I cannot believe I'm saying this, but I am. Yesterday, I left Knox for the last time after three and a bit years, and it's been a tough couple of weeks in the lead-up. There are so many wonderful members of staff I've worked with that I'll miss seeing every day. But even more painful is not seeing the pupils who make my day every day. Particularly my National 5 class, who I'm so proud of, but also very sad to be leaving—I'd hoped to stay with them until they left school in S6.
I remember leaving Newbattle 3 and a bit years ago. I initially decided to leave due to an argument with someone. I was planning on leaving mid-term without a job to go to because it destroyed what little remained of my mental health after having COVID just a few days before (and for those who follow my blog, you'll know COVID hit me hard). I stayed for the kids, and it was tough.
In a previous post on my blog, I posted that I would be rebuilding some of my lessons and focusing on improving them. Ultimately, improvements are centred around three core areas:
- Quality assurance/moderation of my materials
- Pupil voice and feedback
- Changes to the curriculum
One of the first areas I'm working on is tightening my learning intentions and success criteria, with the first step being the introduction of "We are learning to" and "Your success criteria" statements being included in all lessons.
It will be gradual, especially as I will update them as I use them.
It's now common knowledge across my school at Knox Academy that I am moving to a new school, and whilst this is an extremely exciting moment in my life, it's also extremely sad for me.
I'm sad because I am saying goodbye to the school I've wanted to work at since I was thirteen or fourteen. I'm also very sad to be saying goodbye to an awesome group of staff who have become friends with me whilst I've been working here. And then the pupils.
This week has been particularly tough for me after seeing some of the amazing pupils I teach in tears or nearly in tears after finding out that I am leaving (I keep thinking back to when my teacher, Mrs Muir, left in Primary 3 and how sad I was, so I can relate to how it can be). The hardest thing about leaving Knox was leaving them, and I've actually been in tears each night this week thinking about leaving them.
When I first started at Knox, I'd planned to stay there for as long as I remained a teacher, but I'd promised myself that at the very least I'd be there till my current S4s left. Sadly, that hasn't really happened, and I'm sorry for letting them down.
People always say that you forget teachers over time, but the truth is, I have always remembered the teacher who inspired me most, Mr Laird, my History teacher in S1 and the person who inspired me most as a teacher. I'll never forget the last day I ever saw him - standing on the desk in tears, saying how much he's going to miss his class and the rest of the pupils that went to see him. I remember all my teachers who inspired me. You don't forget teachers. I always remember the wonderful kids who I've enjoyed teaching the most, too. I remember quite a lot of them from Newbattle, and I could name everyone in my registration class from there still, as they were a fantastic bunch. The same will be true of the kids at Knox.
But I need the new challenge, and my new school is the perfect place for that.
To quote Oasis:
Don't stop being happy
Don't stop your clapping
Don't stop your laughing
Take a piece of life, it's alright
To hold back the night
Over the next few weeks, I will be giving my resources an overhaul. I'm going to be looking at adding animations next to instructions to show pupils how to do things without having to read. I will also review the learning intentions, the conciseness of the content, and assess the overall quality of the content.
I got some awesome feedback from a parent of a pupil I teach (I also asked if I could share their feedback anonymously on my website). They said:
[My child] thinks the world of you and everything you do for the school. We also know all the great work you do for the school, and all we hear is great things about your class! We also love what you've done with your lessons by making them all online, and they are great. Thank you for everything you do!
I was, of course, over the moon with this feedback, but I also know I put a lot of work in for the pupils and do my best at all times! The comment referred to my DragonDocs tasks and the interactivity that it brings (which has been praised several fold in the last few weeks by many pupils).
It's very nice to get feedback like this from a parent, especially after having had feedback from some parents at the weekend, too, to add to this!
I have just made one of the most difficult decisions in my life.
Three weeks ago or so, I saw a post at Edinburgh Academy. I had always liked Edinburgh Academy (and as you may know, I also do one of their websites), and I was in a difficult position at work, which added to my decision to apply. And so I did, and I completed my application a couple of days ago.
I went for the interview, which I think went well. I taught a lesson before, and it went very well. I spent a lot of time preparing the lesson materials but did what I usually do and just naturally taught. In the actual interview, I was open and honest and felt right at home talking to the panel. I could see myself working here.
I was offered the job but needed to think about it.
Unfortunately, the journey was very difficult - and I only learned this on the day. Each way, it took around 1 hour and 30 minutes to travel. Compared to the five minutes down the road that I have at present, this was something I knew my body could not go back to (I remember doing this when I worked on the west side of Edinburgh back in 2017).
So, ultimately, my heart was set on the job, but my brain was telling me no.
I decided to decline the offer with great sadness. To me, this was not a choice—it was the only way this could go.
However, I still love Knox, and for that reason, it doesn't feel as bad a knock. I'm still glad I applied (and was offered the job).
At last, I can finally say that all of my slideshows have been updated to the 16:9 aspect ratio - something that I started to work on at the start of June this year to better utilise the space available. Further to that, I've brought changes to the designs that make them more consistent, updated the styles for different sections and much more.
Over the last five years of me being a teacher, I have developed quite a few pretty handy tools for teaching. Those tools have for the most part only been used by me.
Some of the tools, such as BalfVote are nearly available to the general public but others remain behind closed doors and only for me to use.
Well, today that is about to change with my plan to amalgamate these tools together. So far my teaching tools are as follows:
- BalfVote
- PlanIt
- Timetabler
- Teacher Organiser report writer
- Course planner generator
My vision is that these five tools merge into one collective group of tools with one central location to use them.
Another great week ended with me getting a little certificate - completely out of the blue. This certificate was to say how well I'd managed to settle into my new school, which without a doubt I feel I have. I've never actually been happier in any other job, I really love the place and my department are amazing!
This certificate is another one of those little reasons that reminds me why I love my school - I not only feel very appreciated and welcome, but I also know that I made the right choice coming here, even if at first it was a difficult one because I liked where I was before.
Many of you will know I was a bit of a geeky kid who enjoyed lots of things that involved computers. One of my passions, when I was younger, was writing books about technology and computers.
I wrote my non-fiction first book in my first year of school and it came to 180 pages. It was based on what I would be studying a few years later, Standard Grade Computing.
In my fourth year of school I began to write my second book (technically the third since my second did not amount into anything), and this book was used for the training department in what I was trying to make into my own company (Balfour's Business). The company never became anything and I ditched it for Jambour Digital in 2017. The book was 382 pages long!
I've now started a new book called Complete Computing. This time Complete Computing will be made publicly available. This book is covering S3/Level 3/4 Computing and covers several different topics. CC is based around the S3 course at the school I teach at mixed with the course at another school which one of the co-authors works at.
Oh yes, and I didn't mention that this time to assist with the writing of the book I have encouraged someone else to co-author the book with me.
The ultimate aim of this book is to provide a resource for Level 3/4 Computing covering a wide range of topics that can be used. Whether I intend to publish it or not is still undecided.
