For our INSET on Friday I was volunteered to go to a special day at another school where there were staff from several schools meeting together. Ideally more teachers would go from each place, but the staff in our department are quite long in the tooth and don't particularly like anything that resembles change, so left it to me to go along on my own.
Fortunately there were some Teaching Assistants there that I could talk to over tea before the main bit of the day. My mum's a TA so it was a bit like talking to her several times over.
The actual training bit featured lots of different maths activities, which is always fun for maths teachers because we're all great big geeks. I'm also seriously competitive and like to get answers to things before anyone else, which to be honest I usually manage.
We also had a bit of time looking at this new DVD resource that has been brought out. It's a series of case studies presented in videos and with lots of activities and problems that need solving. It looks very slick but while I was hoping that the toher teachers would have some good ideas on it they had less of a clue than I did. One person accessed the software and put on a video about it from the DVD. I'm sure he meant well but it nearly sent me into a coma, so I had to get stuck in, took charge and got everyone actually doing one of the activities, featuring an alien invasion. I was shocked at myself for being so in command but I was getting dangerously bored.
I spoke to several teachers from other schools during the day, which is always an unusual as I'm shocked to find that other maths teachrs under the age of forty exist. Our department is on the older side.
The best bit about the day was finishing at two-forty, leaving me plenty of time to get Sainsbury's.
