Well, I think I survived my first week!

Friday night…

Here I am on Friday night, the end of my first full week in my new job, and I am exhausted. But, not quite enough to turn down a well-deserved beer or two with my new colleagues!

Changeover…

So, reflecting on my first week. It is still very much early days of course! However,  I feel that I am beginning to get my bearings and am getting used to the routines of the school day. The main difference compared to the UK, which I thought would be the hardest to adapt to, is the change-over aspect with my Spanish colleague. The children are taught through immersion receiving their learning partly in English for particular subjects and in Spanish for their remaining subjects throughout the day. This means that all primary teachers are responsible for two classes across two-year groups and move/swap between classes at certain points in the day for each class’s English/Spanish lessons. It kind of works out that I teach two subjects in English with one class and my Spanish colleague teaches the other year group in Spanish then we swap for the next two subjects and after lunch swap again. Then the next day we start with the opposite year group we had the day before. So for instance, if I’d started Monday morning with Primary 3 first thing, then Primary 2 and Primary 3 again after lunch, then on Tuesday I would start with Primary 2, Primary 3 and finish with Primary 2. And it keeps swapping like that throughout the week. Sounds quite confusing and stressful even, but you soon get used to it and get into the routine of it all.

No, the main thing I think I have adapted well to this week is the changeover. I thought I would find this part stressful and worried about timings having resources ready and ensuring the room was tidy for my Spanish colleague, as we swap classes and the children stay put. But, this part, thankfully has run quite smoothly all week (long my is last!) and my Spanish partner has been really helpful and patient with me. Although, we find communication difficult at times with the language barrier at the moment!

School hours…

The other aspect that felt very strange at first and I thought I would find difficult to adapt to was the arriving and leaving on the bus with the children. However, that bit I think I’ve got into a fairly good routine with and actually quite appreciate it. It has helped with the work/life balance. Helped further by the longer lunch break to structure my workload so that I get everything organised and completed during school hours. The working day and hours are part of the reason I needed some time out from the UK. Now I don’t start work until the children are in as opposed to at least an hour before school starts and when it’s home time for the children, I’m done too! I have the evening to myself to go for a beer, a walk, the gym or read. Basically, all the things I never got to do in the evenings during term time! There’s been no taking books home to mark, stressing over assessments or the constant beeping of emails throughout the evening, or weekend even at times!

Naive expectations…

But, the one thing that has surprised me, considering I am now working in a private school, and so the complete opposite end of the spectrum to the type of school I have come from and what I am used to, is the behaviour and level of noise! They don’t just natter amongst themselves, they bellow!! And it is constant despite classroom management strategies, it’s like they just can help them themselves! One colleague assured me that it’s the same in every class, all the way through the school and that it is a cultural thing. Spanish children are just more talkative and sociable than the British! And as for the behaviour, I think I was just arrogantly surprised that it wasn’t ‘perfect’ for the type of school it is! I have found that I have had to be quite firm throughout the week in order to keep things calm and to ensure everyone is on task. I’m hoping it’s just children testing the boundaries and things will settle down, but I guess we’ll see as the days go on!

Textbook notion…

As for the work, well everything is given to you in a teacher pack from a particular company. So there is no planning as such as it is all in the ‘teacher’s guidebook’ that comes with children’s textbooks that they have one each of and can write in. In the UK the children would have an exercise book instead to write in and if there was a worksheet/activity from a textbook you wanted to use for a certain task or lesson you’d have to photocopy 30 + pages and then stick them in 30 books + exercise books. After the children had completed this set task they’d all have to be marked with a pageful of next steps (ok, well maybe not quite a full page) and improvements – mainly for Ofsted purposes I’m sure!!

With this particular scheme of work, there is a CD that comes with it to ‘aid’ teaching and then the children complete the set task! So frankly, it’s boring in my opinion, and I have questioned my need to be in the classroom at certain points this week! I have been told by management that it is all materials that you are expected to use and not deviate from, as parents have paid for the books etc, but at the moment it just feels like textbook teaching! Although I have to say, the children are quite good with the structure and routine, and so just get on with it! And they appear to enjoy it strangely! In fact, they whiz through it!! Even when I stop at certain points and go over something or give examples etc. A lesson takes less than the given hour! But then, as it is all new to me and a programme that I have never used or taught from, perhaps I just need to adapt my teaching style to fit this new way! But, I do feel that I will be doing a bit more annotation and adapting certain aspects of the planning. That should be allowed, right?

Also this week; discovering that beer is cheaper than coke and water!

Friday night terrace…

But for now, I’m just going to chill with a drink on a terrace in the sun with some of my new colleagues with the satisfaction of having completed my first full week under my belt!