Day 1 at Goole High School

Today was my first day working with one of my assigned schools in England. I barely slept, awake most of the night with a crazy sore throat and first-day jitters. I made coffee and then headed to the train station before sunrise. In order to get to and from my flat in Leeds and Goole High School, I ended up walking four miles and riding four trains (over two hours of train adventures). Every day will be a walking/public transportation extravaganza.

Adventure #1/ Day 1: Goole High School

After speed-walking the mile between the train station and Goole High School, I made it just in time for the start of the morning meeting. Denuta, the principal, stood at the front of the presentation hall dressed in fishnet stalkings, tall black boots and a short dress with graffiti art on it and held a shark stuffed animal which was meant to represent Ofsted (the British equivalent of WASC). Hundreds of staff members sat listening in groups. Denuta explained that Goole is meant to be visited by Ofsted (the shark) within the next month. During their staff day, Denuta led the staff through a Prezi with video clips from Rocky V and Chambawamba. The videos were meant to inspire the staff to be resilient. In our table groups, we read about, discussed and demonstrated eight Teach Like a Champion strategies, like Cold Call, Exit Slips, Pepper, etc. Everyone was asked to incorporate the strategies in their lessons.

After a few hours of the whole staff meeting, I met with Louise, the geography teacher I'll be designing and co-teaching a project with until Spring Break. We talked about the two HTHMA interns coming next week and the project we will be launching together in four weeks. We read through an assigned Ofsted article about how to move from a 'satisfactory' to 'good' school in order to avoid program improvement. It became clear how deeply embedded and enforced the testing and marking culture is in British schools. Even teacher observations include a rubric with 8 categories and a clearly marked grade for each. I look forward to fitting PBL adventures within the British school system, and Louise is looking forward to it, also. I know it will be a great experience to co-plan and co-teach with Louise.

On my walk to and from Goole High School to the train station, I got a sense of the "very deprived", friendly community (with low expectations) that "time forgot", as it has been described to me. There are few opportunities in Goole and apparently few that ever leave. I'm looking forward to getting to know the students. Today was a staff day, so I only got a glimpse of the hundreds of staff members who work at GHS and I received a confusing induction checklist (that rivals HTH with its use of acronyms). I need to finish my checklist before next Monday, but for now, I'm looking forward to meeting Darrick for a drink at Friends of Ham, a pub near the station that David Price recommended.

P.S. - Anyone who comes to visit us, we are definitely taking you to Friends of Ham!