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[yepyepyep]

I'm a first year teacher. Spent the first half of the year relief teaching in Australia. Moved to the UK to teach and planned to continue relief teaching but was offered a position until the end of the academic year in July. I just accepted until Christmas, so around 6 1/2 weeks teaching in a year 6 class. Although overall I feel quite proud of my achievements this year, I feel a bit disappointed in my first experience with full time teaching. They started off as a good class, very well behaved with the exception of a few students, which is usually the case anyway. However, while I taught them, their behaviour noticeably became worse; at this stage a large portion of the students actively hate me. The thing that is eating me up is that while the challenging students have always been a problem, some of the more capable and/or nice students have became very rude and disrespectful. I don't like the idea that I have become a negative influence for some of these students

I know the aim of teaching is to teach and not to be liked; what's important is what they learn, but I fear their dislike of me is transferring to a lack of effort and engagement within the classroom.

Partly, I blame myself. I think I came across as too cold and distant and should have created more opportunities to build a rapport with the students. I also think I was disproportionately cranky to them some days due to other stresses; there was a senior leader who was quite overbearing and would take over lessons (she would this to anybody, even the other senior and year level teachers).

There is still two more days next week before the break. I think I will ask them to fulfil a survey anonymously about my performance, what they liked, what they didn't like, and what ways I could improve. I am expecting some brutal replies from some of the students, but that is too be expected.

A positive is that the school was happy with my performance and still gave the option to continue the position until July. I did decline because I am interested in getting back into relief teaching again. I'm not sure when or if I will accept another full time contract, but I hope I can use this a learning experience to improve my teaching in the future.

 

[watershed]

I'm a first year teacher. Spent the first half of the year relief teaching in Australia. Moved to the UK to teach and planned to continue relief teaching but was offered a position until the end of the academic year in July. I just accepted until Christmas, so around 6 1/2 weeks teaching in a year 6 class. Although overall I feel quite proud of my achievements this year, I feel a bit disappointed in my first experience with full time teaching. They started off as a good class, very well behaved with the exception of a few students, which is usually the case anyway. However, while I taught them, their behaviour noticeably became worse; at this stage a large portion of the students actively hate me. The thing that is eating me up is that while the challenging students have always been a problem, some of the more capable and/or nice students have became very rude and disrespectful. I don't like the idea that I have become a negative influence for some of these students

I know the aim of teaching is to teach and not to be liked; what's important is what they learn, but I fear their dislike of me is transferring to a lack of effort and engagement within the classroom.

Partly, I blame myself. I think I came across as too cold and distant and should have created more opportunities to build a rapport with the students. I also think I was disproportionately cranky to them some days due to other stresses; there was a senior leader who was quite overbearing and would take over lessons (she would this to anybody, even the other senior and year level teachers).

There is still two more days next week before the break. I think I will ask them to fulfil a survey anonymously about my performance, what they liked, what they didn't like, and what ways I could improve. I am expecting some brutal replies from some of the students, but that is too be expected.

A positive is that the school was happy with my performance and still gave the option to continue the position until July. I did decline because I am interested in getting back into relief teaching again. I'm not sure when or if I will accept another full time contract, but I hope I can use this a learning experience to improve my teaching in the future.

Its good that you are reflecting and giving your students an opportunity to provide feedback on your teaching. Forgive my questions but I'm trying to be helpful. You're still early in your career, do you know why you are teaching? Do you know what your values are? Once you figure these things out, along with a lot more, I think you will/can become the teacher you want to be.

Self-care is a huge part of being able to do the job of teaching well. Are you taking care of yourself? How open is the communication between you and your students? What do you think were the causes of the downward turn in the behavior of your students/your relationship with them?

 

[yepyepyep]

Its good that you are reflecting and giving your students an opportunity to provide feedback on your teaching. Forgive my questions but I'm trying to be helpful. You're still early in your career, do you know why you are teaching? Do you know what your values are? Once you figure these things out, along with a lot more, I think you will/can become the teacher you want to be.

Self-care is a huge part of being able to do the job of teaching well. Are you taking care of yourself? How open is the communication between you and your students? What do you think were the causes of the downward turn in the behavior of your students/your relationship with them?

I think the main reason why there has been a downturn was because I became disproportionately angry at them, yelling too loud on occasions when I was stressed things weren't going to plan. I know when I was a student I resented teachers who were too angry all the time. I did try and talk about it with the students as a class on occasions, and there were periods during the middle of the placement that we were back on track, but then it regressed again.

