Hurrah!!

Yay! I'm qualified!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Just got an email a few hours ago from my course provider saying that the exams commitee have passed me and all the other GTP students!

Yes!!

Actually a teacher (almost)

Wow! Busy couple of weeks - I've been on three school trips in the last week, which were great (if tiring!) and have met the previous teachers of the kids in my form who have all said okay-pleasing comments about the kids and today I had th class themselves for the first time ALL DAY!
It was a long day - the kids arrived and left at normal times and we had our own classroom.
I had various activities set up - I thought I might have too many but it was just right really.
We found out about each other and wrote facts about the person they were sitting next to on a hand (for display in september) then designed their own superhero (also for display and for a behaviour management type thing where they get to add to their hero as they earn house points).
Then they did pastel drawings of each other (not my idea but something all yr 5 form tutors did, so we did it too. Then I taught the kids the BSL finger spelling alphabet (with the great aid of my LSA) as we have a couple of kids in yr 5 that sign and I wanted to get them involved)
Then we dod a Passport To Year 5 - the wrote about their favourite subjects and target subjects, hobbies and targets for next year so I could get to know them and look at handwriting/spelling etc and they wrote about their superhero for the same reasons.
In the evenngs their was a parents evening where we were introduced to the parents and they were told about uniform and stuff, but didn't have to actually talk to anyone -which was just as well since I had completely lost my voice by then (caught a cold 2 days ago - bad timing!!)
Still waitin for my timetable (should be next week) and MTPs I will be lucky to get befor september!! Argghh.
I think I'll plan the first week and if I get plans or whatever then I'll use them, but at least I'll know I have something up my sleeve!
I have a school laptop though...
Feeling much more like a proper teacher!

Yahaay!

That's it...got all my standards signed off by my mentor.
For the course I'm on my mentor checks all my evidence and signs off when she has seen it, and then, providing I don't get externally moderated, the DRB never even see it! They just ask to see the booklet where my mentor has signed me off! Seems bizarre that no-one else will ever see all this paperwork, but whatever!
Also, the way it works for our course is that the external moderators will see any people who the mentors have had concerns about and another person within a small radius randomly - and theres no-one else near me. So, hopefully there should be no fear of external moderation.
Still waiting to hear about my asignment scores, but providing they were okay then I've all but got through the course. Phew.
Now I've started thinking about my new job. I've been in and seen the classroom which is lkely to be mine (the one I taught my interview lesson in) and chatted to people there. I know I'll be taching yr 5 English, Maths, Science and RE, and some Yr 7 English too. I would have liked to have taught History, but ho hum. The current NQT there says she's had a fantastic year there, and been really well supported, so that was nice to hear.
Next week I get to chat to the current teachers' of my future form and find out about the kids, then the week after I've got the kids for the transfer day. Exciting stuff!

Nearly there.

Wow, never thought I'd get those standards signed off, but the majority of them are now, and I only have one teaching day left!
Next week I'm going to my new school to visit and discuss my new role, and then I'm going on a school trip with them to the Tutankhamun exhibition...for the 3 weeks following that I'm a spare wheel in my training school and will probably be given all kinds of horrible jobs to do. I already have to audit the science resources.
I have a transition day meeting my new pupils for the first time in July (3 weeks away! Arggh!) and a day to meet their previous teachers the week before that. Oh, and parents to meet too!

I was recently emailing another GTPer about to start and thought I'd share the advice I gave her:

Everyone told me to rest and relax before I started the course, but I'm glad I 'swotted' as by the time I got to about October I had no time at all to sit and watch teachers tv, or read books, but I could remember that I'd read about 'that aspect of child behaviour' in one of those books, which made it much easier.
Also, when the course starts, get your skills tests booked ASAP. By December you'll find you can no longer pick and choose slots as easily, and by Feb it gets really busy.
Practise the skills tests online on the TDA website. I never passed the maths one online but passed first time at the actual test (and thats my horror subject!)
Oh, and when you start gathering evidence, file it EVERY week, or even every night. I left it for 2 weeks once and it was a nightmare. Keep on top of it. I tend to spend a couple or more hours on a sunday getting my paperwork in order (cross referencing, filing, highlighting key phrases and writing the standard next to it, shuffling from one folder to another), but its worth it.
I've got to the point now that I can plan the entire week ahead (apart from tweaking maths and literacy) during the weeks PPA time but at first it tends to take an hour or two writing a single hours lesson!

