Geographical Association

August/September 2006

'Excited' would be the best word to sum up how I feel about starting my NQT year, but 'apprehensive' would come a very close second! My name is Richard, I am 23 and have just completed my geography PGCE at Cambridge University.

I always had ambitions to be a geography teacher and I always felt I'd be good at it! I mean, how hard could it be? I graduated with a first in physical geography from Exeter University in 2005 so that was the 'subject knowledge' bit sorted. I've been a scout leader since I was 18 so that's the 'getting on with children' bit taken care of. I did a gap year before my degree too, which took me to the Gambia, Russia and USA, so that meant I had first hand world experience. What more could I possibly need to be geography teacher? Suffice to say I was very naïve about the difficulties the PGCE year would bring; it was much more of a challenge than I ever could have imagined.

I often compare the PGCE year to learning to drive - before you start you think it’s easy, when you get started you realise it's not, and the more you do it the more confident you feel! That is until your confidence gets knocked by rowdy Year 8s who seem determined to disrupt a well-planned lesson. Plus there's that moment when your mentor leaves the classroom and you are all alone to teach a class for the first time. It's a bit like facing a roundabout without your instructor, despite having done it loads of times before you suddenly forget everything and just pray for survival!

In September I will be starting as an NQT at an independent academically selective boys' school in Surrey. I will be joining a well-established, relatively traditional department and hope I can bring a fresh injection of enthusiasm and innovative lesson ideas. I am especially looking forward to working in a well-resourced department, and getting to grips with interactive whiteboards.

Despite my physical geography specialism, I will be teaching human geography to the Sixth Form in September, with one of my colleagues teaching the physical side. In fact, I will be starting a full term of 'retail' geography with the Upper Sixth - looks like I'll be dusting off those Christaller central place theory notes after all!

All those worries I had at the start of my PGCE placements will no doubt return. Will I be able to control my classes? Will the children take me seriously? Will I be able to find time for a social life?

I finally have the bit of paper that says I can teach, but like just passing the driving test, now the real learning begins!


2 October 2006

'Get your book out please, boys... oh, you have!'

I'm a few weeks in now, and am beginning to feel at home! I am also into the term's teaching - I have persuaded the 1st formers (Year 7s) that the earth is flat so they can find evidence to prove me wrong; I'm teaching rivers and coasts to my GCSE groups and urban problems to my AS group.

I have a varied timetable - every Monday I do CCF (cadets) with the boys and we have just had a 'field day' where I accompanied the 3rd form (Year 9) on an activity trip; they loved it, although their raft building skills clearly need improving! On Wednesdays I take the 5th form (Year 11s) on a cross country run which is doing wonders for my fitness although I will be accompanying the school team to matches on Saturdays! We have eight 40-minute periods each day, which is testing my organisational skills, especially when I have to move round the school, and most days I am shattered by 4:00pm. Such is the life of an NQT!

The hardest thing for me so far has been the fact I am straight in teaching statistics to the Upper Sixth. Having not looked at a Pearson's Product moment test for years I am now having to confidently deliver it to students, many of whom are taking maths and further maths at A2! I am also trying to get up to speed with my 5th form's GCSE projects which they started last year. With such project variety (they chose their own) I need to keep tabs on who's doing what!

One of my mentors during my PGCE described behaviour management, and thus teacher pupil interaction as 'a battle: it's you versus them'. I can honestly say the ethos of the school and temperament of the pupils here is very different. Their willingness to learn, their unfailing politeness and the respect they have shown me has made these past few weeks a real pleasure.

Now, where did I put that marking?


6 November 2006

Soon we'll be travelling to and from school in the dark - that will be depressing!

The new half term is underway but the run up to the half term break was manic! Firstly we had our school prize giving and speech day. This required us to wear our gowns and hoods all day and sit through various ceremonies! It did make me feel proud to be part of the school, though I felt a little bit of a fraud at the prize winners' reception as I hadn't taught any of the pupils (the prizes were for last year's efforts!). Next we had the school's open day, which was enjoyable but tiring - especially as I had to hang up some of my pupils' home made globes on the ceiling!

