It has been far too long between posts. I have opened this blog in
anticipation to write about 4 or 5 times already this year and I am now only
finally putting fingers to keys.
This year has been busy. Well that is an
understatement. It is my third year teaching and everyone say that the first
year in hard, the second year you thinking you are getting the hang of things
and the third year you jump in expecting to be swimming but you sink to the
bottom like a rock. I am only now just surfacing from that plummet.
As I look back on my first 2 terms of 2015
a couple of things have struck one going from part time teaching to full time
teaching is intense, my work load doubled, my number of classes doubles and I
picked up to brand new year groups. I was expecting a jump in workload
but the extent of the jump was terrifying. The thing I found the most
intimidating was taking on IGCSE Chemistry. I am very comfortable teaching
junior science. Adding the year 9 course to my teaching load was not big deal
content wise because I was already teaching the Yr. 8 and Yr. 10 course. Adding
chem was scary, I was full of self-doubt and I am still am. I think this is
natural as this year has consequence attached to it for the students. I have
had a great mentor who has been super supportive and reassuring and has told me
in no uncertain terms that I can teach it and teach it well. I am finally
starting to believe him and I have even branched out to start making my own
resources, it has only taken 8 topic but I am now building my own PowerPoint's
and making my own worksheet and have left the comfort of the prepared notes
that my colleague has put together over the previous years. I have been very
grateful to have inherited such an amazing course that has amazing notes and
resources already, all I have had to do is to personalise it which to be honest
I have only just started doing and the feeling of liberation is really cool. I
wish I had started to do it early, but as they say there is always next year.
My biggest frustration so far is having to
build the online course for the Yr. 9's. This is not the first online course I have
had to build, I did the Yr. 8 course last year but the biggest difference is
finding the time to scan through the documents and then rename and upload them
in some semblance of order and putting in all the appropriate sections. Having
to add this to my work load as well as reworking to course to suit my style has
been a nightmare. But that is the joys of working at a very small school and
having a teaching partner who is not friends with computers.
The upside of this year, is even though it
is been challenging I have really enjoyed the challenge and have been learning
so much about what it is to be a teacher and about myself as a teacher but that
is another blog post entirely when I get around to it.
I am finding myself becoming more
confident in my ability and I really enjoy all my extra circular activities
that I run. Seriously, who can complain when my year consists of getting paid
to do a job I love and also to go tramping, camping and skiing on the clock.
It is sharing these amazing experience with my students that is one of
the reason I love my job and why I feel so lucky and do not taking any of it
for granted.
