Challenges:
Classroom management
I had 3 classes this year, each one was completely different. My grade 10 class were an incredible group, they kept my sanity. There wasn’t a single day when I didn’t look forward to seeing that class.
For 8 months I struggled with my grade 8 class. They were
naughty, obnoxious, rude and worst of all indifferent. Most of them didn’t care
about work, they basically ignored me. What made it worse was that there were a
few kids in the class who were willing to work and I felt their education was
being compromised by the majority. For a few months I struggled onwards, always
facing that lesson with trepidation and a knot in my stomach. After reading
Teach like a Champion, I decided to require 100% from my class. I became a
dragon. I hated myself, but I called them up on every single little issue and
made it a big deal – drawing parallels between being 2 minutes late for class
and how this could result in you being a homeless person when you leave school
etcetera – extreme I know, but it was all I could think of. After August exams,
the class became a completely new set of kids. The relationship we had towards
the end of the year was fun, respectful and productive. They were a challenge
in the beginning, but the turnaround showed me what is possible with a
difficult class.
Just as the grade 8’s were growing up and turning into
interesting and responsible adults, the grade 7’s were undergoing a
metamorphosis too. The first half of the year with the grade 7’s was plain
sailing, apart from the childish questions and behaviour, they were manageable.
But after the August exams, they changed into teenagers of the worst kind. Each
child in my class had some disruptive qualities, whether it was drumming on the
table, singing while working or fighting and shouting with one another across
the classroom. Some particularly “cool” girls made my classes hell with their
back chatting, eye rolling and outbursts of inappropriate laughter. Was I going
back in time? These were the same issues I had been having with the grade 8’s
just a few months before!
Feeling the pressure of being a perfect
teacher
Lebone is a wonderful space; we have top quality teaching and learning and are consistently trying to do even better. We have weekly professional development and our lessons are observed regularly. These are some wonderful philosophical ideals, and it was one of the reasons I wanted to come here, but it puts a lot of pressure on first year teachers to be perfect.
There’s no room for a “free lesson” when you are feeling
tired and under prepared, every minute of the lesson should be planned for and
used as productively as possible – after all, we have to close the “Achievement
Gap”! When you are standing in front of a class of kids in disarray and start
thinking about the Achievement Gap, it really puts the pressure on!
What helped:
My Head of department
The head of my department has been exceptionally helpful to me this year, on an emotional and academic level. If I am feeling overwhelmed by the amount of work I have she insists I not worry and go home and rest. She ensures that we have enough time to relax so that we don’t burn out. In a way, even though we sometimes take time off, it makes us more productive because we are confident and refreshed when we do work.
She has also helped by providing me with materials that I
might need: notes, old tests and other resources. This has helped because
instead of doing a lengthy internet search for materials, there are some
appropriate resources already there.
She has also been helpful by providing a formidable force in
the department when I have classroom management issues. She is terrifying when
she needs to be and this helps me as I can simply mention her name and my
issues begin to resolve themselves!
New Teacher Cafe
Murray was extremely helpful to us this year. By simply being a non-judgemental ear to hear the woes us new teachers faced, he helped a lot. He led us to realise that the problems we were facing are not because we are useless, but they are problems that EVERY teacher faces at one or other time in their career.
New teacher cafe also helped by giving us some time to
reflect on our teaching and think about what we were doing. It gave us the
space to think outside of the daily grind of lesson prep and children
management.
First year teacher Friends
Being friends with first year teachers made this year MUCH
easier. We spent a lot of time brainstorming possible strategies and
commiserating when things weren’t going well. But, the best thing about being
friends with first year teachers is when you have an AMAZING lesson, and you
can tell someone who will be just as excited as you that you made some
progress. My friends helped me to look at those breakthrough lessons and find
out why they worked so we could reproduce those results!
Learning about myself as a teacher
My biggest lesson this year was: being calm makes a HUGE difference. Talking quietly, waiting for quiet rather than shouting, not getting flustered when things aren’t going smoothly – all these things translate onto the kids.
Learning what routine worked for me was something very
useful to learn about myself. It was not something I could have known at the
beginning, but by constantly changing routines and then eventually sticking to
the one that worked, I discovered calmness in the fact that the kids knew what
to do without me having to tell them every day! I discovered that standing at
the door when students arrive was particularly helpful. I would try to remember
each ones name in the morning and we would make a game of it. It was the best
way to learn names!
LEARN NAMES AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE!
From Teach like a Champion, I learnt that it’s okay to over-plan.
I learnt that I am a micro planner and I am much more comfortable when my
lessons are very well prepared, to the minute! I learnt that I don’t have to
squash my control-freak tendencies, but I can rather use them to my advantage!
Knowing that kids are kids
Kids are kids and when I realised that they weren’t “out to get me” I felt much more at ease, and in control. They were just behaving as they normally do and it had less to do with me than I thought it did!
Teenagers (grade 8’s and 9’s in particular) love to choose
what they are going to do. Wherever possible, I would give them a chance to
choose which type of work they were going to be busy with. Every time I do, I
am AMAZED at how much more work gets done and how motivated the kids are to
work. If you can make the choice into a competition, all the better, for
example: choose which questions you want to answer – let’s see who can answer
the most! (be warned, you may need to prepare a lot of questions!)
Something that will keep me sane in future that I have
learnt from this year, was that the kids you are teaching, will grow up and
will probably become fully functioning adults when their teenager ways have
subsided.
Being reflexive:
Sometimes, especially if I had a good day with my classes, I would spend some time really thinking about what I did differently that day. Once I asked a more experienced teacher why they thought the class went better than normal. Her insights helped me to reproduce these great lessons and learn more about myself and my classes.
We are so lucky
Remembering how lucky we are to have small classes, endless resources, supportive co-teachers, understanding management, beautiful facilities, and freedom to do amazing things with our teaching... made me realise how easy we have it.... We are so, so, so, so, so lucky!
Regards,
Sarah
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