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Month: May 2017

Turning 40

Posted on 07/05/201726/10/2020 By Mrs. Wilson No Comments on Turning 40
Exploring

birthdaymeSomehow, today I turned 40. I don’t know what I was expecting. I don’t feel 40, but what does 40 even feel like? When you’re a child, you think people who are 40 must be old and grown up. I don’t feel old or grown up.

On the other hand, I do feel like I’ve had more than my share of amazing experiences in 40 years. Sometimes though, I feel like an 18 year old who has just had an extra 22 years of life experience. Although my hair is changing from brown to gray, a few fine lines are appearing around my eyes and forehead, and my joints sometimes feel a little sore, I still don’t feel old. (Maybe the joints shouldn’t count since I had broke an elbow twice and had two knee surgeries before I was 18 – not to mention countless sprained ankles!) Maybe our spirit never feels old. Perhaps it’s just our earthly bodies that slowly wear out (not that mine feels very worn out, either).

I also never could have imagined I would spend my 40th birthday celebrating in England because I live here. It’s been a little difficult being so far away from the rest of my family. Last year, I spent my birthday hanging out with my sister and a lovely evening meal with my parents, sister, brother-in-law, and nephews. Although my husband was far away in England. This year, I’m the one far away from them but here with my husband.

I thought I wanted/needed to do something big and spectacular for my birthday, but I couldn’t figure out what. Yesterday, we went to the White Cliffs of Dover chasing the sun expecting today to be cloudy and wet.

But today ended up beautiful and sunny and I spent a blissful day in England from church to brunch to Stowe Landscape Gardens with my husband and dog, ending with a lovely meal at Jamie’s Italian. It was lovely; a great way to spend a birthday weekend. Maybe it wasn’t big and spectacular, but it was a beautiful day.

And so now I am 40. I can’t wait to see where the adventure of life takes me next!

Gardens, blue sky, and a lovely dog
Gardens, blue sky, and a lovely dog
Birthday coffee and GF brownie in the sunshine
Birthday coffee and GF brownie in the sunshine

Weekend walks in the country

Posted on 03/05/201726/10/2020 By Mrs. Wilson No Comments on Weekend walks in the country
Exploring

bluebell walkWe tend to spend a lot of our weekends exploring the countryside these days, especially if it is a sunny day. Back in Georgia, we didn’t do much walking in the country mainly because it was really hot most of the year, even in the higher elevations. In England, the main problem is rain, so if it’s a sunny day (or even a cloudy one with little chance of rain), it’s a perfect excuse to get out and do something.

We have membership in the National Trust, which allows us to visit over 500 places across the country ranging from historic chapels to country manors and coastal walks to countryside rambles. This past weekend, we drove towards the southeast coast not entirely sure where we would end up. Along the way, we decided to go to Bateman’s, the home of Rudyard Kipling. Most National Trust properties have a lot of land with walking trails, so we chose a two and half mile loop to explore. We found a range of sites from rolling hills to ancient woodland covered in bluebells.

walkingbootsSince we’ll be walking around a lot more, I decided it was time to buy some proper walking boots. I soon learned you also need proper walking socks. I had no idea what I wanted when I explored the shop, but I had a very knowledgeable gentleman helped me. I thought I needed an ankle high boot, but it turns out there not usually necessary for the types of walks I’ll be doing. Trying everything on and humming and hawing over it all reminded me of the first time I bought a pair of running shoes. And then found out there are running socks. And that some running socks are specific for the right and left feet! (Speaking of which, it’s been almost two years since my last pair of running shoes, so I’m overdue, and I actually have right and left footed socks these days!)

Walking through the countryside is really fun as you climb over stiles, pass through kissing gates, walk across fields of cows, horses, or sheep, and feel a million miles away from civilization. It’s definitely a great new way to pass the weekends, and it’s one of the things I’m really enjoying about England.

Day by day: Comparing US and UK school schedules

Posted on 01/05/201726/10/2020 By Mrs. Wilson No Comments on Day by day: Comparing US and UK school schedules
Teaching

In the previous post, I shared some differences in the yearly school schedules.Today, I want to compare what I’ve experienced schedule wise in the US versus UK on a daily basis.

One of the big differences is that in the US we refer to the school schedule, our daily schedule, students have schedules, etc. We like the word schedule. In the UK, everything is referred to as a timetable. In a sense, they are the same thing. However, a student’s timetable in the UK is much more complex (that’s the case for teachers, too).

