Start of Term catch up

We've been back at school for just over 2 weeks now and everything is starting to settle down.

The main change in the physics department is that we have a new teacher. She used to be a technician before crossing over to the dark side and so far she seems very switched on and organised, which is a dream come true in comparison to my other teachers! 

The big change for me is that I am now senior technician AND will shortly be getting an apprentice technician to train. Our apprentice is only 19 and makes me feel very old! I'm going to have to remember that I'm his supervisor and not his mum.

I also finally finished my Teaching Assistant qualification. This year I have been given 3 classes to work with but just this morning HoD came to tell me that the new chemistry teacher, who is also teaching some physics, is having trouble with his year 9 set and I might need to start helping him out as well.

And so it begins!

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

Back to School

Well, here we are again. I still haven't written about the Gambia Trip for which I apologise. I will make sure I do it in the next week.




Yesterday was my first day back in school, and the first chance to get a look at the new headmaster during the morning's staff briefing. First impressions are good so I look forward to seeing what he will bring to the role. He said that no activity should take priority over any other, so maybe we won't lose as many lessons to sport this year as we have in the past. Here's hoping!


The lab refurbishments happened while we were gone. they're still putting the finishing touches to the new chemistry set up in lab 2 which looks great. Just a pity we don't get to use it in physics. The computer room refurb on the other hand looks like a total cop out. They've put done new flooring and ripped out the old teachers desk... and that's it! No storage, no new teachers desk or even a table to put the teacher's computer on. Nothing. Action man is going to be based in there and I think he has plans to scrounge bits of furniture from elsewhere in the school.


I heard a rumour yesterday that chem tech may have handed in his notice. Will let you know if that turns out to be true and post a link to the job advert when one appears.


I'm still waiting for confirmation of my TA timetable for the year. Hopefully it will materialise before lessons begin on Tuesday.


Here we go again! :)

Teaching

Yesterday was unusual.

My colleague who used to be our nqt (who shall henceforth be known as Action Man on account of his military background) was ill and unable to get to school at short notice. We managed to arrange cover for his morning lessons, but Thursday afternoon in science is really busy and there weren't any free teachers. The lesson was for one of the classes that I work with when I have my TA hat on, so HoD asked me if I could just watch them while they did a test.

When the class turned up they were distinctly unhappy about the whole test plan. Apparently Action Man had said they wouldn't have the test until next week. I checked with HoD and we agreed they could revise quietly instead.

It turns out that bottom set year 10 don't really get the concept of quiet revision. Almost immediately they started asking me to explain concepts that they were having trouble with and within a few minutes I was more or less teaching them. I drew diagrams on the board, helped them define terms and made up some example calculations. HoD popped in at one point, expecting to see a quiet room and instead found me demonstrating transverse and longitudinal waves with the aid of a slinky!

By the end of the lesson a couple of the girls said I was a really nice teacher and asked if I could take them for chemistry.

I don't know that I'd want that to happen too often, but I actually really enjoyed myself. Those kids had better pass the test now, after all the effort I put into them!

So, I'm a TA now

Just before Christmas senior management gave the go ahead for one technician to start working and training as a TA. We had a technician meeting and neither bio or chem tech wanted the gig, so it fell to me by default.

I've been given a timetable and all my teachers know that during those periods I won't be available to help them out unless it's an emergency. They've also all been asked to be a bit more organised with their requisition sheets so I have plenty of time to plan my week. I'll believe that when I see it!

The school want me to get a qualification, so I'm being enrolled on a competence-based thing called 'supporting teaching and learning'. A lot of the stuff I do as a technician will count, but when the assessor comes to visit she will need to see me supporting in Maths, ICT and English.

Maths and ICT are no problem. Plenty of both to be found in physics. English on the other hand is not so straightforward and I've been told I will need to do 1 lesson of English a week.

So far I'm starting to quite enjoy the physics lessons, but I'm dreading English. It was one of my worst subjects at school and I don't know what possible use I could be in a bottom set year 11 English class. Apparently the English department are delighted so I hope I don't disappoint them too much!