The NQT Year Thread

You made the best decision. Primary is so much more fun

Do you reckon you would still have opted for secondary had Teach First offered primary MFL when you did it?

End. Of. Half. Term.

Hehe graph of feelings! It's good that your school spreads out the reports though. In my training year reports were spread out but then in my NQT year they changed it to all being in one go and it was a complete nightmare. I just didn't have the time to dedicate to writing a really good report for each kid and it was a massive shame because I think a good, personalised report is important thing.

And yeah, a Masters is a whole different ball game. I had to quit mine because a) I was just too beat after ITT to do it b) if I do a Masters I want it to be on something I'm really passionate about, I don't want to have to think up a dissertation title on the spot because someone told me I had to.

Anyway, this should really be in the NQT thread

Pretty good atm, apart from the fact im currently in my classroom marking all the past papers i set for holiday homework, massive error! Got NQT training day tomorrow at least, should be pretty chilled!

Currently working on weaning myself off powerpoint, and reckon I'm teaching about 50% of my lessons without it now. It's a lot harder, but I think the lessons are better for it. Also, only 5 weeks till Christmas, woo!

Sorted! Oh...you've already come here. Oh well I'm still going to quote that one...

No-one has told me what to do on my masters but I do seem to have just come up with something, so I'm looking at boys underachievement, which actually I am really interested in and am 'enjoying' doing the reading for So hopefully it can stay that way!

It's funny we mention reports as a friend from the PGCE is complaining on Facebook about how many reports she has to do, and I was pointing out to her that my school only uses a numerical system (Effort, Behaviour, Organisation, Current Standard of Work, Target Grade/NC Level) with no added text to it, which makes reports SOOOOOOO easy However we are allowed to attach a personal comment if we so wish but this is not required. I've got to do my Year 7 reports this week. Will be easy peasy

Hmm I don't know if I'm a fan of the numerical system. Maybe ok for classes you don't see often though. I'd definitely attach comments for GCSE groups etc.

Yeah I agree it doesn't seem great but actually I do think that personalised reports don't give you a huge more detail than a numbering system to be honest - even for GCSE pupils. Why type out "x is an excellent worker and always turns up to lessons with equipment, completes homework on time, perfect behaviour, and is working on target" for a number of pupils when you could just type 1 for behaviour, 1 for organisation, 1 for effort, and 1 for current standard of work? I did my Year 11 group the other week and a few of them got all lowest numbers as they need to sort themselves out, no extra comments needed really.

However the school is pretty good at other things, we do an Academic mentoring thing whereby form tutors have to sit with all the pupils in their tutor group, identify areas of weakness, make targets, and contact parents to tell them what their targets are on the day that the mentoring session was done. And actually they do really well and just keeping in general contact with parents, so I think they get around the whole having to personalise reports thing.

I definitely prefer this method; plus I have a lot of the parents e-mail addresses and are now in regular contact with a few of them which I feel is definitely the way forwards in terms of parental contact

Here's a random question for everyone:

Is anyone getting really annoyed at other teachers saying "Oooh stop working so hard" or "It's 5pm, get yourself home!!" At first I was all explaining that I had lots of work to do and just wanted to get it done but now people are STILL saying it and yes I understand that you need the whole work/life balance but what about if you actually don't need that too much?

I know that sounds weird but I've sort of accepted that this year I'm putting everything else on hold for me to settle into teaching, as well as doing my Masters. I'm content with working non-stop, and actually I'm the type of person who always looks to fill my time with productive things - OK I won't deny it would be nice to have a bit more free time right now but if it comes to free time versus planning lessons that are going to go down really well with my pupils, I choose the latter.

But anyway back to the point, yes, people keep telling me to not work as hard, and even other NQTs seem to be leaving 10 minutes after the bell goes, but I just can't seem to do that because I can't bear to plan crappy lessons or have a messy classroom or not follow up on detentions/homeworks/pastoral issues or not have my books regularly marked.

Right I'll stop there - just wondering if anyone was as crazy as me with the amount of work they're putting in?

It is now Friday night and I shall spend this evening marking Yr10 homeworks and planning some lessons for next week. I shall spend much of Saturday and Sunday also planning, as I have done since mid September

If you're happy with it then ignore them - I expect they're just feeling a bit guilty that they're not working as hard as you! that said, be careful you don't burn out. I've always liked to plan good lessons, get things marked etc but am of the opinion my life is equally important, so I set myself deadlines on how long I'm going to spend on something, and stick to it. I was considerably less stressed than most people on my PGCE year, but got all outstandings and rowed for 12 sessions per week.

Here's a random question for everyone:

Is anyone getting really annoyed at other teachers saying "Oooh stop working so hard" or "It's 5pm, get yourself home!!" At first I was all explaining that I had lots of work to do and just wanted to get it done but now people are STILL saying it and yes I understand that you need the whole work/life balance but what about if you actually don't need that too much?

I think it depends on what else you have in your life. For example, I have my boyfriend and I also have my commitments on TSR which I have to make time for at some point as its essentially a volunteering role in the same way as if I were running all of this in a face to face form. For me, I can't and don't want to dedicate my life 24/7 to teaching because I value my relationship and other aspects of my life as much as I value my job. This isn't to say that I don't do well in teaching as I also got outstanding at the end of my PGCE with less fuss than the people who worked 24/7, its more that I see my job and teaching as having a big part of my life but it isn't my whole life.

I managed to do everything better than everyone else last year even though they were putting in more hours so I think it depends on the person - some people (yourself included) maybe feel as though they have to live school for 24 hours a day if they're going to do well whereas others can get everything done in less time. I'm similar to modgepodge in that I have to set deadlines for myself to get things done otherwise I will spend the entire evening doing them. I don't think I produce lower quality things as a result and I'd probably say I'm better that way as I'm the kind of person who works very well under pressure but if you give me all day to do something then I'll take all day yet the final product won't be any better than if I'd said "I'm going to do this in 3 hours" because I thrive with the pressure element to get it done.

Well done on your observations though - that's proper good hope you're doing something nice to celebrate and take that one in

Oxymoronic, how is your job hunt and supply going? i haven't had much supply but.....

I GOT A JOB OFFER TODAY!!!

Am so so happy Have been so stressed the last 2 months, so pleased to have something for January

Hope you're doing ok too!

Oxymoronic, how is your job hunt and supply going? i haven't had much supply but.....

I GOT A JOB OFFER TODAY!!!

Am so so happy Have been so stressed the last 2 months, so pleased to have something for January

Hope you're doing ok too!

Oxymoronic, how is your job hunt and supply going? i haven't had much supply but.....

I GOT A JOB OFFER TODAY!!!

Am so so happy Have been so stressed the last 2 months, so pleased to have something for January

Hope you're doing ok too!

Congratulations!

Yay, congrats!

Thanks! x

Do you do guided reading? What part of teaching reading are you not sure about, is it the decoding or the comprehension part?

I do modelled reading a lot as well, I read something and then explain what I get from it to the children - often at story time.