The NQT Year Thread

I wish I could hide behind a phone when talking to parents! I thought one was going to burst in to tears! I was being as positive as possible too. Ek! I hope the behaviour settles for you all, sounds very difficult.

Chuffed today, management said my classroom is outstanding! Classroom layout, child focused displays ect are a big deal in Early Years so I'm really pleased. :smile:

Working like an absolute trooper though, spend so much child-free time sorting the classroom and organising everything, I now have piles and piles of photographs to annotate for my baseline assessments, gonna be a long night!

Nearly 2 weeks in! Feels more like 2 months!

Reply 182

Another crappy day behaviour wise. Two of them wouldn't even shut up while they were in detention! Could have cried at my mentor when she popped in at the end of the day but didn't.

Only good thing is that the run of 3 full days is over and I haven't even brought my work stuff home tonight.
My good friends Ben & Jerry are consoling me tonight.

Reply 183

I just survived my first parent-teacher meeting. There were a few really uncomfortable moments, so relieved it's over. I ate all the chocolate.

:ahee:

Reply 184

Booked myself a haircut in a fancy salon for the first time ever on Saturday (payday on the 26th but sod it, I'm splashing out NOW!). Think I deserve it, my hair hasn't been cut for around 8 months and even then it was a cheapo cut. Hoping it will relax me and maybe improve my confidence in the classroom (but may be subject to loads of kids stating the obvious that I had my hair cut).

Do I get a full fringe like I want to? I was told on my PGCE that I should grow it out as I wear glasses and it's hard to see my eyes but I like having the 'protection' of the fringe and I think it suits me best. Hmm.

Slightly off topic I know but still relevant!!

Reply 185

Original post by Becca

I just survived my first parent-teacher meeting. There were a few really uncomfortable moments, so relieved it's over. I ate all the chocolate.

:ahee:

Good stuff :smile:

Chocolate is ALWAYS the answer. Well, Ben & Jerry's too, if you're me. There is some chocolate in the cupboard and a mixed fruit Kopparberg in the fridge with my name on it for tomorrow evening!

Reply 186

Suzanathema

13

Original post by noodles!

Booked myself a haircut in a fancy salon for the first time ever on Saturday (payday on the 26th but sod it, I'm splashing out NOW!). Think I deserve it, my hair hasn't been cut for around 8 months and even then it was a cheapo cut. Hoping it will relax me and maybe improve my confidence in the classroom (but may be subject to loads of kids stating the obvious that I had my hair cut).

Do I get a full fringe like I want to? I was told on my PGCE that I should grow it out as I wear glasses and it's hard to see my eyes but I like having the 'protection' of the fringe and I think it suits me best. Hmm.

Slightly off topic I know but still relevant!!

Yours is 26th, is it? I think mine's 30th :frown:

I am getting my manky mousey roots dealt with after payday - I say go for the fringe. You can combat kids stating the obvious by pretending to be really surprised "It's been cut?! I didn't notice!"... it's the strategy I take when my students inform me that I have a tattoo :tongue:

Reply 187

Oh yeah the old "I saw you on the bus!"...yes I know, I replied to you when you said hello... :indiff:

Reply 188

FRIDAY

5 weeks to half term though, who thought that up?!

Reply 189

I have 1 week til half term, only it's not half term cos then there's 11 weeks til xmas. :colonhash:

Reply 190

Original post by Becca

I have 1 week til half term, only it's not half term cos then there's 11 weeks til xmas. :colonhash:

That sounds horrendous!

Moved my room around into tables of 4 today, and as a result had to sit and redo all of my seating plans before I left. And I have the horrendous task of putting all of the students into them AGAIN, just two weeks after I sat them all down. Still, it's an excuse to move the pesky kids around without them realising - have decided to have some of the kids I 'keep' on the front row at the back on a table of good kids- see how that works out. I feel sorry for the good ones but needs must!

Reply 191

linkdapink

15

I need major help from anyone and everyone!

I have two training sessions next week (Monday and Tuesday) which means I miss two Y10 classes in a row. I don't know what to do or to set! Honestly, I'm so frazzled over this! I see them Monday morning, so I was thinking of teaching them something new, setting cover work from textbooks to consolidate that in the afternoon. But then what about the Tuesday? I can't really set work that means they have to learn something new! So what should I do?!

I'm going to move onto Fractions Of Amounts, as this is fairly easy, but can be challenging with longer, wordy-er problems. But then I don't know how to extend that for another hour without teaching them anything new???

Any one got any ideas or can help?

Reply 192

Original post by linkdapink

I need major help from anyone and everyone!

