Within review of extant job vacancies, the following "outstanding results" were published: gcse biology, 73 %; chemistry, 57; physics, 66; gce a biology, 73; chemistry, 59; physics, 70. These figures reminded both of anecdotal and personal experience, that chemistry is the most difficult subject to teach and to learn.
More often than not, management consistently fail to recognise this discrepancy. Admittedly observed personally only in a few schools, but the perspective is always the same: not the student(s) non-suitability for the subject, but the fault of the teacher. The aforementioned discrepancy in subjects' result is a combination of factors: chemistry is considered a "gateway" subject onto non-chemistry careers and/or courses of further study; subject too abstract to be taught effectively at earlier stage education; too many non specialist "science" teachers that attempt to teach chemistry; consequence of "consumerism culture" within education (the move from "low expectations" to "growth mindset", anything is possible, etc. etc.).
Holiday time from the classroom is a good reminder that one is supposed to "work to live, not vice versa". This time is also an unfortunate realisation that the teacher profession vocation is exhaustive, extra, excessive at times. Although Thursday is the new Friday, never ceases to amaze how many people have money and time to eat out, drink out across the metropolis.
"One can only try one's best", a colleague once memorably said. However, what if the best is not good enough (especially in the perspective of others)?A quick search engine query "minimise self-criticism" returned, inter alia:
Self-criticism is defined as the tendency to engage in negative self-evaluation that results in feelings of worthlessness, failure, and guilt when expectations are not met; it was originally seen as particularly relevant to the development of depression.
The aforementioned query results were a surprise, in the volume of content to resolve this condition. The search, prompted by inevitable criticism of classroom practice, indicates a little exaggeration. The "skim read" was a helpful reminder: whilst not the best teacher in the world, not the worst either.
Whilst not a fan of amgaf, have to admit an appreciation for the 'chromebook-stroke-crouton' computer. The relative paucity of hard-disk space meant that regular use of external memory storage media to be good practice to minimise accidental data loss, especially when the space bar on the keyboard was pressed by accident during start of the chromebook, which caused "factory re-set", deleting all data. Whilst there was some inevitable data loss, it was not catastrophic, just an annoyance.
The opportunity has been taken during the holiday break, to try and improve organisation of (digital!) files, notes of personal "side-projects" to rejuvenate and make actual progress (as opposed to abandonement), improve efficiency to retrieve old content for subsequent re-use. Ready for the next term! :)
By coincidence there was a typical serendipitous discovery on a government web site about "inter-subject comparability"; as far as gce a science is concerned, the data suggests that physics, not chemistry, is the most difficult subject. Mmm, not sure;"anecdotal" evidence is by definition not robust, but personal bias is pervasive...
