For those of you that don't know me, let me introduce myself. I am currently employed as a year six teacher, maths team leader and senior teacher at the "newly outstanding" (& ever so slightly irresistible) Warden House Primary School in the seaside town of Deal in Kent. I've had the privilege of working at Warden House for over 6 years now and each of those six years has been challenging and enjoyable and frustrating and rewarding all in equal measure. The positives and happy times come from working with a genuinely fantastic and inspiring set of children and staff; they also spring from working for a boss who genuinely distributes leadership and encourages staff to take risks in the right way. The negatives stem from the current state of the profession itself, from the spectre of the big "O" (but, interestingly not from the big "O" itself) and the full set of perceived pressures that we as teachers and leaders inflict upon ourselves and others (guilty as charged on this one) and the lack of TIME in general for so many things...(more on that in another post).
As I start on this blogging mission, a few thoughts spring to mind. I wonder how blogging will impact on me as a professional? Many bloggers that I follow online regularly state that they blog for themselves first and their audience second. I think this is likely to be true for me. Hopefully this blog will provide a useful insight into my role at Warden House. It may help you (or should that be me?) gain a deeper understanding of some of the pedagogy and ideals behind who I am as a professional. Maybe it will help me to get some things off my chest? Maybe organise my thinking with greater clarity? Maybe create world peace? Cure Ebola? Unsink the Titanic? Who knows...? (Well, it would be great if it did the last three!) As I start typing, I guess that this could be a cathartic, affirming and interesting journey. I am quietly looking forward to it.
I suppose one of the first things to do is to investigate why I have started on the quest of keeping a Blog... There are several reasons why I have come to this point, the first and foremost being the gentle pressure from "The Boss" who has led me towards an appraisal target this year of keeping a professional blog. It's taken a while to get started, and if I'm being honest, time and work-life balance (or should that be unbalance?!) has played a part in me putting this off. Let me explain...
Most of the Autumn term in 2014 took place against the backdrop of an impending Ofsted inspection. As an RI school, there was certainly a lot hinging on said inspection for Warden House. That being said, the waiting game was, for first time in my career, coupled with positive determination rather than a sense of uncertainty and impending doom. The school was clutching on to its best ever set of SATs results and had a raft of fully embedded systems all geared towards showing itself in the best possible light. The game was definitely on, and we knew it.
From a personal point of view, recognising the additional focus year six usually has on it during inspections meant that every free second of evening time at home was spent ensuring marking was up to date; assessments were made, plans were tweaked and ready and my subject leader role and team leadership work was continuously updated and analysed to death. I needed to make sure that I was ready and that there would be no chance that I would let the school and my colleagues down in any way....thankfully, we needn't have worried. Ofsted arrived, were rather impressed with what they saw and, in the blink of an eye, were gone again, this time leaving us in the possession of the holy grail of teachers- an overall 'Outstanding' judgement. That still hasn't sunk in yet you know- and as I said to the boss, I've still never worked in a "Good" school!
In the midst of all of this, home life has also been a real challenge over the past few months (to put it mildly!). I have three beautiful daughters (all aged five and under) who have had the worst run of poor health over the past ten weeks. Exhaustion levels in our household are only just lifting now and my brain is now slowly defogging and rather belatedly feeling ready to begin the new year (yes, I know it's now February!) The sense of guilt that I have had to endure working long and late when my poor wife has been stuck in for what has been literally weeks at a time dealing with illness after illness after illness (including a six day hospital stay with a poorly baby) has been difficult to endure. But enough self pity! Back to the point, and back on track with professional thinking and reflection. So, why blog?
The answer to that question certainly isn't just down to the fact that blogging is an appraisal target and one that I begrudgingly have to meet. If that was the only reason, then I genuinely think that I wouldn't have ever got started. There is more to it to that, and I think the boss knew that when encouraging me to agree to start blogging as a target this year. Let me explain. I have been a Twitter user for some years now, (this sounds like I'm seeking therapy) and would class myself as a Twitter "consumer" rather than "producer". I dip in and out several times a week, but have never really felt the urge to tweet regularly, unlike some of the colleagues out there both locally and nationally that I "follow" (I still think that term makes me sound like a stalker!) who tweet regularly.
I would describe myself as a private person and, in the best British tradition, someone who instinctively doesn't like blowing their own trumpet and sharing successes and ideas publicly. Tweeting, blogging and Face-booking (is that a verb?) is still something that feels quite alien and a little uncomfortable. Interestingly, and somewhat contradicting what I have just written, I have been responsible for setting up and jointly maintaining the school's Facebook feed, which I enjoy doing and post to regularly. This form of micro-blogging feels just fine as it is hidden behind the banner of the school name and is not linked to me personally. By setting up the MisterHackett Twitter handle more recently, and transferring that name to the blog, I have created an identifty that, for me, mentally separates my personal and professional identities and makes me feel much more comfortable and secure about expressing my thoughts online. At least I'm clear about that now!
So, that's a little overview about me and where I am coming from in relation to starting a blog. If I am being honest, I think that I have rather enjoyed this somewhat cathartic experience, however have waffled on for far too long- especially for what is supposed to have been an introductory post! I have been inspired to continue! Thanks to @primaryreflect @chizkent and @moorelynne1for their gentle encouragement (and inspiring and rather cracking blogs!) in pushing me to get started.
Straight away, my brain is ticking and thinking up ideas and possible themes for future posts. I have arrived at the following ideas:
"Wrestling the school curriculum: From the Pragmatic to the Irresistible."
"Work / Life Balance in the 21st Century primary school"
"Assessing without.... what?" The blind leading the blind...
"Reflections on moving "From Good to Great". What does Jim Collins say from the business point of view that could be applied to education?
But maybe that's missing the point. I'm beginning to see that Blogging isn't about over planning, structure and preparing posts in advance. It's about living in the moment and responding to ideas, interests and passions as they arise. Now that approach is exciting. Who knows what's coming next?
Thanks for reading.
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