End of term thoughts

Today is the last day of a very hectic and hugely enjoyable term. It was always going to be a challenge switching schools after so long in one place, especially since anxiety is practically my middle name, but it really is the best thing I could possibly have done.

I've gone from a medium sized boarding school in the middle of nowhere surrounded by fields to a small day school in the middle of town. Being a smaller school means that there is much more of a community spirit than I'm used to which could have been quite intimidating but I took the decision early on to try to get involved and become a full part of the team. This has meant occasional trips to the pub after school on a Friday, where the Head buys everyone a drink and then leaves! It's also meant joining the staff choir and performing at the carol concert which was just brilliant! This afternoon I'll be attending my first ever staff Christmas party, after avoiding them for the past 17 years. Part of this is obviously due to a change in my mindset but it's also the atmosphere of the place and the people.

The really big difference though is in my relationship with the teachers. At my last school the physics teachers quite frankly took the piss! They's say 'you're a superstar' or whatever but only because I was putting up with their shit without complaint. Yes I'd get a bottle of prosecco or similar at the end of term but I don't think I ever really felt appreciated and valued. It's easy to say to someone that you value them, but it means nothing if you don't show it. Here things are different. On a number of occasions my HoD has missed his break or part of lunch to help me clear up after a particularly big practical. Not because I asked him to but because he cares enough to want to help. The other physics teachers are the same. Not a day goes by without one of them asking if I need help to carry things around or to put away the equipment. Honestly that's worth more than all the fancy bottles of wine in the world!

Hello again!

Good grief, has it really been almost 3 years since I was last here?

There is a good reason, honest. I've spent the past 2 years out of the prep room, working as a Science Administrator which has mostly involved spreadsheets and minute-taking. Not exactly thrilling, either for you or for me! Eventually the mind-numbing tedium wore me down so around Easter this year I started looking for technician jobs and I got lucky.

A lovely school much closer to home than my last one was looking for a Physics Technician so I applied and I got the job! I've been here for a week and am starting to get settled in and I really think I'm going to be very happy here. The other technicians are lovely and the HoD has been really supportive. Students don't start until Friday, so that's when the job really gets going and I honestly can't wait.

Becoming senior

It seems reasonably certain now that when we start the new academic year in September I will be senior technician. I'll still be a TA for around 10 hours a week as well, and our bio tech is wanting to go part time, so at the moment HoD is trying to convince HR to hire at the very least an apprentice although someone with experience would be better.

This then is about the worst possible time for our new chem tech to go directly to HR and complain that she doesn't have enough to do! Any fellow techs reading this will currently be choking on their coffee. There's always something to do, if in doubt ask your HoD for some tasks. HR have of course taken this as a sign that there isn't really any need for extra help and HoD is really angry.

In fairness to her, chem tech has never done this sort of work before and probably doesn't realise quite how the workload ebbs and flows through the year and if she's complaining of boredom then she obviously hasn't fully grasped what a technician's role actually involves. There's so much more to it than just prepping experiments.

HoD asked me to have a word but I pointed out that since I'm not senior tech yet, I don't have any authority to tell her what to do. What I have done though is sent a friendly, chatty email with a list of all the jobs I try to get done during this quieter term as well as some suggestions which are more related to chemistry. Just tidying and reorganising the labs could easily take the next couple of weeks.

Apparently HoD has forwarded this to HR and pointed out that there is in fact plenty of work. I really hope this doesn't mess up our plans for next year.

The Invisible Woman

My HoD had a meeting, so he asked me if I could supervise his lower sixth class. They were doing a practice ISA which was a fairly straightforward experiment so I agreed.

We have 2 AS physics sets and this was the lower ability group so some of them needed a fair bit of help setting up their circuits, designing results tables and even understanding what the instructions meant. Obviously in a real ISA we wouldn't give them much help but as it was their first practice one I was nice and gave all of them as much help as I could.

Towards the end of the session one of the lads asked me if I teach physics. I explained that no, I don't and I am in fact the physics technician. Then he asked me what a technician does. I explained that I'm responsible for all the physics equipment and that I get it all ready for every lesson they have. They looked so shocked! I don't know where they thought the equipment comes from but clearly they hadn't realised that it's actually someone's job to manage it all.

