The NQT Year Thread

Woo, feeling much more positive now its the weekend.

Had a drop in from the person in charge of teaching and learning today, they said they're going to do a few leading up to a formal observation later this half term. It was Period 6 on a Friday with my absolute worst class (that Y8 bottom set) and I thought it had gone terribly.

But I went to them at the end of the day, and they said if they were giving it a grading (which officially they're not) they'd say a 3, so it's not that awful. They said there were lots of good things in terms of the activities, and that I didn't seem flustered despite them being a difficult class, and just recommended that I went in there harder with the behaviour system and kicked someone out earlier.

And I got a lovely email from a parent whose child said at the Y10 open evening yesterday that they'd learnt more from me in the last 2 weeks than they had done in the whole of Y9. They'd sent this email to the Head, so at least that gives SLT a good impression of how I'm doing (I'm only on a 1 year contract so am hoping things go well...).

Positives are important too

Oh wow, how do you feel about being on a one year contract? Hope I'm not being rude. The opportunity for that came up at my last school - maternity leave really - but I wasn't interested.

Hmm...

Well, I wasn't ideally looking for a 1 year contract, but a large proportion of NQT jobs were, not just this one.

It's not 1 year in the sense that it will definitely end at the end of that year (like maternity leave or anything) - they do need a permanent member of staff so they'll hopefully renew my contract after I pass the induction year. It's just the way they (and a lot of other schools) seem to do NQT contracts. Hopefully (assuming things go well and I don't decide I want to leave anyway) they'll keep me on next year - there are people in the school now who were NQTs on one year contracts last year.

I knew I was chatting NQT style somewhere on the interweb...

So far, my first week and a half has seen one of my tutor group write a great big welcome to the academy/ class S07 on my desk for me to find; my whole tutor group volunteering to arrange the room/ do my cutting, stapling, filing, handouts; another member of the group offering to draw personalised cartoon characters for our display board; a girl from a class that I don't even teach telling me I'm awesome - and when I said 'do I teach you?' she said 'no I just heard...' ; the most notorious girl in the school telling me she's loving physics, and a present from a girl because I've made a massive difference to how much she understands. Also some lovely classes that are much more keen than I expected.

Minor negatives: year 10 boys are a handful, there's just too much chatter at once. Though on the Brightside I allowed them all to earn off their warnings so they're more keen now. And their work is actually fairly good for their targets.

- If I could have one thing now it would be a way to reward (bribe ) them with something that they might actually care about.

Year 13. Lovely hard working students, but only 2 of them, so constant focus is draining me a bit, plus they're so different, usually the slightly more capable one has picked up the other's mistake before I've even looked at it and then it looks like I'm delayed in responding, but I guess I'll just get used to the way we work best.

I'm a little concerned that colleagues think I work too long/ too hard/ might be stressed. I don't, I just have no social life at the mo due to moving so prefer to get work done weekday evenings and spend the weekend getting out. I wish people would be a little less suspicious lol.

That was a rant. Forgive me, I have no social life at the moment

Sounds like it's going really well!

I'm not an NQT any more (that ship sailed a while ago!) but I still find it really helpful to read how other people are doing, it's lovely to see people posting positive things. V. important to focus on stuff that's good

I'll go: yesterday I had a really nice day with one of my "special" pupils. I let him be my assistant in Music and he was great. I need to remember to let him do more stuff like this. He was so smiley and happy yesterday. Also it feels like we're making progress getting him some help with his problems.

I have this other kid who basically never expresses any emotion other than anger. He generally just sits there looking really sad or numb. We were outside at break and I head someone screaming my name really loudly. I thought "Oh god, someone's fighting or has hurt themself..." but when I turned round it was this kid just waving at me! So it seems like I have made an impression on him even though it feels like I get nowhere when I chat to him or try and help him with his work.

Thinking about your year 10 boys - have you tried a class reward system? I have a number grid on the wall with a little bit of yellow paper bluetacked on. When the class follow the rules or do something good, or if an individual does something good they get a point and I move the yellow thing up. They decided that 50 points should be their first target and they got to it on Thursday. As a reward we're having a "games lesson" with board games and card games that they bring in themselves.

You could ask the class what kind of reward they'd like (don't really know what motivates y10 boys anymore - let them mess around on their phones for a lesson? Computer room lesson? Bring cakes in lesson?) and take a vote. I find it's really worth sacrificing one lesson every 4-5 weeks to keep motivation and good behaviour up in the class. If anyone criticises you then you have a very good explanation for a random "nothing" lesson.

That's really great news about the pupils that you've made an impression on. I genuinely think that it's the small consistent things that you do with them that count; big things they seem to struggle to cope with, or block out entirely if it's too much for them. Last year I had a year 8 class and there was a boy who was partially autistic and never showed emotion, never appeared to listen, and struggled to follow indirect orders. So I would say, ok guys come and sit at the front, he would get up walk to the front but then not know where to sit, so I always caught his eye and tapped on a spare chair near me and smiled to show that it would be a good choice. After a few months we had a test and he had had some time off, in the back of his paper he wrote: Miss B, I'm really very sorry if I haven't done very well on this paper, I'm worried that I will not as I've had a lot of time off but I have tried really hard. I really want to achieve in science. He actually had the highest score... so he got the award (not the first time) but seeing him show some signs of happy surprise was amazing. And he thanked myself and another teacher after. I really expected to never speak to him.

