Dear Miss Lee, the NQT

I remember the feeling oh so well. I'd spent the best part of two weeks in school fixing and sorting my classroom making it ever so perfect. I was panicking over the children I'd get, if I'd do the right thing, would they like me? 

A year later, I spent 4 days in work (well, 3 and a half!). One was for planning, the one and a half days were throwing up displays, and the first day I went in and literally said to myself 'what the hell am I supposed to do?' as the endless list in my head seemed to go out of the window.

This blog post isn't meant to give NQTs explicit advice in a 'don't do, do do' sense, there's loads of them about (check out Sue Cowley!) but this is my view a year after the initial stress and panic of 'I have 25 children that are MY responsibility'. 

So, dear Miss Lee (2013),

Just some pointers about the year to come:

- everything will never get done. Once one thing is finished, there will always be something else

- your teaching assistant is your best mate, your map, your guide, your saviour

- how are you supposed to get to know everyone if you're never in the staffroom?

- parents are on your side, so don't be scared talking to them!

- your classroom will be a mess for the majority of the year, but always keep the cupboard tidy!!!

- little things that will wind you up now you'll be over your head by Christmas (except lids off glue sticks!!!!!!!!)

- spend more time on twitter, but not to procrastinate!! 

- be consistent, except for behaviour management. If it doesn't work, even after six weeks, change it. When it does work, stick with it.

- children literally remember everything that you wouldn't expect them to. So don't tell your class you'll teach them in an irish accent in the last week

- you will be alive by Christmas

- don't bottle things up, it'll be a self-esteem nightmare

- there is always somebody to talk to, and your head teacher isn't that scary

- have one night a week that's your night, and Friday doesn't count 

*As a teacher who moved away from home and into a new city for the first time (I'd stayed in my home city of Liverpool for uni!) it was so hard to break out of my own bubble. So every Thursday, I go to a dance class; other teachers go and the girl who runs it teaches reception! we can have a life!

- BALANCE YOUR LIFE!

*From the point above, a tip from one of my very good friends @MissP_Year3 is to timetable your home life (we are an orangised bunch!). She never works weekends (I can vouch for it!) but has two late nights a week. This isn't feasible for everyone, but planning time for planing isn't a bad idea!

- you will do things a lot differently in your second year

- things that worked on placement don't always work in every school

- kids and colleagues never cease to make you smile, laugh and cry due to laughter, even on the naff days

Everyone's first year is different. I'm not going to say my NQT year was a breeze. It wasn't. I let the 'stress' and panic get the better of me and there was a time when I was ready to leave, until I thought about how much I actually love what I do every single day when those children are in my room. 

You will never have another year like your first year. No more guesses, no more 'am I doing this right?' 

Seriously, doing the 'first ever day' right is nothing to worry about. It's just scary, and once you're over it, you're there! Everyone wants you to succeed and believe it or not, you will. Now if I can say that as a huge pessimist, I just be talking some sense!

And think about it this way, which everyone told me last year...

Would you really be employed as a teacher if your boss didn't think you were any good?

Good luck!!

@MissLeeSays

My first guest blog post!!

I was asked very kindly by @magicalmaths to do a blog about visualisers in schools and how I use them, and to give a bit of advice to fellow educators.

Go over to their site and have a peep! Some amazing maths resources on there too 

http://www.magicalmaths.org/visualiser-for-schools-do-you-use-a-classroom-visualiser-great-advice/

@MissLeeSays

'Learning Challenge' Planning Challenge

After a new year's resolution last year to blog more tied in with my NQT year, I genuinely had no idea what was going to hit me. All the madness, laugher, tears, waiting for Ofsted panic, then the sigh of relief when the interim came through...you all know what I could go on about.

So, here goes RQT, and the first blog post in an absolute age!

One staff meeting this summer, our DH (and new HT as of Monday) presented us with the task of getting to grips with the new curriculum, once Maths and English was out of the way, then came Foundation subjects, and I what saw ahead, coming through the abyss, was, the Learning Challenge Curriculum.

I literally cheered in the middle of a staff meeting, to see everyone else with a face of point blank confusion. Yup, I'm that nuts.

Let's rewind two and a half years...

