Books, books, books.

For some reason I decided it was a good idea to pick up all my education books from their various shelves and put them on the floor.  I think it was in the name of organisation (failed)... or finding a book I wanted for my essay?  I'm not totally sure if I'm honest, but either way they're still right there on the floor where I put them a few days ago.

Looking at them has made me think about how the books I have bought have changed since the start of my PGCE, through my NQT until now the start of my MA.  The books I have could probably be grouped into four or five categories, and that is how I am going to talk about them.

Books from my PGCE reading list

1) Learning and Teaching in Secondary Schools - Viv Ellis
2) Issues in Modern Foreign Languages Teaching - Ed. Kit Field
3) Teaching Modern Foreign Languages at Advanced Level- Ed. Norbert Pachler
4) Learning to Teach in the Secondary School - Capel, Leask and Turner
5) Learning to Teach Modern Foreign Languages in the Secondary School

Did I read all of these?  Not a chance!  As far as I remember I read number 1, glanced at 2 and 3 once or twice and used 4 and 5 for my assignments.  Worth buying?  Nope, I'm not adding up what I paid for them...

Books I was given

1) Successful Induction for New Teachers - Bubb
2) The Dyslexia Friendly Teachers' Toolkit - Pavey, Meehan and Davis
3)Reflective Practice for Teachers - Sellars.

I was sent these three by Sage before I started my NQT year and asked to review number 1.  I did that and I had the intention of reading the other two but I never did.  I think at the end of my PGCE I was fed up of the word reflection anyway!

Books I bought during my PGCE and early in my NQT

1) Getting the Buggers into Languages - Amanda Barton
2) 100 Ideas for Secondary Teachers, Outstanding Lessons - Ross Morrison McGill
3) 100+ Ideas for Teaching Languages - Nia Griffith
4) Getting the Buggers to Behave - Sue Cowley
5) 100 Things Awesome Teachers Do - William Emeny
6) How to Survive your First Year in Teaching - Sue Cowley
7) How to Teach - Phil Beadle

These books were good references for ideas, suggestions and that boost from time to time when I felt like I didn't know what I was doing or why I was doing it!  One or two of them I'd consider useful to refer to again but they're not the sort of thing I see filling my shelves in the future.  I get most of this sort of support from twitter these days.

Books I am buying now

1) Teacher Geek - Rachel Jones
2) Don't Change the Lightbulbs - Rachel Jones
3) Teacher Proof - Tom Bennett
4) Why Don't Students Like School - Daniel Willingham
5) What if everything you knew about education was wrong - David Didau

I will admit that I haven't got round to finishing all of these yet, 4 I have had a glance at and then things got in the way and 5 I bought just as I needed to start my MA reading so all I have managed is the foreword!  These are much more like the sort of thing I am reading now, especially the latter three.  More critical, really thinking about teaching and education as opposed to just my classroom practice.  That said I needed a refresher and so have really enjoyed the first two books on the list.

Books recommended for MA lectures or for my assignment:

1) Seven Myths About Education - Daisy Christodoulou
2) The Expert Learner - Gordon Stobart
3) Knowledge and the Future School - Michael Young and David Lambert

Number one on the list could easily be in the previous category, I've been wanting it for a while and the fact that it was required reading for a lecture was just a great excuse!  The other two are by lecturers at IoE and being used towards my essay - which I don't intend to talk about until it's done.  All I will say is the module is called 'What is Education?' broad enough for a title?!

Then until now....

The picture somewhat gives the impression that I'm moving towards the light...

The NQT year is over, but it doesn't stop here. Reflections on Career Planning CPD

Last week my mentor wrote my final report and signed me off for my NQT year.  I expected it to be more exciting to be honest, instead I just put a tick in a digital box, added my comments and off it went.  I'm not going to write one of those posts talking about everything I have done this year, I've already used this blog as a way of reflecting on those things anyway.  I don't want to draw this blog to a close as it is something I enjoy and truly think helps me to improve.  Instead, I am going to write about my plans as I move into my career post-induction.

