Teacher training, Star Wars and nudity.

 Half way through term two and I feel alright. I’m keeping up. I feel like that bit in the end of The Phantom Menace, where Obi Wan and Qui Gon are fighting Darth Maul beneath the palace on Naboo, amongst all the power converters. And they’re fighting furiously and elegantly and masterfully and the flow is there and the prestige and the power and the control, but you can see the sweat on the Jedi’s foreheads and they’re starting to get out of breath and you can see them wondering how long is left, how long they can keep this up for, when are they going to break the Sith down and be able to breathe easily again. I don’t yet know whether I’m Qui Gon or Obi Wan, whether Darth Maul is going to cut me down and leave my fallen body on the edge of the waste pit, or whether I’m Obi Wan and I’m going to rise up and win the battle, like a boss.



My point is, the workload HAS increased. I have to plan lessons, prepare resources, teach, evaluate lessons, mark books, find evidence, file evidence , be set targets, achieve those targets, prove I’ve achieved those targets, plan assignments, do assignments, evaluate my assignments, and run my club (I now only have 3 kids at XC club. I think it’s a failure. The 3 kids that come have an unhealthy obsession with me as well; they’re always trailing after me, pawing at my arms, trying to hug me. They don’t care about running, they just want to creep around me. Next term, I might do an Audiobook club and just get the kids to sit quietly and listen to stories, whilst I do marking). I am capable of keeping on top of this workload, I am fighting it elegantly and masterfully, I’m in full flow, but for how long? Will I break it, or will it break me? Will I fall into step with all of this and master its will or will I falter and end up with a double ended lightsabre through my stomach? Who knows. I can only keep fighting, keep doing backwards somersaults onto other walkways, keep using
the force to push my enemy away, keep going.

I noticed something the other day and I’m going to tell you about it now. On a day to day basis, I, my mentor, all the class teachers, the TAs, all the trainees, vet every piece of material we present to the kids. Every story is checked for inappropriate language, distasteful references, pictures that might be distressing or confusing to ten year olds. Anything that presents a less than desirable effect or might elicit awkward questions is discounted. We have to comb through videos on You Tube, trying to find ones that are 100% appropriate for our class; no language, no gruesome cartoons, no poor role models, no adverts that have swearing or car crashes or unwelcome nudity. I was going to show a Blackadder sketch about the Civil War. 5 minutes, perfect for what we were studying. Stephen Fry as a Charles-esque Charles I, Rowan Atkinson as his somewhat loyal Cavalier and Tony Robinson as that same dirty man he always plays, discussing the events of 1649. It set the English Civil War up perfectly, it explained everything, it was funny. But I couldn’t use it because one of them said the word  “bloody” halfway through and Blackadder was threatened with a knife. Move on, find something else. This is the environment we work in. Everything is checked and double checked, purified and presented, squeaky clean, to our children, so as not to corrupt their sweet, innocent minds, so as not to concern them or worry them or teach them bad habits about the darker side of the wide world.

Then, the other day, we went on a school trip. This took up through a high street and I COULD NOT BELIEVE the amount of inappropriate images I saw. The main one was of a woman dressed in a bra and knickers, splayed out on a bed, looking up at the camera with big eyes and her finger in her mouth. This picture, as well, was huge. It covered three panes of a high street store. A high street store. All my kids walked past it. I kept looking for the minimise button. I kept looking for the ‘skip ad in 5 seconds’ button that sometimes appears at the bottom of You Tube videos. But there was none. This was an unvetted, unadulterated image that was presented to my class as a standard of the norm, as something acceptable. I don’t normally give a shit about the amount of nudism and swearing in our society, it’s never effected me before. It doesn’t bother me, it is of no issue. But after spending ten weeks ensuring my class of ten year olds don’t inadvertently come across inappropriate material, I did find myself quite shocked that this picture was thrust down our throats and there was nothing I could do about it. For their part, the kids did not give a shit. They barely glanced at it. I think they’re conditioned to just accept such material in their day to day lives, so maybe I should stop worrying.

Starting Second Half Term II

How do, once again, everything is going along quite nicely. The work load has definitely increased since half term. We now take on about 30/40% of the timetable, and that includes all the marking. I have a schedule for when I mark each set of books though and if I stick close to this, I find everything works out. My biggest fear (OCD) is that I’ll forget to do something until 2 minutes before it’s needed. I think that is a real possibility. There's so much to keep in mind, it is inevitable. It's happened to other trainees and, one day, I suppose, it will happen to me.

Assignments.

Everyone is suddenly panicking about all these assignments we have to do. That’s a lie. People have mentioned assignments and I’m panicking because I didn’t think they were a big deal. There’s this one we have to do with a child who has SEND, like observe them and write a report and stuff. I’ve read the brief for that assignment and it seems to me that’ll it take a week. Small group work with the kid, look at their file to figure out what they have and why, type up the report, done. But people are treating it like it’s the blueprint for storming the beaches at Normandy. They’ve set aside weeks and weeks and meetings and meetings in order to ensure it is done to OUTSTANDING standards. Am I just doing the bare minimum? Or are they gold plating when there’s really no need? I mean, come on, time management. Isn’t it better that we just wank out this task, to tick the boxes for the training provider, and then focus on the nitty gritty of our actual practice, of our actual work within our actual school (teaching lessons, gathering resources, marking, doing displays etc)? Who knows. I’ll bash it out my way and see what happens. Personally, I think priority lies with the act of teaching and all those jobs, and the assignments issued by the training provider, whilst important, shouldn’t take up all our time.

