8 weeks in, CPPD and advice to trainees

8 weeks in...

It has been a while and schools are now fully open after the 1st  UK lockdown of 2020, having experienced the rush of starting at my new school fully, I can say I absolutely love my job! However, in current times, there are some major drawbacks. 

As we have now begun a 2nd national lockdown, households aren't to mix with other households (unless in a support bubble) and yet some secondary teachers are mixing with approx 200 students per day in classes of 30+ in enclosed spaces with no more than some hand sanitiser and a mask for PPE, I do wonder how 4 weeks of in-school education (that could transfer online in most circumstances) is more important than peoples lives. Yes, it is easier to inspire learners within the classroom, yes learners mental health is vitally important, but so are the lives of them, their families and their teachers. A rota approach would be more effective in reducing case numbers of Covid, whilst still maintaining some in school contact. Without trying this we won't know.

Education is currently a totally different ball game in comparison to my past experience. As a teacher in a secondary school in the past I have had my own classroom, could have fancy relevant displays and had easy access to my equipment. Since reopening, I have not used my classroom except to plan lessons on an evening, and that isn't even always possible.

I now use 9 different classrooms across 5 different buildings, and if specialist equipment is needed, I have to collect it from my usual building at the start of the day and carry it around with me. It is one thing to be a student and carry your day's equipment around in a rucksack, but 5 different classes worth of resources / equipment per day is genuinely hard work.

Now this is the story in pretty much every secondary school so I know I am not alone in this fight, yet at the end of half term (where I have spent 3.5 / 5 'school days' planning for next term) I and many others will not be feeling refreshed enough for the upcoming winter term. I'm therefore sure many will join me in feeling worried about how starting this term feeling run down will affect my/their ability to 'perform' at our normal level. I can only hope that as we reach the Christmas break, the two weeks off will be kind to myself and colleagues alike. 

Negativity over...

So whats it like being in a new school, under new rules in the strangest of times? Well, its actually been great on the whole. 

I've created good relationships with most learners, forged positive relationships with colleagues and had to settle quickly in order to keep up with the whirlwind pace of school life as it stands currently.  

What I love about my new school, is that everyone cares about one another. Students and teachers thank each other on a regular basis for doing even the smallest of things, which makes you feel so much more appreciated as a member of staff and helps keep morale high. 

A major positive for the school in which I work is that I have never known a more 'present' and 'visible' principal. Our head (and the rest of the management team) takes pride in getting to know his students, helping out his staff, is regularly out on duty and he does it all with a smile. I had to take some time off to self-isolate and upon my return, I received an email from the head saying how great it was to see me back in school and congratulating me for the standard of cover that I had set. This was not expected and I was touched that he had taken the time to send this, when he has so many other plates in the air. This is the type of institute I hope to continue working at for a long time to come. Where positives are rewarded, and support is there when it is needed. 

As a body of staff, we focus on building positive relationships with students as our number 1 priority, we also have a heavy presence in our positive contact with parents. So many times this term I have heard the words "its so nice to hear that" when I've taken the time to make a positive phone call home. 

Sometimes as teachers we can get bogged down in the negative, and I refuse to end the day in this way. If I have to make 3 negative calls, I aim to make the same number of positive calls to balance this out. Not only is it nice for parents/ students to receive positive feedback, it is also better for my own karma, as it prevents me leaving the premises at the end of the day feeling down in the dumps. It's also nice to hear the phrase "they love having you as a form tutor" or "they used to struggle, but are really clicking with it now"...so go on, have a go, make the time to make some positive phone calls!

The biggest piece of advice I can give to new teachers is to find a school where you feel comfortable, supported and where morale is high. Having this feeling, empowers and motivates you to continue doing the best you can for your students, if you find yourself working within a negative environment trust me, it only drags you down. 

The first year of teaching as you build your resources is tough, but remember... once you have made your resources, you have them for your future. You will simply need to tweak them moving forwards to suit your classes needs or to change something up if it didn't quite work as planned the first time round. I am currently using this as a mantra to push through the planning for this year, as I know future years will not be "so hard" on this front.  

C.P.P.D

CPPD,  is also going well at School. Rather than just sending specific staff on training courses, my school has a whole staff approach to CPPD. This year as a body of staff we are looking at Tom Sherrington & Oliver Cavigliolis "Teaching Walkthrus" as a text. As our department's literacy advocate, I will be learning this text backwards, making suggestions and inspiring the staff in my dept to use its ideas within their lessons to boost student progression, as well as taking the time to develop some resources that everyone can use to help our learners. This resource is a guide to instructional coaching, looking at the techniques of using Positive Relationships, Curriculum Planning, Modelling, Questioning and Providing Feedback, Retrieval Practice and providing a wide range of experiences for our learners. 

This term I am creating and trialing the use of learning mats for my groups. As we aren't able to have specific displays at the moment, this is a way for learners to still have that visible reference to keywords and a model for specific techniques etc, to help them be more independent in their approach to learning. If successful, I will be rolling this out across the entire department. Which as a new member of the team, feels quite empowering to have this opportunity. It's also quite daunting to be sharing this with my colleagues and advising them on the benefits and evidence of using this approach too, but I know this is something that I will benefit from if I wish to got into teacher training in the future. 

So, to our teacher trainees out there...

Don't be thinking once your training is done that you can sit back and just teach for a few years to find your feet, get stuck into the thick of it, you'll learn more, feel more respected and as a result boost your experience for further progression opportunities. It may feel hard  but once you've got through that first year as the saying goes, the world is your oyster. 

This month I have also been looking at Mark Ensner's Teach Like Nobody is Watching... its processes are refreshing and are also a game changer... if someone pops into your lesson to have a gander... let them, don't let it trip you up, they're there to see how amazing you are doing, not to beat you with a stick. If they have suggestions at a later time, let it help you broaden your abilities, not hamper your spirit.

Yes observations are nerve wracking, and that will never change, but just be you! 

No-one can expect more than that.

Thanks for reading

Wendy

Feeling out of place... don't forget to checkout my blog on imposter syndrome:

https://lifeafterteachertraining.blogspot.com/2020/06/imposter-syndrome.html

Interested in the transition between Primary and Secondary school and how we can support learners? Why not give me you thoughts and views in the comments section of my bog on Closing the Gap:

https://lifeafterteachertraining.blogspot.com/2020/06/closing-gap-in-attainment-what-support.html