I have been trying to do a bit of positive reinforcement, and trying to ask students about their homelife, but the group of students who are not happy with me are very tight lipped at this point lol. We teach in sets, in the morning I have the highest literacy and maths sets, and I work better with these students, but that is easy mode because it is pooling from the best students from all classrooms.

There was a student who was quite difficult, very rude, said racist things, always walked out of her seat. She does come from a bad background, but she shows me no respect at all, despite developing a positive reinforcement behaviour plan with the senior leaders. She does get along with other teachers as well. The thing that is so difficult with her is that she breaks down when she gets sent to the deputy head teacher for misbehaviour and doesn't seem mature enough to take responsibility for her actions.

At the start of the placement, the other students used to ignore or even tell her to calm down, but by now, the group of girls I'm having trouble with laugh and encourage the behaviour which is really depressing.


There is one aspect out of control that frustrates me though. In the middle of the placement there was a school peer review and one of the things critiqued was that, to an outsider looking in the classroom, it is not apparent how we differentiate our students (Even though we stream and still differentiate lesson content based on ability during majority of the lessons). We had to implement a policy where students have to sit at tables based on their ability level. I absolutely hate it, some of the misbehaviour is because students are forced to work with students they don't work well with, but the senior staff are quite strict about implementing this new policy. Mixed ability grouping works way better imo.

It's not all of the class that has regressed, but as with my sets, these are the bright and kind students who would be nice in any classroom. Its the ones I've lost that I'm most disappointed about. One positive, I guess, is that one of the difficult students does appear to respect me. Its not like he is a perfect angel and still plays up at times, but when I tell him off, he knows he is the one who is responsible for the consequences.

 

[Tripon]

Even without tenure, never been a better time at keeping your job. The amount of vacancies just in my org alone....

 

[Jarsonot]

Just found this thread - subbed!

I'm a high school math teacher in Illinois. Today was our last day of finals, hurrah!

I'm always looking for semi-plausible "real world" applications of geometry, if y'all know of any. Not so much area and volume, which have lots of good examples, but more on concepts like congruency, parallel lines, similarity, etc.

I built a deck on my house a couple summers ago and came up with some good examples from that, but would love to hear more. =)

 

[TimeEffect]

So got hired finally and doing supply.

Second day doing it. I am afraid of my future. I am qualified for high school but of course you go around the board doing whatever comes.

Had to teach KG/Grades 1-2 and I just cant. It terrifies me. They scream, they dont listen to shit, and the teacher (they were there because it was a fill in for "planning time") just ignore you because they need that time, and the break.

Had one class where I walk in, teacher isn't there, got a room full of grade 1 brats who aren't listening, and I need to take them to another room...not even sure if everyone came back from recess, but eventually take them.

They do not listen. I scream, but it does nothing. They dont do it maliciously, they are just kids, and it sucks because Im all alone and they dont know me and I dont know names.

I just cant do that grade level.

Grade 4 is generally fine. I worry about the noise levels, and get paranoid that I may get in trouble. I dont generally mind the classroom getting loud, but I guess I have it drilled into me that noise= bad.

Then there are the kids who do shit like call a kid Donald Trump because he's fat. One little shit acts so surprised when I call him out, so it's not like I can make progress with the discipline.Is this just a sub thing? Should I not bang my head with some of this?


The KG classes were the worst. The sweet kids are drowned out by the constant tattletales who come to me about every little thing, there's kids who are physically violent with one another, and all the while Im trying to play a game with them as I was teaching "Drama" class.

In my undergrad, I taught high school. Much more better, I can get through material but Id have to work on presenting info clearly and working with discipline. I hope that's just because I was new to it all. Some of the other students that were with me seemed better at teaching from what I gathered, I feel like I sometimes stumble over my words, stutter, or speak fast. I worried sometimes that the students in the high school level didn't think much of me, when I want them to look forward to me. I feel like I was constrained a bit with being a student teacher of course, and I was working with material that needed to be presented very dryly (Canadian history, going over battles, did a bunch of slides, wasn't sure how to do anything else)... I wonder if other student teachers were the same or if they did fun activities to teach the same material.

I was proud enough to create my own history "simulation game" which my mentor teacher loved at the very end of it all, so I feel like I have some original creative ideas if given the time...so Id like to think I could be good at my job...

Geez, I get so depressed about my career choice. Im locked in and cant imagine changing it. When I teach these younger kids, I dont know how teachers do it. I had a helper teacher who worked with the more challenging students for the KG, and she's constantly telling me how badly she hates it. I dont want to end up like her. Sweet lady who was very thankful for me and said I was very nice with the help.