Only a month to go.

Well, I only have 3 weeks teaching time, and a week or so after that to get my final evidence together. After much umming and ahhing my DRB have decided I need 5 pieces of evidence for each standard - two of which must be 'strong' pieces.
I now have about 5 lever arch files full of paperwork, one which is jam packed with the final evidence and I seem to be just shuffling pape from one position to the next in an endless circle!

Trying to think of questions I had before I started my course:
- hours at school - I get there at 8:10/8:15 (kids come in class from 8:45) and set up the morning stuff, photocopy and occasionally mark. I leave school sometime between 4pm (earliest) and 4:30pm on a normal night, and about 5pm on a staff meeting night.

- marking- I have only marked at home about twice (normal work), but have done assessment marking (SATs etc) at home. I mark the childrens morning work (Lit & Num) during assembly and lunch, and do the afternoons work after school.

- I often plan til 9pm, and paperwork normally takes me 3-4hrs on a sunday. I still have a life but you need a VERY understanding family as you will be working very hard.
Before this I worked full time, with a small child and did an OU degree - this is more work than that.

- Its great and I love it!

WOOHOO!!!

A couple of weeks ago I applied to three jobs - three schools I really liked. None of them invited me to interview - I was devastated, and everyone I asked said there was nothing wrong with my applications. I was beginning to fear I would be jobless in september.
And then....a job came up in a middle school -the one that my current class will be moving to. My HT (Head teacher) and the middle school HT knew each other so I knew I'd have a good chance of getting an interview - with nothing to lose I applied (monday).
Tuesday...phone call from another school - they'd seen my application form on the NQT pool and could I please come along and see the school and discuss jobs (they were desperate to see me before I went to the other interview but there wasn't time).
So, off I went to my first interview , feeeling happier in the feeling that there was another interview if this one fell through.
All went really well - 55minute poetry lesson to yr 5s, school council interview, school dinner with the HT, actual interview - it took all day and I finally left at 3pm, having got there at 9am.
And....I got the job!! Woohoo!
Then I checked my mobile phone and found an interview offer for another middle school!
What a week!
Such a weight off!

Questions involved:

How did the lesson go?
What are you doing at the moment?
How are you finding the training?
Why do you want to be a teacher?
What has been your greatest acheivement during the year?
How would you maintain and improve standards?
(I replied expactations and they asked me about planning too, so I talked about LOs and always know where you want the children to be in the future and not just for that lesson etc)
What are your key skills/subjects?
Would you be willing to take on extra curricular roles?
Give us three words the children in your class might use to describe you (this was the hardest! I replied: exciting (as they actually had said that twice this week), nice (NICE?!?!? what was I thinking) and happy.
What do you percieve the form tutor role to be?

School council interview questions:
If you had an emotional child in your class what would you do?
If someone started really kicking off and throwing chairs around, what would you do?
If someone had an illness in your class what would you do (much discussion about a girl with diabetes being allowed to eat in class because of her illness)
What other schools have you taught in?
How do you make lessons interesting?
Do you use drama in lessons?
Why do you want to be a teacher?

Final term...

Well, here we are. Final term. It's all hotting up now!
Jobs have started being advertised in the last couple of weeks and more and more are appearing all the time. I've applied to three and am waiting to hear about them (nail biting stuff!).
This week I taught about 2 full days and next week I'm teaching about 3.5 full days. The week after I begin my 6 week block (with a half term in the middle) of teaching a full 90% timetable - scary!!
Had a really rough day on tuesday (kids had been playing up for everyone and I went down hard on them, which was stressful - makes you wonder if you're doing the right thing going into teaching, but yesterday and today were much better and I'm bouncing and happy. It really is a roller coaster!
I'm feeling so much more like a teacher now -not sticking rigidly to plans, able to adapt - revamping Golden Time, starting new things in school like Podcasting and blogging. I can't wait to get my own class now, although my class teacher is fantastic and just walks out the room when I'm teaching (unless I've requested her to be about to help with something) so I'm doing it properly on my own, which is great.
Getting on top of planning now, but paperwork for standards and getting assignments done is a pig! Can't wait for the course to finish but am still loving it.
Watched a play at school today called 'Captain Chloresterol' which isn't something that happens in the majority of jobs!