US Daily School Schedule

Firstly, I taught for ten years in the US, and we tweaked the daily schedule in major or minor ways every year. There were also some significant differences between middle and high school. In middle school, students took four academic classes (math, science, language arts, and social studies) every day and two connections classes. Our discussion on the middle school schedule included things like length academic classes vs. connections classes, lunch times, who had connections at which time of time (sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students stayed together for connections, and the length of time for homeroom. Ultimately in middle school, students took four academic classes every day along with the two connections. The schedule for a particular student would stay basically the same throughout the year with a rotation of connections classes each nine weeks. Academic teachers would have planning periods while the students were at connections. This meant that all grade level academic teachers had planning at the same time allowing for meetings to take and planning to take place. Most recently for me, academic classes were 70 minutes in length.

The two years I taught at high school were quite different from each other. The first year, we were on a traditional non-block schedule. Students had seven classes each day including four core academic classes and three electives. Classes were 55-minutes each, and there was an hour for lunch. Teachers had one 55-minute planning period per day.

The following year, we switched to an A/B block schedule. Students had eight classes total, attending four classes each day in addition to a 25-minute academy time for project work. Class periods were 85-minutes in length, lunch was 30 minutes, and teachers had one planning period each day. So as a teacher, I taught three longer classes each day. Although I am not there this year (obviously) I did help shape the schedule for this year, which is a tweak of the previous schedule. We still use an A/B block, but Monday students go to all classes for shorter periods of time. Students are back to taking 7 classes instead of 8, and there is a full block of academy time every B day (Wednesdays and Fridays). You can see what the schedule looks like for Mondays, A days, and B days below.

Monday Schedule

A-day Schedule

B-day Schedule

It might look confusing at first glance, but after a week or two, all students and teachers have their own personal schedule memorized. One interesting thing to note is that you see the same classes at the same time each day. This is pretty common in the US. It’s incredibly different in the UK as you’ll see below.

UK Daily School Schedule

The basic schedule at my current school is the same each day. We start with 20 minutes of form/tutor time. This is similar to homeroom in the US. We then have 1st and 2nd periods followed by a 15 minute break. This 15 minute break is awesome. Teachers have duty one day each week, but the other days it is a break for students and teachers alike to grab a snack and a cuppa. (How very British!) We then have 3rd period. Fourth period is longer as it’s the lunch period, and it’s followed by 5th period, the last class of the day. There are review sessions for an hour after that, mainly for students in exam groups. It rotates by content area, and science does ours on Wednesdays. Otherwise, teachers often have meetings during this time period as the majority of students have gone home after 5th period.

Hazeley schedule

Now here is where the big differences come in. Instead of a student’s schedule repeating daily or every other day, at my school now, a student’s schedule repeats every two weeks. It’s the same for the teachers. Students don’t have the same classes at the same time each day. Depending on the grade level, students have a different number of science classes over that two-week period (generally referred to as a fortnight).

Since the schedule only repeats once a fortnight, it is really difficult to remember the schedule. I have mine written down to refer to at all times, and students write their timetable in their planner. If a student loses their planner, they usually need to get a copy of their timetable in order to know where to go when.

One perk to this schedule is that I see a class group at different times of a day throughout the fortnight. It becomes really apparent how time of day affects learning and behavior. I have one class in particular that are really amazing when I have them period 1 or 2 and that are a complete handful period 4 or 5. If I only saw them in the afternoon, I might think they were all just poorly behaved. However, since I also see them in the mornings, I know a lot of it has to do with time of day (not that I’m excusing poor behavior, but I think all factors should be considered).

Here’s a glimpse of my current timetable noting weeks A and weeks B. When I initially received my schedule, I had to color code it in order to help me see what classes I had when.

currentschedule

Since I’ve been teaching in England for less than a year, I’m not sure how a timetable/schedule like this evolved. From what I’ve seen, I believe other schools operate similar schedules. I also don’t yet know what my preference is between the US and UK. The only stand out is planning. I’ll talk about this more in another post, but planning one lesson to teach 4-5 times in the US system is much more efficient use of teacher time (in my opinion) than planning 4-5 different lessons to teach one day with no repeats. It also doesn’t allow for that perfecting of the lesson throughout the day that I used to love. There’s a lot more to share about differences in how lessons works, so I’ll save it for another post.

Finally, you might have noticed there was not a new post on Friday. My initial aim was to post every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. I may have to rethink this schedule, as I find I’m quite exhausted on a Friday afternoon!

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