tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5032986746069549217Fri, 25 Oct 2024 08:01:54 +0000work-life balanceinspirationreflectionCPDICTeducationtwitterLifeisaboutlearningcareerchangecomfort zoneenergygooglehome learningleadershiplearningmusicskillstypingThoughts on learning, teaching, leadership and other vaguely education related inner monologues I may have been having.http://thereallbattle.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.com (Lara)Blogger15125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5032986746069549217.post-2004554593120103119Tue, 28 Dec 2010 03:51:00 +00002010-12-28T03:51:19.067+00:00I have decided to move The Reall Battle to reallbattle.wordpress.com. Sorry for any inconvenience,http://thereallbattle.blogspot.com/2010/12/moving-on.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Lara)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5032986746069549217.post-6300488300107298225Wed, 22 Dec 2010 16:48:00 +00002010-12-22T16:48:05.319+00:00learningToday I've been wondering about what's happened to my teaching recently.  I was really excited about having two days a week in one class, rather than bits and pieces across the school.  And yes, I was nervous that I would be teaching Y3 rather than my comfort zone of Y5/6.  However, I WAS excited; I was looking forward to being able to focus on being in a classroom with a set of http://thereallbattle.blogspot.com/2010/12/obstacles-to-learning.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Lara)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5032986746069549217.post-8772897862267446683Fri, 19 Nov 2010 21:01:00 +00002010-11-20T10:07:36.133+00:00ICTinspirationI bought a 2 Do It Yourself site licence for our school a couple of BETTs ago now. It's been used with great success in ICT Club and with our pupil editors of our learning platform. But today started the most exciting experience so far for me. We have been looking at metres and centimetres in Y3 and today I really wanted to reinforce the 100cm in a metre concept and encourage the children to http://thereallbattle.blogspot.com/2010/11/power-of-diy-2diy-that-is.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Lara)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5032986746069549217.post-3826098577690424712Sat, 13 Nov 2010 23:56:00 +00002010-11-14T12:17:47.395+00:00energyinspirationmusicAt the end of October I put together an anti-SAD playlist on Spotify.  At the same time I decided to subscribe to Spotify premium so that I could listen to said playlist on my iPod. I wish I had done this years ago.  I've long been away that my mood and energy levels are affected by the weather and that as the days grow shorter I really struggle.  Having lots of songs that have a http://thereallbattle.blogspot.com/2010/11/mood-music.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Lara)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5032986746069549217.post-3865372018549949903Wed, 10 Nov 2010 22:45:00 +00002010-11-10T22:45:31.171+00:00googleThe arrival of the magnifying glasses next to Google search results could have been designed for children.  Being able to see a screen shot of the page enables pupils to get a sense of whether the link will be interesting and at a level of text density that is suitable for their reading level. It is also helpful to see where the search terms appear within that page to speed up the scanning http://thereallbattle.blogspot.com/2010/11/google-preview.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Lara)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5032986746069549217.post-6890543669253758348Sat, 06 Nov 2010 16:27:00 +00002010-11-06T16:27:23.452+00:00educationhome learningThe battle between home and school. Now clearly homework shouldn't be a battle for anyone.  OK, who am I kidding?! Improving attitudes to homework throughout our school community has been on my remit for a couple of years now.  In that time I've done a lot of reading of books and web articles, talking to children, looking at parent questionnaires and leading staff discussions. I http://thereallbattle.blogspot.com/2010/11/adventures-in-home-learning.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Lara)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5032986746069549217.post-8148951845267074897Sat, 30 Oct 2010 16:02:00 +00002010-10-30T17:02:09.219+01:00work-life balance I really am the LAST person to create a tips list like this as I seem to either feel like I've worked all through a half term or that I've frittered the whole week away without noticing.  However, there's the whole 'do as I say' thing to go on... Anyone else's tips gratefully received! 1. Plan to relax Actually decide times when you are going to do nothing and then don't feel guilty http://thereallbattle.blogspot.com/2010/10/five-ways-to-make-most-of-your-half.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Lara)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5032986746069549217.post-1194229634993303776Sat, 30 Oct 2010 15:38:00 +00002010-10-30T16:50:42.342+01:00reflectionwork-life balanceThe Battle between relaxation and guilt Well I managed to go out on a drive through the beautiful Berkshire countryside on Monday to make the most of a lovely day - the leaves in Windsor great park were stunning. But other than that - well I did try to switch off.  