Week 1 as an NQT

My word, what an emotional rollercoaster this week was. And it’s only been 3½ teaching days! I’ve now met all my classes and I can see why this year is going to be a challenge. I have come home many evenings and cried, but I actually had a good day on Thursday! Perhaps it was because I had two Year 12 classes. I think my downfall is behaviour management. Take Friday’s lessons, for instance – they were nothing short of shambolic. Thank goodness I wasn’t being observed. It killed me when one boy said to me, “Miss, I didn’t learn anything that lesson.” I mean, I just don’t know what I’m supposed to do. KS3 practicals really do fill me with dread – thirty uncontrollable 13-year-olds is a nightmare. I demo activities, collection of equipment is fine – and then it goes wrong. I’m trying so hard to pinpoint what it is so that I can rectify it. I think I just get in a fluster because I anticipate it going wrong.

But it’s not just practicals. I had my GCSE Applied Science group on Friday as well and it was only a “textbook” lesson. It was disastrous. I was crying on the shoulders of both deputy heads of department by the end of the day. I think I’ve realised that the lessons that go wrong are the ones I’m not confident with even before I’ve walked into the classroom – if I have no faith in the lesson, there is no lesson basically. If there’s the slightest doubt in my head about the lesson, it seems to go wrong. So that means it’s back to PGCE-style lesson planning for me.

I’m being observed by SLT in the next week or so and I really don’t feel ready. I have no confidence in myself whatsoever. I think I was more confident as a trainee. I still don’t feel ready to take on classes of my own. Is that normal for an NQT?…

First day nerves

Today was my first proper day at School 2. The staff seemed a little more friendly than they did before – maybe they’ve realised I’m there until May so they’d better get used to it! Or maybe I have lowered my expectations. My tutor at uni told me that the last trainee who went there clashed with the staff so spectacularly that she failed the course. I am the first trainee to go to School 2 since. Well whoop die doo. Maybe I should just stick my iPod on and keep myself to myself.

So, back to today. I was really nervous this morning. It didn’t help that it was pouring with rain and that my outfit was being ruined as I walked to Reception! But I found my feet after a while. The other trainees at school (one does History and the one does English with Drama) are nothing like me at all – I’m not sure I’ll build the same relationship with them as I did with the trainees at School 1. I think the fact that each department has it’s own staff room doesn’t help that either. I met the headteacher today and she seems lovely – I’m having a formal introduction on Thursday, which should be good.

I met my Year 8 class today. They seem like my Year 7’s from School 1 on a good day! Bella, their class teacher, is really focused and she used to be a mentor before Bob did it, so she knows the exact advice to give me. Plus she’s really easy to talk to. I’m teaching Year 8 about Food and the Digestive System after half term, which should be “fun”.

All in all, as I was explaining to my family, you instantly get a feeling about a school when you walk in. It’s difficult for a school to grow on you. School 2 may not be similar to School 1 in any shape or form, but I’m feeling a little more optimistic now. I hope my optimism isn’t misplaced!

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.

100 minutes with Year 7 starting… now!

I suppose I should’ve written this post straight after I taught my first ever full lesson. Maybe I would’ve captured some of the energy and delight I felt straight afterwards. But I didn’t so you’ll have to make do with this!

I taught Year 7 for a double lesson (100 minutes) on food chains and webs. I’d planned the lesson meticulously, I knew all of their names and I had fun games on the interactive whiteboard for them to play. I was actually feeling pretty confident. Until I plugged my USB stick into the lab computer to find my flipchart wouldn’t load, so I didn’t get a lunch break while I stressed about that! But a helpful soul in the science department helped me, so my lesson plan was restored

So Year 7 came into the lab, I greeted them individually, told them to write down the lesson objectives, politely told off the ones who weren’t working – all was going a bit too well. I had a clearly structured five-part lesson. And about half way through I realised that, if I kept the pace up, they’d have no work to do for the last half an hour. So I made it slightly more relaxed. I was still s******g myself though. Thankfully, they all found one of the textbook questions really difficult, and one of the high-achievers understood it. So, quick-thinking me got her up to the front of the class to explain it – that wasted a few more minutes, yay!

I did have to keep them all in for a class detention though, because they were all talking too much. I did give them a warning and a choice – I did tell them that if they carried on talking, I’d keep them in. Which they did, so I had no choice really.

On the whole though, I got such an adrenaline rush. I had a meeting with David straight after and he said I seemed like I was “on a bit of a high” (his words, not mine) and to be honest with you,  I probably was. I was expecting to finish my first ever lesson in floods of tears like most student teachers. But don’t worry, I’m being realistic – I haven’t lulled myself into a false sense of security!

Thrown in at the deep end

So there I was this morning, sat in the staff room with David, having our weekly meeting. We spent ages planning when I’d start teaching, what topics I’d teach, which part of the lesson I would lead, etc etc. We spent a good half an hour discussing when I’d do my first ten minutes of being a real teacher. This was in period 1.