This made me wonder whether all our students are so unaware. After all, these sixth formers have been with us for over 3 years now and for all that time I've been in and out of lessons doing my job. Did they never notice me? Also most of this group came on the trip to CERN in October, but never questioned my presence.

One thing I found very interesting - at the end of the lesson they tidied their equipment away with far more care than I have ever seen from one of HoD's groups before. Maybe realising that someone has to deal with their mess made them rather more considerate.

I think from now on I am going to make a point of introducing myself to classes at the start of the academic year.

More time in class?

So, the TA thing.

Just before the half term break my HoD took me aside and asked if I could help another year 9 set. We have a chemist teaching 2 year 9 physics groups this year and it is becoming clear that she is struggling. I was already TAing with one of those classes so it sort of made sense for me to take on the others too.

I just heard today that our scarily-efficient physics teacher is unwell, possibly long term. There is a chance she may be missing all of next term. Obviously we're concerned for her, but also we have concerns for the department as that would be a lot of lessons to cover. We had a similar situation last year when action man was off and it was massively stressful for everyone.

HoD has been saying for months that he'd like to see me make the move into teaching and I'm wondering now whether he might see this situation as an opportunity to push me further in that direction.

If he asked me to take over a couple of her sets, I don't know how I would respond.

Interesting times

A rod for my own back

When I took on the TA thing (which is going pretty well and is mostly good fun), my department agreed that in order for me to manage my increased work load I should drop a lot of the admin stuff I do for them. This term I have had very few photocopying or data entry requests which is great!


The annual trip to CERN is upon us again and of course my HoD has dealt with all the paperwork and admin himself. Wait, no sorry - I got confused for a second there. What I meant to say was that I have done all the paperwork and admin yet again. This morning I did the final job, which was getting the bus timetables for the various journeys we'll be making in Switzerland. Maybe I should have insisted that HoD deal with it himself for once. On the other hand I know that if I don't do it then it won't get done or at least not properly, and then once we are there HoD will utter his usual plaintive cry of 'Labtech666, Help!' and I'll end up sorting it out anyway.


I grumbled about this exact same issue a year ago and of course nothing has changed. By being generally pretty efficient and helpful (unless you catch me on a bad day) I have made it very easy for the teachers to get lazy.


Still I get a free trip to Geneva out of it, so it's not all bad!

Recruiting

There's still time to apply for the chem tech job but we've had a few applicants already.


Earlier this week my HoD said that he'd like me to be involved in the selection process. I guess normally the chemistry HoD would be in charge of this, but he's leaving us at Christmas so it's mostly fallen to my HoD, since he's overall head of science as well as physics. It certainly makes sense for both me and bio tech to at least meet the candidates, since although we don't work very closely we do need to coordinate resources etc at times, but I did point out that generally helping to draw up the shortlist and even maybe being in the interviews is really more of a senior technician thing, 'and I'm not senior technician'. 'Ah, but you will be' was the answer to that one, so he obviously hasn't forgotten the carrot HR dangled under my nose last term when I was thinking of leaving.


This morning he passed me a bunch of application forms to look at. One out of the five is already working as a technician, but all of them have strong science backgrounds. I kind of have a favourite, but that's only on paper. Looking forward to meeting them in the flesh once we set an interview date.

To HLTA or not to HLTA?

When we have our termly technician meeting with the Head of Science, chem tech is always full of ideas about what 'we' or 'they' should do to improve the science department. One such idea, which he has brought up periodically over the past few years, is that all 3 technicians should become Higher level Teaching Assistants (HLTA) The idea is that this should (in theory) get us more money and might also get us recognised as academic staff, rather than support staff.

The previous HoS used to listen politely and then completely ignore 95% of everything said at these meetings, but things are changing. Our new HoS is also my HoD and he listens to technicians! At the last meeting he seemed quite interested in chem tech's suggestion, made a lot of notes, and then went to speak to HR.

Unbelievably HR are really keen on the concept and we have been asked to put together a cost/benefit analysis so they can decide whether it's worth pursuing. I thought they'd lose interest the minute pay was mentioned, but apparently not. They have said that they would only want to go forward with one technician initially but then include the others over time and the one technician they want to trial the idea with is me! Apparently I've been selected because I'm the youngest tech here so I guess they think they'll get more back long term if they invest in me.

The thing is, I'm not sure if I want to be a HLTA.