Then there was the small matter of the residential field trip. My colleague and I took 24 of the lower sixth to Nettlecombe Court Field Studies Centre for three days. The boys seemed to enjoy it, and it certainly benefited their geography. We spent a day stomping over sand dunes recording vegetation and soil changes inland, a rural studies day around Somerset comparing settlements inside and outside Exmoor national park, and a day delimiting the CDB of Taunton assessing the extent to which it fits the core/frame model. The last day provided the basis for their coursework. The fact that we were there at the same time as our local girls' school no doubt made the trip all the more memorable!

The half term holiday has been and gone and was not nearly long enough! I don’t feel I started to relax at all until about Friday, just at the time I had to start thinking about school again. I am looking forward to the challenges of this half term will bring, and the dreaded report writing and parents' evening!


4 December 2006

What a month it has been! Thank goodness there are only a couple of week left until the end of term - the past few weeks have been hectic! First I had 70 reports to write, and stupidly I left it too late before starting so I was in a mad panic to get them done by the deadline - now they are in I have a load of neglected marking to see to.

Teaching has been going well and I still love it, although I've spent far too long teaching coasts to my Year 11 group so that I am rushing to get a bit of Industry completed in time for their mocks in January. I genuinely enjoy my lessons although I get annoyed with myself when lessons don't go as planned or when they are under-prepared.

A highlight of the past few weeks has been the trips down to the local river with my Year 10s. Our school is located slap bang in a town centre that not only has a river running through it with textbook flood defences, but the whole place flooded in 2000! This provides a fantastic case study for their GCSE course, and we can get down there and back in lesson time. I love this subject!

I have also been officially observed by my school NQT induction tutor who observed me teaching my Year 8 class. This class can be a bit challenging, particularly as I have them just after lunch when they are full of beans! Fortunately for me they were all good as gold and seem to have picked up most of what I have taught them this term.

The end of term is nigh, but I have picked up a cold just in time for the fun end of term dinners and carol services- my timing is impeccable! Pass me the multivitamins!


13 December 2006

We broke up today, and I now have three weeks of over indulgence, present and card buying. The final few days of term were fairly unproductive in terms of high brow geographical learning. I set my Year 7s an exercise where they had to cut out stamps of Europe and locate them on a map, whilst my older year groups used a web based geographical game (www.sheppardsoftware.com) to test their knowledge of places and capitals - some had embarrassing gaps in knowledge! My Year 11s return in January to mock GCSEs so no such fun for them - we went through paper structures, timings and the like.

We also had the end of term rituals - a carol service at the cathedral, and the final assembly with the awarding of colours and prizes to some of the boys. The final day saw the Christmas lunch for all the staff and the Upper Sixth boys. As the 'newest youngest' member of staff I was required by long standing tradition to give a speech! It was terrifying! I had to be quite daring and, essentially, take the mick out of the staff. I think I pulled it off without offending too many people, though I think my street cred amongst the pupils has just risen!

It has been a long, tiring, but incredibly enjoyable and challenging term. I am looking forward to resting, but I will spend a few days preparing for next term's teaching. As a department we have just bought ArcView GIS education package from ESRI UK so I also hope to spend a bit of time familiarising myself with the software over the break so I can bring it into a lesson next term.

Merry Christmas!


1 February 2007

Happy New Year! The Christmas holidays seem a very distant memory now, but I enjoyed the break enormously. I seem to remember I spent much of the first week asleep!

This term has started again and I feel less pressured than at the start of last term. I know the boys and staff now, and feel happier I have settled in. The first few weeks have been busy all the same. I enjoyed planning fewer lessons in the first two weeks as my Year 11s had their GCSE mocks, this being only spoilt by the mammoth marking mission that followed it! Only now am I starting to get back onto teaching the syllabus with them. Most of the boys did well, and are pleased with their predictions (majority As) though I have been careful to tell them not to get complacent!