On Friday I attended a conference on Career Planning for teachers in their first 3 years of teaching.  It has left me with a lot of food for thought, some of which I am going to share now.  There were a range of sessions to choose from and I attended talks on Moving to Department Head; Getting Noticed for the Right Reasons; and Progression through the Pastoral Route.  The first keynote speaker was Jackie Beere who I found to be particularly inspirational and a great way to start the day. From her speech I have started to read into growth mindset, learning to learn and metacognition.  These are all things I have heard about before but never really looked into.  In fact, I've got so interested in this area that I've emailed my headteacher to discuss how it could be brought to our school.  My push for contacting him also came from Jackie and the other speakers.  Each one of them emphasised how important it is to volunteer for things and put yourself out there, I'll come back to that in a bit.  Jackie told us all about her career and how she has got to where she is today, she's a very impressive lady and really interesting to listen to, in fact I was disappointed when she had to cut off her speech as she was over running.  I could've listened to her for much longer.

The other keynote was by Alex Reppold, billed as NQT of the year 2008 and the youngest head teacher in the country, a tagline he was very keen to correct.  He was indeed NQT of the year, in Hull, and is no longer the youngest head having just been knocked off the spot by a 27 year old.  Regardless of all that I found his speech equally motivational.  Alex stressed a point also mentioned by some of the other speakers about 'getting to good and then working out what you want to be outstanding in'.  Alex talked about his personal experience of getting 'in the know' about a particular topic or issue and then sharing it with teaching colleagues and SLT.  He said that before you know it, you're known for doing that and become the go-to person.  Over time if a role opens up that is related, you're likely to be the one considered for it.  'Do something, share it and people will notice'.  Finally Alex talked about not being 'a mood hoover'.  He admits that this is not a concept he came up with but I really liked it and it's definitely worth a mention.  We all know a mood hoover.  They're the person that dismisses all the new ideas, finds obstacles to everything and is resistant to change.   Alex stressed the importance of not being a mood hoover.  That's not to say you can't question change, in fact you should.  Ask questions, give suggestions and always try things out rather than just saying no!

The key points that I've taken away from the day are:

• Volunteer and just say yes.
• Find what you're interested in and become an expert in it.
• Do something and share it.
• Focus your vision, work out what you're aiming for and the experience you need to get there.
• Experience does not need to come in the form of a paid role, find something relevant to what you want to do.  Can't find it? Start it yourself.
• Get involved with the good bits - especially with the students you don't teach.
• Keep up to date with everything that is changing, make yourself the person in the know.

So now it's the end of my NQT year!   Slowing down and relaxing sounds like a good idea, right?  Nah, not for me thanks.  My Ma Education starts next week and I have loads of reading to do, I have a copy of David Didau's #wrongbook next to me that I'm itching to read and I've got lots of exciting things going on at home.  I'll slow down next summer.  Maybe.

NQT- Not Quite There - but only 7 weeks to go!

I can't quite believe I'm already at the point in the year where the end of my induction is in my sights.  The finish line is so close now I can almost touch it. In some ways I'll be glad to see the back of the NQT year and the half termly observations, standards tracking, target setting and report writing but in other ways the NQT status serves as both a safety net and a comfort blanket. I know that in September I will still have great support from my department and I'm not being pushed out to sea to get by alone, I have no doubts about that, but there is still something significant about not being an NQT anymore. Gone is the 'I'm an NQT, I didn't know that' safety net, I've not had to use it very much but much like a real safety net, it's reassuring to know it's there. Gone is my 10% extra time, although I'm lucky to be a bit under allocation on our new timetable (we start in June, more on that in a minute). Finally, gone are the NQT meetings where we can compare notes and share ideas.

Something that comes along with the end of my NQT year is the start of my Masters.  At the same time as I take on a greater teaching load and take off the NQT stabilisers I am taking on a new challenge.  As soon as term is over I start two weeks of lectures at the Institute of Education for the first module of my Masters in Education. I'm really looking forward to it, but I'm aware of how tough it is going to be.  This year more than ever I'm going to have to keep totally on top of my planning and marking in school because my time at home will need to be dedicated to reading and assignment writing. There are a number of people that think I'm mad but I firmly believe that if I don't do it now I never will, no time like the present. As I've already got some masters credits from my PGCE this course should only take me a year, if it goes as fast as the last few have it'll be over and done with before I know it!

