Grey clouds in the sky

Today I had what could be classed as my first “bad” day at Penguin High. I had to teach a Year 7 class about classification, a lesson I had planned thoroughly. I had a lvoely snazzy interactive whiteboard activity, differentiated worksheets and lots of assessment for learning (AfL) opportunities. Shame the computer in the lab didn’t work and the class teacher didn’t warn me about the pupils! They were a nightmare, and I will hold my hands up and say I did not handle the sitaution well. I was just so overwhelmed by their misbehaviour. They were constantly talking and throwing things but I seemed more concerned with the fact I couldn’t get my lesson activity up! I felt so ashamed of myself, but the NQT’s told me they’d had bad lessons too and it was a fact of life. I have a feeling things may work out at Penguin High – let’s hope so!

Year 9, Take 1…

Oh good Lord. Argh.

Yesterday was my first busy Wednesday – two double lessons i.e. 200 minutes of teaching. 100 minutes with a top-set Year 9 and 100 with my usual Year 7, whom I love dearly.

I was already nervous about teaching Year 9 as today would be my first time of teaching them. The teaching I took over from, Daniel, has a very “different” teaching style to me and I was worried not only about his comments and observations but also continuity for the pupils. But I bit the bullet, planned my lesson and carried on with it. Daniel had spoken to me earlier in the week about what I could do and I was sort-of OK.

Imagine my horror this morning when I discovered Daniel was off sick and I’d have a cover teacher in the room. But I thought, “OK, not to worry” and went and had a moan at Susan, who promptly reminded me that, as a trainee teacher, I couldn’t do any practical work with pupils unless a member of the science department was present. And it just so happened that the cover teacher was an Economics teacher. Drat. Cue much stressing before David came to the rescue and told me he’d come and help. Suddenly I was a thousand times more nervous. His opinion means a lot to me and just knew I was going to screw up.

So the bell rang, and pupils started filing in. Susan had to confiscate a mobile phone from a pupil and I didn’t hear the end of it. The class, of no less than 35 pupils, decided they would be loud, obnoxious and downright rude all lesson and I just wanted to cry. But David came in in the second half of the lesson and somehow I was less frazzled. Until I started the practical and realised that Daniel had taught them sweet nothing about safety in the lab, to the point where I doubt they’d hear a fire alarm. I’ll admit I lost control of the class, the worst thing you could do. They were running David and me ragged and I just wanted to scream!

I got them settled into a discussion afterwards and did a short demo which would’ve been awful had David not been there. It was the look on his face that’d say, “Don’t worry, we’ve all been there before and we’ve survived. Hang in there.” I know it sounds stupid but it made me feel better. I knew that the bell would ring and it’d all just be a bad evaluation, chalked down to inexperience.

I swear it’d be less embarrassing if I’d wet myself in front of them. I’d lost control of them, they knew ‘d lost control of them. But David had a go at them at the end of the lesson too. He did apologise afterwards in case he’d stepped on my toes but to be honest, I was just relieved that for those five minutes they were under his control. I dread to think if they’ll have any respect for me whatsoever but still. I survived.

You’re not alone

So, having resigned myself to failure on Monday, things have started to look up. I’ve made a few new friends and, after a long chat, it seems we’re all just as nervous as each other! We’re all worried about discipline, being laughed at and pupils being, to but it politely, annoying.

We had two lectures today – one by the headteacher of a school in East London and one by some dude who used to be a History teacher but is now a tutor at a ITT provider in East Anglia. The first lecture harped on about London’s ethnic diversity and its impact on education. The second was about classroom management and raised the interesting point that if pupils enjoy your lessons, behaviour management doesn’t even arise.

But the most important thing I learnt today is that I’m not alone. I hope I make some good friends here. And even if I don’t, I’ll always have my family, my boyfriend and my squirrels