Fast forward to period 3, straight after morning break. I went to the lab which I was meant to be observing in. This is the Year 7 class I’m supposed to be teaching from next week, for their weekly 200 minutes of science. And guess what? Their class teacher was off sick. But it’s OK, he’s left a few worksheets for the little blighters to do. And a cover teacher walked in, so I wouldn’t be alone. But oh no, life’s not that nice. The cover teacher decided that, seeing as I’m a trainee science teacher, I could lead the class. So I got them to start the worksheets. But within thirty seconds, they were asking me questions. I flicked through their exercise books to find they’d never covered the material before. Some children were even getting “adaptation” and “adoption” confused. As a human being, how could I sit there watching them do that?? So I really had to think on my feet and I made them read aloud from the textbook in turns, just the few pages their teacher should’ve gone through with them long before they cast their eyes on those worksheets. And they finished them in half the lesson time so I had to run crying to the technician asking her what to do! David was not best pleased that that’d happened but what can you do?

Speaking of technicians, the one I know best will be referred to as Susan and, I’ll be honest with you, she’s an absolute diamond. And I’m not just saying that in an “all science teachers love the technician” way. She truly is wonderful.

Mmm… doughnuts…

I spent a day at my first teaching practice school today, and it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be! Fair enough, a fair proportion of the pupils (and staff) were off because of Eid, but I think I might, just might, survive! The science staff were all really friendly and very receptive of a female physicist. And one of the teachers brought in a couple of dozen Krispy Kreme doughnuts, so that helped me to settle in! I’m also on a paired placement, which means there are two student teachers in the science department. I think that’ll come in handy when we need to let off steam, plan lessons and generally bitch about annoying kids!

I observed a Year 7 lesson on sexual reproduction while I was there. (Note to self: learn to keep a straight face when saying “vagina”, “penis” and “sexual intercourse”.) It was very cute as many of the children got seriously confused! Isn’t the baby supposed to grow in the stomach? Can a baby fall out of a pregnant woman? And don’t get me started on their explanations of twins… I think I’ll be able to handle Year 7 Biology!

I was talking to one of the Physics teachers and he was explaining to me how they’re condensing KS3 into two years (Years 7-8) and making KS4 three years (Years 9-11). Ambitious, weird, but still – who am I to question them? I’m only a student teacher and I’ve only been there a day!

One thing that struck me about the school was the teachers’ dress code. There isn’t one. Anything’s fine as long as it’s not scruffy and you don’t look like a sixth form student is what I was told! So, even though I could get away with wearing jeans, I may just stick to the suit trousers for a while longer. Oh, and one tip – don’t wear shoes for the first time when you don’t know how long a walk it is from the school to the station…

Puttin’ on the Ritz

So yesterday I, as my mother delightfully put it, “got to see what the other half live like”. For my Christmas present last year, my older brother gave me a gift voucher for afternoon tea for two at The Ritz. Yesterday was the day I got to use it. I’d bought a lovely summery outfit from a generic Arcadia store, only for it to not stop raining at all yesterday. I left home ridiculously early as I know what London Underground is like and made my way to Green Park station to meet my friend, where I changed my flats for stupidly high heels that I could barely walk in. But when we walked into the hotel – oh. My. God. It was the stuff of dreams. Men to open doors for you and apologising profusely if you were unfortunate enough to have to even touch a door handle yourself, chandliers, dim lighting, the works. We were shown to our table in the Palm Court and the waiter pulled our chairs out for us and put our napkins on our laps. We had the Ritz blend tea, which I can highly recommend. It tasted like, well, tea. But I like tea Once our sterling silver pot of tea had been brought over, a stand was put on our table with finger sandwiches (without crusts, as my friend pointed out excitedly) and pastries. The sandwiches were unfussy and sandwichy. (Have a look here if you want to see the menu in detail.) But what got us the most excited was the giant pot of clotted cream for the scones that would be brought out later. We like clotted cream.

I had the most wonderful time living in that little dream world for nearly two hours. Even the “powder room” was over the top and even had pink sofas. (We even took photos of ourselves there!) It was lovely being waited on hand and foot. The food was incredibly mediocre and it was only then that I realised that what makes Afternoon Tea at The Ritz the institution it is is the fact you are transported to a dream world for those two hours. It’s not the food, it’s not the service that you pay for – it’s the dream. I might do it again, but only if someone else paid or teaching suddenly became the type of profession where you could actually earn money. But it’s still something everyone should do at least once. One of my cousins goes on about the Christmas Tea they do in December – might give that a go.

On another note, it was nice to have a break from revising GCSE Biology. Now I do actually have a GCSE in Biology, but I’m improving my “subject knowledge” ready for September. However, having had a look at the KS3 and KS4 National Curriculum for 2008 onwards, there’s no actual science in the science syllabus. There’s no “green plants as organisms” section where you learn about how plants feed etc etc. Gone is quite a lot of stuff that I would class as fundamental. The emphasis is now on how science works in the real world and in industry, but there’s nothing about the science behind it. I’m hoping more will be explained when I start my PGCE in September because it really looks like you don’t even need to know science to teach this. Maybe that’s the plan…