As I mentioned earlier we start our new school year in June. I believe the idea is that we're cutting out some of the 'dead time' at the end of the summer time and keeping momentum going.  This means that for the next 7 weeks we have no year 7 or year 12, excellent for me as it means I have loads of gained time for planning for September.  I'm looking forward to the change, I think it's just what I need this year to propel me through to the end.  I have mostly new classes so I've got the chance to start a clean slate with students that don't know me. I can apply all the things I've learned over the year to get new routines that I'd not established early enough on as I'd have liked with my old classes. I can keep on top of marking and behaviour and have more of an idea of what is ahead of me.  At least that's the dream, let's see how reality turns out!

So to all the other NQTs out there, we have 7 school weeks left, good luck!

NQT term one survived. Bring on term two.

It's been quite a while since I last blogged, I seem to only be posting about once a half term these days.  I'm just not reading as much as I was before and so don't necessarily feel I have as much to say.  My training posts and the ones from the start of this year were all about the trials and tribulations of starting out in teaching, maybe everything has been a little less dramatic of late?   Jokes aside though, I do wish I was writing more.  Reading, writing and getting involved shall have to be another one of those New Years' Resolutions that never get kept!

When I sit down to think about it now I'm not sure if this term has dragged or flown past.  It doesn't seem like that long ago I was in school putting up my displays and planning the first lessons for classes that I hadn't yet met.  On the other side however, when I think back over everything that has happened since the first week of September, it seems like I've been teaching in this school forever.  I finally feel like I know my classes, I'm getting the hang of school policies and I'm starting to know the names of some of the other staff (it's a huge school, I've got no chance!)

I'm not going to pretend that things haven't been difficult and that I haven't got a long way to go.  Anyone that has read my previous posts will know that's not true.  I'm still working on addressing the balance between working and having a life.  I know it's hard but I am now starting to think it's actually possible, seeing the light at the end of the tunnel so to speak.  I'm very lucky to be part of a really friendly and helpful department and even luckier, I feel, to have two other NQTs in the department to rant to at the end of the day or share last minute resources with in the mornings.  We share best practice as a department regularly and I'm feeling more able to integrate new ideas into my lessons.  Of late I've been reminded of the basics that I've put to the back of my mind.  It was all too easy in the middle of this term to forget things that were a natural part of lesson planning last year just to make planning quicker and easier.   That makes another thing to add to my list of resolutions!  All this aside I'm really pleased with my first term report, I've had positive observations from my mentor and the NQT tutor and there are plenty of things to celebrate.  As per usual I'm just highly critical of myself.

To address one of the forgotten basics I have created a progress and reflection board.  Inspired by a display shared by the MFL Resources forum I have a series of challenge cards that can be used to check progress and a progress line for students to put their names on and move during a lesson.  I've not begun to use it yet but I'm hoping once I've integrated it into routine and adapted some of my teaching (or returned to some of my old practice) it will start to have an impact.

My theory is that after the initial shock of this first term I can start to build things up again.  I know I need to take things a step at a time and not bite off more than I can chew - as I tend to do - but, in reference to an earlier post, I think it's another step to getting my teaching mojo back.

Talking of biting off more than I can chew... my current project is writing my personal statement for my MA application.  I'm hoping to study MA Education at the Institute of Education.  I have 60 Masters level credits from my PGCE already so I should be able to study 2 modules and a dissertation.  The MA is something I've been thinking about for a long time, and something I know will widen my opportunities for the future.  As well as this, the research parts of the PGCE, blogging, twitter and events like ResearchEd have really got me interested in education as an area of study.  I know that this isn't exactly going to help my attempt to readdress the balance between working and relaxing but for me I feel that it's a step in the right direction.

Getting my teaching 'mojo' back.

