I have seen both of these hashtags appear over the past few days and wanted to join in. Not wanting to choose between the two but equally not wanting to repeat myself I have tried to combine the two. I will do my 5 positives from 2014 a la #Nurture1415 and then make my 5 wishes using the #teacher5aday categories.
2014
1) I felt like I was blogging for a reason. Previously my blog had felt like me talking to myself but in the latter part of this year I got more responses. I realised there were actually people reading my blog, and what's more they were telling me that they were feeling the same way. My post about 'Getting my teaching mojo back' seemed to really strike a chord with not just NQTs but some more experienced teachers too. This gave me more confidence in myself and what I was blogging for.
2) I stepped out of my comfort zone and tried to get more involved. In the summer I met a group of other bloggers for the first time, it was really good to put faces to twitter handles and get to have a conversation and not worry about a 140 character limit. It was even better to spot these faces and have people to talk to at ResearchEd.
3) I started my first proper job and, despite a wobble in October, I enjoy it. It's not been easy, everyone knows that and wouldn't expect the NQT year to be any other way. I'm lucky to be in a department with really helpful, experienced staff but also two more NQTs. There are a lot of NQTs in school but having 3 in our department has been really good - even if it's for a therapeutic rant at the end of the week or quickly exchanging resources at the start of the day.
4) I've kept time for myself. The hardest balance for a teacher but I was determined that I would do it from day one. I love my 'No Work Wednesdays' when I go to the local adult music school at my old school where I play alongside my ex-head teacher (which was strange at first) and led by my saxophone teacher from school. On Wednesdays I have to leave school at a decent time and whilst I'm there I can't think about work - I'm too busy trying to catch up with all the black dots that are flying past me on the page!
5) I have applied to volunteer at the Olympics in Rio 2016. This has meant taking language tests in Spanish and French and committing myself to learning a basic level of Portuguese. So far so good, I've passed each stage of the application process. This opens up the door to me doing more travelling like I keep saying I will. Watch this space on this one!
2015
#connect - I want to blog more, on relevant issues not just what is going on in my world and get involved in the debate. I want to take a more active part in twitter, I've taken a back seat to observe but it's about time I got braver and spoke up.
#exercise - How to write this one without it being a generic 'I must go to the gym more often' resolution? The fact is that has to be it. I need to realise that walking up two flights of stairs with all my school bags does not count as exercise. Neither does the amount of walking to and from the printer I do, or walking round the classroom. I keep saying that I don't have time to go to the gym/swim but I shall just have to make it.
#notice - What is going on outside the teaching 'bubble'. It's very easy to get wrapped up in these things, especially with teaching taking over my twitter and slowly but surely my Facebook too.
#learn - I'm applying to do an MA in Education. I know it's going to be hard work and a lot to juggle but I feel it's the next thing for me to do. Whilst I've got the enthusiasm and interest for it I want to give it a go. I don't necessarily know where it is going to take me but I think it'll be worth it. Part and parcel of this is reading more, I don't do it enough and if nothing else this will force me to do that.
#volunteer - I said to myself that I'd get involved outside of my department at school. I set the wheels in motion and then other things took hold. I am determined though that this is something I will do this year. I remember how much music meant to me at school, and as above still does. Even if it's only in a small way I want to help with this and get involved.
Showing posts with label blogging. Show all posts
Showing posts with label blogging. Show all posts
Wednesday, 31 December 2014
Sunday, 14 September 2014
NQT year resolutions
Typically New Years resolutions are made at the very beginning of the year but I've decided to make my NQT year resolutions a little bit into the term, only a week or so, to give me an idea of the sort of challenges I'm going to face. In true New Years resolution style they are unlikely to stick and probably unrealistic!
Having been in school and teaching for 7.5 days, my resolutions are as follows:
1) I WILL have a life! I will only do the work that I have to do, by which I mean if it doesn't actually need doing I won't be doing it. Teachers are notorious for doing much more work than strictly necessary and losing all sense of a work/life balance. I am determined that I will be able to have some evenings/weekend days off without that guilty feeling.
2) I will socialise with people that aren't teachers and keep a sense of reality. We all know that if you spend too much time around people that have the same complaints and problems you can end up driving each other mad and making the situation worse. It's important to have that outside perspective on the situation as well as talking about other things.
3) I will speak out when I need help. Be it in school or on twitter I won't let myself get bogged down with something that could probably be quickly solved by asking the right questions.
4) I won't panic about my lessons not being as thoroughly planned and detailed as they were during my training year. I've heard enough times now that NQTs shouldn't expect their lessons to be the same as they were. The timetable load is higher, I have a needy year 7 form, I have more meetings to go to, I have break duty to do, I'm teaching more exam classes - including sixth form. As long as I'm still planning lessons it doesn't matter that I've not got a sheet of paper that tells me exactly what AfL I'm doing and for how many minutes.
