So, tomorrow marks my first day at Penguin High. I’m finally a teacher – I have a contract that says “Teacher of Science”! I’m going to be working full-time now, which is very daunting. This is the first time I’ve ever been anywhere, done anything, without knowing when I’m leaving – that’s scary. I’m really scared but I’m really excited at the same time. My Head of Department, Laura, has said that there’ll be “observations” in my first week – I didn’t think to ask if that meant I was observing teachers or if they were observing me! I guess I’ll find out tomorrow.
What I’m looking forward to is being able to be the teacher I want to be, or at least closer to that than I could before. As a PGCE student, I had to teach they way the usual class teacher thought I should teach, whether or not I agreed with it. But now I get to be myself a little more. Unfortunately I’m not going to be a form tutor next year but at least I’ll get to settle in a bit more.
So, whilst I’m not a student teacher and not quite an NQT, I start full-time employment tomorrow. Induction and assessment may not begin until September, but judgements and reputation-building start tomorrow. Wish me luck!
