Let me make one thing very clear ... there are some really exciting developments happening and being developed at my school. Lots of people who are fascinated by how children learn working together to challenge and stretch their students and themselves is exciting. And with this aim in mind there has been some really thought provoking INSET over the past five days. There has also been plenty of opportunities for teachers to work on the details of developing the already exciting curriculum further. The only small downside to this process to date is that it has, at times, been steeped in jargon.
I quite liked being reminded in today's training that everyone should follow 'post-it note etiquette.' The post-it note is a great thing and should be used with politeness. I could just about accept that my process development required some 'internal voracity.' However I missed the point when asked to make sure that I was completing an 'iterative process,' consider who had the 'locus of responsibility' and 'reorder the variables that are summarised on the matrix to tease out the route.' Seeking inspiration and translation I found myself looking at one of the whiteboards only to find a note that made reference to those all important 'granular indices.'
My beef was not with the trainers, the training, the development or the work. All the developments will be really good when complete. My problem was with the trainers' overuse of jargon. I remember fondly my Drama lecturer who led my PGCE Drama course many years ago. He told his attentive, aspiring would-be Drama teachers that the best writing is the simplest writing and, following that gem, I have always tried to instill that into my students verbal and written work. There is a place for academic language and debate, but not for overuse of jargon that leaves people struggling to find the meaning behind the message. I suppose I should brought that up when modeling a scaffolding questioning technique that had sought a resolution focused solution.
While in Melaka this weekend, on a family jaunt, I was briefly confronted by some hair-based jargon. Seeking relief from the sun all Lawrences found our way into a shopping mall and even managed to order some drinks from the vast and daunting range of possibilities from a Chatime menu. Having drunk our refreshments we made a loo stop and noticed a hairdresser in action. It was not the hairdresser's awful hairdo that took my eye but their price list. The place offered some very confusing sounding treatments. If I had been so minded I could have chosen between a digital or Japanese perm. I could also have selected bonding and relaxing and all of these were offered at seemingly bargain prices. Maybe I should have gone for a combination? Who could possibly have doubted that I would have looked amazing with Japanese digitally permed hair that was so relaxed that it didn't appear to be bonded in anyway? It was only the fact that the hairdresser looked a bit scary that stopped me from asking what the difference between digital and Japanese perming was. Is it similar to the whole cricket and French cricket thing?
Melaka was a pretty good place to visit for the weekend. Ok, so I made a small error in getting us there. I programmed the exact address of our guesthouse into the Sat-Nav and we set off. The only small snag was that there were plenty of streets of the same name and so we were delivered approximately 20 miles off course. Applying a bit of common sense we did get to the place in the end.
On Saturday we became fully fledged tourists for the day and explored the replica of The Flor de la Mar, the elevating spinning tower, the maritime museum, various parks and the fort. Then after a rest had a good look at Jonker Street in the evening. On Sunday we explored some more, got confused by hair, had a good meal at The Dutch Harbour Cafeand then spent five hours in traffic driving the 80 or so miles home.
Lexi is on her half term holiday this week so as another family treat we went to see 'Epic' at the cinema on Monday, around tea time. The children seemed to enjoy it and Lexi coped well under the circumstances. I, however, left half way through as I really couldn't take any more. It was a terrible creation. Mini people flying around on starlings and canaries trying to make sure that a Michelle O'Bama character could select the creature who would save the forest before the day was out while at the same time a daughter came to live with her strange scientist father and then a round yellow thing burst into song. Lexi assured me that it all got sorted out in the end, but the yellow thing singing was cue for me exit the cinema and do some food shopping instead. The Great Gatsby, on the other hand, that Lexi and I watched last week was excellent.