Interventions.

We have to organise interventions as well. See above for my attitude towards these. Sure, do them, and do them well, organise the targets, set aside time, etc, but don’t go above and beyond the call of duty. Don’t do more than you would do if you were a regular teacher. I don’t understand this attitude that the other trainees have. It’s like, they put in a certain amount of effort everyday, but when it’s assignment or graded task, they suddenly feel the need to double that effort. I think that’s counterproductive. We should be being taught how to be consistently amazing. Not amazing most of the time and then bloody stupendous to the point where we’re not eating and sleeping correctly because we’re putting in so much effort. When we’re all actual teachers, we won’t be putting in so much effort for our interventions, so why start out that way, if it conflicts with other duties? The teachers don’t do it now, the teaching assistants don’t do it now. We should be following their example and delivering consistent and effective interventions, whilst also maintaining consistent and effective teaching practices in all other areas. I have the same feeling towards observed lessons, not just for the trainees but in what I’ve witnessed in actual, qualified teachers as well. When they know they’re going to be observed, teachers pull out all the stops, pull in all the resources and deliver a really good lesson. Why aren’t they doing it like that every day? It’s not indicative of their actual teaching practice if they only deliver OUTSTANDING lessons when they’re being observed. It’s all about consistency. Every day should require the same amount of effort, whether you’re being observed, whether you’re conducting an intervention that will feed in to your overall grade, whether nothing is happening and it’s just a regular Tuesday. Consistency.

Resources.

Getting resources together is a bitch. Any great lesson idea you come up with is nearly always hampered by the fact that you need access to the Room of Requirement to make it a reality. Take note.

First Half Term at ITT

I haven’t written this for some time because I’ve been otherwise engaged at the weekends. Everything at school is ticking along nicely though. Instead of me rambling on, here are some handily structured, itemised points of what’s been going on:

Visiting Tutor observation.

I had my visiting tutor observation, as in, a tutor from another school came to see me deliver a lesson. The overall lesson got a GOOD and I was sort of pleased with that, but it does mean that every lesson from here on in has to be GOOD or better because taking a step back will really dint my self esteem and other people’s confidence in me. Our training provider was going on the other day about how they want 80% of their trainees to be OUTSTANDING this year but I wonder if that’s a bit of a curse, to be labelled OUTSTANDING before you’ve even done your NQT year. I mean, anyone that employs you, is going to expect you to be THE BEST, in short OUTSTANDING. It’s high expectations, it’s pressure. I wondered if it wouldn’t be better to be labelled GOOD before your NQT, be employed on that basis and then dazzle your new head by producing OUSTANDING lessons. Similarly with this, my first visiting tutor observation, next time, my visiting tutor is going to expect something of equal standard. What if I can’t produce it? What if that was it? I’d have much preferred to get IMPROVEMENT REQUIRED on my first one and then slowly climb the stair to GOOD, instead of being thrust on the precarious GOOD landing and told I had to stay there or climb higher, in my big clunky, ITT shoes. To my delight, I did get IMPROVEMENT REQUIRED on my overall teaching practice; though this grade came from just me talking and no actual evidence. My visiting tutor was all “do you do this?” and I’d say “sort of, like this or like that” and she made a little note. There was no science behind it, so I have no faith that that’s an accurate grade, even though it’s the one I want. It’s laughable really because one of my targets from that discussion was to forge a good relationship with a boy in class who I find troublesome; that kid wasn’t even in class for the visiting tutor to witness. She only knew about him because I mentioned him in the discussion. If I’d have kept my mouth shut or said “oh no, everything is perfect”, would I have got a GOOD in my overall teaching practice? That’s what I mean about there being no science behind it. That overall grade seemed totally based on my own perceptions and assessments; in which case, I’m forever going to be an IMPROVEMENT REQUIRED. What a stupid title for grade 3 anyway. Even OUTSTANDING teachers require improvements. Even the best teacher in the entire world can do something to be that little bit better. Everyone requires improvement. Grade 3 should be SATISFACTORY or AVERAGE. REQUIRES IMPROVEMENT implies there are some people who don’t. So, what was I saying? Oh yes, actual lesson was GOOD, and this makes me nervous for the future because I have set expectations high. Overall teaching practice REQUIRES IMPROVEMENT and this makes me confused because it was basically my own assessment and my own assessment of myself will never improve.

Why my lesson was GOOD:

Just for all you wannabe teachers out there, reasons why my lesson got a GOOD grade: Pros =  good use of technology (kids had iPads and QR codes), good rapport with children, clear learning intention and success criteria, well organised in terms of resources, good diffrentiation. Cons = during the research part of the task, I could have been clearer for the lower ability pupils, as they were just let loose on the internet really, stop saying ‘two minutes left’ and then giving kids five minutes. Be exact or shut your mouth.