Teaching

Follow-up to Friday from Bloggle

I’ve just finished my last week in school. Unfortunately I went W.I.A (Without Internet Access) this week so was unable to blog daily reports. But here are the highlights:

Monday & Tuesday

I taught my last two lessons on these days, the lesson on Tuesday being formally observed by my mentor. This week I had a new partner in school who was a bit of a personality clash, seeing as I have one and she doesn’t! Haha. She didn’t endear herself to me from the off by shouting at the class I was trying to teach only a couple of hours after having met:

1. This undermined me.
2. Was unnecessary as the class weren’t causing trouble.
3. How dare anyone be mean to my lovely year 7s?
4. Fuck Off!

The lessons I taught actually went quite well, not perfect but in the words of my mentor it was satisfactory. Though seeing as lessons are rated as satisfactory, good or better, it’s a little worrying. I mean, I effectively scored the lowest mark possible. If I’d started throwing chairs and tables around (my best friend nearly had his head taken off in such a scenario where a teacher kind of lost it) would that have still been satisfactory?

Being observed was a little like taking my driving test again, the teacher kept making little notes, just like an examiner marks down minors. I have to say keeping control of a car is much easier than a class of pupils. As a rule cars don’t jump out of their seats and go for walks to the other side of the room or say “I don’t get it”. Well built ones don’t anyway.

The best bit I managed with the lesson was the entry to the room. I made them wait outside (This included a conversation with pupils who had eaten pizza and curry for breakfast. As in two individual pupils, one eating pizza the other curry. Not one pupil eating pizza and curry together, that’d just be weird) until there were enough of them there to make it worth letting them in. The idea is that you don’t get dribs and drabs so the start goes smoother. So I can make the first minute go okay after two weeks teaching experience, give me another 98 and I’ll sort out the other forty-nine!

Wednesday

There was a “Year 7 Maths Challenge Day” which I thoroughly enjoyed it because the pupils were relaxed because of being out of lessons and as a rule of thumb pupils in a good mood are pleasanter than grumpy bored ones. Not that my school partner agreed:

Her: “I don’t like that sort of thing.”
Me: “What? Fun?”
Her: “Well no, I mean I prefer discipline and respect.”

This sparked a whole row about teaching methods, she said she didn’t think (actually she didn’t use the word think, she just stated it as a fact) it was possible to be a good teacher without being a complete fascist. Or words to that effect.

Eventually I just said, “Let’s stop this conversation”, because it was about to go nuclear. Her response was “You started it!” Oh good Lord! I’d get more maturity out of the year 7s. I tried to take the opportunity to diffuse the situation by turning it into a joke by echoing, “You started it” back at her. She didn’t get it and repeated what she said. I was forgetting she has no sense of humour. Eventually I just gave up, I suppose the “fun” comment might have been slightly inflammatory, but how could I possibly resist?

That nearly spoilt the day but the pupils were being funny enough for it to merely be a minor blip. They had to complete some quick mathematical puzzles and were offering bribes; I got offered Twenty Pounds, a fiver and a dinner card with ten pounds of credit on it. I refused of course, what would I want with ten pounds worth of school dinners?

Thursday & Friday

These were my final two days and there wasn’t much going on. Thursday was quiet because I’d run out lessons to teach and Friday was a “payback day” for the staff, which meant an opportunity for them to catch up on some administrative type bits. In short it meant nothing for me to do! I did make a nice wall display of some of the work I’d done with the year 7s. Though there’s only so much cutting and sticking I can take without getting bored. I also caught up with my own administrative bits, but it was pretty dull.

I’ve enjoyed the chance to go in to school. It’s been a nice situation to be in because I’m halfway between a pupil and a teacher so I kind of got the best of both worlds: being treated like a human being, but not having to be too serious and teacher like. Whether or not I should have been like that I’m not sure. Afterall we were there to get some genuine experience not to just piss about.

I’m pleased with how I’ve got along with the pupils. I’ve definitely managed to come across as a good guy with them. It’s not about popularity but it’s nice anyway, and I really do believe that you don’t need to shout (at most pupils) if you develop a good relationship with them from the start. It’s very encouraging. Naturally there are some key areas I need to work on, such as being more authoritative, but there’s a limit to how far I’ll go with that. Teachers are famed for being bossy and I don’t want to end up like that. If I find I can’t teach without changing then I won’t teach. It’s as simple as that.

: 02 Jul 2005 08:26 |  Tags: Teaching |  Comments (6) |  Report a problem