I have two training sessions next week (Monday and Tuesday) which means I miss two Y10 classes in a row. I don't know what to do or to set! Honestly, I'm so frazzled over this! I see them Monday morning, so I was thinking of teaching them something new, setting cover work from textbooks to consolidate that in the afternoon. But then what about the Tuesday? I can't really set work that means they have to learn something new! So what should I do?!

I'm going to move onto Fractions Of Amounts, as this is fairly easy, but can be challenging with longer, wordy-er problems. But then I don't know how to extend that for another hour without teaching them anything new???

Any one got any ideas or can help?

Yeah don't teach them anything new! Scour every textbook and website you can and make a booklet with questions on the topic. If you can't find stuff that will last an hour then just put some sheets with sums on? It's always good to get arithmetic practice!
Is it a topic they could write questions for each other to do?

Reply 193

Shatners bassoon

Original post by linkdapink

I need major help from anyone and everyone!

I have two training sessions next week (Monday and Tuesday) which means I miss two Y10 classes in a row. I don't know what to do or to set! Honestly, I'm so frazzled over this! I see them Monday morning, so I was thinking of teaching them something new, setting cover work from textbooks to consolidate that in the afternoon. But then what about the Tuesday? I can't really set work that means they have to learn something new! So what should I do?!

I'm going to move onto Fractions Of Amounts, as this is fairly easy, but can be challenging with longer, wordy-er problems. But then I don't know how to extend that for another hour without teaching them anything new???

Any one got any ideas or can help?

Do you have exam wizard/testbase? You can do standard questions for your first cover then use exam wizard to get loads of gcse past paper questions for the second one. Seems silly as they are just doIng the same thing again, but they do love it when its proper gcse questions and they can do them. Alternatively for the second one you can give them a classic "cover lesson" like four fours (google if you dont know it, its a real maths classic for when you dont have anything planned!)

Reply 194

linkdapink

15

I think I'll teach them fractions of amounts and do the general questions on the Monday afternoon (this class is generally a nightmare then) then harder GCSE (and past SATs - more "thinking" type questions) questions for the Tuesday afternoon! I'm just annoyed because this puts me so far behind with one class!

Reply 195

Damnit I wish at least ONE of my placements had instilled in me a sense of using NC levels in the classroom on a day to day basis. Seriously, neither bothered apart from giving them out at assessment time! Now my school is really big on it, I don't really have much of a clue unless levels are referred to in teachers guides, and I'm being observed by my mentor tomorrow, who is expecting to see me doing so!

Reply 196

linkdapink

15

Original post by noodles!

Damnit I wish at least ONE of my placements had instilled in me a sense of using NC levels in the classroom on a day to day basis. Seriously, neither bothered apart from giving them out at assessment time! Now my school is really big on it, I don't really have much of a clue unless levels are referred to in teachers guides, and I'm being observed by my mentor tomorrow, who is expecting to see me doing so!

I'm exactly the same. Try looking at textbooks - they usually give a good idea. I didn't do a thing in my placement schools, but the textbooks there were levelled at the side of each question - I'm actually tempted to buy a full set of those textbooks just to make levelling really easy for myself! I didn't even have to do lesson objectives when I was on placement - it makes life so much harder!

Reply 197

Original post by linkdapink

I'm exactly the same. Try looking at textbooks - they usually give a good idea. I didn't do a thing in my placement schools, but the textbooks there were levelled at the side of each question - I'm actually tempted to buy a full set of those textbooks just to make levelling really easy for myself! I didn't even have to do lesson objectives when I was on placement - it makes life so much harder!

Yeah that's all I have, and I do understand how the levels work at least (!) - but when it comes to passing judgement on things I prepare myself (like I prefer to do sometimes) I'm clueless lol!

3 part objectives bemuse me completely, and don't seem to apply to most of my lessons!

Also then there is the problem of the completely made up sub-levels which are not official and vary from place to place. In MFL it seems to be doubly hard as the levels are worded to make an assessment once per term (or year, even) so it's very hard to know that a student is working AT level 3 rather than just completing a task which demonstrates one aspect of level 3.

I had a lovely rant about this in one of my PGCE assignments... on a side note, I looked for them (my assignments) earlier and they've vanished from my memory stick :frown:

Reply 198

Suzanathema

13

I'm struggling to get my head around levelled outcomes too, but I do have a set of the level descriptors for each AF, so if I know which AF I am meeting in that lesson I can take the outcomes from the level descriptors. That makes differentiating the activities and creating success criteria easier as well, because the level descriptor statements tell you what each level student should be capable of in each activity.

Well, on my last placement my use of assessment in lessons was slated so I don't know, take that advice with a pinch of salt I guess...

Who else has left all of tomorrow's planning for Sunday night? Why have I still not learnt that this is a terrible, stressful idea?

Reply 199

balloon_parade