Author Archives: onequietteacher

Whose voices should we hear?

Thoughts on Bullying This blog is in response to the Priti Patel bullying scandal that has swept through UK news recently. I’m not a politician and won’t pretend to know the ins and outs of the situation – like any other member of the public, the view I have has been formed of what I’veContinueContinue reading “Whose voices should we hear?”

A New Challenge: Teaching in Early Years

This blog was originally published by True Education Partnerships. You can read it on their site instead by following this link (though if you do, please consider coming back here to leave a comment on it!) I spent the summer term and summer holidays trawling every search I could think of, in search of aContinueContinue reading “A New Challenge: Teaching in Early Years”

Finding My Voice

So, this happened… On Wednesday morning, I recorded a podcast with the wonderful Toria from Teaching Others and Learning All the Time. She has made it her mission to raise tiny voices from the Twitterverse, to help us be heard and to make our stories known. One of those stories is mine. My URL aloneContinueContinue reading “Finding My Voice”

Sunday Shelf, Vol. 4

Three Recent Reads Something I did a whole lot of in lockdown, not surprisingly, was reading. There were plenty of times when I needed an escape from the stressful scenario we found ourselves in (arguably, that we haven’t left yet!) and my crammed bookshelves were the ideal respite. So for this Sunday Shelf, I thoughtContinueContinue reading “Sunday Shelf, Vol. 4”

Sunday Shelf, Vol. 3

August 9th – Book Lovers’ Day A poem I came across while looking for images to accompany this blog post – sadly I am unable to find out who wrote it! Through the beauty of my twitter trends list this morning, I found out that today is Book Lovers’ Day (known as National Book Lovers’ContinueContinue reading “Sunday Shelf, Vol. 3”

Empowering the Quiet Ones

When ’empowerment’ emerged as a theme for the #DailyWritingChallenge, I thought long and hard about it. I feel as though I have been empowered by this blog, sharing pieces of myself with every entry I post and making connections with new people who have been affected by the things I have written. But this time,ContinueContinue reading “Empowering the Quiet Ones”

Are Treadmills Over-rated?

I’m in a weird in-between stage in my life, and I don’t know if I like it. Actually, I think my family would attest to me not liking it very much, considering how much I’ve moaned about it lately! All my life, my next step has been predetermined and secure. I have always known whatContinueContinue reading “Are Treadmills Over-rated?”

Resolve

Or, keeping calm and carrying on https://i.pinimg.com/564x/4c/b3/66/4cb366c455ecc08786d89e8c7cf234a4.jpg I have been fairly resilient for a long time. Setback after setback has tried to stop me living my dream, but here I am, the end of my NQT year a hair’s breadth from my grasp. I had rather hoped that my crusade of forced resilience might comeContinueContinue reading “Resolve”

#DailyWritingChallenge – Stillness

I have craved stillness all week. A classroom is not the best setting when temperatures are rising, and the movement required of teaching Year Ones, even in a bubble, is not the most comfortable thing in the world when outdoor temperatures are high. But the real stillness I’ve wanted has been mental rather than physical:ContinueContinue reading “#DailyWritingChallenge – Stillness”

I am not ideal.

I am not ideal. Let me unpack that, because in its stark brevity it may be jarring, despite its truth. The terms ‘extrovert’ and ‘introvert’ to describe the two ends of the personality spectrum are relatively new, having been popularised almost 100 years ago by Carl Jung. But the predisposition towards one or the other,ContinueContinue reading “I am not ideal.”

NQT/ECT Advice #3

What do I do in my first week? This was requested on Twitter by @miss_jwoodcock – I hope there’s something helpful in among all this! I think this is the blog I would have most wanted to read myself, as an NQT-to-be. There was so much running through my head, and despite all my placementContinueContinue reading “NQT/ECT Advice #3”

#DailyWritingChallenge – Choice

An average teacher in an average classroom makes 1500 choices every day. Our working life centres around the outcome of these decisions and then making infinite other choices as a result. Decision fatigue is very real; at the end of a day it’s not uncommon to see teachers struggle over the smallest choices because we’reContinueContinue reading “#DailyWritingChallenge – Choice”

