SURVIVED MY FIRST WEEK
Pre-reading task.
1. In writing, answer the following questions.
1) Are you looking forward to your coming TP (teaching practice / school placement / student teaching practice / practice teaching)? Why? Why not?
2) What are some positive and negative things a trainee teacher may come across?
2. Read the post of Tim Handley, a beginning teacher, who is blogging regularly about his induction year. In his first blog he’s just happy to have survived the first week. Was your first experience as a trainee teacher similar to Tim’s as a beginning teacher? In what way?
«I survived! The children didn’t eat me alive, nor did the staff — which is always a good thing. But WOW — What a week!
I had a great, although incredibly tiring week. So many things happened in my first week teaching as a ‘proper teacher’ that I could go on for ages, but here are just a few ‘choice’ highlights.
Highlight 1: The first time I stood in front of MY class This was an incredibly frightening moment but an enjoyable one none the less. I think this was the first time I really realized that I’m a ‘proper’ teacher. It was a great feeling to know that the children sitting there looking expectantly at me were my class and that I no longer had to ‘borrow’ a class from another teacher.
Highlight 2: (relative) Freedom One of the strangest things to get used to was not having another teacher to ‘report’ to or someone frequently in my lessons or checking my plans. At times this was incredibly frightening as no one was telling me exactly what to cover when. But overall it was great. It was wonderful to have the freedom to use my ‘professional judgment’ to decide how to approach things and the ability to do things in my own way.
Highlight 3: The kindness of staff All the staff at my school have been fantastic to me over the past week. They have been supportive, kind and understanding. They have been willing to answer my (many) questions and to help me out when I needed it which has really made my first week easier.
Highlight 4: Learning new things I feel like I now have some knowledge of a lot of things I didn’t know before — especially when it comes to medium term planning. I’ve still got a lot to learn though, and I’m looking forward to learning lots more over the next year (and indeed my teaching career!)
Highlight 5- Laughing a lot! I’ve certainly enjoyed myself that week. All I can say is that whoever said ‘Don’t smile until Christmas’ can’t have been a primary teacher!
3. Give the Russian equivalents to the underlined expressions.
4. Imagine you are a trainee teacher and Tim Handley is going to give a webinar about the impressions his first lesson at school produced on him. Write five questions about his first week at school.
5. Translate your questions into Russian.
6. Now answer your own questions as if you were Tim Handley. (Be creative.)
7. Read the tips for trainee teachers below, then watch the video. Two of the tips do not correspond to the content of the video, find out which ones.
TOP TIPS FOR TRAINEE TEACHERS
1. Ring up to the school where you’ll be having your TP before you arrive.
2. Demonstrate how professional you can be and how passionate you are about teaching.
3. Show that you’re an expert teacher, that you know everything and that you’ve got all the skills.
4. Time-keeping is really important. Don’t be late.
5. Smile at everybody for people to engage with you as a person.
6. Take friends with the support stuff (the receptionist, caretakers, cleaners etc.).
7. Take opportunities to visit the staffroom and to talk to the members of staff.
8. Make working relationship with people in school.
9. Make yourself known to the secretary, the class teacher and your monitor
10. Make sure that you know the key personnel in the school
11. Dress the part. Dress in a way that invites respect.
12. Try and dress and look conservative.
13. Try not to be nervous.
14. Do things to help people.
15. When going into the staffroom be aware that it’s somebody else’s space
16. Be aware of the protocols and the routines that might be there within a particular school
17. Observe experienced teachers in action.
18. Be involved in the whole life of the school.
2. Answer the following questions in writing.
1) Do you agree or disagree with the tips? Give your reasons.
2) Which tips do you consider to be not so important?
3) Which tips will you certainly folllow while on your teaching practice? Rank them according to their importance for you.
8. Do a five-minute teaching in the classroom: present the vocabulary of the text to your fellow students and let other students translate the sentences into English.
