Ms Gibbons Writes

Dusk fell

Leaching earthy hues

Blue hills fading to grey

Dark green yews

Black against the sky.

Slowly light spun

The swollen river slipped past

Shining, smooth

Molten waters

Enticing, pulling;

Stealing the last

Silver light

I retrained as an English teacher at the age after spending the previous 15 years in the classroom teaching horticulture. I had then had a 10 year spell doing various types of teacher training and various teaching and learning manager posts, and I decided to retrain as I had begun to feel very far away from my subject and was still young enough for another career. I feel my ‘newbie’ status is in many ways an advantage because I am open to new ideas.

My first trainee placement (in an inner city Bradford school) coincided with the publication of The Writing Revolution (TWR). I had a mixed set of year 7’s and the first thing I asked them to do was a piece of writing. I was struck by what amazingly competent writers many of them were and my first thoughts were ‘what a fantastic job the local primary schools are doing.’ My second thought was, ‘how am I going to help these kids improve their writing?’ So I bought the book mainly because it had been recommended by Doug Lemov. I naively thought it would take me a few weeks to learn and implement the ideas. Little did I suspect that this would be part of a journey.

The first TWR lesson was the use of ‘appositives.’ This is an American term that loosely (and imperfectly) translates as a noun phrase. It is a phrase that describes the noun. I sold it to the students on the basis that it would make their writing more ‘slick.’ I showed them how they could combine two or three sentences and make them into one more complex sentence, which is a useful skill in analytical writing. The students, well aware of the grammar, were able to express the more complex ideas about the book we were studying, Oliver Twist. They were also able to reflect that appositives would help their reader to make more sense of their writing because it was smoother. My journey had begun.

My second placement was at an all girls Islamic school, already famous for their high expectations. I taught top set year 7 and 8 who were studying Shakespeare, and the 19th century novel, Oliver Twist and Jane Eyre. I noticed that the girls were able to write a lot but they found it hard to plan their paragraphs and also develop their ideas to make them more sophisticated. I started by doing a lot of sentence level work, using the conjunctions, because, but and so. One would assume that this kind of activity is too simple for top set groups in secondary school, but actually these tools are a very powerful way of encouraging students to join ideas together. Students don’t always see the connection between two ideas, and if they write about them separately, they can lose some opportunities to make their arguments more powerful. I was able to start lessons using sentence starters such as: Bronte was critical of the position of women in society because, Bronte was critical of the position of women in society but Bronte was critical of the position of women in society so. I found this stimulated ideas which led into to a very useful discussions about authorial intention and characterisation which was perfect for the formation of topic sentences.

This also led into the use of the single paragraph outline. This is probably one of the most simple, but difficult-to-implement tools in TWR repertoire. I have been trusting different ways of implementing this method for 4 years and am continuing to tweak and develop it. There are some excellent training videos on TWR website that have really helped. The beauty of the Single Paragraph Outline (SPO) is that it is very open. It follows this structure:

Topic Sentence______________________________

Point 1…………………………………………………………….

Point 2……………………………………………………………

Point 3……………………………………………………………

Point 4……………………………………………………………

Concluding sentence _______________________

The topic sentence and concluding sentences should be written out in full (as indicated by the solid line) and the points should be in note form (as indicated by the dotted lines). This by itself introduces a good degree of discipline into the planning process. In my experience, students will just start writing if they don’t learn the importance of planning.

There are so may ways the SPO can be used. You can give the points and ask students to write a topic sentence and a concluding sentence. You can write a topic sentence and ask the students to write points. Today, I showed a group of ‘lockdown students’ the whole plan and showed them my paragraph. I then explained how I had developed my explanations. I showed them the plan again and told the students that they could choose their own points, or rewrite their own topic sentence if they wished. As a mixed group of 20 year 7’s, they were all able to produce a very coherent piece of work. All the pieces were different, some were more sophisticated than others. All of the students had been able to produce over half a page of writing in 10 minutes, and some , considerably more. This was just an ordinary day. Over time, I have found that the SPO does not limit the students’ thinking, it helps them to actually think.

