• I had a great flight to Guernsey today, which was marred by the enormous queue at the airport because they only had one X-ray machine open. It was supposed to rain, but it was lovely and sunny when I landed with Paul Dowswell, who is also appearing in secondary schools here this week. It was great to see Simon James later on. He is seeing the KS1 children and I’m seeing all KS2. Off early in the morning to start a packed week. Here is a little bit of video I took on a walk to the harbour, this afternoon.

  • I just bumped into a friend of mine – a retired mathematics teacher – and we had a bit of a chinwag on the pavement as the cars and trucks whizzed by.

    He’s unsatisfied by an eight week course on watercolours he’s signed up for. The first four weeks are all drawing and they are building up to using a full palette at the end of the course. He feels very frustrated and and a little let down.

    I’m sure the art teacher has his reasons and thinks he is leading his pupils through a well-crafted and brilliantly thought out learning plan, but I don’t suppose that’s what most of the evening course students really signed up for. I’m sure they wanted to come away at the end of the first lesson with something that looked a tiny bit like a watercolour – something that would inspire them to carry on.

    I’ve been working on my drawing school for most of this year, and I’m learning that teaching is very hard work. It’s not just crowd control and spouting at the front of the class. The comments I get on my videos are very helpful and encourage me to improve next time. But there is a huge, silent majority of viewers I never hear from, just as teachers never hear from the kids who don’t do so well. It’s usually the clever ones who understand what’s going on and put their hands up.

    Maybe the first lesson for those of us who are not regular teachers, but who might take an evening class or put information up on the net, it to learn to do what it says on the tin.

    If the title of a course or video is, “learn to paint watercolours” then teach how to use watercolours and don’t spend the first lesson making sure the students have all sharpened their pencils properly!

    I’m going to put a lot more thought into my titles and headlines from now on.

  • I’m really looking forward to visiting Guernsey next week for Children’s Book Week. I’ve not been before. I think my preconceptions of the island are all built on the TV series Bergerac, which was set on Jersey. I’m sure Guernsey will turn out to be very different.

    I do enjoy visiting islands. Every island I’ve visited has a definite character all of its own. See you next week!

    I’ll be doing a public session at the Grammar School 6.30 – 7.30 on Wednesday 6th October. Please come along – see you there!