Week One

I have survived the first week!

My fears of the university’s expectations vs. my expectations were allayed within 30 seconds of the first lecture. The course director started the class by stating that the university has high standards and expectations of all of us, and expects us to have high expectations of ourselves. This was music to my ears.

This has been less of an ‘introductory week’ and more of a ‘chuck you in head first’ week. It’s brilliant though. Our Professional Development lectures instruct us on the legal ins and outs of the profession; the value and purpose of teachers’ unions; the M level aspect of the course, among other things. The main tutor for these is a technology whizz kid; and also highly entertaining. He manages to convey the messages – at times serious- without scaring/boring/patronising the room. (Saying that, I’ve already noticed the numbers falling: there are fewer and fewer people each lecture).

We’ve also had a fair few subject classes too. The individual workload began from day one, and I think we’re all learning that leaving it, even one night, is going to be such a stupid idea. We’ve got a chunk of reading to do (handouts and online documents ranging from 10-243 pages!); we’ve had small individual tasks and larger group tasks to complete.

On Monday we’ll be delivering (in groups) our first KS3 lesson; although it is to our class pretending to be y9s. I’m quite proud of our lesson plan: I think it’s flexible enough not to fall to pieces in the event of a hiccup.

Quite a bit of this week has been reflective/evaluative work. We’ve all been discussing where we think our strengths and weaknesses are, what we think makes a good teacher, what kind of teacher we want to be, and trying to bond as a group. We’ve also been hearing about the necessary outlook for a teacher: cynicism = bad; sense of humour and bit of sarcasm = good.

There are some lovely people on the course (of course, I don’t know all of them yet). Within English, there are 13 trainees of a range of ages and backgrounds; and taking different routes into teaching. Some, like me, are doing a PGCE, others are doing Schools Direct. There’s not a lot of socialising as a group outside of class (admittedly, there’s not a lot of time outside of class), although it is quite difficult as the majority of the group commute into the city. It’s only the end of week one though.

We’ve already been told our first placement school. Mine’s about a 40 minute walk from my house. I’ve been researching the bus routes. Might have a practice run before I start there: I don’t want to be late on my first day. From its website, the school looks fantastic (of course that is the purpose of a website); however, it has been supported by word of mouth from mature students on the course. I’m really looking forward to starting there. I have an induction/observation week there in October.

From the start, I’ve designated Saturday as my day off from the course. Today is the first Saturday since the course started proper, and I’m finding it difficult not to do some reading, or a knowledge audit. However, at the same time, I know if I don’t take the day off, by the middle of the week I’ll regret it.  I know the workload’s set to increase. The family visited today (including the small child). The child has wrecked my room! There are cups and scraps of paper everywhere now. How a small thing can cause so much mess is beyond me. At least tidying up will take up some time.

After seeing a vague, semi-complete timetable; I did begin to worry – a lot –about my time management. But I’m pleased to say that I have begun to establish some kind of routine, especially in the evenings.

Tips:

My two tips for week one are:

1.       Establish a routine as soon as possible.

It’s helping me to stay on task, instead of drifting off to watch something, or tidy, or indulge in general procrastination. And,

2.       Smile.

A nice smile and a hello has helped me loads this week. It’s helped me meet people on the course (studying a range of subjects); it’s helped to break the ice in general; it’s helped me relax. I think being open (which a smile suggests) really helps to break the barrier when you’re in a new situation.

Next stop: week two. It’s going to be fun!