first week...

...well, it's been stressful but good.

Monday was a training day with my DRB (and inset day in school, but I wasn't there). Basically it involved filling in paperwork for them, a tour of the place and a brief explanation of what was going to happen over the next couple of days. We also had to write a description of another trainee, and then introduce them to all the other trainees. I normally don't do public speaking very well, but I even impressed myself that day and it made me much more confident, which was great.

Tuesday was am in school with the kids. This was great, nice kids, easy work for the first morning and mostly just working with the kids in general and with small groups, and doing some reading. It'll take a while to work out all the little ins and outsof how the school works, the paperwork and all that stuff, but I enjoyedbeing with the kids, and that's the important bit!
Went to my training centre in the afternoon and we had an introduction to the course. We got our first glimpse of our Individual Training Plans which basically just showed when we would be in lectures, and the occasional directive such as 'see Literacy HoD about policies and practice'. I was expecting more guidance on how much observation to do and when to start the first lesson planning etc, but apparently our school mentor is completely in charge of that, so we're to sort that out between us.
On my way home my car broke down. Argghh. Took three hours to get home and I was stressed and exhausted by the end of it. I didn't really feel like I had 'done' much but it's knackering anyway. So much information and so many new things to process!

Wednesday - had to get a fellow trainee to ferry me in. We got to meet all our lecturers for the core subjects, which was interesting and we had some ICT training in the morning (very basic stuff) and voice training in the afternoon, which was great. Nice easy day.

Thursday (today). Late start, didn't need to get in til 11am so I took my sons to school. The youngest clung to me and cried, so started out stressful when it should have been pleasant!
Got my car back - phew - picked up a really really useful booklet called The Bristol Guide which explains rights and responsibilities of teachers in an easy to read manner. I'd recommend it to anyone working in school. Then we met our Lead Mentors/Professional Tutors who we will be working with in the first four weeks investigating various aspects of education.
Everyone had to introduce themselves and say what experience they had. I was the last and it was painfully obvious that I had the least experience. Some people just said they had worked as TA's (and I knew it was more like for months than years) but many people had worked as TA's or unqualified teachers for ages. All I could say was that I was a TA for a couple of months 6 years ago and I had experience from being a parent. I felt utterly inadequate and really could have cried and run away!
We got to talk to our mentors about gathering evidence andhow it all works, which was good, but I spent the rest of the afternoon feeling very panicky and out of my depth.
After lunch (when various other lovely students reassured me and made me feel much better) we met with our school metors and talked about paperwork, standards, timetables etc. I have loads of notes to go back over, but at last I have guidance on organising my evidence (which means to pretty much completely rearrange what I originally set up) so that's good.
Phew, anyway. That's it so far. Knackered every night but going out to the pub tonight to meet some friends and met up with a friend yesterday too.
More soon.

First day...

...and I was in the training centre. It was inset day at my school.

Don't feel like I did much but feel absolutely shattered anyway!
We filled in some forms and found out our schedule for the week but still don't have my training plan yet.
We had to fill in a form describing someone else in our group (from their verbal description) and then later in the afternoon we each had to give a little presentation type thing telling the entire group about that person. I'm not used to speaking in front of people, and normally I'd be a bundle of nerves, but it went really well and I even impressed myself!
Tomorrow I spend the morning in my base school and the afternoon in the centre when I should find out more about the program.
I'm going to sleep well tonight, and I'm looking forward to getting in school properly now!

Nearly there...

