Let it snow

So, I have been snowed in to my suburban London home and though it would be an opportune moment to blog about my teaching career thus far.

I love it, plain and simple. If you know me at all, I love filling in forms and pretening I’m organised. (I know, I’m weird.) That’s why teaching’s the perfect profession for me – I love paperwork. It’s got nothing to do with educating people! Seriously though, I love that moment when a penny drops for a pupil or you manage to convince a totally disinterested pupil that science can be fun. Or someone who has no faith in themselves realises, with some help, that they can actually do science. I love giving pupils that little push to help them believe in themselves and to develop the confidence to admit they don’t understand some things – too many people are too scared to admit they don’t know everything.

I love teaching, I love working in schools – I just hate doing my PGCE! Sessions at university are so dull and lectures are so irrelevant. I wish I could be back in school. Even School 2, with the delight that is Bob, my new mentor.

Thank you and goodbye, School 1

So that was that. My final day at School 1. I had a meeting with David the day before (my usual weekly meeting) and we decided that it’d be better for me to let a cover teacher take my last lesson with Year 9 as their normal teacher wasn’t in and, for health and safety reasons, trainees can’t do practicals without a science teacher present. To cut a long story short, I didn’t have to teach on my last day. Which made it quite fun! I had tutor time with my delightful Year 8 form. And I mean delightful – I loved them! I took them chocolates and they’d organised a party and all signed a card! I felt so loved, I really did. I had to try so hard not to cry. All us trainees went to Nando’s for lunch as well, which was very yummy!

I decided I wasn’t going to piss about in the staff room like I usually do when I’m free in the afternoons. (If David or anyone else asks, I was busy planning lessons!) Instead I went an had a natter with Susan. Eventually the end of the school day came and everyone was telling me to get down to the pub. But I didn’t want to. I was scared. I was scared because I knew that, unless the headteacher was lovely and created a vacancy for me, that’d be the last time I’d be in School 1. I was trying to delay leaving. It really felt like home. And they’d all signed a card for me too. I know they’d've done it for anyone who left, but it felt really special. So, having read my card and everything, I finally was being dragged to the pub. Susan wasn’t able to join us and I cried so much when I had to say bye to her. (My eyes are still filling with tears as I type this.) She is truly one of the most wonderful people I have ever met, she really is. Everyone took the mick out of me for crying but I didn’t care.

I loved School 1 so much. I know there’s behaviour issues and they school’s not that academic, but for the most past the kids are lovely and the staff are amazing. If they’d have me, I’d be there in a heartbeat.

And now the end is near…

… And so I face the final curtain.

As my time at my first placement school comes to a close, I am actually typing this with a tear in my eye. But, surprisingly, just the one. For I have come to realise that that’s life – you have to move on. It’s only a placement and I was only ever meant to be there for twelve weeks: it’s not like I’ve worked there for years and have had to come through really tough times. (Maybe I’ve spoken to soon – there are a few dsays to go!) But, having worked at School 1 for the grand total of  54 days, I’ve built relationships with my colleagues and peers and I’ve finally developed a rapport with some of my classes. In the last three or four months, I’ve spent more time with my colleagues than my boyfriend, which is weird if you think about it! And I’ve only really seen my friends on about three separate occasions. So I guess that’s why I’ll miss School 1. I don’t think I’m dreading it too much as I’m secretly hoping I’ll get a job there for July! Just think, I’ll have initials on the school timetable!

I’ll stop being silly now. Well, too silly. I haven’t found it half as stressful as I thought I would at School 1. Having said that, my paperwork and teaching files are practically non-existent – maybe I;d be more stressed if I’d been doing all the paperwork properly! Granted, there’s been tough moments, and I’ll freely admit I’ve had moments when I’ve been thinking: “Why on Earth am I doing this?! I DON’T WANT TO BE A TEACHER!!!” But for every one of those moments, I’ve had a thousand good ones. Here’s to all the other trainee teachers out there, especially the scientists at my ITT university. Best of luck for your second placement.

Accidentally referring to School 1 as “home”

So I visited my second placement school (which will hereon be referred to as “School 2″) yesterday as I start there in a few weeks. And it felt weird. I felt like I was betraying School 1. My new managing mentor is lovely, although she doesn’t work on Wednesdays – which would prove to be annoying later in the placement. And my new mentor, Bob, is the polar opposite of David. In fact the entire school is the opposite of School 1. Oh, David and Bob are both the Head of Physics in their respective schools. But that’s where the similarities end. Bob’s never been a mentor, he told me in not so many words that he never wanted to be a mentor because of the extra workload, and he’s a bit, well, meh. (I love the word “meh” – it says so much without saying anything at all!) But what got to me is how insular the staff are. People in the same department barely talk to each other, let alone go to the staff room. On the plus side, there are paper towels in the staff toilets, which School 1 lacks.

So that was that. I went home and cried, and told my mum how I can’t believe I’m leaving home soon. She was shocked until she realised I meant School 1. I do honestly think of School 1 as home now – the staff are so close and supportive of each other. Please don’t make me leave. If you do, I promise I will cry.

The end of a very important year

I suppose I’d been looking forward to 2008 for a very, very long time. I know it sounds weird, looking forward to a year, but I had been. And everything happened the way I hoped it would.

Back in 2003, I was a nervous sixth-form student filling out my UCAS form. Trying to decide which courses to apply for, which universities to apply to, whether I wanted to stay in London or to go somewhere further afield. I had a bit of a dilemma because I wanted to study both Chemistry and Physics at degree-level and I didn’t like the sound of Chemical Physics as it didn’t include enough Physics. (It was more the physics of chemistry, not Physics itself.) Not only did I love both Chemistry and Physics and was determined to not give up studying either, I thought it would help me with my future teaching career to be equally qualified in two branches of science – quite a bit of forward-planning for a 17-year-old! Four years on, when I was applying for my PGCE, I didn’t count on my love of both the subjects to stay the same – trying to decide which subject to train in was pretty difficult. In the end I chose Physics because I’d cope better with the maths than I would with organic chemistry!