The next step would be editing and reviewing and there is a whole chapter in TWR on this process. These lessons have been useful to helping students to see their writing as a draft and to regard writing as a process rather than a finished product. This is very useful to learners who don’t particularly see themselves as ‘writers’ because writing is a learnt skill. The materials and methods are merely part of the scaffolding. For example, I have spent entire lessons just on the use of a subordinating conjunction, although. This is very useful to help students to combine opposing ideas into a topic sentence which is particularly useful for comparative essays.

As teachers we are encouraged (by exam boards) to help students to express their ideas independently and freely. Prescriptive approaches to paragraphs, such as PEE, PEEL, PEAL have gone out of fashion. I would argue that the SPO is certainly not prescriptive. It is a tool that frees up thinking but helps students to build on and develop their arguments independently. This is precisely because the structure is open. Also I feel strongly that as secondary teachers we should be encouraging students to make the most of the grammar they have come into school with from primary. It is too good an opportunity to waste. TWR has helped me to help my writers to develop their analytical writing and to become better writers.

There are so many more tools in the book that I haven’t mentioned. I hope this piece will spark some debate about how these materials can be used in schools.

At the beginning of the year there was a leader’s meeting and we were asked to come to the meeting with something to share with all the other districts; it could be a poem, members determination or a song. I offered to write a poem and when I got into the car in the morning to drive down to Doncaster, Simon asked me if I had written my poem. I told him I hadn’t written it yet, but not to worry! It would arrive! I told him he should trust me more! Sure enough, during Robert Harrup’s lecture my poem arrived and it was very short! It was about the power of one.

When Simon and I stood up on stage to present my tiny poem, I didnt feel embarrassed at all. Although there were only two of us at the meeting, and the other districts had done very impressive presentations, sporting strong determinations and lots of members, it did feel a bit bare and small, but Simon has taught me to stand up as a leader and to be honest. So we stood up and talked about how we were doing to focus on making our tiny district (really there were only two of us at this stage, plus support from Lynn) really joyful and strong. I should also mention that I met Sri at the meeting and he told me he was also going to be supporting our district. This felt very auspicious.

I was very excited after he meeting and I asked Simon if we could chant together every Friday morning. This involved me going to Simon’s house at 6am as I had to leave for work at 6:30am and I asked Simon to make some big determinations. We asked about how we really needed to challenge ourselves and the few times we met before lockdown felt very unified and gave me an incredible sense of focus and unity. This is the heart of our Buddhism. It doesn’t matter how many people there are, but what matters is what is in our hearts. The third or fourth time we chanted together (by the end of February) Simon told me that his determination that was connected with his acupuncture practice had fallen apart already because of COVID. I remember the hairs on the back of my neck stood up because I knew if the things were so difficult we were definitely heading in the right direction! How fortunate we are to have such strength!

We joked that COVID would not affect our meetings because we never had more than three people attending, but when COVID had put a stop even to that I immediately set up a WhatsApp group for members. I had already set up a Zoom account in China a few years before and I determined that I would really use the district to embrace and support each and every member. The first thing that happened during lockdown was that I reached out to two members, Sarah and Sanjana. I knew that both of them would be very isolated and I chanted with Saran every morning and with Sanjana every evening. This gave me enormous strength. Listening to them every day and their challenges galvanised and inspired me.

At the same time, Michael, whose wife had recently passed away came back too the district. We were so lucky because all the people who I was having regular contact with were incredibly strong in their practice and very knowledgable. Michael was very keen to start study meetings and these meetings have been incredibly focussed and beautiful! A young man called Lucas had also made the decision to move to the district because of COVID and I regularly called the members and we had joyful heart to heart dialogue. I also invited Gina to meetings as although she was living in Majorca, she had been a very strong member the previous year and suddenly she could attend meetings again.

