Classroom Tales

What a year.

I don’t think I could have started this blog post in any other way.

I’ve survived.  I’ve completed my NQT year. I haven’t been eaten alive (not quite anyway), and thankfully many of the fears I had at the start of the year soon vanished.

But, what a rollercoaster of a year.  It’s been tough (as I knew it would be) but also full of loads of highlights.  I’ve purposefully left it a while before writing this post, as I wanted to ‘dust’ to begin to settle on the past year, but this will now be the first in what will hopefully be a series of posts reflecting on life as an NQT.

So to start off, here are some of my highlights from the past year…

Learning lots- I’ve learnt more over the past year than I have in any other year.  I said a very similar statement at the end of my PGCE year, but have learnt even more this year.  Teaching ‘full’ time is certainly very different to being a PGCE student, and suddenly lots of things ‘become’ your responsibility.  Whilst I’ve learnt lots about ‘teaching’, I’ve also, through the children in my class, (as corny as it sounds,) learnt lots about ‘life’.

Having own class- It’s been really great to have my ‘own’ class, who I could develop and really get to know.

Developing teaching style- I’ve really enjoyed being able to develop my teaching style this year.  I’m certainly a different ‘teacher’ to the one I was at the start of the year (and hope next year I can say the same!), I’ve enjoyed giving children more responsibly for their own learning and developing a creative, co-operative approach to teaching.

Engaging parents- I’m delighted that I’ve managed to engage all but one of my classes’ parents in some way. Our website has certainly helped, as has been more successful then I could have ever imagined.  It was also great to welcome lots of adults into school for our various bring an adult to school days/afternoons- and this is something I’ll certainly be continuing next year.

Extra Curricular activities- Probably one of the things I’ve enjoyed most this year are the extra curricular activities I have been involved in.  Whether it was getting children writing their own novels, having fun with science or working with a super group of young people in ‘Twist N’ Turn’ (our own ‘take’ on a glee club style group).  I’m going to try and incorporate some of the ways I have run these activities into my day-day teaching next year.

Sharing work, ideas, experiences. I’ve enjoyed sharing my experience and ideas at TeachMeets, BETT, through blogs etc.  But, for me, what has been most powerful has been enabling the children in my class to share their learning and experiences- as well as sharing our learning through the website, my class (or part of) have spoken to an international head teachers conference about using the internet to help learning, lead staff meetings, created videos and ‘taught’ head teachers at a creative partnership conference. It’s been a delight to see the joy and enjoyment of the children when they are able to share what they have ‘been up to’ and I’m determined to find even more ways for them to do this next year.

Lovely, thoughtful, comments-  But my biggest highlight must be the lovely comments that I’ve received at various points over the past year. These are always unexpected,  but have always made me realise why I’m teaching!   I’m also indebted to a group of parents who pretty much ‘accosted’ our new head teacher when they realised my contract wasn’t able to be renewed- which had a big influence on her decision to keep me!

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Whilst there has been lots of highlights, I wouldn’t be being truthful if I didn’t admit there were also a few ‘negatives’ this year.

It’s certainly been an emotional rollercoaster this year. Mainly caused by the relentless hunt for jobs- not helped by being, quite frankly, messed around by numerous schools.  Not having a job for September until a few weeks ago certainly took a toll.  I’m delighted that I’m staying at my current school for the next year (as there are lots of exciting changes in store, more on those in another post) but can’t help remembering that I’m, yet again, only on a 1 year contract, and that I’m likely to face the same anxiety next year.

I’ve of course had my fair share of problems and areas that I needed to develop.  I’ve experienced first hand ‘reports hell’ (hoping I’ll find it a bit easier next year…!) I’ve certainly learnt you can’t please everyone and have had my share of ‘difficult’ parents, ‘interesting’ behaviour and the general trials and tribulations of teaching.

It’s also been interesting going into an environment where the majority of teachers are high or middle school trained and to a school which was in the first year of operating as a full primary- there has certainly been some ‘scepticism’ towards the way I have tried to teach this year, which has made me questions and re-evaluate the approach I have taken (certainly not a bad thing!)

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But whilst these have been on one face negatives, I’ve. of course, learnt a lot and developed loads from these experiences.  I know some things to try to do differently next year, and what to try and keep the same.

I’m really looking forward to next year.  I know it’s certainly going to be very different and hopefully I’ll enjoy it and learn as much as I have this year!

TH

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As you may have noticed, this blog has been re-named- from Tales from an NQT to simply classroom tales- partly because I can’t think of a better name for it as yet!

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