School beginning

It's been just over a week of full time school now and I am feeling shattered. I can't talk about everything here for obvious reasons but if you'd like to hear more, always feel free to get touch individually.

So, where to begin...
Timetable:
I found out I have a full German timetable except for one year 7 PSE (social studies/health) class who I see once a week. Hooray for German! The languages department runs on a two week timetable (unlike the rest of the school) which means I have a definite good week and a not so great week. Week one sees me only teach one class on a Monday while week two has me teaching all the way through on a Friday :(. Also new are 70 minute periods which I thought would be difficult but I have barely noticed the extra 10 minutes. I did almost let a year 9 class out twenty minutes early because I forgot break was at 11:30 instead of 11:10 like Mahurangi the previous two years! I see my year 7, 8, and 9 classes three times over the two week block so some weeks it is a whole week in between seeing them. Retention is a bit of a problem... My year 10 and 11 classes I see twice a week, again not really as often as I would like for preparing them for GCSE. I have three year 7, three year 8, one year 9, and one each of year 10 and 11 classes so a lot of names to learn!

Class size:
I was a little disconcerted to discover that UK state school average class size is about 29. So most of my classes are between 29 and 32 students. That is a LOT of students in one room and a huge amount of names to try and get right. Seating plans are the order of the day at the moment!

Year 7, 8, 9:
I am enjoying these classes so far even though it is compulsory for these students to be taking both French and German. I have been really impressed with how engaged most students seem to be. Of course, this is still honeymoon period so I may change my mind later! It has been both great and difficult having a scheme of work to follow. Essentially, there is a plan of what language I should be covering in every lesson for all year levels. While this helps save time when planning, I have found it difficult to adjust to not making my own decisions and I often feel that I am trying to introduce too much language at a time. After year 7, language classes are streamed so I have mostly middle sets apart from one amazing top set year 8 class who I share with another teacher.

Year 10 and 11:
These are GCSE classes as it turns out this is a two year course. Unlike many other schools, The Ashcombe insists that all students take a language at this level. I really admire their commitment to languages but it does mean I have two classes of foundation level students. Getting these classes to pass will be a massive achievement and it has been hard to come to terms with how low their level of language is and to try and get past their negativity. Behaviour management and getting through the content are definitely going to be challenges with both of these year levels. Getting my head around the assessments for GCSE is also a challenge - a lot of jumping through hoops required and everything except the speaking is an external exam. The speaking is sent to us as well and marked externally, we video the role play and description of a picture and then send it away. At least it cuts down on the marking for us!

Department:
I have been so impressed with my new department and am loving being part of a languages team. Everyone speaks at least two foreign languages and are super supportive and friendly. People have been really willing to help with lesson planning, sharing resources, showing me how to use the computer programmes, asking me how I'm doing, and just generally be wonderful human beings. I am definitely blessed by the people around me!

I think I massively underestimated how difficult slotting into the new system would be and also how it would affect me emotionally. I have felt like a first year teacher having to always rely on others for help and barely managing to keep my head afloat. Planning is taking a very long time and I have been resorting to easy options rather than coming up with fun and interesting ways to do things simply to get through each day. It has made me feel like a bit of a rubbish teacher as I know the lessons could be so much better. But for now, just getting through the first half term is the major aim and once things settle down I will hopefully have more time and energy to get creative again!

On a complete side note - I bought a car! Meet Jasmine, a lovely little Honda Jazz who is getting me to and from school and making me feel like I have a lot more independence.