Happy new (school) year!

So, we're a week and a half into the new school year and already it feels as though we've never been away!

As always there have been lots of changes to the timetable, and which student is in which set, but I think it's just about sorted now. The only problem we're having in physics is the teachers who haven't checked their timetable to see which room they are supposed to be teaching in.

We have more classes, and teachers, than ever in science this year and still only the same 9 labs which isn't enough when up to 14 lessons can be happening all at once, so we have what is rapidly becoming the usual scenario of science lessons being sent to the far flung corners of the school. Sadly though teachers don't always check their timetable and assume that they will be in their usual lab. Several times already I have had to remind them that practical lessons are not a viable option when they are in a maths or business studies room.

Maybe by half term we'll all know where we are, but somehow I doubt it. :)

Preparations for this year's CERN trip are coming along nicely. We are going a bit earlier than usual this time and amazingly the process of booking flights was remarkably painless. HoD was a lot firmer about setting deadlines for the students to get their permission and passport info in and it really seemed to pay off. 35 students and 4 staff this time - our largest CERN trip ever. It's unfortunate that the school chaplain is coming again. I'd hoped last year was a one off, but with any luck the trip will be enough fun that he won't put too much of a damper on things.

Busy afternoon ahead

Around a month ago, we got an email asking if we could come up with something to occupy 13 children who are coming to the college today to try for an academic scholarship. They'll have a day of tests and then we are supposed to keep them entertained for an hour. My HoD cheerily said yes, and then promptly forgot about it until yesterday!

Since this is now going to be a rather last minute event, I foolishly thought we'd do something simple. After all we don't know the students involved, althoough as they are scholarship candidates they must be pretty bright. Also they have never used our equipment before. HoD however had grander plans. He insisted that the activity for them had to involve dataloggers so we can show off just how technologically advanced we are. This could cause problems on its own. There are a wide variety of dataloggers used in schools and the ones we have are certainly not the most popular, so if the students have used dataloggers before they may well not be familiar with the ones we have. Of course, they may not have ever come across dataloggers at all.

So use of the equipment might prove to be an issue, but at least they'll all be doing the same thing right? Wrong!

HoD has decided on a circus of experiments. Each pair of students will have a different experiment to carry out, two with light gates, two with temperature probes, one with a position sensor and one with a light sensor.

 Apparently he also wants to take them to see the observatory.

All in the space of an hour.

It's going to be an interesting afternoon.

'It's broken!'

How often have you heard a student claim that a piece of equipment is 'broken' when in fact they just aren't using it properly? Maybe they've turned the dial on the multimeter to the wrong setting, or connected up the oscilloscope incorrectly, but in my experience at least 60% of 'broken' equipment actually works fine if you know what you're doing.

Yesterday the physics trip to the Vatican observatory headed off. They don't come back until friday so there are quite a few lessons which need to have cover work set. The trip was booked months ago, so naturally the teachers had prepared everything well in advance - yeah, right! With an hour to go before departure astroboy was still sorting out all his cover work. He came into the prep room looking really stressed and said could he e-mail some of the work to me to print out for him because, and I quote, 'the photocopier is broken'.

Once he'd sent me the work, I headed off to the copier room to see just how badly 'broken' the photocopier actually was. 30 seconds later I had cleared the paper jam and it was working again.

*sigh*

Just another monday morning!

We've already established that I am not a mind reader, but some of my teachers are continuing to vastly over-estimate my powers.

My HoD didn't get his requisition sheet for this week handed in by close of play on friday, and instead e-mailed it to me yesterday which meant that I didn't see it until first thing this morning. For lesson 2 today he's put down 'electromagnets'. That's all. Just 1 word.

Maybe he's doing a theory lesson and is going to talk to the class about electromagnets. Maybe he wants to do a demo or a class practical. I don't know, because he didn't say and I couldn't get hold of him before lessons began because he was in a meeting.

In the end I gave him a class set of long nails, lengths of wire and paper clips so that the class could make simple electromagnets. Amazingly that was what he'd wanted all along.

Maybe I am psychic after all!?!

But of course I'm psychic!

Right now everyone is teaching Forces and Motion. This means a lot of dynamics trolleys, masses, dataloggers and light gates are getting moved around from lab to lab.

Yesterday one of my teachers had ordered the full kit, plus the air track for a demo. I started getting it all set up in his lab during lunch break. He was sat at his desk eating his sandwiches and chatting to a student while I carried in trays of stuff and set them out on the side bench, before fetching the air track.

It must've taken me a good 5 minutes to get it all in place, at which point he piped up and said 'Oh, by the way Labtech666, I'll only need the air track today'.  'I thought you ordered the trolleys too' I replied.
'Yes I did', he said, 'but they don't get such good results so I decided to just do the air track demo'.

Fair enough, but wouldn't it have been nice if he'd said something BEFORE I started shifting loads of kit into his lab. He watched me do it for crying out loud!
Am I meant to be psychic and just know when they've changed their mind about a practical? Or maybe I should ask them before every lesson just to check.
Or, here's a novel idea, maybe they could have the courtesy to let me know what's going on.
Yeah, right!

Counting

If I put out a box of screw drivers labelled '10 PLEASE COUNT BACK', how many screw drivers do you think there should be in the box at the end of the lesson?

8? 9?

Nope. There should be 10. Why is that so hard to understand?

Because teachers don't bother to count we now have a kid somewhere in the school with a screw driver. Hope it turns up soon!

Overcrowding

Our school is flourishing, which in the current economic climate was by no means guaranteed. However, this does have a downside. In order to make as much money as possible we take on more students, but I get the impression that no one stopped to think about whether we could actually fit them in!

One of my labs is tiny and can just seat 20. There's not enough room for them to do practical, but we can at least get bums on seats and teach them stuff. Unfortunately we have a couple of classes this year with 22 students. You see the problem? We managed to get hold of a couple of folding desks and some old chairs and shoe-horned them in, so the lab is crammed full of kids. I also had to order more text books once I saw the set lists, but I got enough and now each kid has a book, a seat and a desk.

It appears though that biology didn't take action in quite the same way we did.

All the biology teachers are away on a field trip today, and one of the new year 9 sets was due to have their first biology lesson this morning. I've just spoken to the teacher who covered the lesson, and he was not impressed! There was a seating plan, showing where each of the 22 kids should be seated in the lab, but, not only did 2 of the seats not exist, the bio teacher knew they didn't because he had written no seat on the plan.
Didn't think to try and obtain said seats then mate?

Makes my department actually look organised!

The rules apply to everyone

... except teachers, apparently!

Last term we were all asked to register our cars with the transport manager, who issued parking permits which we display above our tax disc. Yesterday we were reminded that there shouldn't be any cars parked on double yellow lines to ensure that traffic can move around the site easily.

I've just watched one of my physics teachers park on the double yellow line outside my prep room window, and he hasn't got a permit in his car.

Why am I not surprised?

And today's crisis is....

Picture the scene:
It's 8.15am, first day of the new term. Panicky teacher appears at my prep room door.

PT: My computer won't start. I don't think the power is working in my lab.
Labtech666: Have you checked the electrical shut off? (It's a switch which kills all power to the plug sockets in case of emergency)
PT: Yes, I think so.
Labtech666: Well that's strange, all the other labs seem to have power. Let me take a look.

I walk into the lab and turn the switch, resetting it.

Labtech666: Try now.
PT: Oh wow, it's working!!

*sigh*