Having been a very organised 17-year-old (a lot did change – you should see me now!), I knew which path I wanted to follow – an four-year MSci followed by a one-year PGCE. (I didn’t want to do a BEd on the off-chance that, by the end of my degree, I’d changed my mind about going into teaching.) When I was filling out my UCAS form, we had to put the start and end dates of the courses we were applying for. September 2004 seemed like a lifetime away when I was filling out the form in September 2003 – the end date, June 2008, seemed like an eternity. And the idea that I’d finish my PGCE in 2009 seemed a million years away.

So 2008’s been and gone now. I was always nervous about doing a masters as I was never really into independent work. Out of my group of friends at university, I was the one we all though was the most unlikely to finish the course. I’ll be honest with you, it was those friends that got me through it. 2008 made me realise that anything’s possible if you’ve got enough support. I still can’t quite believe I finished my degree! I collected my degree certificate a few weeks ago and it still doesn’t seem real.

But the thing I was looking forward to the most in 2008 was starting my teacher training. And it hasn’t let me down so far. Other than all the lesson planning, evaluations, marking according to National Curriculum levels, the assignments, the sleepless nights and dreams about lesson planning, I wouldn’t change it for the world.

With all best wishes for 2009. Let’s hope it’s a good one!

I’ve changed my mind, I take it back…

So there you go. I’ve started my teaching career. It was fun to begin with, seeing new faces (well, except one – one of my best friends surprised me by telling me she was on the course too!) and making a fresh start. Recently I’ve become rather apprehensive about a career in teaching and I’m not sure why. Maybe it’s the new curriculum, maybe it’s fears about class management, maybe it’s a feeling of jealousy when friends who were on my course at uni tell me their PwC starting salaries of £28.5k when I’ll be lucky to get that after five years.

However, reading through my future assignments is what’s unnerved me the most. We have to write an essay  including 2,000 words about a topic and 2,500 words about how that topic is taught in schools (primary and secondary). As it’s science, the topics are divided into biology, chemistry and physics – unfortunately for me, the topics within those headings are very narrow.

I decided back in September 2007 when I applied for my PGCE that I’d apply for physics instead of chemistry – after all, nearly of my degree was in physics, so I thought I’d be alright. I was kidding myself really: out of the thirteen Physics modules I took in my four-year degree, three were in mathematics and no less than five were in atomic, molecular and quantum physics – certainly not things on even an A-level syllabus. I’d be extremely confident with the topics in the chemistry PGCE, as the remainder of my degree was in chemistry. But even that was just physical chemistry. Damn me and my bright idea of doing a degree in two sciences to make me more employable – now I just know a little bit about two sciences rather that a lot about one.

So that’s my dilema – I hate physics really. I love the nitty-gritty mathematical stuff like atomic physics or solving the Schrödinger equation, just nothing that gets taught in schools. And I love physical chemistry – again, that’s just mathematical. So what am I doing training to be a science teacher?

12 hours to go…

I can’t believe it. I have successfully managed to waste pretty much 114 days of my life this summer and I’ve actually done nothing. Well, I spent six days with a local primary school and about seven days in Liverpool with my boyfriend and his parents. But that’s about it. None of the reading I promised myself I’d do. None of the swotting up on GCSE Biology which was, to be honest with you, pretty essential for me to do. (One of my famous lines is: “Penguins are birds. Birds are not mammals.”) I really hope I don’t screw this up.

I have been wondering over the past few weeks whether or not I really want to be a teacher. I think I got the idea in my head because, let’s face it, you don’t really see many people other than teachers while you’re at school. And the idea never left my head. My degree choice, and university choice, were made with that ultimate goal in mind – the PGCE. And now I’m not sure I want to do it. Still, a £9k bursary while I decide would be quite nice, what with the credit crunch and all…

We’re going to the zoo, zoo, zoo…

(Well, we’ve actually already been to the zoo, but I wanted a catchy title for this post! )

Last week, I accompanied Year 6 from the primary school I did my PSE at to London Zoo.  By the time we left school, got everyone to the local tube station and walked from Camden Town station to the zoo (and did the whole thing for the return journey, of course), we only had about three hours at the zoo. And we had to stop for lunch in that time as well. Plus an hour was spent in the shop as it seemed every school in London visited the zoo that day.

I’m not sure what the point in going to the zoo was, other than to go “Oh wow!” at the animals. From my point of view, the group I was with did not achieve any educational objectives. (I think officially they were meant to be observing how animals adapt to their habitats.) But I suppose what with it being the last week of term, they wouldn’t have learned much at school anyway. At least this way they got a fun day out for free. (Transport for London waives travel costs for schools in London and the zoo has free school entry.)

And I didn’t get to see the penguins!!! Well, not much

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…

Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition

Yesterday evening, I went to the Royal Society’s Summer Science Exhibition. I looked on the website at what would be there and it looked pretty interesting, so I invited a few friends from my undergrad days along. And it was so much better than we thought it would be! The exhibitors were the leading people in their fields and could converse just as easily with primary school children as they could with us and our physical science degrees.

I’m going to surprise you now and say that my favourite stand was not the “Spot the Penguin?” stand about how software has been developed to identify the spots on African black-footed penguins, which are unique to each penguin. I really enjoyed the nanotechnology displays, which surprised me more than anyone!

The exhibition was amazing and incredibly well planned and thought out. It’s on until Thursday, so pop along if you can.