I'm a technician. It's what I've been doing for the past 12 years. My prep room is my comfort zone and the idea of having to teach even small groups of students terrifies me. Quite apart from the fear factor I'm also concerned about what this could mean for technicians in general. Is being a technician not good enough? We are skilled people with specialist knowledge and I would never want that role to be seen as second rate and for teaching to be viewed as the only viable career option. After all that was surely the point of RSciTech - to get people to view technicians as professionals.

I need the money though. At this school there are no support staff pay scales and no additional money for taking on extra responsibilities so I am stuck on my current salary for ever. The only way I can earn more may be to go down this path, but I am really conflicted about what is the right thing to do.

It may be that HR decide the costs are too great for the potential benefits, in which case I am worrying unnessecarily. Watch this space!

What's our job again?

I've mentioned in the past the wide range of extra curricular activities that we do here in the physics department - trips, astronomy, solar car etc.
Just lately though, it's feeling like we're starting to forget that the main focus of our jobs is supposed to be the teaching of physics!

The solar car project is having a big launch event on saturday. We've got Cambridge University coming along with their car as well as potential sponsors including McLaren and Jaguar. It's a really big deal and if it goes well then the project will really take off. It's a lot of work though. My HoD has been running around like crazy for the last couple of weeks putting arrangements in place. Meanwhile the organisation of the 2 overseas trips that are happening before christmas has mainly fallen to me and I'm worrying that it's all going to go wrong.

Lesson planning is virtually non-existant right now and last minute requests are becoming the norm. It's as if they've all forgotten that lessons are happening because they are so caught up in other things. I really hope that once this weekend is out of the way we can get back on track, or I'll be heading for a nervous breakdown by new year.

It's my birthday.

Woo! Or not really, because I'm at work today.
When I'm Emperor of the Universe no one will have to work on their birthdays. Sadly I'm not Emperor yet though, so here we are.

About 5 minutes into period one my HoD came dashing into the prep room with a slightly panicked look on his face. 'Teacher X has a problem, can you come and help?', he said, so I dutifully followed him into lab 3 at which point the whole year 9 physics class began to sing 'Happy Birthday' and the teachers gave me a card and flowers.

I was horribly embarrassed and probably went a delightful shade of beetroot, but it's really sweet that they remembered me.

I don't want to hear it!

There are certain words and phrases that I really don't want to hear uttered by a teacher when they walk into the prep room. Sadly I hear most of them every week!

1) Help! - usually cried out in anguish by my HoD as he charges into the prep room. This generally means that he needs some last minute photocopying or that I'm going to end up doing a lot of tedious paperwork which is probably not my job.

2) Could you just.... - I HATE 'just' jobs. They always take 5 time longer to complete than the teacher concerned has estimated.

3) Can I do the ISA? - first things first. Which ISA? Are we talking GCSE, AS or A2? If GCSE then do you want P1,P2 or P3? If A level then do you want P or Q? And anyway, no you probably can't because they take far longer to set up than any teacher realises.

4) Are you busy? - You're about to make me far busier.

5) Can you just sit with my class for 5 minutes? - I'm not meant to be left in charge of a class at all, and 5 minutes has a nasty habit of turning into 15 minutes.

6) At my last school... - You aren't at your last school, you're at this school and we don't have the expensive piece of equipment that you are asking for. No amount of pouting or puppy-dog eyes will cause that piece of equipment to miraculously appear.

Just another monday morning!

We've already established that I am not a mind reader, but some of my teachers are continuing to vastly over-estimate my powers.

My HoD didn't get his requisition sheet for this week handed in by close of play on friday, and instead e-mailed it to me yesterday which meant that I didn't see it until first thing this morning. For lesson 2 today he's put down 'electromagnets'. That's all. Just 1 word.

Maybe he's doing a theory lesson and is going to talk to the class about electromagnets. Maybe he wants to do a demo or a class practical. I don't know, because he didn't say and I couldn't get hold of him before lessons began because he was in a meeting.

In the end I gave him a class set of long nails, lengths of wire and paper clips so that the class could make simple electromagnets. Amazingly that was what he'd wanted all along.

Maybe I am psychic after all!?!

Return to Work interview - the fallout

Well it wasn't exactly a simple box-ticking exercise yesterday.

