Nicole Masureik's Page

My Head (principal) goes on and on about how we teachers are first and foremost academics, and that therefore we need to be continually seeking to learn new stuff. He's right, in many respects, although I disagree that we are all academics - many teachers get into teaching because they enjoy teaching, not because they're of an academic mind-set. But I know why he says that. I understand why he encourages us to keep learning. Firstly, once you're in the classroom as the teacher, it's easy to for… Continue

This has been a week for feeling appreciated (which doesn't happen very often in education!) Firstly, a large percentage of my kids at school have come up to thank me specifically for something I've done - from helping them achieve well in the exams to teaching them this term, to being willing to answer their questions, to being gracious with them (!!). It's been fab! As a teacher, you get used to busting a gut with no reward (teaching is its own reward... apparently), and to being taken for gr… Continue

A bit of a mouthful, but apparently very good for you. We had a (VERY) short ProGro presentation yesterday by some staff who'd been on a course. I found it fascinating, because it linked in with what I already knew about VAK learning and Brain Gym. VAK stands for Visual, Auditory, Kinesthetic. Kids predominantly learn in one or tow of these three ways. As teachers, if we want to help our kids, we need to be teaching in such a way as to allow kinesthetic and visual learners to access the curric… Continue

This morning I found out that my actions yesterday were the trigger for a mother pulling her son out of our school today. I am gutted. I feel utterly devastated. I know it's not my fault directly, and that clearly my actions were the last in a string of events, but it makes no difference to me. The boy in question was misbehaving, and so I disciplined him in an appropriate way. I was covering a lesson for an absent colleague. I had carefully explained the work, answered several questions regar… Continue

On Wednesday we had a brilliant presentation by a research psychologist from a local private school (I'm going to try to protect this person's identity because I may want to some comments that aren't too positive about the school). It was a brilliant presentation! In summary: 1) The development of teenage brains makes them particularly susceptible to alcohol. 2) The effects of drinking in teenagers are completely dissimilar to those displayed by adults. (They do not slur their speech, lo… Continue