...2 more days til I start!
I got my school contract through the post the other day and ever since then I've been brimming with excitement! I'm still a bit nervous but now it all seems so real, and the contract says 'unqualifed teacher' so thats what I am convincing myself I am: a teacher.
The DRB have posted up a calendar of centre based activities now, on our website. Some of it isn't relevant to me as it's for SCITTs too, and it doesn't say which is which, but it mentions 'intro to the GT program', 'voice training', subject carousel' (?) and 'how to survive your first week in school' so I really feel a lot more relaxed about starting as I feel theres more support out there than I knew before.
I'm spending the majority of the week in the centre, just a half a day at school on the day the kids go back (in the morning). That time should be fine, no worse than any other day I've spent in school. I've been told it'll be no curriculum subjects, more settling in and getting to know you and setting the rules so I'm not worrying about that.
My stupid car has started to play up - typical! 6 weeks of summer hols and it starts to go wrong when I can't do anything about it! Just the fan keeps on running, but it should be fine. I hope it lasts til October half term!
I have teaching files sorted out now. School policies, my contract etc in my school file. Subject plans, timetables etc and subject-specific resources in another file. I have hanging files for the standards and stickers for if I want to colour code paperwork. It's all sort of coming together now.
I've chucked out loads of old clothes I don't wear and put all my 'teacher clothes' together and done some intensive house tidying over the last few weeks. It doesn't look much better but a lot of clutter is gone.
So, I'm mostly prepared. Just need a pencil case and some plain v-neck t-shirts from M&S. I have loads of different cardigans and I thought I'd mix and match plain t-shirts with various coloured and and styled cardies (M&S have some really funky ones) to make dressing as easy as possible.
Now I just have to decide whether I keep my hair the dyed brown which looks good but is a pain to keep up, or do I revert to my natural blonde? I'll have to decide over the weekend...
Roll on monday!

Course start looming...

...there's only two weeks to go now and suddenly it doesn't seem very long at all!
I've spent weeks...months...looking forward to the long summer holiday and all the reading and prep I can get done during it, and suddenly I have only 2 weeks left and feel just as disorganised as before!
I have some lever arch files now - I've read varying advice saying I'll need anything between 3 and 25 of them - and I've cut out articles from TES and Child Education magazine that I really must get round to filing somewhere sensible.
I've started revising for the numeracy skills test. Everyone says to get them out of the was asap, and maths is not my strong point - especially the horrible mental maths bit at the start of the test.
On thursday I'm meeting my mentor in our classroom to chat over stuff, look at the long/medium term plans and generally get to grips where resources etc are kept. She's very approachable and easily emailable, so that's a weight off my mind!
Am currently worrying about subject knowledge, planning, pitching the work at the right level, behaviour management and actually having to get up in front of them and act like I know what I'm doing! I think I worry most about the unexpected happening - odd questions, not knowing the normal procedure for things but I hope that in my early days in school observing I will get the hang of the nuts and bolts of school life.
It's scary and exciting, but there's loads of people on TES all saying that are terrified too - or that they were terrified at the start of the course and now they are NQT's and it all worked out okay, so that helps.
Anyway, not long now - I'll post some more once I'm in school. Wish me luck!

The difference....

...that I've found between doing work experience in a school (and probably working there as a TA) and actually going into what you know will be 'your' classroom and 'your' kids is that I felt much more like I was meant to be telling the kids off and making decisions in 'my' classroom.
When doing work experience, especially since it was my son's school, I was very aware that, although they really appreciate my help, they were really doing me a favour by being there.
They all said 'ring me if you need anything' and 'don't hesitate to shout anytime next year if you need help' but still I was aware of not stepping on toes or doing anything wrong.
As soon as I went into the swap over day at 'my' school (that feels good, even just to think) I felt much more like the classroom was as much my responsibility as it was the normal teacher's.
It was good!
I also helped out at a sports day type thing and had responsibility for about 12 kids (with the school secretary) and I felt quite at ease both cheering them on, giving instructions and telling them off.
You do realise though -no matter how many of the school policies you read, it never quite covers all the little routines and 'hidden curriculum' type stuff that goes on. I found myself not knowing if the books go back in a particular order, or whether they keep used painting newspaper or chuck it away. It's silly stuff, but if you want to feel in control, you need to know the nuts and bolts. It made me look forward to having my own classroom (as NQT), although that seems such a very long way away!

Work experience done!

