It's all a matter of timing

One of the main things I struggled with as a new teacher was managing my time.

There are a lot of contentious news articles which have been floating around the inter-webs for a long time now, with regards to teacher working hours. Most teaching contracts specify a given time-frame in which you are expected to be in the building (office?) but also usually include something like the following:

"such reasonable hours as may be necessary to enable the effective discharge of a teacher's professional duties"

When I first came across this in my job contract I remember thinking it might be a bit dodge. Basically "you'll just have to work until the work is done" which I now know rarely ever is. At the start I would spend hours and hours trying to perfect one lesson plan, which carried on into my NQT year (see previous blog post: I never knew lesson planning was so hard)

The thing that makes the issue of teacher working hours so difficult to argue is that you can essentially choose the amount of time you spend working on this job, outside of 'office hours'. Obviously there is a minimum which ensures you are doing the job sufficiently, but if you're working up to a promotion (or if you're young and child-free like myself) it's very easy to be in school from 7am-6pm every day, and then take extra stuff home to do for an hour or two each evening. And of course everybody is different; the amount of time you spend on your work doesn't necessarily mean you do it better. Although I think it's safe to say there's a weak positive correlation (scatter graph lesson ideas, anyone? You're welcome)

If you're extremely foolish (as my colleague likes to remind me every day) you could find yourself in the orchestra of the school musical, adding an extra 16 hours onto your working week. That was an interesting 80-hour week.

That's my beautiful arm there. Bottom right, in case you didn't know what my arm looked like.

The main thing I've needed to develop in this career is flexibility. No not that kind, you naughty thing. But the ability to prioritise, and know when perhaps a certain task (like Y10 reports this morning...) might need to wait because there's an issue in your Year 7 Form group, pertaining to certain individuals repeating the rubbish they've heard the Y10's spouting. I'm certainly not looking forward to explaining what a 'blowjob' is to boys who haven't even gone through puberty yet.

Some days are quiet, and you can get through everything you planned to. Other days you're stuck with double cover, 6 e-mails from concerned parents, a further emergency cover because another teacher has an emergency meeting with a concerned parent, late homework trickling in from last week to mark (dammit Y11) and a broken coffee machine (never forget - September 2014)

And I think the desire to gain some sort of relaxed time at home each evening means I complete these tasks with ever-increasing speed and efficiency. She said, while spilling and then sipping cider from her laptop keyboard.

I used my teacher voice today.

Yes. I finally got the chance to perform some disciplinary vocal maneuvers on some misbehaving Year 8 pupils today, which had been designated by Norbury Manor School as a 'Deep Learning Day'. This involved sitting in Ma4 with the same 30 Year 8's ALL DAY, and so no wonder the girls were getting slightly rowdy. I felt like putting someone in a headlock too.

That's what happened basically. Two girls were having (what looked like) a playful scrap (surely that's what should only happen at an all-boys' school? You'd be surprised at the things that go on in this school...) in the corridor, while making their way round the Maths department, looking at the others' work. The mathematics deep learning day involved building familiar structures out of different 3-D shapes, designing nets to form these shapes out of card and paper, and which were then presented at the end of the day. It was a really good day actually, not only due to the fact they need to know 3-D shapes for their exams, or that it improves spatial reasoning, but they had to be really organised, knowing how many of each shape they would need, and how big it would end up being. Lots in the hidden curriculum there...

Our group had 'London' as their designated theme. Others including 'Futuristic', 'Shanghai' and even 'Marioland'. I couldn't help but feel slightly cheated.

We were shown pictures for inspiration. Like;

and;

In reality, the kids' work looked like this;

It wasn't that bad really. But I digress. On their way around to view the other constructions, two girls managed to get each other in a headlock in the middle of the corridor. I just happened to come out of our room when confronted by this horrific scene of masculine demonstration.

I'm quite surprised that my instinctive reaction was the correct one; not screaming and shouting at the top of my voice, projecting an extremely low and threatening boom of a voice which spake thus;

"GIRLS. WHAT ARE YOU DOING? SHOULDN'T YOU BE IN YOUR DESIGNATED CLASSROOM?!"

This is just some photographic evidence of me being really angry and really mathematical and sexy all at the same time.

But in all seriousness, I've been worrying recently about me trying to implement the multitudes of teaching practices we've been instructed to do, whether I'll be able to remember everything and whether I'll look really foolish in front of everybody. But it was quite a boost in my confidence that my voice naturally went very stern, and that the perpetrators sprang apart immediately looking very sheepish.

Although this may be to do with the karate training I used to instruct. Or the fact that I'm naturally very bossy.