Hi all!
I have had the best confidence boost today. While I genuinely did feel awful and in need of a rest day yesterday, I'll admit part of me was slightly glad as the thought of doing supply work again made me feel nervous and everything all over again. I felt I was right back to square one like I was the first day back at the start of May.
So today when I woke up, got dressed and already had my lunch ready, I called the teaching agency. I was quite nervous as it's a little stressful having no idea where you'll end up (how far away, how to get there, what the school will be like etc). And when they asked if I wanted to go and teach PE at a school in Dagenham I was more than a little bit hesitant. I hate teaching PE at the primary school, it's really stressful with kids running everywhere and equipment that has the potential to be dangerous. It's madness! Anyway, I said yes. I've told myself this whole year that I need to challenge myself and let the challenge change me for the better, so this was another good chance.
So off I went on the overground and the district line. Walked into school where I was given a sheet of paper outlining my day. Double PE, French, PE, German. Wait, what!!? French and German! Had a minor freak out but just decided to go with it.
First PE went well, it wasn't a practical class. They had to make a PowerPoint about dance, and year 7s (Aussie equivalent = grade 6) are still (fairly) innocent and nice. The same happened for PE later except the PowerPoint was about tennis. So that was ok! French was ok too because the teacher was present, he just needed to spend the majority of the lesson testing kids. So I just had to keep them on task and help where I could with my limited (x 100000000) French skills. German went the best. You wouldn't know it now, but I learnt German at school for ten years. The way we learn languages at home is pretty basic though so it's all gone now and I was never fantastic at speaking it. But luckily for me the topic in this year 10 class was school subjects and their opinions on school, which for some reason was still floating around in my brain. I was able to answer just about every question they asked me, and even introduced myself for a few sentences in German. I've learned very fast the key to supply teaching is confidence. You need to give off the idea to the kids that you know exactly what you're doing and so they should therefore listen. Well this worked, and they all did their work! They tried the oldest trick in the book too - swapping names. Told two boys I wasn't born yesterday and used their names (thank you photographic register - or roll in Australian) and you should have seen the looks on their faces!!
At the end of the day I gave the daily organiser the notes I had made on each class, and she told me I could leave at 3pm because no marking had been left - yesss !
Supply teaching is so weird though. You kind of feel like a ghost in the school. You don't know anyone, you don't know where anything is and you don't have anywhere to eat your lunch. You just kind of float around trying to look like you know where to go!!! Another hard part is not knowing kids' names. The amount of names I mispronounced today....yikes. But any Aussie teachers reading this - if you're looking for work, come to England. I literally had three people offer me a job today. The first as soon as I met the daily organiser:
"What's your main subject?"
"Maths and Psychology"
"Are you looking for a job for September?"
BAM. No mucking around here! Complete opposite problem at home - too many teachers!!!
So now I'm on the train home. I'm going to get home quite early so think I might walk to St Paul's (as you do, just casually on a Tuesday evening!). Tonight I'm cooking myself hamburgers I'm making with creamy mushroom sauce and veggies. Mum, we may make a cook of me yet.
Love to all
Claire
Xoxox
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