I consider myself a glass half full kind of bloke and usually look forward to the beginning of a new school year, mainly because I'm excited about the things I want to get up to in my classroom.
This session really should be the same: I've got a new smartboard in my room to play with (when the projector gets fixed/ replaced) and we are finally going to get our teeth into ACfE.
So why am I not quite so fired up as usual. Here's why: I have a sneaking suspicion (and I am very willing to be proved wrong) that our experience of ACfE is going to simply be some kind of statistical analysis of curriculum areas where results are "best" and this will determine in some way or form how we are going to proceed. I suspect there is going to be a ridiculous amount of paperwork which will have little or no effect on classroom teaching and learning.
But if I generally have a Postitive Mental Attitude about change why am I so glum abot this. Well, our headie (of all of 18 or so months) is off to a bigger school (more money) and we are getting another rector from another school as head to tide us over whilst a permanent boss is found, in the meantime we also lost our senior depute to promotion. Therefore I wonder who is going to have the drive and motivation to push forward the far reaching innovative changes that I feel ACfE demands.
I want ACfE to change the way education in Scotland is delivered, not solely in how we assess or categorise students but how educators work (together!) Sooooo, I think I am going to have to be a little creatively subversive in this and just simply ensure that creativity, imagination and enjoyment are watchwords in my class. Can I do this? Yes I think so.
Hmmm I feel a bit better about going back already. Blogging=catharsis
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