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#teacher5aday end of year review

Back in December, I wrote a post as part of Martyn Reah's #teacher5aday initiative to encourage teachers to consider their wellbeing at the start of the new year.
It's now time to review that post (mostly because Martyn 'told' me to)

I've certainly done plenty of that, working with hundreds of teachers again at events at venues ranging from the National Coalmining museum, to a school in Bourne, to a conference organised by Bob Digby for Osiris on a sweaty day in London a few weeks ago, but I've also connected with students and will be going back to teaching full time from September and taking on a KS2-3 leadership role, bucking the trend shown here

Images that I took have been used in the 2 exhibitions that Maryn's organised: at Haslemere Museum and more recently at UCL Institute of Education (one of my current employers)

As for disconnecting, well I'm 2 weeks into my summer break, but not quite there yet on disconnecting completely, with writing projects keeping me busy up until now. But I haven't driven down the A10 for 2 weeks now, which is pleasing to me...

I've walked around quite a few new cities, and certainly made the most of my time in Helsinki - next up will be a few coastal walks in Devon in a week's time, and the Shaun the Sheep trail in Bristol - the annual trip to Devon is part of the rhythm of the year, and it is the regular rhythm of the year which drives so many teachers' lives. We heard a few weeks ago that we're going to be involved in an EU project next year, which will get me to lots of new cities which I can walk around...

I've noticed plenty of new things, and also made lots of new musical discoveries... I managed to go back to the street where I was born last month, and wandered round places where I grew up - I noticed lots of changes and chatted about them with a friend I've not seen for 15 years...
I also tried some new routes to get to work, all framed around getting different views of Ely Cathedral such as this one... I still have a big pile of books by my bed, with several pencilled in for the summer break, as I'm taking part in the #teacher5adayread project. Currently reading Ian McMillan's 'Neither nowt nor summat', on Yorkshire - a wonderful chapter on food that I read last night, and the importance of the Yorkshire pudding
I'm still working on a range of projects, and am currently doing lots of reading before writing several chapters of an 'A' level textbook for the new specifications. Always learning...


I've helped a lot of teachers by answering e-mail queries and shared resources and advice and answered questions. If people take the trouble to seek out my opinion, I try to help, and several colleagues followed up on sessions that I'd done. I'm going to be doing some more GA branch lectures in the new academic year and have other projects which I shall be working on.

Coming up to summer blogging break too when I will #disconnect for a while...
Have a great summer everyone!

Image: Alan Parkinson
#teacher5aday #teacher5adayread