5) I will keep up my blog. This blog gives me a chance to make sense of things that have happened and think about what comes next. I think it's important that I carry it on, whether or not people are reading it!
6) I will join in with #NQTChat. Even though I've given up my commitment to @NQTUK to prioritize other things I will join in with it where I can. It's a really good resource and a lot of fun. Sharing with other NQTs has been really useful so far so I need to remember this and keep joining in.
I'll come back to these in July and see how they went. Don't get me wrong, I realise they're not exactly realistic but I'm aiming high!
Having been in school and teaching for 7.5 days, my resolutions are as follows:
1) I WILL have a life! I will only do the work that I have to do, by which I mean if it doesn't actually need doing I won't be doing it. Teachers are notorious for doing much more work than strictly necessary and losing all sense of a work/life balance. I am determined that I will be able to have some evenings/weekend days off without that guilty feeling.
2) I will socialise with people that aren't teachers and keep a sense of reality. We all know that if you spend too much time around people that have the same complaints and problems you can end up driving each other mad and making the situation worse. It's important to have that outside perspective on the situation as well as talking about other things.
3) I will speak out when I need help. Be it in school or on twitter I won't let myself get bogged down with something that could probably be quickly solved by asking the right questions.
4) I won't panic about my lessons not being as thoroughly planned and detailed as they were during my training year. I've heard enough times now that NQTs shouldn't expect their lessons to be the same as they were. The timetable load is higher, I have a needy year 7 form, I have more meetings to go to, I have break duty to do, I'm teaching more exam classes - including sixth form. As long as I'm still planning lessons it doesn't matter that I've not got a sheet of paper that tells me exactly what AfL I'm doing and for how many minutes.
5) I will keep up my blog. This blog gives me a chance to make sense of things that have happened and think about what comes next. I think it's important that I carry it on, whether or not people are reading it!
6) I will join in with #NQTChat. Even though I've given up my commitment to @NQTUK to prioritize other things I will join in with it where I can. It's a really good resource and a lot of fun. Sharing with other NQTs has been really useful so far so I need to remember this and keep joining in.
I'll come back to these in July and see how they went. Don't get me wrong, I realise they're not exactly realistic but I'm aiming high!
Wednesday, 23 July 2014
Bex-Trex into the NQT year with further study on the horizon...
After spending just one year at my training school I didn't anticipate finding the end of the year and the process of moving on to be too difficult. It's been a roller coaster of a year with more ups and downs than any other, some provoked by the training and some more specific to the school but ever since my interview I've been looking forward to moving onto pastures new in September and saw that as the real start for me. There are quite a few staff leaving the school this year and many of them have been at the school for a long time so I wasn't expecting much from the students by way of reaction, especially as I've only been teaching my current classes since February. I'd not considered the impact I might've had on the students I taught but bearing in mind the short amount of time I'd been there and the fact that I was a trainee I thought I'd slip away fairly unnoticed. So when a year 10 boy stayed behind at the end of the lesson on Monday to tell me that he felt he'd really improved whilst I'd been teaching him and that he wanted to wish me luck at my new school it came as a shock, especially when I opened what I thought was a card that turned out to be a little wishbone charm on a chain for good luck. Over the course of the week I was given a poem by a year 7, a cupcake from another and a card from brothers in year 7 and 9 one of whom is in my tutor group and the other I taught. What meant the most to me though was when another year 10 boy tracked me down to give me a card and told me that he didn't care that people were laughing at him for it because he really wanted to give it to me. In all this reflection we've been encouraged to do all year, even when we're told to think of the impact we're having on the students we teach this sort of impact was something I'd never really considered.
The process of leaving one school and starting at the next has overlapped in the last few weeks when I have had the chance to visit my new school, collect my timetable, see my classroom and meet all my new colleagues in my department, some of whom are new themselves, including my NQT mentor. I have been lucky enough to be taking over from the nicest, most organised lady in the world who has tidied the classroom, prepared everything for me for September in terms of classes and as she is retiring she is leaving me with a lot of her resources. I've got more resources now in terms of textbooks and teachers books than I have seen all year and feel like I'm ready to hit the ground running. The novelty of having my own classroom has spurred me into action when it comes to displays and resources. As much as the classroom is in a perfectly useable state I want to make my mark and the best way I can see of doing this is to take down all the current displays and replace them with my own, reorganise the tables and fill the shelves with the resources I have accumulated over the first year.
