12 months ago I had a list of burning questions that I wanted to know, in preparation for my teacher training year. I’m not sure about you, but I like to be planned and organised, so the unknowing nature of starting teacher training without any real clear expectations as to what the year held for me was unnerving.
I thought therefore it might be useful to do a small Q&A, on some of the questions I know I wanted answered, before I started my teacher training year back in September 2017.
How many hours of teaching will I do?
This will vary from course to course, school to school, and trainee to trainee. In my own experience, we had two placements. During my first placement, I was teaching around 8-10 hours per week, mostly solo though some team taught with the regular classroom teacher. During my second placement, the hours gradually increased incrementally up to around 15 hours of solo teaching by the end of the placement. To put this in to context, as an NQT next year I will be teaching an average of 18 hours each week (two week timetable, 16 hrs week one, 20 hrs week two).
How will I deal with behaviour?
Remember that behaviour is a generic term, referring to characteristics demonstrated by your pupils, whether positive or negative. I assume that concerns centre around behaviours demonstrated that are not appropriate for learning, so here goes…
You might not deal with it well to begin, but that is okay.
Poor behaviour in your classroom is as close to inevitable as you can get. The level of poor behaviour will depend on various situational circumstances (pupil intake, demographic, whole school policies, the quality of your lessons etc.), but there are of course things you can do to minimise the level of disruption. I won’t go into detail on specific strategies, but I assure you that if you listen and mould other teacher characteristics to your own teacher personality, you will get there. Plus remember that your mentor will always be in the room or in the near vicinity, so if it does come to the worst, and students have got out of hand, your mentor is there to support.
How will I deal with the workload?
You will have to deal with an increased workload. This is inevitable (assuming you’re coming straight from undergraduate). You will need to develop habits and skills that enable you to balance tasks and prioritise. It will be hard. It won’t be easy. But I’ve done it, as have the countless other trainee teachers this year, and in years gone by, so there is no reason why you can’t.
Are the assignments hard?
This is course specific, so I cannot comment on other courses, but specifically to the Birmingham course, the assignments are based around areas you should be developing in anyway as a trainee. Our assignments have ranged from researching strategies to increasing access of students with an SEND to the geography national curriculum, through to looking at increasing connections between school and academic geography. They will take time. Your workload will increase at this time of year, but they are enjoyable, and at the end of the day invaluable to your development. If they aren’t, I would question their purpose.
Will the students like me?
Yes, they will. Show an interest. Be open to conversations. And relax. They will like you.
BUT remember. You are NOT friends. You are a teacher and they are students. There is a clear line that should be drawn, but you will develop an understanding of where this stands over time.
Will the students know that I am a trainee teacher?
Possibly, but it won’t matter as much as you think, as long as you don’t let it. Schools have different policies. I’ve seen schools have trainee teachers with identifiable badges, whereas other schools you are treated as a full member of staff. It will depend, but it won’t matter. Act like a full member of staff (BECAUSE YOU ARE), and it won’t be an issue.
How will I plan so many lessons? Will the lessons already be planned for me?
Lesson planning will come with time. It can be tedious and time consuming. But it is important to plan your own lessons, particularly earlier on in your trainee year. You will develop a far better understanding of lesson structure, and how you teach best, by planning your own lessons. This is not to say you cannot use other’s resources. You’d be a fool not to if they have what you need available. But DO NOT just take a lesson from someone and try to teach it. You will not be able to do this, particularly not when starting out.
What time will I have to get to school? When can I leave?
Your hours are flexible outside of school hours. Technically, as long as you arrive in time for the start of school, and leave after the students have gone, you should be fine. I wouldn’t advise this though.
My timing of arrival depends on what I have on that day. A quiet morning might mean I arrive later, whereas if I have a full morning teaching, I’ll probably be in early to ensure I am prepared and ready. To put this into context, early for me would be around 7.20-7.30, where as later would certainly not be past 8-8.15am. I tend to try and get as much work done as possible in school, so tend to leave around 4.30-5pm, again dependent on current workload.
Your hours are flexible. So long as you keep on top of things and there are no causes for concern, you should be able to arrive and leave when you like.
If you have any burning desires for other questions to be answered, just leave a comment and I will add responses as they are posted!