In gym class, these SK kids were the worst. Two just dont listen and run around. Im trying to reign them in but its like I dont exist. One of them gets physical with the other kids so I send him to the principal who promptly sends him back, but he's at it again. It takes like 20 min to get them to sit down to play duck duck goose. The assistant teacher helps and manages the 2 kids but then has to step out so its chaos again.


I feel like such a failure and cant help but think Im terrible at this. Ive yet to supply for high school, but I enjoyed my time as a student teacher even though I know I need to make certain changes with how I teach and approach discipline.

Sometimes I See teacher friends post all these great Instagram vids and posts about their classrooms and I cant help but wonder how they seem so great, or if they are just sharing the good moments.

Sorry for the rant

 

[Agent Icebeezy]

Adjunct college instructor for over 5 years. I have a class in about an hour now, Awesome idea for a thread.

 

[Hisoka]

Very nice, there's a thread for everything on GAF!

I will be a primary school teacher in about 3 years. Still don't know if i want to stay in my own country or if i want to see more of the world as soon as I'm done.
I'd love to teach in Asia or the northern part of Europe..
Maybe i study abroad for a year or semester. Any universitys or high schools that someone could recommend (Asia/North Europe) or exchange programms to get there except Erasmus, because i know of that one. It should be subject related, so something something pedagogic/education. I'd love to know!
Thanks
I'm from Austria btw.

 

[watershed]

I think the main reason why there has been a downturn was because I became disproportionately angry at them, yelling too loud on occasions when I was stressed things weren't going to plan. I know when I was a student I resented teachers who were too angry all the time. I did try and talk about it with the students as a class on occasions, and there were periods during the middle of the placement that we were back on track, but then it regressed again.

I have been trying to do a bit of positive reinforcement, and trying to ask students about their homelife, but the group of students who are not happy with me are very tight lipped at this point lol. We teach in sets, in the morning I have the highest literacy and maths sets, and I work better with these students, but that is easy mode because it is pooling from the best students from all classrooms.

There was a student who was quite difficult, very rude, said racist things, always walked out of her seat. She does come from a bad background, but she shows me no respect at all, despite developing a positive reinforcement behaviour plan with the senior leaders. She does get along with other teachers as well. The thing that is so difficult with her is that she breaks down when she gets sent to the deputy head teacher for misbehaviour and doesn't seem mature enough to take responsibility for her actions.

At the start of the placement, the other students used to ignore or even tell her to calm down, but by now, the group of girls I'm having trouble with laugh and encourage the behaviour which is really depressing.


There is one aspect out of control that frustrates me though. In the middle of the placement there was a school peer review and one of the things critiqued was that, to an outsider looking in the classroom, it is not apparent how we differentiate our students (Even though we stream and still differentiate lesson content based on ability during majority of the lessons). We had to implement a policy where students have to sit at tables based on their ability level. I absolutely hate it, some of the misbehaviour is because students are forced to work with students they don't work well with, but the senior staff are quite strict about implementing this new policy. Mixed ability grouping works way better imo.

It's not all of the class that has regressed, but as with my sets, these are the bright and kind students who would be nice in any classroom. Its the ones I've lost that I'm most disappointed about. One positive, I guess, is that one of the difficult students does appear to respect me. Its not like he is a perfect angel and still plays up at times, but when I tell him off, he knows he is the one who is responsible for the consequences.

I don't mean to give advice because every teacher is in a unique context but try to forgive yourself for what you've done wrong and at the same time continue to be reflective and focus on what you can make or do better. Change is tough, but going into the same class every day with a sense of "I'm failing or this isn't working" is even harder.

 

[Wafflecakes]

Ugh. I am not ready to go back to school.

Xmas break is always sooo short.

 

[obin_gam]

My school made a short movie about rechargeable batteries. It has got Pingu in it
http://www.thebatterychallenge.se/contribution/pingu-dansar/

View and vote if it's any good

 

[obin_gam]

And so it begins. Better suit up!

Start of a new year - tired already

It's going to be an interesting start, am mentoring a class of 7th graders, which I've never done before

 

[watershed]

I'm still prepping my classroom (in a totally new space this year) with 2 weeks left before school starts. Stress is starting to mount a bit.

 

[Wafflecakes]

2 weeks of in-service start tomorrow.

Not ready...

 

[Raxious]

Final year of my study and I'll be teaching 6 hours a week starting next week. really excited but nervous at the same time ^^'

 

[obin_gam]

We welcomed our new class of 27 terrified 13 year olds, "7A" with a split day. Form 8.25 to 11.50 we together occupied a classroom and got to know each other. Me and my mentoring colleague introduced ourselves and then the class got to do the same. It's important to get across to the students that I love Batman so they know how to bribe me. Then we gave them a hellova lot of documents that they need to take home tonight and take back to school tomorrow so they have a chance of getting a school designated Chromebook among other things. Then they got their keys and lockers, and lo and behold, after about 15 minutes one of the girls lost her key... -_- ...

