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The RQT Thread (Recently Qualified Teachers)

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I'm 4 teaching days in now and feeling a bit overwhelmed!

I felt so good about going back, and I'm not sitting here drowning in tears or anything, I just feel less on top of things than I would like.

I'm having to teach my own PE and music this year, which I didn't do last year and they're both weak subjects for me, so I'm getting a bit anxious about that.

Plus side - I moved in with my boyfriend last week and he's cooking the tea. Which is now ready! Will return later with a bit more chat!

Reply 61

Steveluis10

I had an almighty headache all of last week after work too. Tuesday was our inset, Wednesday a planning day then Thursday and Friday the kids returned. I think a mixture of going back nerves and excitement, an overload of information, early wake ups (not been used to them for 6 weeks!), not enough water drank and not as much caffeine drank as on the holidays all contributed to them. I don't feel overly tired tonight after a 5 lesson day - I think my nerves are slowly going as I get to know my classes and see they are actually responding to my (fake) authority so far.

I've realised that my free periods might become an issue though this year. I have one last period on a Monday and Friday so productivity won't be great on both of those, particularly the Friday one. My other free is in the middle of a day then obviously I have my lunches but I never work during those. I'm going to have to be really smart with marking but I have 3 big priority GCSE classes with 25 pupils in each class so staying on top of all their books will be really tough.

Reply 62

myrtille

My PPA is a bit rubbish too - I have P4 and P5 on a Monday and P6 on a Tuesday. So after that it's solid teaching 6 lessons per day on Wednesday/Thursday/Friday.

The Monday frees were quite productive today as I marked 2 sets of books (I'm marking bottom set Y11 after pretty much every lesson to try and keep them on their toes) and I'm currently feeling quite on top of things. But I think ends of weeks could be really tough, especially as we often have things like open evening and parents evenings on Thursday night and I used to have Fri P1 to recover and finish sorting out last minute stuff for Friday's lessons.

I'm feeling fairly happy about this year so far, I like most of my classes and I know nearly all of the kids already so have been able to make a good start in all of my lessons. But marking is going to be the big thing, particularly as we're due for Ofsted sometime between now and May.

Reply 63

pgce2013

Good luck to all :smile:

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Reply 64

TraineeLynsey

PPA this afternoon, and have been pretty productive.

I've prepped for a supply teacher for tomorrow morning when I have computing co-ordinator time (arg! responsibilities! policies!), I've planned next week's literacy, caught up on uploading planning for this week, input baseline assessment data for my class, tidied my desk (essential!), met with a colleague and started to make a dent in my computing to do list as well.

I decided not to bring any marking home with me, because I felt like I had masses to do, but actually I could have got through a few books. They don't need them tomorrow with the supply teacher and obviously I won't be generating any extra marking tomorrow, so I can just do today's marking tomorrow after school when I would normally do Thursday's. I'm trying to get more efficient with marking by using lesson time to mark as I go. I did a lot of marking of numeracy while they were still doing it and in literacy I actually managed to quality mark, give verbal feedback and agree writing targets with 5 pupils in the lesson time. This probably sounds ridiculous, but I really think wearing a skirt with big pockets helped, because I could keep highlighters and a pen on me at all times! Need to make myself a little pouch or something for days when i don't have pockets!!

Reply 65

myrtille

I'm feeling way more on top of marking than I've ever been at the moment - mostly because I've been staying behind after school for a couple of hours most days to get stuff done.

We're 2 weeks in (kids started back on 27th August) and so far I have marked:
-bottom set Y11 after nearly every lesson as they're a small group and some do very little so I'm trying to be really on their case.
-top set Y11 once
-12 pupils from top set Y10 who have handed homework in early
-both Y8 classes once (just responding to their first lesson "Start of year reflections) and most of another group for a second time today to check homework.
-one Y7 group.

The only trouble is my Y10s have a homework paragraph due on Friday so I will need to mark their books over the weekend. Across the 2 groups, there are 65 pupils, and they're top set so they generate a lot of work for me to mark. But at least having done 12 already this week means I've got slightly less to mark this week!

Overall I'm pretty happy with how things are going and I really like most of my classes. There's just this one top-set Y10 class who are driving me mad (and have done so for the whole of Y9). They're all nice but they are rubbish at being silent when someone else is speaking and nothing I have tried seems to work. I think I probably just need to rethink the way I teach them (and talk less) but that's difficult when teaching a language so speaking is so important. But they are bright and hard-working kids, just terrible at listening and basic manners.

Reply 66

outlaw-torn

I'm feeling much more on top of things already. I've only been back 3 days but I feel a lot less stressed than last year.

I've been getting stuff done in the morning which has prepared me for the rest of the day, and I have a longer lunch now than at my last school which means I can have 45 mins completely to myself and still have 15 mins to do odd jobs.

I really forgot how much I love teaching over the summer and today just reminded me how much I do :smile:

I definitely think I've made the right choice in coming to this school as the kids/staff are lovely and the ethos (CofE) really helps.

Hoping I can stay on top of having lessons planned in advance and putting stuff in repro to get photocopied. I've got 2 frees tomorrow so going to try and get ahead!

My form, my classes including the sixth form are lovely as well. Sixth form were nowhere near as scary as I imagined!

Reply 67

Steveluis10

I'm on top of marking so far as well - got two sets of books marked this weekend.

I had a really good start back but Friday has knocked my confidence a bit.

