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:Continue reading “#DailyWritingChallenge – Stillness”
Category Archives: #DailyWritingChallenge
#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’reContinue 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 whatContinue 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 ofContinue 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 farContinue reading “#DailyWriting Challenge – Roots”
#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,Continue reading “#DailyWritingChallenge – Compassion”
#DailyWritingChallenge – Hope
Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness Desmond 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 usContinue reading “#DailyWritingChallenge – Hope”
#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 worstContinue 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 ultimatelyContinue 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. ForContinue reading “#DailyWritingChallenge – Respect”
#DailyWritingChallenge – Curiosity
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 theContinue reading “#DailyWritingChallenge – Curiosity”
November
While this is an addition to my NQT series, it is equally an entry for the #DailyWritingChallenge, under the heading of ‘perseverance.’ November was a long, hard slog for me: not a month I will forget in a hurry for sure. I moved out of my parents’ house, for that first taste of independence andContinue reading “November”
#DailyWritingChallenge – Creativity
With the time to reflect, my weekend and the days leading up to it were more than a little stressful, despite the small respite of my 22nd birthday on Thursday. Unfortunately, this entry slipped to the bottom of my to-do list, which feels like a great shame as I usually consider myself to be aContinue reading “#DailyWritingChallenge – Creativity”
#DailyWritingChallenge – Change
As a self-confessed history geek, I have to admit that this blog prompt felt like a lightbulb moment for me. I loved history at school, and fondly remember the themes of ‘change’ and ‘continuity being imprinted on my mind as they arose time and time again. There is no doubt that the period we fndContinue reading “#DailyWritingChallenge – Change”
#DailyWritingChallenge – Trust
There have been better days than today, and I am sure that better days are coming. Today, not even a run was enough to clear my head, so I guess that leaves me waiting it out. I have to trust that it will get better. How is it even possible to feel burnt out byContinue reading “#DailyWritingChallenge – Trust”
#DailyWritingChallenge – Emotions
While the prompt for today is ‘Emotions’, I could easily have titled this entry Everything is up in the air and it’s not much fun. Emotions are raw at the moment, and I’m sure that’s not just the case for me. But what is the case for me, is a huge shift in my emotionsContinue reading “#DailyWritingChallenge – Emotions”
#DailyWritingChallenge – Purpose
When I was in the classroom every day, I think I knew my purpose. I was a teacher, with all the unpackable purpose of that job title that I had worked for so long to earn. Being an NQT though, I was still very much finding my feet and still in a permanent state ofContinue reading “#DailyWritingChallenge – Purpose”
#DailyWritingChallenge – Growth
There is a daily writing challenge gaining traction in the #edutwitter community, and this is my first step into it. 500 words maximum, on the given topic – today, it’s Growth. Considering I’m in a profession that’s all about encouraging growth in others and constantly finding growth in oneself, plus I’ve done a hell ofContinue reading “#DailyWritingChallenge – Growth”
One Quiet Teacher 