On The New Year

Well, I am three full days into the new school year, and slowly but surely I feel as if things are off to a good start.

The first day was a bit of a write off, as I had to stay with my form group for two lessons (doing nothing, essentially, which was a huge bore), taught lesson three and four, and then had a whole school assembly lesson five. The students I had for those two lessons seemed decent enough. The one group was a bottom set ten group; this means that typically they're the weaker students, the ones who need a little bit more one-on-one work. There are 7 students in the class, in total, as well as one TA (Teachers Assistant). She seemed like a bit of a finger-pointer - all flash, no substance - but I could have hastily judged her. We shall see. The second group was one of my two top set year eight groups. They were chatty and energetic, but it was nothing I couldn't handle.

Yesterday was the first full teaching day for me, and again it went decently enough. I'd like to say that it went better than my first full day last year, but when I try to think back to that day, I am left with a blank. I think after I publish this post I may go back and read what I wrote last year, to refresh my memory a little bit. Anyways, the day was decent, as I said. There wasn't a whole lot that really stood out in my mind worth mentioning.

Besides my form group, that is.

We are NOT getting off on the right foot. It's a group of year 11 students, and I feel as if they are severely trying to take advantage of my 'new to the school' status. This school is quite hard on the uniform policy, though I can understand why. The uniform at the school is much nicer than at my previous school; there is a white button up polo, tie, pullover and blazer that makes up the entire uniform. Students are expected to wear the entire uniform, blazer included, at all times. Only when the teacher says students can remove their blazers are they allowed to take it off. My students, however, keep pushing the uniform boundaries with me. I walked in this morning, and had been there only a few seconds, when a more senior member of staff walked through my room.

I don't know how she did it, she must have amazing eyesight, because she instantly lit into a girl for having nail polish on (it is against the rules). She hauled her out of the room, and gave her a tongue lashing in the hall before sending her to remove the polish. She then came back, and put the entire class to task for 'taking advantage of such a young and promising young teacher'. They sat silent, eyes down, as she had a go at them, and I was secretly quite happy that someone could finally get them to shut up.

However, as soon as she left, they started to kick off again. I tried to relay some messages, and they continued to talk over me. I stood there, mouth open, for a moment, trying to muster up the energy required to screech at them.

I didn't have to though, as the department head chose this moment to make her presence known; she also came in, guns blazing, at my form. She took them to task again for being disrespectful to me, glowering down at any eyes that chanced to look at her.

After the second telling-off, they settled down for the rest of our time together, but it wasn't an ideal start to the day. It also left a bad taste in my mouth, in terms of the year 11 class I was going to meet that afternoon. It made me very nervous about that group. I kept thinking of all the ways the lesson could go wrong, and it was starting to put my stomach in a knot.

However, as soon as the year 11 group came into my room, I knew I'd misjudged the year group. They were lovely, mature, and listened to me. They were the first group all week to sit silently and do the short writing task I assigned. I was awed. I told them as such. They had a chuckle, and said that last year they'd been quite chatty, and that likely they'd have chatty days this year as well, but that they'd try to buckle down. They seemed to have a lot of respect for each other, listening to each other as they spoke. This is a good sign to me, because it means that if I can gain their respect they will treat me the same, and not talk when I talk.

Anyways, I started the day with a very poor start, but ended it on a very high note. I am left now feeling pretty strongly about things, and I hope that this feeling remains. I would love to have a happy year this year, instead of the turbulent one I had last year.

I will keep you posted.