Hurrah, my work eperience is finished. And boo. I really enjoyed it and I don't want to go back to me current job now, even for only three weeks. :o(
I spent my last week in KS1, mostly Y2 and we got to go on a trip to Whipsnade Zoo. It was great. I had a group of 8 kids and a parent helper and we went around looking at the animals and classifying them according to habitat and whether they had fur, feathers or scales.
Very enjoyable - tiring - and I learnt a lot.
For instance, the kids were quite slow in writing so instead of actually getting to study the animals they spent most of their time staring at their sheets. I wondered whether it would be feasable for each group to have a camera and take a photo for discussion as a group later, which would be good ICT and also free up their time to really look at and talk about the animals. Or whether the teacher/parent helper should have the sheet and the kids decide as a group what should be written.
Also, the kids were asked to take disposable lunches (no flasks/lunchboxes) so they could be thrown away (good) but to bring them in carrier bags. This meant much juggling of clipboard and bag, three bags in my group alone broke and kids kept trying to offload their bags onto the adults and each other. disposable lunch = good, carrier bag= bad! Rucksacks or somewhere to store them = better!

I've also been practicing learning kids names. I do this by looking at their face (we have an innate ability to remember/recognise faces more strongly than anything else) and link it with an image or phrase). For instance - for Indiana I imagined her with an indiana Jones hat and whio. For Hayden - I thought of him sitting on a giant wall (okay, that's Hadriens wall, but it worked for me!), for Clara - I imagined her hugging a cow (since in my mind Clara is a good name for a cow). It really worked. You just need a couple of seconds to concentrate!
Off to my new school swap over morning tomorrow to work with the kids I'll be teaching next year. Really excited!

Induction day

Had my first induction day last week. We had to say what evidence we already had towards the standards (My form seemed to be mostly 'not met' since I haven't been teaching at all, and haven't done a education based degree.)
Everyone else (apart from one woman) seemed to have been a TA for ages (ranging from 6 months to 7 years) and the only other person who had had no classroom experience at interview had managed to wangle herself a job as an unqualified teacher for 3 days a week after her interview. So, it's official, I'm the least experienced person in my group. Argghh.
Slightly worrying. But at least it makes me feel good about myself - as they said - they saw potential in me, so I must be able to do it.
Also, they said in 4 years they had only had one person not complete the course, and they dropped out because they realised teaching wasn't for them.
They gave us a rough timetable of events. The first few weeks we're only in school a couple of days, the other days are either at the centre or we will be working in groups together to solve problems/questions given to us in a school other than our own. It's a shame because I really wanted to see how the teacher greeted and settled her new class.
The first term there will be a fair bit of centre based stuff but there will be a few weeks on the trot when we will be in school without disruption. The second term we'll spend much more time in school but with more lectures, including some on professional issues such as job applications. The final term will be almost all in school with just some 'mop up' lectures. Thats when the majority of the teaching assessment will be done.
As GTP we are not doing all the lectures that the SCITT students do, and basically I requested that I did the maths because it's an area I am not confident in, even though I scored well in their interview test, and PE and Music since I wouldn't have a clue where to start with those! It looks like the other subjects they are happy for us to research/pick up info in school, which is fine by me.
They did warn that there will be big emphasis on subject knowledge this year, since that's what the ofsted folks have picked up on as being the weakness of the GTP route.
The standards folders they were very happy to let us organise however we wanted to. They'll be some hints and tips in the first centre based week in september but we don't need to follow them at all. They suggested colour coding pieces of paper (blue stickers for observations, pink for planning) or using an expanding file to quickly file everything under the correct standard - and then that would need transferring to a file. They wanted to avoid too much photocopying of evidence but say evidence should be given a unique number so it can be cross referenced.
The new standards are still in draft ut I think I might start thinking about the best way for me to organise myself.
I found out where my second term school would be - a very local middle school. One of the other GTPers currently works there as a TA and she said it was a wonderful, supportive school, so I feel happy about that. Although since it is a middle school it has yrs 5-8, so the oldest kids will be teenagers! But I'll be in year 5 apparently, which is fine by me.
My Mentor came along too and we had a lovely long chat about each other's expectations and how she plans (using Hamilton Trust) and their handwriting scheme, which policies to make sure I know before I start and stuff (behaviour and marking seemed the most important).
She's going to email me any info she thinks I needs, and I'll go in over the summer hols to have a nose around the school and get used to where everything is etc.
Oh, and I get paid until the end of August! Hurrah!