If I had been asked over the last few weeks if I loved my job I'd have said no.  If you'd have asked me if I was enjoying it I'd have said no.  If you'd have asked me if I saw myself staying in teaching past my NQT year I'd have almost certainly have said no.  Like many NQTs I was struggling my way through the last two weeks of a long half term and I just couldn't see the light at the end of the tunnel.  My worry wasn't that I couldn't do it all but more that I didn't have the motivation to want to do it.  I came into teaching because it was something I wanted to try, something I thought I might enjoy and not because it was all I'd ever wanted to do.  I'd lost my enthusiasm for teaching and all I was seeing were the piles of marking, the report data to be entered, the detention slips to fill out both in paper form and online and the emails to field about various members of my form group.

As an NQT it's very easy to get bogged down in everything that is expected of you and not see past it.    I set myself time limits in the evening and don't allow myself to work all weekend because I know that working myself into the ground isn't the way to go.  Maybe it's because of this that I haven't been able to feel on top of things, but even if I worked all the hours possible I'd still not be on top and added to that I'd feel awful too.  I can see how NQTs and more experienced teachers can run themselves into the ground with work, especially if teaching is all you can ever see yourself doing.  You want to feel like you're doing a good job, that you're achieving something and succeeding.  I'm gradually coming to the realisation that as a teacher that's not something I'm necessarily going to feel.  There isn't the feeling that I can work all evening but have something to show for it, the hours of work are put in just to get from day to day and that's something that I'll maybe have to accept.

For me, the major problem with this is that I have found that I don't have time to plan the sorts of lessons that I can be proud of.  I find that I am just getting by with planning lessons that are just OK most of the time so that I can get it all done.  This has a knock on effect as I don't enjoy teaching those lessons as much as I used to when I had planned something a little different, something with a variety of activities and something which the kids enjoyed more as well.  My classroom gives away the fact that I like to use lots of different resources and have things going on, my walls are covered with colourful displays and I like to experiment with different resources - I'm dangerous walking down the kids party aisle or going to a pound shop!  Any trace of these things had disappeared from my lessons of late and I was resorting to text book exercises and the like.  This isn't the teacher I saw myself being, and for my sake as much as the students I teach I wasn't willing to let this happen.

Over the last week or so I have taken some time to reflect on how I'm feeling about teaching and where I see myself in the future.  Right now I honestly don't know where I'm headed in the long term, I just know that for now I need my teaching 'mojo' back.  I need a kick start and another injection of enthusiasm.  I recognise that year 8 and 9 are my stumbling block and I need to find ways of enjoying these lessons more, this will probably start with being tougher on behaviour.  I've been given support with one particular class but I know I have a way to go with this.  Some of this is having new behaviour policies to get my head round and the accompanying paperwork which does nothing to help the situation and just makes setting detentions or removing students from class more of a hinderance than a help at times.  In contrast to this I know how much I enjoy teaching year 7 and year 10-13.  I know that these are the lessons where I can really experiment with activities and which give me something to stick my teeth into.  

This half term, as well as resting, I am going to use the opportunity to have a real think about what is coming up this half term and how I am going to balance the mediocre lessons with the ones that I can be more proud of.  

Added to this I aim to blog more.  Although this may not seem like a logical step for someone that is trying to cut down on work and use her time better I really enjoy writing and want to be able to get more involved in the ever expanding community online.  I think that continuing to blog will remind me of the things that I enjoy about teaching and why I find education so interesting.  Part of me regrets my decision to step back from NQT chat as this was a fantastic way in, but I wasn't able to give the time to it that I wanted to.  Once I get my hands on a project I like to make a real go of it, as much as this can be a great thing it's also dangerous for me as I'll dedicate everything I can to it.  

After attending ResearchEd in September and reminding myself of one of the things that I enjoy about teaching a Masters in Education is still on the horizon.  I've quizzed the Twitter community on how managable this is and with the opportunities for distance learning are around I don't see why I shouldn't give it a go come July/September.  I don't know where this Masters could take me but again, if it is something that continues to expand my ideas about teaching and education and remind me of the reasons I do what I do then it can't be a bad thing.

Excuse me whilst I open my planner, spread my schemes of work across the desk and leaf through a text book whilst I wait for amazon to deliver my latest education related book, I think it's time to get my teaching mojo back.

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.