You're the hidden cost and the thing that's lost In everything I do (Jackson Browne)

Photo by Philipp Lublasser on Unsplash

At present, I'm struggling a tad to be as efficient as I can be while establishing some me-time balance. It will be a neat trick when I pull it off.

I do like a challenge! 

In my current job, I knew going in that my downtime was going to be eroded, but I didn't realise it would disappear. Zip. Zilch. Nada. Finito - Kapish. 

Which was stupid of me. 

My job is that of an enhanced Deputy Principal, on steroids. I had no time when I was a DP at Cambridge High School. There was (and is) no 'free period' when you are a DP.  

Regular readers will recall that I checked this particular pulse a few months ago. I knew this term I would need to carve out some me-time at school, but, has it happened? Has it heck as like.

So I re-read this article by Mark McCartney from the Guardian - How To Do The Most Work In The Shortest Time, to take stock. 

First a reminder of Mark's top tips. 

1. Disappear (Lock yourself in a room away from distractions and focus fully on one task at a time). Nope - cannae do that yet. Feels slightly off to do that - I like being accessible a little too much. This one's a case of - must apply myself harder. 

2. Don’t fight distraction  (work in short bursts, with high levels of focused attention). Check - that's the way I roll.  

3. Simplify (what can you stop doing?). Still learning. This is probably something I can start doing more next year. Needs must this yesr.  

4. Find your rhythm (spend the first 60 minutes of your day on the one or two really important tasks you need to get done). Check! I have always arrived at school an hour early. Currently it's 90 mins.  

5. Strengthen (actively arrange your role so you can focus on what you are good at). Not yet. Same answer as #3.

6. Watch the robots (focus on being effective). My aim is true.

7. Be honest. Always!

So how did I do, compared to earlier in the year? The above answers haven't changed much...yet.  

As Mark says:

It’s often our own deeply entrenched habits that stop us from getting more done more quickly.

Basically, I could do better. I will do better!  

I read the news today oh boy - four thousand holes in Blackburn, Lancashire (The Beatles)

My very first purchase upon reaching London for our latest trip to the country with a meaningful cultural context (hello Arsenal, Carry On..films, Stratford Westfield Mall) was what, do you suppose?

Of course! The Guardian.

Boy oh boy, do I miss a proper paper when I'm outside the U.K.

Our San Francisco stop over meant I could read the New York Times a couple of, erm, times. I was underwhelmed. Okay, if pushed, it may have whelmed me slightly in the American sport coverage. But it's no Guardian!

The Guardian is, undoubtedly, the finest collection of daily writing to be found on the planet. And I love my daily dose. 

To continue the literary theme of this post - I'm nearly finished Philip K. Dick's The Man in the High Castle (currently being advertised as a TV show that is based on this novel).

The brilliant premise is what hooked me enough to buy a copy - what if the Germans and Japanese had won WW2? Yikes!

It took a while for it to grab hold (and sort out who was who) but now I'm reading it every chance I can get. I'm up to page 220 (out of 249) and so far, no sign of actually meeting the man in that high castle (who, in a great twist, wrote a controversial novel about how America/ Britain/ Russia won WW2).

I can't actually see how they could make two seasons of TV out of this material but that's American TV for you. Apparently it's a really good show.

Anyway - off to finish those remaining pages...

Only way to feel the noise is when it's good and loud (Motorhead)

Schools went back to work in the UK this week. Hopefully that means it will be a little less frenetic on the nation's high streets for the rest of our London holiday (which helps explain why this post is a tad late this week).

That said - here are five more cool things from my bookmarks:

1 Your next book

This place suggests your next book for you. For instance My Murakami search revealed Rhys Thomas and Graeme Simsion.

2 Transformers
Richard Wells watched a pile of TED talks and came up with this nifty list of five things that transform a school.

3 New Year mayhem
This is a good example of how people see things differently. And people are blimmin clever when they do! Another great story from The Guardian.

4 Sir Ken Robinson
Creativity is an important word/concept that Sir ken returns to often.  

5 Presentation lessons from Steve Jobs
Finally this week - some nifty lessons to learn from Apple presentations.

There must be something deep down in the dark down there (Tame Impala)

Here's another tight five (go The All Blacks!!):

1 This mixtape of education goodies is worth it's own post but, hey - this is my tight five so they only warrant one place. 

It comes from the good people at Bright. If you haven't caught up with that source...what are you waiting for? It comes warmly Purdzilla recommended.

2 Lots of Lolly
Lolly Daskal (yes - her real name) writes wonderful stuff. Here she is on 12 hard truths about leadership! Again - this could be a post in and of itself but - yep - you got it - I'm in a generous mood.

3 Exams
The bane of a student's life. This Guardian article (I LOVE The Guardian) is a spot on piece of advice about sitting exams! Did you hear that in the back? Come on! You can do it! Never give up! NEVER SURRENDER!!

4 Social media
I liked this article about a school leader's use of social media to communicate stuff. Feels a bit revolutionary, a bit subversive, maybe a tad dangerous. I like it!

5 OTT blogging
In keeping with the OTT nature of this post here are twenty (TWENTY) educational bloggers you could delve into. Woo Hoo - how cool is that?!!

When you were young you were the king of carrot flowers (Neutral Milk Hotel)

Five more of my bookmarks for y'all:

1 Okay - long good read time 
I keep coming back to this bookmark - 

The McNamara Fallacy and the Problem with Numbers in Education from Chronotope.

