I survived.
The lead up to Christmas or the second half of phase one was definitely tough. Taking on the year 8 class was really hard because the teacher whose class I was taking over (it wasn’t my mentor’s class) was really intense and I did not enjoy that. She sometimes was very brusque – and I know sometimes teacher’s can be stressed and don’t mean it – but I felt as though she was only like that towards me. She expected me to send her a lesson plan of all the lessons I taught but like instead of telling me her expectations direct to my face she’d get my mentor to say it. My mentor kind of only looked over my lesson plans for the first three/four weeks of my first phase because after that I had gotten the hang of it, so I found having to hand in a lesson plan to B (we’ll call the year 8 teacher ‘B’) just really eughhh. Even when I had sent the lesson plan to her and told her I’ve sent it she’d then be like “I haven’t had time to check it” even though she’d complained that I didn’t send them early enough. I hate stand offish people and she really seemed like that at times. There was on time I was close to tears because of the way she addressed me in an email but, I held it together because I was not going to bawl my eyes out in the staffroom. I’m a very polite and softly spoken person especially if I don’t know you and you’re in a higher authority to me so I found that kind of assertiveness quite aggressive and unnecessary, especially because it was my first phase and I was like new to all the teaching malarkey. Anyway, I liked the rest of the department and they were all really supportive and nice.
On to the classes I taught, I fell in love with my year 9 class because I got to know them so well and had “bantaarr” with them. They were a pleasure to teach, even though there were one or two whiners which I had to drag along in their “learning journey” I still enjoyed teaching those lessons. I think it’s also because my mentor let me experiment with my lesson plans rather than B who kind of always loomed over me and made sure they were to the structure she approved of. I will definitely miss 9R2 because of the characters in there, and because they were up for giving all the quirky weird lesson ideas I had a go. Also, even though they were a class that were chatty and sometimes easily distracted I became quite confident in controlling them and managing their behavior. I also enjoyed teaching year 7’s however I only taught them three lessons because my timetable meant I only taught them in week 2 (the school timetable was a week 1/ week 2 system) but they were also lovely.
On to a class I had a love/hate relationship with, 8R1. Lessons with this class were literally luck of the draw it didn’t help that all their English lessons were either period 4 or period 5 (last lesson) because they were literally off the walls. They are the weirdest top set I’ve ever come across because most (65%) of them in there are never ready to learn and are constantly disrupting the class. Whilst there were a few in there that were diligent (and really cute) I found the lessons really hard to deliver because of the disruptions and obviously my internal anxiety of B looming over me. I spent many of my break and lunchtime with the “special” members spending quality time and talking about their behavior. I just found that whole scenario draining because the teacher was not supportive and the class were difficult and I was just like ‘Arghh’. It was intense.
So, that’s an overview of my first phase as a trainee teacher! Not going to lie, it was intense and it took a lot of perseverance. My skin is taking the toll with lots of under the skin lumps which I assume are stress spots because I didn’t have them before the PGCE ever. I’ve also put on weight I lost and more (sad times) because I haven’t been working out and I’ve been eating junk. Alas, you can’t have it all.
For my second phase, I did get the school I requested to my lecturer which I’m really excited about. I’m hoping I’ll love it because everyone on the course was “so in love” with their first phase school and I was just like it’s alright so I’m hoping I’ll be “so in love” with this second phase school especially because I’m going to be there for six months!
Anyway, that’s me done! I hope you are all well and I hope to update you soon.
thescribblingtrain 