After lunch they started their ordinary schedule, Modern Languages (Spanish, German, or French (or Swedish or English Special Course for those who need it)) and then PE.

I only had one real lesson today after the long three hour hand out session with 7A, and it was at the end, so I got to finish the work day with a tough lession of special english with a bunch of nasty 8th graders hehe. Am really tired now. Just got home, luckily both GoT and Twin Peaks will save me and bring me back to life for tomorrows stint

Here's my own schedule for the 17/18 term:

FDT is sort of "school designated homework" where pupils can sit on their own in the dining hall and work with whatever they need and there is always at least one teacher present. MT is Mentor Hour, where I meet with my class and analyse the situation. And K-TID is teacher conferences. Rastvärd is designated time for me to be a sort of hall monitor.

It would be fun to see other Teacher Gafs schedules

 

[Norwegian_Imposter]

Teacher here checking in.

 

[Guzim]

I just got the classes I will be teaching today. 2 weeks before work starts, and one is a class that I have never taught before. Can't wait!

 

[Raxious]

We welcomed our new class of 27 terrified 13 year olds, "7A" with a split day. Form 8.25 to 11.50 we together occupied a classroom and got to know each other. Me and my mentoring colleague introduced ourselves and then the class got to do the same. It's important to get across to the students that I love Batman so they know how to bribe me. Then we gave them a hellova lot of documents that they need to take home tonight and take back to school tomorrow so they have a chance of getting a school designated Chromebook among other things. Then they got their keys and lockers, and lo and behold, after about 15 minutes one of the girls lost her key... -_- ...

After lunch they started their ordinary schedule, Modern Languages (Spanish, German, or French (or Swedish or English Special Course for those who need it)) and then PE.

I only had one real lesson today after the long three hour hand out session with 7A, and it was at the end, so I got to finish the work day with a tough lession of special english with a bunch of nasty 8th graders hehe. Am really tired now. Just got home, luckily both GoT and Twin Peaks will save me and bring me back to life for tomorrows stint

Here's my own schedule for the 17/18 term:


FDT is sort of "school designated homework" where pupils can sit on their own in the dining hall and work with whatever they need and there is always at least one teacher present. MT is Mentor Hour, where I meet with my class and analyse the situation. And K-TID is teacher conferences. Rastvärd is designated time for me to be a sort of hall monitor.

It would be fun to see other Teacher Gafs schedules

That's one packed schedule. Should be getting my schedule tomorrow, but it'll presumably be only 6 hours, 2 hours on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

 

[Wafflecakes]

Looking at my schedule for the year my class sizes are as follows.

11
6
40
30
8
7

Like.... could you balance it out a bit? I lesson that works great in a 6 student class probably won't work in a 40 student class.

 

[LProtag]

Got my schedule. Teaching a new course, gonna have to read up on the curriculum.

I'm back next Wednesday and then the first day of school is the day after Labor Day... so I should probably start getting ready finally. Though, really, I'm just trying to stop time.

 

[Aurongel]

This is my girlfriend's first week as a French teacher out of school. She's been extremely stressed by all the pressures of creating a curriculum and starting the new year.

Any general advice you guys care to impart on a new teacher?

 

[Raxious]

This is my girlfriend's first week as a French teacher out of school. She's been extremely stressed by all the pressures of creating a curriculum and starting the new year.

Any general advice you guys care to impart on a new teacher?

as a fellow new teacher i'd say, make your expectations clear to your students. Make sure you inform your students about the rules you maintain in your classroom. Personally, I'm not that big of a fan of phones in the room, so I'll make that very clear.

I'm planning to tell the students that we can do this one of two ways in order to minimize the amounts of warnings and interruptions i have to have, and to lower the distraction of my students. The first option would be to just put it away. If the students fail to do so and I have to keep warning them or worse, then i'll bring along a bucket in which they'll put their phones at the start of the class.

My students are at least 16 years old and I'll be more than happy to treat them as an adolescent. However, if they're unable to bear such responsibilities I'll treat em as kids.
-------

So i've been thinking a lot about how i'm planning to incorporate the subject material during class. As an English teacher I'll be speaking English most of the time, and I'll always start off with the BBC One Minute News in order to expose the students to authentic materials.

Here's the thing, the students usually speak Dutch ( native language ). In order to further improve their speaking skills, I'm actually considering to tell them that English will be the only accepted language during class starting November, giving them 2 months to adjust.