Joined: 04 Jul 2008
Posts: 987
Location: S.W. England
And a job! All teachers, please help me!!
I've been offered a place as a class supervisor, based in a tough secondary school, to fill in when teachers are sick. It's great for me as it'll fit in with my son's school times and gives me teaching experience as I put in for teacher training next year.
BUT I have no teaching experience, have run a Guide/Girl Scout group and will get on the job training. I have some classroom experience, a little at the school, but would welcome any advice from teachers on class supervision and websites for activities for those days where I don't get any work left by the missing teacher!! I will be covering any subject
Thank you for any pearls of wisdom!!!!!!
Fri Jul 17, 2009 7:56 pm
Laurian
Joined: 19 Jan 2009
Posts: 174
Location: Belgium
All of the above That is a very good post, Pharos.
Just ...
Stay calm
Keep breathing
keep smiling
Try to stay you. They will know when you are acting...
Know the material and know more than that what you are going to teach. It is always nice to have a good anecdote or a weird side story to explain something. I remember when I was talking about the French revolution that I had my class hanging on every word when I started describing the way people were sentenced to death before the arrival of the guillotine.
It is an overpowering good feeling to see the kids paying attention. If you don't know the answer to one of their questions and you promised them to look it up, do that. Tell them what you found out even if you didn't find a thing.
Make yourself some handy cards for each lesson as a reminder and think about what you will write on the blackboard and how you are going to organise what you will write on it. Prepare well, that will help you to relax.
About the material.. they should offer you the lesson plans or books... If not, take a subject that you know well for starters. It will give you the confidence you need so you don't have to worry about the 'what' to teach next to the 'how'.
Don't get discouraged. You need to learn how to teach. They still need to invent the person who is the perfect teacher from day one.
And Pharos made a very good point. Talk with the other teachers.. you can learn a lot from them.
Good luck, PurpleUk and I hope you 'll enjoy it.
Sat Jul 18, 2009 1:17 pm
Eilidh Moderators
Joined: 09 Apr 2005
Posts: 1880
Good advice, pharos and Laurian!
I can't add to it, other than to once again stress the importance of preparation. As long as you're well prepared--and confident--you can handle anything.
Good luck!
Eilidh
Sat Jul 18, 2009 11:34 pm
PipSqueak
Joined: 04 Jul 2008
Posts: 987
Location: S.W. England
Thank you very much!! I've saved the web links and am going to carry on building up a folder of them and getting a package together for each subject which I can adapt to different age-groups. It will be very hard to be well-prepared as I will only get my work load when I go in that morning(8:15) and the day starts(8:45) straight into classes, registration is at lunchtime.
I'm worried about the classes where there is no work set but hopefully the school will let me into that gradually as there is a team of three of us covering classes. The school knows that I have no teaching experience and have said that I'll have a 3 week induction period building up from 1 lesson a day to 4 lessons a day and will spend time in other "cover" classes and with their behaviour team. It's been 20 years since I've been in school so some of the subjects are really rusty and I never did Design Technology!!!
I'm going to concentrate on trying to identify how the good teachers maintain discipline when I'm in observer classes. Last year it was easy to see where things went wrong when I was an observer but difficult to see when the teacher could have stopped it. That balance you mention seems like a magic thing.
Thanks also for the tip about the pencil as my hands are always flying about. I will practise keeping calm and smiling on my son over the rest of the holidays, he'll wonder what is going on
Sun Jul 19, 2009 7:43 pm
Laurian
Joined: 19 Jan 2009
Posts: 174
Location: Belgium
We 've all went through this, trust me.
And with that I mean the being insecure and the 'am I performing well?'
When I started working in the school I am now, they informed me that I would be teaching semi-industrial-techniques... I was thinking 'Say what?'
"and miss, your class is waiting. Try not to switch on to many machines at once. The fuses won't hold."
I went home that day feeling gutted. But, it gets better. You will find your way, your teaching style. Just believe in yourself and know that you have something to teach.
Keep us informed and don't hesitate to vent if you need to. Only a PM away
Sun Jul 19, 2009 9:56 pm
PipSqueak
Joined: 04 Jul 2008
Posts: 987
Location: S.W. England
Thank you!!! It's reassuring to hear, and trust me I will contact you once I start in begining of Sept.
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