We Don't Need No Ed-u-cation...

Teaching. Ah yes the reason I'm here. The fruition of my year's training at York.

I've landed in my school and it's been a trial by fire. I'm kinda hoping I survive until Christmas at this point but, hey, that's only 7 weeks away!



Well, here's the good, the bad and the strange:

The Good

My schedule is not bad. I'm teaching science in the morning and then taking care of various activities in the afternoon. One of them will be working on an updated version of "A Christmas Carol" with the other Drama teacher. I also tutor two kids one on one on one day...and I'm not sure what else is going on the rest of the time.

I have a free morning on Monday's because my lab assistant can't be there on Monday's so they've compressed the Monday classes into the rest of the days of the week.

The staff is incredibly supportive. The headmaster I report to seems to really believe in me. He's been incredibly supportive. I've told him that I want to do hands on science experiments as much as possible and he's enthused about that. I told him I'm a first year teacher and I have a lot to learn and he's talking about gettting me support from a science teacher from a local school, bringing in an advisor to help me out and stuff like that. I was surprised and thrilled to hear this! He seems to think I'm going to do a great job which is very encouraging. It's the opposite of much of my York experience where I was being rated evaluated and made to jump through hoops. That mostly happened in my first term and during my time at York itself. My second placement at Cityview was blessedly free of that kind of stuff (in case anyone from there reads this!)

Because of the nature of the students' difficulties there's more leeway to have a much more left field approach.

The Bad

I arrived at school on Tuesday morning at 8:00 and found out I was on my own and that I was supposed to be teaching 4 classes that day. No one knew what the students had been studying or anything since there had been several supply teachers through the room. The biggest issue is that there's a lab assistant who knows everything that's going on, has access to all the materials, science equipment etc. but she's on vacation. This meant I had to teach without much knowledge for the whole week. I also had no lab equipment so I couldn't do any experiments.

I don't know the curriculum here so I'm learning that as I go. I'm also struggling with what the heck level the students are at. Student's called "Year 7" are not "Grade 7" but more like "Grade 5" Year 10's and 11's are supposed to write a standardized test to get their "GCSE" but obviously I don't really know what' s on this test. I've been doing some looking into it and it all seems very dry and complicated.

Apparently I have to send student's work and test marks off to some government moderator who then determines whether or not I've marked correctly and done a good job. Super!

The Strange

The Students. I almost put them under "The Bad" but that would be kind of wrong wouldn't it? I'm teaching children with behavioural problems and boy are they tough. Fights, swearing, refusal to do anything I ask, threats towards me (that guy is suspended), talking in class, interrupting, undermining, ignoring me you name it. Apparently they're "testing me." I have no choice but to be a Nazi on upholding the rules and I'm trying to strike a balance between authoritative and angry. Who knows where that lies?

On the other hand I have to keep in mind that these kids are severely emotionally damaged by things that have happened to them in their lives. I don't know any of their stories yet but I assume some pretty horrific things have happened. I'm the nearest adult that they can target their anger at. It'll all be about building bond of trust with these kids.

I'm teaching Science. I failed Science 4 times in University - not because I couldn't do it but because I hated it so much. On the 4th try I ended up in a great Science class and have been really interested in it ever since. Still...me as a science teacher now that's bizarre.