It's endlessly fascinating, as in - so far I haven't managed to get to the end of it - you may have more luck. It's very thought provoking but it will test your powers of concentration. Are you up for the challenge?

2 and 3 Short good read time with Leadership Freak: The most important leadership idea, today. Yes that hooked me too! And I liked his answer. Then try this one about being exceptional, or not!

4 How to teach revision. Apposite timing Wozza! You need to reread this one.

5 How to transform a school. This is another Guardian article that I bookmarked. They have SO MUCH good stuff!! I love the Guardian. I really really do!

I took a speed reading course and we read War and Peace in twenty minutes. It concerns Russia (Woody Allen)

The Guardian is awesome.

I considered just having that as my post but I guess I should expand on that simple sentence.

From time to time they run a story about tablets and education.

Being The Guardian though, it's a balanced view and not an alarmist hand wringing exercise.

I particularly liked the suggestion that reading is increasing if anything but as I delved into these statistics I realised that there's nothing much conclusive there, one way or another.

Interesting article though, if you get a chance.

A student recently showed me a suggested reading list for Scholarship English. It was an interesting list with the usual suspects (Brontes, Austen, Dickens, Vonnegut and so on) but standing out like a beacon was the name Haruki Murakami.  

Definitely, he stretches boundaries. I'm currently reading Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage. It's pretty straight forward compared to some of his other novels; these things are relative yunnerstan. And short too. Having finished the three books that make up 19Q4 recently this one is like a short story.

I do love his writing. Here's a pretty much random bit (which isn't meant to be taken literally btw):

At twilight birds with razor-sharp beaks came to relentlessly scoop out his flesh. But as darkness covered the land, the birds would fly off somewhere, and that land would silently fill in his flesh with something else, some other indeterminate material.

A master class of flair!

I welcome you to Crackerbox Palace (George Harrison)

How much do I love the guardian?

I love it a lot!

It's often the first thing I read in the morning via my ipad while I'm eating breakfast, and sometimes it's even the last thing I read at night (yes - okay - I'm probably checking the football news then to be fair).

When I lived in England for a while in the noughties I bought a copy of the guardian every day.

It has my kind of stuff - everyday. That idea seems too good to be true. 

A recent edition had a story about how aspirational parents condemn their children to a desperate joyless life. Great title!

Along the way the article mentioned that last year the U.K. government okayed testing for 4 year olds:

The DfE said that the reception "check" would be taken at "the earliest possible point in school", with schools able to choose from a number of approved assessments, which have yet to be announced. It will then be used to measure how much progress pupils have made between the start and end of primary school, with the aim of meeting a progress target to be set.

There were so many alarm bells ringing for me in that short paragraph that I thought I'd been transported into Pink Floyd's Dark Side Of The Moon (you know - when all those alarm bells go off in Time). 

• the reception "check"
• "the earliest possible point"
• approved assessments
• yet to be announced
• progress target

AARRGGGHHHHHH!!!!! Followed by a deep sigh.

Just weighing a pig doesn't fatten it.

This is so Orwellian I thought I had gone back to 1984; this is so Alice In Wonderlandian I thought I'd gone down a rabbit hole.

Someone, somewhere had this bright idea to test FOUR YEAR OLDS and then they shared it with someone else and the idea spread like wildfire until THE GOVERNMENT approved it. 

Poor poor wee mites.

What the hell is going on?

The teacher is teachin' the Golden Rule (Chuck Berry)

This photo appeared recently in the Guardian Weekly. The caption read: Palestinian girls attend a class at a school that witnesses said was damaged by Israeli shelling during the most recent conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza City.

I love this photo.

Yes, it shows girls persevering with their learning in horrendous circumstances- but it also looks normal- just look at the expressions on the girls' faces as they focus, and I love the idea that a hand up to get the teacher's attention is a global phenomenon. 

Yes, amazingly, it shows how a classroom can somehow become a target in a battle between opposing forces.

But my biggest YES moment? The teacher!

I am so full of admiration for this anonymous woman who is bravely leading the way in outrageous circumstances. It makes me proud to be in the same profession as her.

I couldn't help comparing this to my classroom and the girls I teach at Woodford House, and the staff I teach with.

I love the place and the people at the school and I don't want to become complacent. I know I need a reminder from time to time of how lucky I am to be here.

I have seen similar places to that in the photo and worked with similar students and teachers - people who have no resources except for their will, integrity, knowledge and, most importantly, their imagination.

I love this photo for giving me a window into a parallel teaching/learning world.

I started looking and the bubble burst (Coldplay)

Lord knows I am no mathematician (my brother inherited the paternal science genes, not me). Shock horror revelation.

But it is hard not to be amazed by this guy. I guess there's a trick to how he does it (as he says it's partly magic which implies it's a trick) but it remains a great exhibition of numerical dexterity.



The bad news for me is that I can no longer even entertain the notion that I will attain any maths skills.

According to the Guardian - scientists in the UK have done research that shows we all lose cognitive skills from the age of 45 onwards (not from our 60's as previously thought - obviously by people over 45).

They found that over the 45-49 decade there was a 3.6% decline in the mental reasoning of men and women.

Men aged 65 - 70 have a decline of 9.6% while women fared a little better with a 7.4% decline.

So halas to mathematics for this guy who has lost about 5% of my reasoning skills by now, I guess. At least I think I have - maybe it's more.