August/September 2006
Geography has inspired me from an early age - sitting looking at maps of strangely named places, learning about real life natural disasters and their amazing power - leading me to study it further in higher education. Coaching hockey while at University and wondering what future career I would take led me to a glorious idea - teach geography! And so...
I joined the PGSE course at Birmingham University and had my first placement at a Catholic school in Birmingham. Nice I thought, a gentle start. I was not quite prepared for the girl at the gate with a Rottweiler! But that was just outside, not the teaching. To be honest it was a reflection on the behaviour issues I faced. By the end, despite the difficulties, I knew the placement had gone well. I was surrounded by supportive experienced teachers with great attitudes. I was told about the four stages of a teacher's career:
- Stage 1 - fantasy (PGCE/NQT)
- Stage 2 - survival (after one year)
- Stage 3 - impact (5-6 years)
- Stage 4 - mastery
I was really looking forward to my second placement, a mixed comprehensive school in Solihull. Teaching was relatively easy, mainly due to the skills gained on my first placement. I could spend my time thinking about more exciting lessons using a wide range of activities: role-plays, interactive board games, content generator games, trading games etc. My mentor at the school was like a mother to me and I felt at home there. With this sense of security I had the confidence to try anything. However my growing love of teaching was soon to be destroyed - by a fire.
At first I thought the University would change my placement, but the Head of Geography phoned to let them know that I would be needed and he would allow me to further my professional development in other areas. The fire was a real bonus, both personally and to the school. The 1950s building could be rebuilt - but only after all the temporary classrooms had been brought onto site. It was amazing how good everyone was at adapting and making the best of the situation. This experience for me was great as I looked into areas other students would only dream of going - the ESPO catalogue!
So, PGCE, placement and fire excitement over... now a real job! I'll be working in a mixed ability school in Hertfordshire and will have the added stress of living with my girlfriend while we build an extension on her parents' house. I wonder if I have taken on too much?!
27 September 2006
It's time to get up!
0700 hours. What's the 'O' for? Oh no it's too early.
That must be the thought on every teacher's mind after the summer break, a break that you can't wait for as you know it's so long, but when it comes it's never long enough.
The first day is always daunting, however, having a July start settled the nerves. Knowing the odd name, whether it be staff or student makes things easier, but make sure you get it right. I was lucky enough to be invited onto a PE trip to the Ardesh in July where I got to know some good characters: students and staff. This allowed a good source of conversation and daydreaming during my first teacher training day experience.
Lights, camera, action the students are back. Hearing students screaming up stairs and teachers raising their voices brings you back to school with a bang.
Being a new teacher to this school I really wanted to stamp my style of lesson and authority on the pupils. This I felt would be my hardest challenge. How right was I?! During the first week I worked so hard during my lessons, never sitting down, always drumming my class rules and routine into the pupils. However every lesson I had to do it over and over again putting pupils into detention, shouting at the class, the usual things. I begin to feel like they were never going to get what 'Bell Work' was all about. However, suddenly some classes really started to get it and come in to lessons with little fuss and get on with it, probably so they did not have to listen to me going over it again.
But school is school, and of course there are classes and students that don't get it and of course it was good old Year 9. So I tried a different approach, getting them to do worksheet after worksheet, all the boring stuff. When they got that right I would reward them with something like 'Who Wants to be a Millionaire', which they liked. I kept doing this, reminding them that when they got the routine right, we would do more interesting tasks. This really hit home and suddenly things started to fit into place.
This success was followed by my first lesson observation by the deputy head. She chose the class and the time, and of course period 5 and my 'character class'. So I planned a strong lesson where I had everything to fall back on. The pupils came in, I greeted them, asked what they needed to do, they all replied 'Bell Work' so I thought things are going well, lets get going. The success kept on coming during the lesson and my hard work paid off with a 'Very Good' rated lesson, even with some real characters in the class.
Top tips for this month:
- repetition, classes will get it eventually, when they do reward them.
- paperwork, never ending but stay on top of it and file it under B (B for Bin) most of the time.
- you have to have a bad day every so often to know what a good day feels like.
23 November 2006
The phrase 'as busy as a bee' has got to be changed to 'as busy as a teacher' as this really has meaning.
I mentioned in my last blog that all was going swimmingly. How things change - especially when Ofsted is looming. With marking schedule in place I feel like you could build a house with the mass of books and core outcomes I surround myself with. However battle on we must and keep on plodding through. On the odd occasion I have been tempted with the five figure marking technique as discussed on my PGCE. However it seems that the school requires detailed comments every time I mark a book with an appropriate target. I might as well be a robot when it comes to this. Same comments over and over, I would change them but they are so relevant to every pupil as they are all making the same mistakes. Need a rubber stamp!
However it has not been all gloom and doom. I have been heavily involved with starting a G&T humanities club, (which in my opinion should only be geography. This is going really well and I am trying to get as many departments involved as I can to make this club a front runner in the school. This is the hard part as teachers quite rightly don't want to give up their time, and also G&T is often the last thing on you mind when you have got 32 pupils all wanting your attention.
Along with this I have started up a hockey enrichment club that is really excelling and gaining a lot of interest - 22 pupils on Tuesday from KS4 & 5 and 30 pupils from KS3 on Thursday. As the school is a specialist sport college I seem to have quite a few pretty good players which is excellent. Having these foundations in place and using my connections in hockey I have organised a few fixtures with the final game against the local grammar school. We are hoping for a couple of big wins in the first few games to get confidence up then hopefully we have a chance against the grammar school.
My classes are still going fine and the honeymoon period is well and truly over which is a great feeling. When I first met them I knew there were a few so-called unteachable pupils. My success with them has really got around the school and I am mentoring a number of students which they really enjoy, and I do too. They give me gossip on all important school business like who is going to fight who and which teacher is not having a great day - you get the idea!
Lets hope over the next few weeks Santa comes early to the school, gives us a good Ofsted report and I have more successes along the way.
December 2006
'Tis the season to be marking'
Dear Santa, for Christmas could I have all my books marked?
The word marking seems to be a word us teachers get more frustrated with each term. The school where I work has a six week mark policy and that is checked thoroughly by senior leadership to much annoyance. The feeling of having work checked on a regular basis puts a real pressure on one. This can really push other priorities like having a rest, and developing as a teacher. This with the combined pressure around the place for the whole term due to the head saying Ofsted will arrive soon and them not turning up at all. Suppose will have the joy of this again next term.
Anyway it's not all bad - the last few weeks have been very successful with the grant for a weather station in place. The increased responsibility of running the humanities gifted and talented enrichment club, getting a very good grade for a variety of lessons from observations and making it to the end of term.
The weather station and the G+T club have really got me noticed around the school and allowed me to discover how budgets are run in schools. Also, how many small funds are knocking around that no one really knows about. So next term I'm going to make a priority of writing lots of letters and memos to the appropriate people to gain grants for the department. Who knows, next time I write my Blog I could have found some money to get some interactive white board. Here's to dreaming!
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