I really like that idea for the boys and I've already decided after last lesson that reward rather than sanction is the way to go with them - they expect sanctions, it has no effect whatsoever, and then I can't keep up with them haha. But do you always show the achievement board? As I have a low set girls who are currently working well, so I don't want them to want that too if I can help it - although it might not hurt. I think they'd go for a reward as simple as revising with their own music on at this stage. I might even start it by giving achievement points for work in books, that'll give them a head start.

Need to get them on-side soon as their practical coursework is coming up eeeek haha.

Yeah, I only have the one class so the points board (it's just a laminated piece of A3 with a table that I made in Word on!) is always hanging on the wall. You could have something on Smartboard or on excel that you have up every lesson with the lads? I have had pots with counters or marbles before, but it's better to have something where the pupils can see how many points they have so they don't keep asking to count the marbles. Or you could just hang the poster up every lesson, or have it on the inside of a cupboard door or something.

I agree by the way about keeping up with how people are doing. My mentor last year was awesome with sharing ideas and getting things from others, he listed all the Twitter accounts for me that he finds useful, and he's totally right.

Yeah I think I'll just pin it up each lesson over my form board - I only see them 3 times over 2 weeks. I reckon it'll work well, do you include names or anything? I was thinking names down the left, 'get caught doing...' things along the top and then a running total, which can be updated each lesson or two.

http://theuphillstruggle.wordpress.com/2013/04/21/an-open-letter-to-michael-gove/

Everybody needs to read that. And pass it on to anybody who is still misguided about what we do.

Someone PLEASE tell me it gets better than this....

Today year 8, set 2 - 1 hr lesson, all they did was copy down 10 words of vocab, behaviour was so bad. Year 9 set 2 the same. There are so many of them trying to sort them out mad who said what is a nightmare.

Well week 3 is done! I went to bed at 7:30 last night, I'm not ill just absolutely shattered! We had open evening on Thursday so I wasn't home till 10 and I was knackered yesterday. I also have so much marking to do it's insane. Otherwise, it's going ok, getting more used to it!

Positives are important too

Oh wow, how do you feel about being on a one year contract? Hope I'm not being rude. The opportunity for that came up at my last school - maternity leave really - but I wasn't interested.

It's great that you got good and informative feedback. It sounds quite supportive in that respective, are you finding that it is? I must admit, I hate the idea of detentions and kicking kids out, but when I decide that it is the right choice I usually find that it helps. Isn't it lovely hearing that kids/ parents are pleased

I had set 2 year 9 boys today, we've just finished our first Physics topic so I kicked off with basic but fun Chemistry to see how they were - you know those vague lesson where it's more about seeing where they can go with it more than choosing what they will learn... They had combinations of elements and to convert them to chemical symbols to make names of characters. I hadn't managed to print the periodic tables off so I just displayed it on the board and got them to come up when they didn't know one (most of the time). I heard a voice of authority and turned to se the Head had walked in, who happens to be a Chemist.



The only feedback I got was - great relationships, lovely atmosphere, nice to see them getting up/ busy/ working by themselves/ happy to work. Not gona argue!

Year 13 lesson was better today. Felt like I'd got a hold of what support the weaker one needed, rather than just feeding him info. and answers. Though wish I could have pushed the A-grader more.

If anyone has any tips for pushing A-graders, particularly at sixth-form, please let me know!

Have any NQTs got additional roles/ responsibilities? Might be good to share what we're doing/ how we're juggling

Someone PLEASE tell me it gets better than this....

Today year 8, set 2 - 1 hr lesson, all they did was copy down 10 words of vocab, behaviour was so bad. Year 9 set 2 the same. There are so many of them trying to sort them out mad who said what is a nightmare.

Hey, I teach at a sixth form college so pushing/stretching the A/B students is something I have learnt a lot about. I teach a completely different subject to you (Sociology) so my advice might be a bit off but I'll try anyway!

I don't know if your school offers workshops or extra classes (working in a sixth form col is slightly diff to school) but you could consider holding an extra class once a week (if you need to make up hours) for the more able students. Create "study groups" in class - often the high achievers in sixth form will migrate towards each other in class anyway, but you might want to set them in groups by ability and differentiate by task and extensions for the higher students. I was lucky that my high ability students were very motivated last year and would study together outside of class, but an idea a science teacher had that worked was to create study groups within the class, and then set them homework through these. They would have to meet up in order to create the work, and by the time they got to exams they had grown close and would meet up of their own accord to study.

I'm sure you're great at differentiation so I won't harp on too much about that, but it can be good for pushing A/B students. Consider giving them options for the homework, extra things students can do if they like - the high ability students are usually more likely to want to do extra. Target your higher level questioning at the A/B students too, and make sure you push them through that.

I'm sure there is loads more - I can't think of them at the moment! Just keep pushing them and let them know you think they are capable of a high grade. With essay subjects there is a bit more scope for this, and I would purposely mark my high ability students down a bit to push them harder - which worked wonders. But again, I was very lucky with my AS A-grade students last year. I also worked hard to push the C students up to B grades, again by high order questioning and not letting them settle at a C and being quite harsh. The lazy ones are usually boys and they love competition so I created a competitive atmosphere towards exam period with the boys.

Aaahhh best of luck! Also, what are your extra responsibilities as an NQT? Make sure you aren't taking on too much and are still receiving your full entitlement.