This term I have also had my first parents' evenings where I have been meeting parents on my own. They have both gone smoothly so far- you get to see why some of the children are as they are!

I also earned the accolade of being the first teacher in the department to use GIS with the boys. I set our years investigating plate boundaries using the free web based geographynetwork.com. As yet I have not mastered the GIS package we bought, despite spending a few days over the holidays trying to work it!

I have also been throwing myself into the extra-curricular commitments (perhaps too readily). I have accompanied the school cross country team to various weekend fixtures, and completely redesigned the school's Explorer Scout website in readiness for me taking the unit over in September, which I am very much looking forward to.

I can't believe it is only a couple of weeks until half term, it has flown by!


1 March 2007

Half term has been and gone, and the end of term is now in distant sight, though there is much work to get through between now and then. Every single week this term there has been a parents' evening, so I feel much more confident about meeting parents, and often I am distilling similar advice. In the latest ones with Years 10 and 11 the boys attended with their parents. This was fine in the most part but very interesting for the disruptive and lazy boys - they did not enjoy the evening! One boy got very defensive when I told him how silly he can be in class, but thankfully his mother was on my side. Not sure he paid any attention to me or her though as he has been just as bad since!

Just before half term I got my Year 8s creating animations using digital cameras and modelling clay. They modelled erosion of a headland into arches/stacks/stumps. They then put them into a computer video making package, added rain effects and annotations and came out with some excellent work! There were a few technical issues, but a success on the whole, and the boys certainly enjoyed it!

Both my Sixth Form classes have done their mocks, and again, produced pleasing results in the most part. At least now some boys realise just how much work they have to do between now and the real exam. With a few exceptions, all my exam classes have taken on a real focus recently and this renewed energy has meant teaching has been a real pleasure.


23 March 2007

The term has ended! And if the first term was a marathon slog, this term was an energetic sprint. The term was two weeks shorter than the previous one but so much has been packed in that it has been manic. I've had parents' evenings every week, predicted grades, mock exam markings, as well as sorting out boys for various scout activities and accompanying weekend cross country fixtures. Not to mention jumping through the hoops of my NQT induction.

I am looking forward to the Easter break, although that too seems busy - we get three weeks, but I have 18 GCSE projects to mark and in the final week we are taking our Upper Sixth to Dorset for a coastal geomorphology field course. The day after we finish the course I am going up to Derby for the GA Conference (on the Saturday), then straight back down for the start of the summer term.

I can hardly believe there is only a matter of a few teaching weeks before half my classes go off on study leave; the first few weeks next term will be busy with practise papers and finishing the colossal content of the GCSE course (most subjects have finished delivering all the lessons and are in revision mode - with the Year 11s I have still to do acid rain, energy and global warming not to mention all the revision).

The biggest highlight of the past few weeks had to be our charity day, which coincided with national Red Nose Day. We had a funny assembly in which the Upper Sixth boys parodied the staff, and I was involved in 'staff sumo wrestling', in those big suits. Sadly I was knocked out first round (by a biology teacher) but it was all good fun and it provided a good opportunity to do some 'global inequality' teaching.

I am looking forward to having a bit of a break to refresh myself for next term, and to learn a bit more about GIS at the upcoming GA conference.


1 May 2007

The summer term is well underway, and very soon the whole school will be in exam mode - I seem to be spending my life marking practice papers at the moment! I am also having my final lessons with many of my classes, I really can't believe it, it seems only yesterday I was a fresh NQT meeting the classes for the first time.

The Easter holidays went well - a nice chance for a break, though I did lose a week of it taking our Upper Sixth to Portland on a coastal geomorphology fieldtrip. The boys had a great time, particularly as the hotel we were in had a bar they were allowed in!