Moving into my NQT year I had intended to continue my studies by starting on a Masters course and using the 60 credits I have built up from my PGCE. I thought that after juggling School Direct with the PGCE essays this year I should continue with the momentum and get straight into it. Throughout the course I've been interested in the research side of things and have actually enjoyed some of the essays at times when my colleagues had been complaining about how pointless they were. I can see that it's certainly a side of the course that you either love or hate and how useful you find it depends on what you intend to do later on. Having studied a minor in Psychology in Education at university I was already interested in educational research so it suited me just fine. This early on in my career I obviously don't have a clear picture of what I want to do, but there is certainly an appeal in heading into research or training or back into higher education later on so the Masters will be something I do, I just need the breathing space this year to work out the best way of going about it. I'll be going to ResearchEd in September though to satisfy some of that need, I'm looking forward to it but just hoping I won't be out of my depth! I've started myself on a reading list already...
I started this particular blog a year ago, unsure of quite where I was going with it, who would read it and if I'd even keep it up. I was pretty sure that the only people that were going to read it were my parents and my grandparents and that it might not really be worth continuing. A year down the line I'm pleased I stuck it out. I've been really surprised with the sort of responses I've had and particularly happy with the messages I've had from other trainees and those going into their training this year that have been reading and contacted me to let me know that they've found it useful or enjoyable. I also think that writing the blog has helped me do something that was drilled into us throughout training - reflection. With this in mind, I'm hoping to continue the blog into my NQT year. Now that my training is over and I won't have essays etc to be reflecting on I guess the content of the blog will take a slightly different angle but I don't want to give it up just yet.
The process of leaving one school and starting at the next has overlapped in the last few weeks when I have had the chance to visit my new school, collect my timetable, see my classroom and meet all my new colleagues in my department, some of whom are new themselves, including my NQT mentor. I have been lucky enough to be taking over from the nicest, most organised lady in the world who has tidied the classroom, prepared everything for me for September in terms of classes and as she is retiring she is leaving me with a lot of her resources. I've got more resources now in terms of textbooks and teachers books than I have seen all year and feel like I'm ready to hit the ground running. The novelty of having my own classroom has spurred me into action when it comes to displays and resources. As much as the classroom is in a perfectly useable state I want to make my mark and the best way I can see of doing this is to take down all the current displays and replace them with my own, reorganise the tables and fill the shelves with the resources I have accumulated over the first year.
Moving into my NQT year I had intended to continue my studies by starting on a Masters course and using the 60 credits I have built up from my PGCE. I thought that after juggling School Direct with the PGCE essays this year I should continue with the momentum and get straight into it. Throughout the course I've been interested in the research side of things and have actually enjoyed some of the essays at times when my colleagues had been complaining about how pointless they were. I can see that it's certainly a side of the course that you either love or hate and how useful you find it depends on what you intend to do later on. Having studied a minor in Psychology in Education at university I was already interested in educational research so it suited me just fine. This early on in my career I obviously don't have a clear picture of what I want to do, but there is certainly an appeal in heading into research or training or back into higher education later on so the Masters will be something I do, I just need the breathing space this year to work out the best way of going about it. I'll be going to ResearchEd in September though to satisfy some of that need, I'm looking forward to it but just hoping I won't be out of my depth! I've started myself on a reading list already...
I started this particular blog a year ago, unsure of quite where I was going with it, who would read it and if I'd even keep it up. I was pretty sure that the only people that were going to read it were my parents and my grandparents and that it might not really be worth continuing. A year down the line I'm pleased I stuck it out. I've been really surprised with the sort of responses I've had and particularly happy with the messages I've had from other trainees and those going into their training this year that have been reading and contacted me to let me know that they've found it useful or enjoyable. I also think that writing the blog has helped me do something that was drilled into us throughout training - reflection. With this in mind, I'm hoping to continue the blog into my NQT year. Now that my training is over and I won't have essays etc to be reflecting on I guess the content of the blog will take a slightly different angle but I don't want to give it up just yet.
Saturday, 5 April 2014
Two terms in and a nice Easter holiday surprise.
Damn body clock, I was ready for my lie in today but instead I was awake on and off from 6.45.... Is this how the holidays will go from now on? I feel as if I have survived the longest most stressful term possible, but yet I know that's not true.
6 weeks ago I returned to my main placement school and immediately took over (with the exception of one class and 3 lessons on my Wednesday training day) the entire timetable of a colleague due to go on maternity leave. This was a shock to the system to say the least, but the way my training is set up the school were acting within the guidelines and agreement of the training partnership to do it so I've got on with it. It's not been easy, that's for sure. I've had absolutely all of the support my mentor has time to give me, but when report data is due and parents evening rolls around there really is no replacement for having the class teacher there to advise you and back you up. I do feel as if I've been thrown in at the deep end, but I'm continuing to tread water and I can see the rescue boat that is Final Assessment coming in the distance (sorry, I couldn't resist that...). I'm choosing to see this past term and the one that is coming as a learning curve and something that will no doubt be preparing me for September in a way that many others won't be.
