grahamyapp.bsky.social
Failed-to-retire headteacher, now teaching GCSE & A level physics & chemistry in Hertfordshire and lurking here. Groundhopper, Modus Hopper Random blog with #keepertopcolourstats. Born West Brom. Duolingoer.
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135 followers
183 following
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I get that. I find myself in content races and exam technique coaching so much of the time these days. But like you not a fan of one-size-fits-all structures and strictures.
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Last time I had a KS3 class of my own was (I think) 1993-4 !! Just the odd bit of cover since then. I've lived exclusively in 14-18 niche since coming back in 2013. Pros and cons.
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Now I have THAT tune on replay in my head ...
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This backstory is all new to me. I did see something war-related in one of Richard Brock's IoP Stories pamphlets about Geiger and Marsden being on opposite sides in the 14-18 war. I wonder whether some of the interesting historical stuff will survive the next review of the specifications.
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I didn't know the war backstory till very recently. Might add "get good science grades and maybe avoid conscription" to the Y11 options recruitment booklet ;)
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"This used to be on the specs but no longer is" has become a kind of post-16 catchphrase for me. I've always included him and his graph. Can provoke phys v chem banter about whether Z is merely nuclear charge in arbitrary units (and also whether charge should be treated as a discrete variable ...)
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I'm putting a price list up tomorrow ...
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Relentlessly promote science teaching as a worthy career with immense job satisfaction and no negatives whatsoever whilst keeping a straight face.
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During my second headship (a school in special measures, late noughties) we stopped having n-u-ds because attendance counter-productively went down, we assumed for the kind of reasons you are suggesting in your thread. Several charities were in the habit of asking for them at that time.
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Try zodiac sign just for the LOLs
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Thank you so much for this. It helps put my life into perspective. I wonder how many Handys and villas he has got through in the last 28 years!
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What was Lothar up to, please, on the day that I officially became a groundhopper? It was 5 October 1996 and I had no justifiable reason for being at Brentford 4 Rotherham Utd 2 at Griffin Park, other than I'd never been before.
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Into the dark #FridayFive
1. When Evening Falls (Spyro Gyra)
2. Night Time (Superorganism)
3. Another Night (Camel)
4. Midnight Black Earth (Bohren & Der Club of Gore)
5. Power in the Darkness (Tom Robinson Band)
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Oh no... that is a double whammy. I try to let the little dears mark their own hwk if that happens (fortunately only about once every two years these days). But how typically professionally dedicated of you to schedule most of your post-viral recovery time in the school holidays!
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Yes x100%. School open evenings (in general) and elephant's pointless toothpaste wind me up considerably.
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The demise of shiny chrome bumpers (my 1972 Morris Minor and 1976 VW Beetle) in favour of crushable plastic (every functional characterless family hatchback since then).
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I've just been marking the AQA 2024 GCSE Paper 1Hs as mocks for both phys and chem this week and there have been a couple of places on each mark scheme where better candidates have been disadvantaged because they see unintended things in the Q. My first experience with the 9-1 spec.
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I think Ford at Dagenham are/were the biggest transport designers in Ethics and look, someone had to do that and I just happened to be in the right place at the right time, that's all.
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Marking a set of mock GCSE physics papers! Back hopping in the spring, I hope.
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Yes!! That last slide is so important, agree completely. Also love the general concept and for my first one I feel strongly that Strong Opinions About Relatively Unimportant Things needs more capital letters for emphasis. Going to embrace SOARUTs from now on.
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Plug 3 of 2 etc etc. Come and work as a science tech for this lovely team (includes me, ahem) in a spacious prep room in which you could hypothetically swing a cat.
www.teachinherts.com/find-a-job/v...
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Plug 2 of 2 : also great people, supportive team etc etc and you would definitely bump into me from time to time. www.teachinherts.com/find-a-job/v...
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Utterly depressing.
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(2/2) I'm OK with s&p model as being on balance better than the "types of E" that I grew up with, but it does seem to be floundering a bit. It leaves chemistry to explain (or hope pupils don't ask) why spontaneous endothemics happen.
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Well, that was very interesting, but the same time somewhat depressing that humankind is making things so difficult for itself for reasons of political or financial gain. (Context: space debris.) It's increasingly difficult to separate science from politics, I feel.