Some things people might not realise about teaching is the number of observations you have, and how they're accountable to your performance management. They can also be accountable for your mental well-being, which in turn can affect your performance in class.
I spent my PGCE year and majority of my NQT year being told I was 'satisfactory', which has now become 'requiring improvement', which had meant extra observations. Think of Meryl from Tough Young Teachers. Thankfully my year was not as horrific as hers but it was along a similar line and I know how she feels. It took a conference I went to held by Mick Waters, a teachers' hero, to start unburdening myself with 'grades' (however, this was difficult) and to think of myself as a human being who is doing the best job I can. Mick talked about stereotyping children in the classroom, e.g. gifted and talented, low achievers, special needs, and to label them instead as children who have different learning styles. He touched on how we label ourselves as 'outstanding teachers' if we deliver an 'outstanding' lesson, and 'inadequate teachers' if we deliver an 'inadequate' lesson. The point is, it is ONE lesson; not you as a whole. An outstanding teacher is not only one who can deliver more brilliant lessons and a handful of crap ones, but the teacher who cares about the children as a whole. This could mean extra boosting classes, after school clubs, even sorting out a friend for them if they are alone in the playground. He told us to stop beating ourselves up if we have a bad lesson, because it happens to everybody. However, it is a problem if you deliver more 'inadequate' lessons than not, because the children eventually will make little progress.
I think the ideology stems from training programmes where we are taught the atmosphere, behaviour, and progress of the children is solely down to the teacher. We are taught strategies to 'engage' pupils who don't want to learn by targeting the lesson to what they might be interested in. This is all well and good but if it goes pear shaped and a child decides to run out of the classroom, is that really your fault? Children come to school with a wealth of problems from home and it is not necessarily always the teachers' fault. During my training year, I taught a year 6 class and the teacher had taken half the group out for an activity. I was left with the other half of the class and after an hour, one kid decided he wanted to go home so he ran out of class. I didn't think - I just ran after him and asked him why he had done that. He shrugged and mumbled something about home. It's not always the teachers' fault.
So, next time you get a grade less than 'good', don't beat yourself up about it. Reflect, think about what you should have done instead, watch another teacher deliver something similar and learn from it. Bad experiences are hidden blessings because they make you stronger and you learn from them.
I hope this was helpful.
'Til next time!
Saturday, 15 February 2014
About me
Welcome to my blog!
This will feature my ramblings about my job as a teacher. I say 'job', because that is what it is. It can be very life consuming if you make it so.
Just to tell you a little bit about myself. I'm from the UK. I graduated with a Psychology degree and a Masters in health psychology, with the original view of becoming a clinical psychologist, work for a few years, then become a psychology teacher in the future. That plan didn't work out so I trained on a PGCE in Birmingham in 2011-12, did my NQT year (it was also my first year being married!) and for my second year landed a job in South London in my dream school. It was all a bit of a whirlwind, but being the spiritual person I am I felt it was all part of a bigger plan and everything had fallen into place quite nicely :).
I'm not sure exactly how I want to treat this blog, but it will be general ramblings of my day-to-day life (not too much though - have to protect myself and others around me!), maybe touch on some issues like achieving the work/life balance, OFSTED and jumping through hoops, giving tips and snippets on issues in schools, behaviour management, maybe some funny things children have said. If there are topics you would like me to write about, please leave your suggestions in the comments and I will be happy to post about them!
Disclaimer: By no means am I an outstanding teacher, or label myself as one - I am simply doing the best job I can and if the senior staff think I'm doing a great job then so be it. I have learned so much in my 1.5 years of teaching (as of Feb 2014) and I feel like I want to pass on little nuggets that I have learned. I struggled as a trainee and I really don't want people to have the same horrific experience I did. I could do another post it and tell you all about it!
More soon!
Mrs K.
This will feature my ramblings about my job as a teacher. I say 'job', because that is what it is. It can be very life consuming if you make it so.
Just to tell you a little bit about myself. I'm from the UK. I graduated with a Psychology degree and a Masters in health psychology, with the original view of becoming a clinical psychologist, work for a few years, then become a psychology teacher in the future. That plan didn't work out so I trained on a PGCE in Birmingham in 2011-12, did my NQT year (it was also my first year being married!) and for my second year landed a job in South London in my dream school. It was all a bit of a whirlwind, but being the spiritual person I am I felt it was all part of a bigger plan and everything had fallen into place quite nicely :).
I'm not sure exactly how I want to treat this blog, but it will be general ramblings of my day-to-day life (not too much though - have to protect myself and others around me!), maybe touch on some issues like achieving the work/life balance, OFSTED and jumping through hoops, giving tips and snippets on issues in schools, behaviour management, maybe some funny things children have said. If there are topics you would like me to write about, please leave your suggestions in the comments and I will be happy to post about them!
Disclaimer: By no means am I an outstanding teacher, or label myself as one - I am simply doing the best job I can and if the senior staff think I'm doing a great job then so be it. I have learned so much in my 1.5 years of teaching (as of Feb 2014) and I feel like I want to pass on little nuggets that I have learned. I struggled as a trainee and I really don't want people to have the same horrific experience I did. I could do another post it and tell you all about it!
More soon!
Mrs K.
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