My final assessment is due any time after the May half term and I think it will be pretty early on. For me at this moment in time it's not a scary prospect but signals the end of my assignments and at least some of the endless reams of paperwork that this course entails. I'm sure that nearer the time it will be a lot scarier, but for now it is the light at the end of the tunnel! After the final assessment I think I'm due to stay at this school until the end of the year to cover the maternity leave but without the pressures of weekly learning journals to fill in and essays to write at least the pressure will ease off, even if only a little and only temporarily!
This Easter holiday is my 2 weeks of lie-ins and not working in the evenings but also my chance to really get everything on track. I have to compile a record of development with all sorts of things in it that someone can look though and some how make a judgement on my suitability to teach. It's another paperwork exercise but as I hoard things I don't think it should be too much hassle to put together in the end.
Being the end of term I couldn't turn down the opportunity last night to head to the pub after school and for once got the opportunity to talk to people that you usually only see in passing. One conversation with a teacher who has been at the school for more than 20 years was particularly interesting. We were talking about all the things that trainees and NQTs have to do these days to qualify and he basically said to us this: when he entered teaching it was all about fun, (if the students got exam results from it that was a bonus) but that he thinks that with everything we have to do now we're going to be the better teachers. I'm not going to discuss this now, I think that would be a whole new blog post for another day. But I can't help but think that with the amount of people leaving teaching so early on, that he can't be right?
Just one more quick note, and this was my Easter surprise.... I got a tweet last night telling me that this blog has been nominated for the UKedChat Top 100 education bloggers. I'm very surprised, and I'm sure the nomination has not come off of the back of posts like this one but thank you to whoever posted the nomination. I'm very pleased. If you want to have a look at the nominations and vote for your favourite (or me!) then just visit http://ukedchat.com/2014/04/02/vote-for-your-favourite-uk-educational-blog/ and all the details are there. You only have until the 9th of April.
Tuesday, 11 February 2014
Nearly half a term has passed and no blog post...
I was doing so well with keeping up with my blog that sooner or later it was bound to go wrong. There has been so much going on since Christmas that I've not really had the time or the motivation to get around to writing. However, I couldn't let the entire half term go by without even a single post.
The 5/6 weeks since the Christmas holidays have ended have flown by and I think that's down to the fact that we've been all over the place. The first 4 weeks were on placement in our second schools, these were selected so that we saw totally contrasting school. This meant that I went from a mixed gender comprehensive to an all girls grammar. It really was a contrast and I wasn't sure what to expect from it. I enjoyed the experience and it was a really good school, but I'm not sure that a single sex grammar is where I'd like to be, not right now anyway. There was just something I missed about teaching mixed classes.
Right now I'm on a research placement for my next assignment, two weeks in another school researching an area of school improvement. I'm still not 100% sure where I'm headed with it but I'm sure it'll come together in the writing, at least I hope it does. I'm enjoying the chance to be in another school and to be able to step back totally and observe. I'm missing teaching though, there is only so much observation someone can do before they want to get back up there and do something!
Whilst all this has been going on I've started to apply for positions for September and am pleased to say that I got an interview with the school I first applied to and will be starting with them in September. It is a school out of the area I have been training in and is much closer to home cutting my journey to school in half.
I'm looking forward to going back to my main school after half term, although I think I'll be having a lot more teaching hours and I'll be taking new classes so it'll be a shock to the system!
The 5/6 weeks since the Christmas holidays have ended have flown by and I think that's down to the fact that we've been all over the place. The first 4 weeks were on placement in our second schools, these were selected so that we saw totally contrasting school. This meant that I went from a mixed gender comprehensive to an all girls grammar. It really was a contrast and I wasn't sure what to expect from it. I enjoyed the experience and it was a really good school, but I'm not sure that a single sex grammar is where I'd like to be, not right now anyway. There was just something I missed about teaching mixed classes.
Right now I'm on a research placement for my next assignment, two weeks in another school researching an area of school improvement. I'm still not 100% sure where I'm headed with it but I'm sure it'll come together in the writing, at least I hope it does. I'm enjoying the chance to be in another school and to be able to step back totally and observe. I'm missing teaching though, there is only so much observation someone can do before they want to get back up there and do something!
Whilst all this has been going on I've started to apply for positions for September and am pleased to say that I got an interview with the school I first applied to and will be starting with them in September. It is a school out of the area I have been training in and is much closer to home cutting my journey to school in half.
I'm looking forward to going back to my main school after half term, although I think I'll be having a lot more teaching hours and I'll be taking new classes so it'll be a shock to the system!
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