Apparently I have had too many days off sick and now I'm going to start losing pay if I am ill again. Initially HR reckoned that I had taken 27 days sick this year. I looked back through all my e-mails and could only find 20, which of course includes 17 days signed off by the hospital because I broke my arm and couldn't work. HR however are counting an overall 12 month period, so the stomach bug I had last November counts, as does the streaming cold I had in October. I still couldn't get it to 27 days, until I noticed that they'd counted 4 days in January before term started, when I wouldn't have been at work anyway! I got them to discount those days but they aren't prepared to budge on the rest.

What does this mean? Well, basically I can't afford to be ill again until mid January. Or alternatively, I can be ill but I have to come to work and infect everyone else regardless of whether I am suffering with a streaming nose, projectile vomiting or bubonic plague. I'm sure that will make everyone very happy - NOT!!

Told my HoD all this when I got to work this morning and he was not amused. Yesterday he had a meeting with the Head to discuss the past year in Physics, and apparently I came in for a lot of praise for all the stuff that I do for the department above and beyond my job description. So while the Head thinks I'm doing a great job, HR think I'm slacking. Nice!

HoD has told me to start logging all my hours so we can prove the extras that I do, and has also told me that if HR carry on being obnoxious, he'll just go to the Head. It's good to know that someone's got my back. I may grumble about the guy, but I have a really great HoD!

Is that my job?

Every day I get asked to do a wide variety of stuff, some of which is very clearly a part of my job, but some of which really isn't. So, I present:

Stuff that's my job

• Preparing equipment for practical physics lessons and ensuring that it's in the right room at the right time.
• Repairing any bits of equipment which get broken. (Mainly changing batteries and fuses, sometimes a bit of soldering)
• Sourcing new equipment and dealing with ordering.
• Managing the budget
• Trialling new experiments eg ISA practicals
• Helping out in the lab during practicals
• Demoing experiments during lessons
• First Aid

Stuff that's not my job, but which I still get asked to do

• Booking plane tickets
• Invigilating exams when they can't find anyone else
• Contacting kids' parents
• Entering exam results onto the system
• Photocopying
• Setting work when a teacher is away but hasn't sorted out any cover
• Taking phone messages from my HoD's wife

And today's prize example - find out where the course is which my HoD is supposed to be on. Seiously, he called me at 9.15 to ask me to log on to his e-mails and check the venue for his course because he'd forgotten to write it down. Sometimes I despair.

They do care!

Some days you feel like no one appreciates anything you do and you're totally being taken for granted.

Today is not one of those days! My HoD and another physics teacher have just given me a HUGE bunch of flowers, a bottle of champagne and a card to thank me for all my hard work this academic year.

Just weird

As I mentioned before, my HoD is away at the moment and everyone jokes that I am running the department in his absence. Ho ho, very funny ( and mostly true!).

No one told me that I was responsible for his tutees though! I've just had an e-mail from a parent asking me to chase up some details regarding her son being allowed to use a laptop in his A-Level exams. This is so far beyond anything in my job description that I don't have an adequate metaphor for it.
I know the teaching staff seem to think that I do the HoD's job for him most of the time, but I didn't realise that had filtered down to parents too.

I forwarded the e-mail to the exams officer an hopefully that will be the end of it. They really don't pay me enough to deal with parents!

Clearing up and out

My HoD is out for the next 3 days, and since the GCSE, A-Level and IB exams have all started the department is pretty quiet.

Ideal time to start getting organised ready to relinquish half my prep room from september.
There's a lot of building work starting around the school very shortly, and one consequence is that a lot of teachers are losing their studies. It appears that a studyless teacher is not a happy beast! The head of science is one of those affected and in order to find space for him to have a study in the science block I am being turfed out of the outer section of my prep room (currently my office space). My HoD and another physics teacher are going to have that space for their study and the head of science is (I think) taking over my HoD's room.
This is the perfect excuse to throw out a lot of old junk that's been cluttering up the place. I probably should've done it when I got here 3 years ago, but I didn't have the confidence. No qualms now though!

The major downside to this game of 'musical rooms' is that I'm going to have to walk through the HoD's study every time I go in or out of my room, plus I'll have 2 physics teachers practically in the room with me probably being annoying.
On the plus side though, every time a kid knocks on the door it won't be me who gets disturbed!