Later on I also invited a member who was living in New Zealand, Kazumi to join the group because she had sent me incredibly guidance every day on Facebook messenger and I knew she would do the same in our WhatsApp group. As it turned out, she came to live in England in October and she visited me in Skipton, as her husband is from Skipton (we went out for a walk together after work by torchlight, just before Christmas) Another two members have appeared by chance; Lec, who was born into the practice in Thailand but she has been living in our district for many years, and another woman called Vicky who has also just moved here.

I can honestly say that our meetings are heartfelt and joyful. We have had up to 10 people regularly attending meetings but also contributing to them. This is not all down to me at all. I have been incredibly supported by Lynn and Sri and now by Momoyo. Also although it has been challenging for Simon as he has a younger family and has been very involved in supporting his teenage daughters (no mean feat!), we have carried on chanting together on Friday mornings when we can. I dont think he realises how much strength this has given me and I am very grateful for his continued support as we move into 2021.

My gut feeling is that 2021 will be even more challenging for us as Budddhists. We have already spoken in our district about our new year wobbles as we go into another lockdown. I spoke to my partner Tim this week (he doesn’t practise but is always willing to listen to me) about how I feel like I have a very important job to do in our own family. We have raised 4 very capable children who have incredible challenges, my youngest has been working on a Covid ward this year as a new apprentice health care worker and she is about to start her nurse training later this year, my son, who had a diagnosis of Addison’s disease only 18 months ago managed to complete an access course and has started a degree at Edinburgh University, but because of lockdown is living alone. My second daughter spent 10 months shielding with grandma, came home before Christmas with plans to move to London and is now applying for jobs. My eldest daughter, who hasn’t spoken to me for more than 6 years, is wanting to change jobs too and I am sure she feels her life is on hold. Tim and I celebrated our 30th anniversary together this year and I am sure that my 10 year Buddhist practice has helped us enormously. I am in my third year of teaching English (I retrained 4and years ago) and am supporting my students in Bradford remotely again, which feels like a big challenge. I feel that 2020 was only a preparation for 2021 but we are up to the task.We have hope in our hearts, thanks to our practice and in particular I can honestly way I am now supported bu a wonderful district!

Her name was Roseanne McLafferty. She was the 10th child; born to a woman who was already 42 years old. She had 10 children of her own. One of them was my dad, Denis. Her husband James Gibbons was a farmer and he was killed by a horse when he was 50. I imagine life was hard for her but I also think her boys looked after, especially my Uncle Hughie who built a house for her after her husband died. He told me a funny story about how the worst thing he ever did was to buy her a TV. After the TV her neighbours, who visited her every day, stopped talking because they were watching TV instead. But I think she would have enjoyed the cosy thing of watching TV with her neighbours in that little cottage every day, living next to her eldest son who took over the farm, and she had an inside toilet and a bathroom too.

I didn’t meet her till she was in her 60s. I was three. She was still on the farm then, though it was after Grandaddy died. Visiting Granny Gibbons is my earliest memory. She was a tiny woman and she wore a black dress, the kind old women all over Ireland wore. Cotton with tiny flowers on it. I can still see the flowers in my minds eye. Granny wasn’t glamorous like Granny McAteer, who wore lipstick and looked in the mirror a lot. Granny Gibbons wore flat boots. Her dress might have been a pinnie that she wore over her dress.

The thing I remember most about the visit was the toilet. They didn’t have one. I must have been horrified. My mum showed my to the byre where they squatted in the trough that ran along the floor that was also full of cow dung. I couldn’t stand the smell and insisted on going out in the field instead, much to the amusement of Granny. She could have thought I was a proper little madam but she didn’t. And she didn’t get cross either. She laughed! I remember her laughter. The fun of it! She probably told her neighbours the story for years afterwards about her granddaughter from Manchester who refused to go to the toilet in the byre!

I never saw my granny again after that. After mum and dad split up and my mum didn’t want to see my dad. I must have asked to go back but she told me that granny was dead. Which was so crazy as we went to stay with my mums parents every year for weeks at a time. Mum must have been afraid to go to see her. Maybe she was afraid that they would judge her for leaving her husband, or maybe she was afraid they would try to persuade her to go back to him. All I remember was whenever we drove past the road that led to Aughadreena, I felt sad.

