours of boredom while they check I don't have gestational diabetes. My husband is a diabetic and has been regularly testing my blood on his blood sugar monitor, so I can't help thinking it's going to be a big waste of time, but I suppose it's better to be safe than sorry.

Anyway, onto today's layout, yet another Paris one, this time of the view from our hotel. Our hotel was a last minute deal but was surprisingly nice - it was a Best Western in the Bastille district of Paris and overlooked a long boulevard, in the middle of which they held a fabulous market on the last morning of our stay. We enjoyed a good look around all the of meats, cheeses and other delicacies before heading off on the Metro to the station.

This was made using the May Cocoa Daisy kit (again!) and I experimented a little bit with misting through a template to create the circle background. My favourite bit is probably the little embellishment cluster which I've shown in close up below though - I have absolutely tons of these paper flowers but never really use them, but I think they look really cute stapled on here. I must admit, much as I love the slightly vintage look on occasion, I am starting to feel a little bit starved of colour looking at the last few blog posts - safe to say, I have some much more colourful offerings on the way.

If any of my blog readers (if there are any of you left?) has a desperate love of paper flowers, I would be quite happy to gift a little bag of them to anybody who fancies - just let me know your name and address. I have way more than I can ever make use of in a lifetime!

My first blog

It may not seem much, but this is pretty impressive for me. At 25 years old and after ages of umming and ahhing, my little brother finally persuaded me to set up my own blog. For a long time I can't say I ever felt the need for a blog. But after my scrapbooking hobby got WAY out of control and layouts etc are on my mind 24/7 I really felt the need to share some of that -spreading the love and all that! I plan to use my blog to record my daily ravings (and believe me, they really are ravings after an afternoon with Year Seven!), to share my scrapbooking ideas and layouts and perhaps a few of my other crafting attempts too. I may even share the history teacher's ancient art of staining pieces of history homework with teabags to get the authentic, crumpled and often slightly singed effect needed to win a coveted place on the classroom washing lines. Yes, I do have washing lines in my classroom. The walls just fill up far too quickly for my liking.