Finishing second placement.

Well, those five weeks went quickly. I officially have 3 days left in school but two afternoons the kids are doing DVD watching and Easter Service so it seems like less.
It's weird in a middle school. The class I follow have about 9 different teachers and it's quite hard to catch up with them to arrange things and even harder to ask them to officially observe lessons, never mind actually get the observations off of them!
I haven't really taught much this 1/2 term, but I have learnt loads from the observations I have done. There are so many secondary trained teachers who are teaching their specialist subject that it's been really useful watching them. I've also seen some secondary teachers teaching things they weren't trained for, which is interesting as well!
I'm going to miss the kids. Some are awful (not in my form -mostly!) and there's been some amazing behaviour while I was there . The worst from my form group were two boys fighting and one trying to escape from school.
I shall be glad to go back to lower school, but wouldn't refuse a job in that middle. The teachers were so incredibly helpful and friendly I can't believe it - the school has a really friendly feel.
It'll be weird going back to my 'little' school, and hard work. The middle is much more relaxed, and my mentor pushes me much harder, and expects a lot more and the teaching workload will really crank up.
The most I've taught so far is about a 60% timetable (about 3 days/week) and I need to go up to 90% for my final assessed practise. But now I feel really confident as a teacher generally, it's only more specialist subjects such as PE and Music that I worry about teaching now, and even maths is falling into place.
I've been searching for jobs over the last few weeks. I looked around a couple of schools but neither were right for one reason or another, and the one I applied to I didn't hear back from anyway. Beginning to think about widening my criteria - originally I just wanted KS2 but now thinking about KS1 jobs. My son's school (which I love) may even have a Reception job going soon and I'm considering that, I love the school so much! Ideally I want yr 4, I think, but in the end I just want a job in September!!

Second Placement

Well, I've just completed my first week in my second placement. Spent all week observing and working with small groups. Its amazing how quickly you settle in, learn the names and find your way around!
It's really different in this school. Its a middle school, (the last was a lower school), so yrs 5-8, and has a much more secondary feel. The kids move classrooms a lot, and I'm following them round. It means not have a single classroom as a real base, although I spent most of my time in the form room. Also means working with several different teachers, which is interesting and good for seeing lots of different styles etc.
I'm enjoying it, and settling in well, and its only 5 weeks (4 now) but I'm still kind of looking forward to getting back to my other school. Its weird, because in a way I feel more relaxed in the second placement (perhaps because I feel like me 'real' mentor isn't there, or because they don't have the same expectations of me, or something) but the safety of my 'real' school still beckons.
I'm having to plan and teach (by the looks of it) more by other peoples plans, and team teach (which essentially means feeling stifled) rather than doing all my own plans on my own. I guess it should be easier, but I liked the autonomy of being able to teach the way I wanted in my first placement.
Really looking forward to having my own class now. Not many jobs coming up at the moment. Cross fingers for me!

Applying

Well, I've just dropped my application form in for the job I've seen.
Yesterday I went for the school tour. It was a group tour, about 6 of us. Four more tours going on later that day too. We were taken around by the Head and the school was absolutely lovely! I really liked it. She explained everything and showed us everywhere from the classrooms to the staff rooms.
All the advice says to chat to the children etc but there really wasn't much chance to do that. Or at least that's how I felt, since I didn't want to go disturbing the classes etc. There was a girl sitting reading in the reception area and one of our number stopped and asked her what she was reading...masterful stroke...she may well be remembered for doing that. Next time I'll try to remember to watch out for any handy kids knocking about!
It took forever to write the application up. I photocopied the form and practised writing it up. The supporting statement was the hard bit though. I had adapted my pool application statement, and then changed it again once I saw the advert, then adapted it again once I got their forms and letterstelling me about the school...and then changed it again once I'd been around the school to add a thanks for taking me on a tour of the beautiful school and mentioned something I liked about the school that I saw during the tour.
Dropped the application form in today. Deadline for it is a week next monday and shortlisting is the friday after that, so ages to wait to see if I manage to get an interview.
From everything I've seen and heard, it's quite early on in the year for NQT type jobs to come up, so not too worried yet. Must get those pool applications in!

