Another outstanding educator shares some key classroom highlights
The moment I…
…can’t think about without laughing
I was the new to the school. I had been appointed as head of Lower School and was still finding my feet; it was back in the day of year 9 SATs and it was my first time presiding over the whole year group in the examination hall. I was stood before 130 teenagers who were still trying to suss me out as much as I them. Standing at the front I had gone through the dos and don’ts: reading questions carefully, trying to not become too stressed etc. Pens poised and students keen to begin I leant back against the large table at the front of the hall, satisfied that it had been a successful pep talk. The moment I leant on the table the folding legs on the eight by three foot table, clearly having not been locked in place, folded under me and I very ungraciously ended up flat on my back along with papers, pens and boxes of tissues!
.... First got excited about IT in the classroom
From a very young age sport was my motivation. As a National League basketball player I was never happier than when I was tearing up and down the court. When I started teaching at St Saviour’s & St Olave’s IT was as big a part of my timetable as PE. I had never taught IT before and had you asked me then I would have said that the first time I got excited about the subject was when I worked out how to turn the computer on! I was soon hooked. I quickly saw that the possibilities with this new technology were boundless and not only was it an ever-evolving subject to teach but it was a tool that would change how we do almost everything. I remember Excel formulas frequently getting the better of me. I recall a lesson where we were using a very complex formula and I was a little nervous about it working. I delivered my demonstration to the students and to my delight it worked every time. I look back now and think ‘well it should work every time, it’s a formula!’ But when you have spent years teaching one thing and you are learning a new subject at the same time as teaching it there is something very satisfying about everything falling into place. I would now be lost without IT. My IPad is an extension of my arm and in my role as data manager IT is my lifeline it makes everything immediate and accessible. It is a learning tool I will never stop embracing.
…. feel most proud about
It is very easy, when so many students pass through your doors, to see teaching as a non-stop conveyor belt. Each year brings a new cohort, a new set of challenges and with much hard work many more successes. For each individual, success has a different measure and results day brings grades across the spectrum. However in my eyes none quite so great as a grade B achieved by one of students a few years ago. A* may be the aspiration of many but to her achieving a B was beyond all her expectations. The sheer delight on her face as she opened her results still brings a lump to my throat. This achievement gave her so much confidence and for me so much pride. Regardless of end result the true measure of success is how far a student has come from their starting point and more importantly how that achievement makes the student feel.
.... organised chaos
As a young PE teacher full on practical lessons were nothing unusual but on this day a colleague was off long term sick and her class was put in with mine. So faced with 60 students (and an Ofsted inspector) I did the only thing that seemed sensible: get every piece of gym equipment out that I could lay my hands on and not give them a minute to breath. The activity revolved around paired work. Student teaching student, in a complicated series of circuits and gym activities, all selfdevised. It wasn’t long into the class that I stepped back and watched and realised I had made myself redundant. There was so much energy emitting from the gym, not to mention sweat! The level of concentration and intense conversations going on between the partners meant my AFL was easy. These students, despite cramped conditions, were more than making expected levels of progress. Without fully intending to I had planned myself out of the lesson. It was high-octane, student led teaching; a lesson I will never forget and will always put down as one the best I have ever delivered.
FACT FILE
NAME: LUANA MUNRO
AGE: 54
JOB ASSISTANT HEAD
SCHOOL: ST SAVIOUR’S & ST OLAVE’S
THE BEST BIT:
EPIPHANY! THE LOOK ON A STUDENT’S FACE WHEN SOMETHING HE OR SHE HAS BEEN STRUGGLING WITH FINALLY BECOMES CLEAR
THE WORST BIT:
HITTING A BRICK WALL. NOT BEING ABLE TO TURN AN ‘I CAN’T’ INTO AN ‘I WILL TRY’
LUANA MUNRO WAS GIVEN THE PEARSON AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING USE OF TECHNOLOGY IN EDUCATION (LONDON AND THE SOUTH EAST) AT THE 2012 TEACHING AWARDS. FIND OUT MORE AT TEACHINGAWARDS.COM