I also did a (long) day trip to Derby for the GA Conference with my HoD. As it took four hours to get there I sadly missed the GIS session I was hoping to attend, and our exam board were not there, which was a little disappointing, but we did get some new atlases and loads of freebies! At least next year's Conference is here in Surrey so less far to commute.

Last weekend I took a load of boys to Dartmoor to practise for the Ten Tors event. It was great teaching navigation in the middle of the moors, and equally funny watching them get hopelessly lost and plod round in a circle for an hour. At least they learnt some valuable lessons! They are going back for the real thing later this month, but I won't be accompanying them.

Study leave starts in a few weeks, then I will hopefully have a bit more time to play with this new GIS we have bought. I know what I want it to do but can't seem to get it going! And I love this sunny weather, long may it continue!


1 June 2007

The exam season is in full swing and this end of the summer term heralds the start of the massive outdoors extra curricular programme! Our Ten Tors boys got rescued off the Dartmoor, and though clearly disappointed, seemed to revel in the national publicity the event received! They were one tor away from a free helicopter rescue - as it happened they had to wait in the rain for a coach!

The school seems to be empty now the upper year groups have gone, and my timetable has been reduced to a skeleton few younger year group lessons. After half term we have school exam week, so no teaching. The final weeks of term are lost to sports day, swimming sports, a field day (where I'm off with the scouts to do a three day expedition) and the end of year formalities, so there is not much time to do anything else! I think I will concentrate on my Year 10 coursework projects - they will be collecting the data over the summer holidays (individually) so I need to make sure they all know what they will be doing and give them some time to write their introductory chapters.

I have been spending much time preparing for September - I am taking over the running of the school's Explorer Scout Unit which will take up much of my time. I have revamped the weekly sessions and am introducing the Duke of Edinburgh's Award Scheme so I have much ground work to lay down, though I am determined not to let the quality of the geography I teach deteriorate! And no, I still have not got to grips with that GIS...


5 July 2007 - final NQT diary!

We've had sports day, book handing in, those awkward few lessons with the Lower Sixth after their AS exams, final assembly and now it is over. The year has ended! I am no longer an NQT and have officially joined the ranks of 'teacher'! It has been an incredible year of amazing highs, and frustrating lows. I have learnt so much about this profession, including the sad fact that there is no such thing as a perfect lesson, or a perfect teacher and that we can always find fault in anything. As a perfectionist this has been irritating at times, though I have always tried to do my best.

One of the main things I have learnt is that I need to be a bit more assertive in class. By the time I realised this it was probably a bit too late, so next year I will start afresh and come in strong in September. I don't want to become a strict disciplinarian who the pupils fear as I genuinely don't believe that is how to get the best out of them - though I appreciate this approach works for others. I want to maintain my firm but fair, approachable stance which I have been developing this year.

Whilst my NQT year has finished, there is still a need to improve my classroom practise. I don't just want to be a good teacher, I want to be a great teacher. Good teachers will always get results, and may do enjoyable activities with their pupils, but I believe a great teacher is one who is prepared to experiment in class, try new activities and move outside their comfort zone once in a while. Whilst the risks are greater- if the lesson doesn't work it could descent into chaos - the rewards are greater too as the pupils will benefit form a new technique or something truly inspirational. I like to think I have tried new ideas this year which (some of) the department have taken on, but I hope I can maintain my desire to experiment in class as it is the only way I can see of securing progression in teaching technique and thus pupil learning.

I have just got the GIS working at school too - so in September, we will be using it in class with all year groups.

I am looking forward to a busy summer on various scout camps and activities, but next year is already looking busy - I will be a form tutor of a Year 8 group, in charge of the thriving school Explorer Scout Unit and taking on a part time MA. And, most importantly, teaching geography. It has been an amazing year and I am very much looking forward to the challenges that lay ahead.


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