Creativity

This week I went to a mini maths conference, after school, with 20 maths teachers from my county. I went because my Head of Department (HoD) noticed my frustration with the lack of innovation and creativity in school, and wanted to help. He took me there and we actually got to talk about maths for the first time.

It was amazing. It was the first training event I've been to that I really felt was worth it, and it was worth it by a long way. I got so many ideas and resources that I'm itching to try out, and when we had to plan an activity based on what we'd been talking about, my HoD and I had so many ideas that it was hard to pick. We planned a pretty awesome activity, which ended up being extended to an entire lesson with the help of some other people, and which I'm going to trial on Tuesday. This is completely outside the scheme of work, but my HoD's not bothered. In fact, he's really excited, and we're meeting after the lesson to discuss it and talk with some of the other maths teachers at school about it.

I feel really re-energised by seeing 20 other maths teachers as excited and creative as I want to be. There were only a couple of NQTs, so I have hope that it's possible to sustain this level of enthusiasm and innovation. I realised how frustrated my HoD feels with the worksheet-teachers at school, and saw how supportive he is of new ideas.

His tolerance was further proven today when he walked into my top set lesson. The kids were all kitted out as pirates, making appropriate noises and walking round the classroom to consult with each other, on a massive problem solving exercise. It was pretty loud, but all the talk was about the maths. He looked at me, grinned, shrugged and walked on.