Really I did.  And I enjoyed reading Labyrinth as part of the relaxation (and also discovering in the process of finding http://thereallbattle.blogspot.com/2010/10/half-term-round-up.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Lara)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5032986746069549217.post-2593498067589887468Sat, 23 Oct 2010 14:43:00 +00002010-10-23T15:45:00.137+01:00CPDreflectiontwitterwork-life balanceWelcome to Half Term! Looking at the posts of other UK teachers on Twitter and Facebook, clearly this half term holiday is well overdue for many of us.  And it's time to stop.  Well earned time to stop. So I'm stopping.  Sort of.  I've not brought any work home with me, so that it isn't sitting in my office making me feel guilty when I try to relax. But I have no wish to http://thereallbattle.blogspot.com/2010/10/time-to-stop.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Lara)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5032986746069549217.post-2109729630719367734Sat, 11 Sep 2010 10:23:00 +00002010-09-11T11:31:58.912+01:00careereducationleadershipThe battle between teaching and leadership I started this post about two weeks ago, towards the end of the summer holidays.  I started writing because all of the fantastic educational conversations and links to interesting articles had jump started my thinking about moving into headship.  It was originally titled: 'Do you know where you're going to?' and was a much more straightforwardhttp://thereallbattle.blogspot.com/2010/09/who-should-we-be-educating-anyway.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Lara)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5032986746069549217.post-1590075624413699445Wed, 01 Sep 2010 18:25:00 +00002010-09-01T19:25:54.090+01:00changecomfort zonereflectionThe battle at the edge of the comfort zone Three years ago, our Headteacher started the new school year by sharing a story with the staff about a fly and a window.  The premise of the story was a fly that kept crashing into a window many times when attempting to escape from a room.  Never does the fly turn around and fly out of the open door.  I work in a fantastic school with http://thereallbattle.blogspot.com/2010/09/flying-through-open-door.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Lara)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5032986746069549217.post-8592588275260684418Thu, 26 Aug 2010 00:52:00 +00002010-08-28T19:45:07.516+01:00ICTskillstyping Not actually a battle between handwriting and typing This post was inspired by a Twitter discussion this week between, amongst others, @oliverquinlan, @APrimaryNQT, @tomhenzley and @KnikiDavies on the merits of handwriting and word processing. Despite the humble word processor being one of the ICT tools that has been in use in schools the longest, it can often be one of the most poorly used http://thereallbattle.blogspot.com/2010/08/teaching-typing.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Lara)4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5032986746069549217.post-6422142907235996549Sat, 21 Aug 2010 19:25:00 +00002010-08-21T20:25:23.058+01:00work-life balanceAm I the only one battling to switch off? My ten days with Twitter has inspired me and reminded me that teaching is far more than a job as far as I'm concerned.  Which is a good thing.  I think... But I'm beginning to wonder whether there's a problem with all this educational enthusiasm that I have been treating myself to recently. Nicola Stables' recent blog post, Switching Off, http://thereallbattle.blogspot.com/2010/08/work-life-balance.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Lara)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5032986746069549217.post-6285520638752219108Thu, 19 Aug 2010 10:05:00 +00002010-08-26T02:42:44.324+01:00CPDinspirationLifeisaboutlearningtwitterThe battle between alleys and valleys So I’ve now been using Twitter for a whole week.  I’ve heard lots about it in the past – generally from people I considered quite ‘techy’ and often about using it in the classroom.  Nothing that I’d heard ever made me consider it was an avenue I was that desperate to wander down – more a slightly suspect alley that didn’t look at all appealing, http://thereallbattle.blogspot.com/2010/08/so-ive-now-been-using-twitter-for-whole.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Lara)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5032986746069549217.post-4850893026533382423Sat, 14 Aug 2010 10:09:00 +00002010-08-14T11:09:26.103+01:00This isn't the first time I've thought about starting a blog. Indeed this isn't the first blog I've started; but this time it feels different. It feels like I need to do it. In my head I've been having so many monologues that sound like they should be written down, including one on whether I should blog or not. So today I've done it. I've made the decision. And I really hope that it was the http://thereallbattle.blogspot.com/2010/08/decisions-decisions.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Lara)2