I knew in my heart of hearts that my two months off would go quickly, but that didn’t stop the sheer panic I felt Sunday evening, knowing I would be starting a new job the following day. As I worked at this school during my first placement, I was grateful that I already knew the team fairly well – I had spent a few hours catching up with one of the lovely ladies on Sunday (she was incredible at calming my nerves… so thanks if you’re reading this!) and I knew I couldn’t do anything else to prepare for the job as I did not have my timetable yet.
Luckily we had an inset day Monday, so I was able to ease myself in. In all honesty, I was completely terrified and felt totally overwhelmed. I knew not much would go in so I thought I would be kind to myself and not give myself any more work than necessary! I found out I am going to be a tutor for a year 7 group, which is super exciting as I will get to experience helping out the newbies and hopefully become their first port of call over the year!
The one thing I knew I was going to have to get a grip on straight away was my own wellbeing. I have a tendency to throw myself completely into my work and think about the consequences of my own feelings later… which proved tricky last year. I am a workaholic but I know I’m going to need to try and minimise the amount of work I do at home (for my partner’s sake just as much as mine!). This week I have combated the anxiety by taking everything a day at a time and making sure I am not ‘reinventing the wheel’ by making use of the faculty’s amazing resources (my partner can vouch for how excited I get when I am looking through lessons on the shared area ).
I am also going to try and limit the amount of time I spend blogging – there were a few occasions last year when I spent well over an hour, because I was avoiding doing anything else. So I am going to trial just thinking about what has gone brilliantly and what I want to make a priority next week. I am hoping these small steps will help me to have a positive outlook on the week and give me focus for the next. There will be no doubt the odd funny anecdote included too… I have got a few um…. interesting characters in my classes that have had me in hysterics.
Things to celebrate
This week I have made a good start in building good relationships with my classes. My year 10 and year 11s are a tad painfully quiet at times, but I’ve got them working hard already so that’s fantastic. They were the two classes I was most nervous about, with the looming GCSEs in the summer. My year 10 this year couldn’t be further from my bottom set I had in my final placements last year, but I have a feeling I am going to like them just as much. My year 8 and year 7 classes are completely bonkers… which I love, but may become challenging at times. I also survived my first time on duty… which was on the first day the students were here!
I am also proud of how I have been dealing with the work load – I’ve even made sure I have time to do a bit of yoga and jogging this week (let’s see how long that lasts)! As I said earlier, the faculty is AMAZING and I know I could ask anyone anything and they will help me out with anything I need…no matter how ridiculous the question! The support I have there is the main reason I was so ecstatic to accept the job there. Most importantly the lovely head of department (who obviously has loads on her plate without adding me to it!) is my NQT mentor and I couldn’t ask for a better mentor. She helped me out a ridiculous amount last year, so I am looking forward to having her help me out this year too!
Things to focus on
During my first NQT meeting with my mentor, we discussed the targets we should make for me in my first term. The two main things that came out of our conversation were getting used to the KS3 curriculum, including how grading works, and becoming ‘warm but strict’ (she picked up on the fact that I can be a bit soft at times and I need to ensure I am using the behaviour policy correctly and effectively). As it is still early days, I am going to focus on RtL next week, hopefully getting to learn more of their names in the process (honestly makes RtL MUCH easier to use). In particular, I want to work on my year 7 group. I’ve only taught them once, but they were an extremely lively group and I need to ensure standards are set well, as they will be mixed up in the next few weeks and we will have slightly different groups.
I am also intending to continue to organise my classroom – note to self, bring my folders into school!!! – and I would like to have a look through at least the year 10 and 11’s books mid week.
The most entertaining job…
I’ve had a couple of face palm moments this week (often things I do or say oops). But here are a couple of great moments from my classroom this week…
Year 8
(Written on the board is the class’ definition of a ballad starting with ‘A ballad is…’
Me: Do we all think this is a good enough definition? Does anyone think we should add anything or change anything?
Student: Me! I think we should…. oh wait I’ve forgotten……………… OH! Yes we should put at the end ‘and it is a ballad’.
Tutor group
(I had been explaining the ready to learn behaviour system)
Year 7 student: Had this been checked out by a psychiatrist? Us year 7s have enough stress to deal with without having to worry about being in isolation…
Safe to say I reassured him that many schools were using ready to learn and that if he was concerned, maybe he should simply follow the school rules and not end up there.
Anyway, I have finished the week on a high – I am truly loving teaching Macbeth (the text I was most worried about teaching) and I am feeling more confident now I have met most of my students. Bring on next week!
Currently reading
The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories – Ken Liu (This is the book I will be reading during ‘drop everything and read’ at school!)
Jack the Ripper – Paul Rigg & John Bennett
Macbeth – William Shakespeare (Obvious reasons)
This is Going to Hurt: Secret Diaries of a Junior Doctor – Adam Kay
Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine – Gail Honeymoon (Finally… late to the party with this one, I know!)
Much Ado About Teaching 