We set out on your birthday

We two

Searching for comfort

Redemption, salvation.

The car sagged

Burdened by expectation.

The absurdity of moving

Through space

In a small metal box

We headed north

Were we slimmer, richer, wiser now?

Last year felt like

An age ago

Strings of cars, headlights on

Passed us on the other side

Maybe they belonged to

another day

We hit the A1(M)

The road widened

We crawled past blue mountains

Silver clouds against a dark grey sky

Hung in the wing mirror

The road shimmered

you fell asleep

And I felt the weight of your life

In my hands

My first thought about ‘influence’ is that we frequently mix up power and influence. When we feel powerless we are feeling our own lack of influence. I would argue that teachers need to be aim for influence rather than power. It is an important question for early career teachers who are often looking for answers to these questions and can be in danger of overcompensating!

This distinction is also important because it also gives us a pointer to the solution to the problem of losing ‘control’ in the classroom. We tend to look up to teachers who often brag about students who ‘behave’ for them. Those teachers often behave like they have a lot of influence but the reality is different.

I have recently gone through my NQT and RQT years as an older (though not necessarily wiser) person. Last year I had a particularly difficult year 9 group who drove me to distraction. My early heavy handed attempts to discipline them meant that there were frequent and embarrassing interventions from senior managers who often had had to remove several students from the class.

Eventually I learnt that my more successful classes were the quieter ones. Eventually, I saw how my words and curiosity were being reflected in their essays and in their progress. At the end of the year I introduced them to Macbeth and was pleased with their response. I had finally become an influencer as an English teacher.

When I look back at the year I can honestly say that the turning point came when I learnt to calm myself down. We have known about the importance of emotional intelligence for a long time. We know that people who have influence over others are those who have high emotional intelligence. And in schools they are not the braggers. They are actually often the introverts who have higher self awareness. They are the people who have made friends with themselves.

So, as teachers perhaps we need to listen more! Make sure you make good friends with yourself first, make friends with other teachers, listen to the quiet ones more carefully and no matter what stage in your career you are at, never be afraid to ask for help.

Openness is so desperately undervalued in our society. We are encouraged to hide: hide behind material things, behind labels, behind expectations and social conventions. When I was little, at least childhood was immune from judgement but not now!

Let’s go back to openness as a quality. It can be quiet and reserved. It has nothing to do with being loud or brash. It is clear and true like moonlight. It waits but expects nothing in return. It allows others in.

Opening our hearts is joyful, playful, warm. It allows others to be comfortable; it enables powerful friendship and deep connection. It requires us to know ourselves deeply and in return it allows us to become powerful beyond our wildest dreams.

And perhaps this is why it is not encouraged in our materialistic society; openness doesn’t fit with profit and greed. But I would argue that it is openness that will help us to find our way out of the mess we are in.

Buddhists advocate the concept of the middle way. We have all heard about it and like the idea vaguely, but probably dismiss it as a weak compromise. However it is the complete opposite. It demands bravery and real dialogue. and that in turn demands a real commitment to opening our hearts and minds. It requires us to take full responsibility for our actions. This requires us to have a much better, and healthier relationship with ourselves. In my Buddhism we call this process ‘human revolution!’

Let’s stop fighting and be more tolerant, more accepting, less judgemental, more mature, more playful, more brave, more open!

Rosie Cannon was a feisty, dissatisfied, demanding woman who was born probably way before her time on one of the peninsulas that jut out into the north tip of Ireland.

Facing the constant pounding of the Atlantic Ocean has a profound effect on the people of Donegal. They either want to run away, like Rosie, or they never want to leave, like her husband. Rosie escaped to Boston, and lived as a house maid in a wealthy house which might have belonged to her the way she talked about it. She longed for pavements long after she returned to Donegal at the behest of my grandfather ?

• Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
• Because it will help you focus your own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.

The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.

To help you get started, here are a few questions:

• Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
• What topics do you think you’ll write about?
• Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
• If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?

You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.

Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.

When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.