#DailyWritingChallenge – Happiness

I struggled writing this! Not because I’m not happy, but because there’s a lot of things that can make me sit back and say “Yeah, I’m happy.” And for someone with a chronic anxiety disorder, it’s pretty great to be able to do that! When I sat with my blog notebook today, this is whatContinueContinue reading “#DailyWritingChallenge – Happiness”

#DailyWritingChallenge – Humour

I love to laugh. In my family, shared time is best spent with the kind of laughter that forces tears from you eyes while you silently rock, too amused to even produce sound. We find laughs everywhere: the obvious places like The Last Leg and Gogglebox; the more niche choice of Richard Osman’s House ofContinueContinue reading “#DailyWritingChallenge – Humour”

#DailyWriting Challenge – Roots

I’m currently reading Becoming by Michelle Obama; after lusting after this book, life got in the way and I ended up putting it down for an extended period, more than once. But there really is no excuse not to read, in lockdown! Though that makes it sound like a chore, and this book is farContinueContinue reading “#DailyWriting Challenge – Roots”

NQT/ECT Advice #2

On Rejection… I wrote this in the wake of what initially felt like the end of the world: being unsuccessful in interviewing for a further maternity cover at my school, that would have allowed me to stay for another year. I was crushed because I’ve loved working at that school, with wonderful children and fantasticContinueContinue reading “NQT/ECT Advice #2”

#DailyWritingChallenge – Compassion

Compassion is seeing a need for help, and helping; it is being thoughtful and kind; it is wanting to help, out of one’s own goodness. Teaching is a compassionate career. There’s no two ways about it: we devote our working lives to improving others, but if you spend any length of time in any school,ContinueContinue reading “#DailyWritingChallenge – Compassion”

#DailyWritingChallenge – Hope

Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darknessDesmond Tutu This week is Mental Health Awareness Week. While I think more is needed than conversation and awareness – perhaps, better access to healthcare, more acceptance of those with mental illness and less stigma around their being among us -ContinueContinue reading “#DailyWritingChallenge – Hope”

NQT/ECT Advice #1

What can I do over the summer to get ready? This was requested by @Miss_Grimmer on Twitter, and it’s actually been quite nice to reflect on what I did last summer, what I didn’t do and what I maybe should have done! I hope there’s something useful in here for soon-to-be NQT’s thinking about theContinueContinue reading “NQT/ECT Advice #1”

#DailyWritingChallenge – Harmony

Harmony – noun – the state of being in agreement or concord There has been a lot of negativity about teachers this week. Some of it is aimed directly at us: poisoned arrows of accusation that we’re not working hard enough;that we haven’t worked while schools are closed; that we think ourselves ‘special’. The worstContinueContinue reading “#DailyWritingChallenge – Harmony”

#DailyWritingChallenge – Integrity

Integrity. Noun. Adherence to moral and ethical principles; soundness of moral character; honesty.Dictionary.com After a lot (and I mean a lot) of indecision and restless thought about this blog, I turned to friends for advice. I had looked up the dictionary definition, read the blogs of others and breainstormed pages of notes that ultimately endedContinueContinue reading “#DailyWritingChallenge – Integrity”

#DailyWritingChallenge – Respect

This is not the blog I expected to write today. I was almost sure I wouldn’t be able to harness the enormous theme of ‘respect’ into something brief and engaging enough for a #DailyWritingChallenge entry… and then a very good friend, an NHS paediatric nurse, brought something to my attention that boiled my blood. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIhgwQMHQPQContinueContinue reading “#DailyWritingChallenge – Respect”

#DailyWritingChallenge – Curiosity

https://happilyeverafteretc.com/25-free-printables-for-your-home/ Curiosity. Noun. The desire to learn or know about anything; Inquisitiveness.https://www.dictionary.com/browse/curiosity?s=t Curiosity is the value that immediately sprang to mind as I chatted to one of my pupils this morning (over the phone, observing and respecting all social distancing and professional boundaries, I feel obligated to add!) They told me excitedly about all theContinueContinue reading “#DailyWritingChallenge – Curiosity”

Sunday Shelf, Vol. 2

Anime, Audiobooks and Alexis Ffrench I’m not sure how everything that I came to writing about ended up being something beginning with A… But here they are, three things that are certainly keeping me going at the moment while lockdown carries on and distractions are welcome. Anime is a very new love. Since titles startedContinueContinue reading “Sunday Shelf, Vol. 2”