Another half term ended.

It was only 5 weeks but it's been a long half term for me.
My year 4s are still great but as we all get tired they are pushing me to see how far they can go with behaviour - although, they're really a bit high for others too, but more for me I think.
Have been reassured that I shan't be going back into KS1, which I'm really pleased about. I'm definitely a KS2 teacher!
Went to visit the middle school I'll be going to after half term and they seem great - very much want me to do what I need to do for my standards, and not what lessons they need covering. Phew!
The school is 4 times as big as the one I've been working in and is a different world! Everything works differently and I shall get completely lost. I can see the advantages though -loads more resources, loads more people to bounce idea off of. I'm, interested and excited in a nervous kind of way about going there.
I've written a supporting statement for NQT pool applications -and this week I've seen the first adverts for NQT suitable jobs in my area starting in Sept. I'm going to ring tomorrow to arrange a visit and get an application form. Scary!
Been ill all week with the most horrendous cold which is probably 80% sinus infection. I WILL go to the Doctors next week. I've been suffering since about October and I just haven't the energy any more!
When will the mornings get lighter and the days brighter?
It's bizarre - I enjoy teaching but it's such har work, and the mornings are so dark and glum, that I often don't feel like going in, even though I know that I enjoy most of the lessons and the kids are lovely.
Hoping that better weather and lighter mornings, and not being sick all the time, will improve matters.
Anyway, shouldn't be on here. I have a mountain of paperwork and assignments etc to get done. Holiday? What holiday?

Another month..

...gone by. It's amazing how quickly it's flying now. Some days quicker than others. Some lessons quicker than others!
Today I taught a lovely RE lessons, talking to my yr 4s about Sikhism - they're so interested and full of questions (which I can't always answer!) and enthusiastic to learn.
An hour later I was coviering the Yr 2 class from hell and crowd control was definitely the correct term for it!
For a while we sat on the mat and talked about transport and they were pretty good (low level disruption but nothing too awful) but as soon as they had to go off to their tables and do some work it was horrible!
The 'good' kids were desperately trying to get on while I constantly stamped on (not literally, though I felt like it) the horrors who at best were wasting time, and at worst were walking round the class bothering each other and waving scissors about.
Even that wasn't so bad, but when they had to change for PE..aargh!
Thank God someone else was taking them for PE - I ended up tidying the room for about 20 mins and then just really trying to recover before picking them up again to get them changed for hometime.
Getting changed again was better - lots of stickers and stars given out!
I was knackered at the end of it. More knackered than a whole day of teaching the yr 4s!
Thankfully my mentor has promised me I won't have to return to that class - if I had been in there all the time I would probably have decided teaching wasn't for me (if I hadn't had a nervous breakdown already!)
I had to talk to me DRB and my mentor very honestly about not wanting to go back into the class and why (which was a bit worrying) but it was worth it.
If you have trouble on your placement make sure you tell someone - something good might actually come of it!

New term, new class, new me

Well, I've been back to school for just over a week now and I can't believe how much more confident and relaxed I feel!
I can't work out if it was just the christmas break, being in a different class (away from the troublesome child who drives us all up the wall!) or because I'm finally in the year group I always thought I'd want to be in.
Somehow I feel like all the things I've been struggling to put together over the last term have slipped into place when I wasn't looking over christmas, and now I am able to relax and teach!
Weird.
I feel quite confident.
And now they want me to plan and put together a class assembly - parents invited! Arggghh.
'Think of the standards you'll meet' my mentor keeps saying!
I feel the pressure of the paperwork now. Making sure I am covering any standards which look a little bare - making ticksheets for observers to use to say I hit certain standards, and then making sure I do it well on the day!
I had the best observation done of my teaching the other day. Everything went so well!
And the best thing, is that my mentor, when she realised how much happier I am in yr4, is looking into me doing at least part of my final teaching practise in yr 4, rather than all of it in yr2.
Woohoo!
Loving it.