During my third year of uni on my Primary degree, me and my best mate had the absolute privilege to work at St Joseph's Primary in Leigh under the headship of a certain Anne McNally, an amazing woman and an inspiration to me as an educator. The minute I walked into her office to talk about my placement, she was already talking about this notion of 'Learning Challenge' and what Clive Davies had done for the staff. I was somewhat confused. It wasn't until I got into class that I knew what she was talking about. That was the first time I saw what we now call 'working walls' in class. Not for Maths and English, but for 'Topic' work. Once I eventually got my hands on one of the classes, teaching foundation was a breeze because the kids were knowledgeable, genuinely interested and they wanted to learn; they were learning about what THEY wanted to know, not what we HAD to teach them. She is credited in helping to write the new Learning Challenge for the New Curriculum.

And we're back in 2014.

So I immediately grabbed the folder and flicked through my topics; USA...exactly what I'd taught two years earlier. I was loving life. But it seemed like other people were quite the opposite. They were looking through with blank faces, no one really knew what we had to do. And to some extent, apart from an 'on-the-job' view point, neither did I!

Then, after a conversation with @davesen1985 and @TonySands63, it seemed like other people had been thown in at the deep end too. No input, no training, just folders. Pages upon pages of LOs and Learning Challenges. Me and the two gents kept passing on and swapping knowledge and (at least what we thought were) ideas, so here is my PERSONAL breakdown of how to approach a Learning Challenge.

What you have been given are examples of questions/LOs to be used, and that is how they should be approached. The whole point of a Learning Challenge is that we as teachers build upon what the children already know. If they already know that the first moon landing was Apollo 11 in 1969, then talk about other moon missions, why have there been no human lunar missions since 1972? As long as content meets the context of your topics and teaching (and the national curriculum) there is no limit. To me, the whole concept is about individual learning, involvement, teaching and knowledge, with a teacher giving it it's context, along with appropriate time for reflection.

'Could Spiderman exist?' - if our old chum Gove read that (good riddance), he would probably have our heads. But what that LC question should really say is:

Using what we know, and what we will learn, about classification, habitats, life cycles and different living things, such as humans, mammals, insects etc. could we find out if a creature who has both human and arachnid genetics and attributes exist?

Doesn't sound as fun to me, it certainly won't to 30 Year 6 kids...but we've hooked them at 'Spiderman'! All about making learning (in this case Science) accessible, exciting and fun. It is, as stated in the documents, a starting point.

This LC obviously branches of into 'Living Things' and what you might do initially is discuss the attributes of humans and spiders from what they already know. Then start looking into classification of different living things (LC1 Sci Year 6) and start on habitats, and build on from there. Absolute gold mine for creative teaching. Throughout your lessons, you may link back to the initial LC to see what the children think based on what they have learned. Post-it, blog, tweet their current ideas and see how they have developed over the course of the term. There are so many opportunities for cross-curricular teaching too. Story starters based on a creature like Spiderman etc etc. But scientific skills, no mention...read the bigger picture...

‘Working and thinking scientifically’ is described separately at the beginning of the programme of study, but must always be taught through and clearly related to substantive science content in the programme of study. Throughout the notes and guidance, examples show how scientific methods and skills might be linked to specific elements of the content.' Science PoS USK2 pg 91

See? It's not meant to be wishy-washy teaching, it's about making it sparkle so the children learn at a higher level!

Personally, I feel it is your own approach that makes LC work. There is no real teaching formula, we're all different in our classrooms; we're individuals too, let alone the children we teach, so why should we all sing from the same hymn sheet, just this once? I don't know what Clive Davies would say on the matter, and he might just even agree, he may not. As long as you are teaching what is on that NC document, it's your oyster. Flexibility. It doesn't go into that much detail to tell you when you've got to teach it, how long for, and in what year group. Here is when communication and joint long-term planning is key, especially in mixed years. For example, I will be teaching a Anglo-Saxons in year 5 alongside my year 5/6 colleague whose focus will go onto the Vikings.

There's no given lesson formula. There's no start, middle, end. You and your children approach it in whatever way suits THEM based on what THEY KNOW and what THEY WANT TO KNOW. When they see progression, and that they can answer their own questions, surely that's point proven?

@MissLeeSays

For more info on the Learning Challenge curriculum follow @focuseducation1 and @CliveDaviesOBE