Basically one of my year 11 pupils has a reputation for being a bit aggressive so I managed to build up a decent relationship with her last year (in year 10) through lots of praise and never shouting at her. Out the blue on Friday there was an incident and she became incredibly hostile and confrontational towards me, speaking to me in a terrible manner in front of the class. I immediately got another teacher to remove her. I was shaking because I wasn't expecting it and the lesson wasn't great after that. I'm just hoping its forgotten this week and she comes back with a much better attitude tomorrow.

My Friday afternoon suffered because of it as well I think; there was nothing too bad but there was disruption and I wasn't as confident in dealing with it as I had been all week.

I'm going to have to put it behind me and continue in the same vein as much of the week which went really well.

Reply 68

Carnationlilyrose

Original post by Steveluis10

The important thing to remember is that it is very rarely anything you've done which triggers these things. The kids will have all manner of baggage and she'd have flown off the handle whoever had been there. You are a teacher and that's sometimes all a kid needs to let fly. Never take it personally.

Reply 69

outlaw-torn

Had an absolutely horrendous lesson with my year 11 today. There are 3 girls that were disrupting the lesson right from the start, I had to get them into a new seating plan because we are in 2 different rooms for our lessons so they were hyper even before we'd started.

You know when you just have one of those lessons where everything spirals out of control and you end up not dealing with it very well? They basically walked all over me. Deputy head came in and scared them for a minute but they reverted back in less than 5 mins.

One girl stormed out but managed to get her to stay in the corridor until I'd spoken to her, where she burst into tears and said she really wants to do well but feels under pressure to mess around with her friends. The other two girls proceeded to use the 'but I'm a girl miss I NEED to go to the toilet' card around 5 times a minute until one of them stormed out. Managed to get her back into lesson too.

It was just awful!! I never expected this since my school generally has good behaviour... It didn't help that I had no idea what to do sanction wise as it's a bit wishy washy... Hoping if I go in with firmer expectations and consequences on Friday it'll be ok.

I just feel terrible about it - like I can't pull it back and recover, I'm such a perfectionist that I've been worrying all night and I probably will worry up until Friday. Hmmm :frown:

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Reply 70

Steveluis10

Had similar lessons this week so I feel your pain. Every night I'm planning and marking as well - just fed up and it's only week 2.

Reply 71

Carnationlilyrose

Original post by outlaw-torn

Original post by Steveluis10

Had similar lessons this week so I feel your pain. Every night I'm planning and marking as well - just fed up and it's only week 2.

Reply 72

lantan

Let me into the club of the fed up - I share your pain! The snowed under feeling, and if it's going to get worse...
:frown:

Reply 73

Carnationlilyrose

Original post by lantan

Let me into the club of the fed up - I share your pain! The snowed under feeling, and if it's going to get worse...
:frown:

Reply 74

myrtille

I'm feeling snowed under too, but it's partly my fault for deciding to do things other than work! :tongue:

I've joined "pudding club" at work, which is where every Wednesday someone takes it in turns to bring home-made cake/pudding to work and we meet in the staffroom at lunch to have a proper break. So I spent a fair bit of yesterday evening baking.

And then tomorrow I've made plans to go to the cinema with my brother (live screening of the Rocky Horror Show from London!) and probably for food too, which is putting me further behind.

I don't feel like marking is actually getting any better either. Despite the fact I've easily done at least 3 times as much marking as I'd done this time last year, there's always so much more to do. We're due Ofsted any time now, and I kind of hope they come sooner rather than later because I know I can't keep this pace up all year.

Reply 75

pgce2013

So are we due OFSTED, feel under pressure to have everything done.

I just don't understand how I am meant to fit it all in. I mean homeworks, books, assessments for every class and I have about 12 large classes.

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Reply 76

Carnationlilyrose

Original post by pgce2013

Better now than at the end of the year when they can see a whole year's work and pick holes in it. There'll hardly be anything to look at at the moment and so it's easier to get everything perfect/as good as it can be.

Reply 77

TraineeLynsey

We're due ofsted as well. I'm of the opinion that's the sooner, the better!

That said, I am behind on marking and have brought a stack of literacy books home today during PPA to get caught up. There also generally isn't enough in their literacy books... Need to really amp it up next week. They've been doing writing in their basic skills books, which is where we do SPAG and reading activities, but for one reason and another, I haven't got much writing in their proper literacy books (2 sessions covered by supply teachers, one used up with a presentation about music lessons, etc etc).

We found out this week that planning scrutinies have been scrapped at our school and that planning is now purely for us. That said, it still needs to be uploaded weekly to the intranet in case any problems arise and it needs to be looked at. This is a huge relief, but I'm a tad irritated that if it's just for us why are we still expected to upload it at the beginning of each week?

Reply 78

Steveluis10

That sounds horrific. No professional, qualified teacher should have to upload lesson plans at the beginning of week.

I'd be happy for Ofsted to look at my books, even the ones that aren't marked. I'd tell them that they say they don't expect frequent marking and that we're 2 weeks into a new year with new classes so of course you won't marking every class' books right now. I'm sick of the constant pandering to Ofsted - we need to take action or there'll be no qualified teachers left in the profession in ten years time.

Reply 79

Carnationlilyrose

Original post by Steveluis10

I completely concur with your views, but they aren't sustainable when the senior management are on your back crapping themselves about the Ofsted report.