My first week of teaching has flown by in a flurry of new books, sticking sheets and repeating my expectations on an endless loop.
Every new class has heard the spiel, and so far it seems to be working. I knew my year 7s would be terrified after I lectured them about missed homeworks and lost books, but I’ve been pleasantly surprised at how much of an impact it has had on the older kids too.
When they tell you in your PGCE year that setting your expectations early really helps, and that lots of students actually like to have rules in place, it’s not only hard to believe, but also incredibly difficult to implement when you’re introduced to a class mid-term and mid-topic. You can’t exactly pause their learning for a couple of “get to know you” lessons.
However, I am now convinced that they are right. Last week I had the same difficult year 8 class for two lessons in a row – period 4 history, period 5 religious studies. They walked into my classroom with an arrogant attitude – chatting and laughing. I knew that I had to clamp down quickly before it was too late.
Of course I did the whole expectations lecture at the beginning of the first lesson, but I thought maybe doing it a second time an hour later with the same class might be a bit much.
In spite of my concerns, I was assured by the head of department that they needed to hear it all again for religious studies too. So, when the class returned after lunch, they sat down, stuck in their sheets, and wrote down the same 10 expectations that we had discussed in their previous lesson.
Despite some initial grumbling, they got straight to it and behaved absolutely perfectly for the rest of the lesson.
We were able to have a fantastic class discussion, and it was great to be able to get to know the class without having to worry about their behaviour. On top of that, when I dismissed them at the end of the day, they all smiled, waved and thanked me for the lesson. No arrogance or attitude in sight. Long may it last!
After this success I was determined to keep it going with all of my difficult classes. Luckily, this technique seems to have worked. Every class has responded well and started the year with a positive attitude.
I couldn’t have asked for more from my first week of teaching!
Speaking to some of my friends from my PGCE course, I know that my experience has been quite different to some of their opening weeks.
I have been welcomed into an incredibly supportive department where almost everything for this year is already planned. I may have to tweak lessons to differentiate or spruce them up a little, but on the whole the key stage 3 curriculum is all ready to go.
I know many of my friends at different schools who have had to plan entire schemes of work from scratch having only started in September. I feel incredibly grateful to be in this position, which allows me to focus on the new GCSE specifications and gives me some time to get my head around the year to come.
I have gone home from school every day so far wondering how on earth it is all going so well. I expected there to be stress and tears by now! I feel like one day soon it could all come crashing down – hopefully not!
My aim for the next week is to learn everyone’s names – we’ll see how that goes...
- SecEd’s NQT diarist this year is a teacher of citizenship, RE and humanities at a school in the Midlands.