How To Survive Your First Few Weeks in a New School
This week will have seen many fellow teachers embark on a start in a new school whether this be as an NQT or like myself moving onto a new role. Having taught at my last school for seven years it was like being an NQT again. A nervous nights sleep before my first day, having to work out where to go, the names of the people in my department and most importantly where I go for a cup of coffee. Having navigated the internal politics of which mugs were fair game and which were off limits I was ready to start my first INSET day at my new school.
This first thing I noticed about changing schools was the change in terminology, essentially everything is the same but everything is called something different. There were endless acronyms that had me nudging my colleague throughout asking for clarity. I found myself converting these back into the terminology of my old school In my head so I could keep up. This is all well and good until you start talking in this old foreign language which leaves you confronting 'gone out' looks seeking clarity.
I was a HoD of Design and Technology at my previous school and have taken half a step up to become Faculty Leader in my current role. With my inbox full of emails from various members of SLT with demands for various reports, documents and logistical arrangement. My next task was filtering through the hundred odd emails that had been accumulating in my inbox over the summer.
Now if you're a Design and Technology specialist, of which I assume most of you are, with a blog name such as, DandT blog, I don't expect to be attracting many English specialist to my readership. You'll have some empathy for the following statement; teaching in someone else's workshop is like cooking in someone else kitchen. You don't know where anything is, how all the appliances work and what spices are in the spice rack. To make the experience all the more fun, my current school starts it academic year when year 11 leave, so the Year 6 start as year 7 sometime in June and each year group moves up, so all but two of my classes are already well into their current projects. To keep with the kitchen analogy it's like walking into your friends kitchen as they're halfway through making spag bol and them leaving for half an hour whilst you finish the dish. Now you know how to make spag bol, however, how much garlic did you friend put in? How long has the spaghetti been simmering for? Where is the strainer? So for the non Design and Technology specialist that have stumbled across this blog, that what my first week was like.
So back to the topic at hand, how to survive your first week in a new school:
1) Routines, routines routines.
We'll get onto the classroom routines in a moment I mean your routines. What time do you set the alarm clock for? Likely your new school has a different length commute? How long does it take you to get yourself set up in your room ready to teach? How long will you spend chatting to your new colleagues? You need to set yourself up morning routines to stick to so your not running around like a headless chicken trying to find which room you are teaching in as the buzzer for P1 sounds.
2) Classroom Expectations
I was in the very fortunate position last academic year of being able to mentor a fantastic NQT. I'm currently practising the same advice I gave her in her first week. "Don't worry about the students learning anything this week, just get the routines and expectations down." It doesn't matter if you have to get your class in and out of the room for 15 minutes during your first every lessons to establish clear routines for entry, taking the register or simply gathering around the front for a demonstration. The minutes you invest now will save you endless hours and stress later in the year. I had one class repeatedly move from their benches to my demo bench five times in one lesson because they were taking too long, I only then moved on with my demo once they could do it under five second. This was a year ten class...
3) Learn their names
If your'e like me you'll leave learning student's names down to osmosis, you'll learn the trouble makers names first, then your star students next and those that sit in the middle ground at some point during the year. You'll probably have been caught out, as I was a few years ago, discussing the wrong students work at a parents evening because you didn't bother to make a conscience effort to learn the students you teach name's. If you were wondering how the parents evening went, the student's work I was discussing was significantly better than the student's sat in front of me, the student had twigged onto this and kept schtum as I praised her excellent graphics work. It was only by sheer coincidence that the parent in the queue next then sat down and opened with "Excuse me Sir but you've just shown that parent my daughters work." Lesson learned! Learning the students in you're classes name's early on will really make a massive difference to the initial relationship, addressing them by name later when you see them in the corridor and when you work with them individually in class has a huge impact. Also there is nothing worse that shouting 'Oi you' across the classroom to reprimand poor behaviour to have the perpetrator completely ignore you as they have no idea your'e speaking to them.
4) Know you SoW
This one is aimed directly at the Design and Technology specialists. I don't care how long you have been teaching or what kind of complex joints you can cut. If you don't make the projects you are going to be teaching yourself, you're letting yourself in for a fall. There is not much that will undermine the respect your students have for you than bumbling through a demo and getting it wrong. If you're experienced you might get away with this once or twice but the students will soon suss you out and go running to your technician for help.
5) Pace yourself
Your first term In a new school is a marathon, not a sprint, it's an old analogy but it rings true. You'll be desperate the get those new displays up, set up some extra-curricular and start suggesting some new department wide initiatives. All in good time! My first week I made a conscious effort to avoid anything Faculty Leader related. All those emails from SLT were starred and left on the back burner until I was ready. Lucky the two subject leads in my department are excellent leaders and allowed me the courtesy of just being a teacher in my first week. This really helped me get settled in. Don't feel guilty for leaving early so you can go home and relax. You need a chance to unwind and subconsciously process your first few days of teaching.
6) Don't beat yourself up if you make an honest mistake
You're new! Cut yourself some slack. We all make mistakes, it isn't your first and it won't be your last. My first major blunder this week was known by the whole school. I'm new to using SIMs so haven't quite worked out the ins and out of it just yet. Whilst I was looking for a new way of getting myself organised, booking in meetings, duty times etc I stumbled across 'school diary'. Now being extremely naive to SIMs I assumed this was my own personal diary that I could use and set reminders for myself. So I blissfully started to fill in all the meetings etc that I had for the rest of the week. Satisfied that I had myself well organised for the upcoming weeks I went to join my new colleagues at break for a cuppa. Fives or so minutes passed until someone asks "Who's been putting all their personal meetings and stuff on SIMs, did you see that all staff email that went out" After suppressing my mouthful of coffee from being ejected across the room I swallowed and went bright red as I admitted to my new colleagues that It was me. All that was left for me to do was laugh it off and of course remove all the events from SIMs. It's easy to agonise over these things and to really worry about what people will think of you, especially when you are eager to make a good first impression. Dust yourself off and move one, no-one will remember about it in a few days, in the fast paced life of teaching people have a lot more to worry about than keeping tabs on each others blunders.
Well I hope you found some wisdom and assurance in my first blog. Have a great week next week.
Stay reflective
DandTBlog
This first thing I noticed about changing schools was the change in terminology, essentially everything is the same but everything is called something different. There were endless acronyms that had me nudging my colleague throughout asking for clarity. I found myself converting these back into the terminology of my old school In my head so I could keep up. This is all well and good until you start talking in this old foreign language which leaves you confronting 'gone out' looks seeking clarity.
I was a HoD of Design and Technology at my previous school and have taken half a step up to become Faculty Leader in my current role. With my inbox full of emails from various members of SLT with demands for various reports, documents and logistical arrangement. My next task was filtering through the hundred odd emails that had been accumulating in my inbox over the summer.
Now if you're a Design and Technology specialist, of which I assume most of you are, with a blog name such as, DandT blog, I don't expect to be attracting many English specialist to my readership. You'll have some empathy for the following statement; teaching in someone else's workshop is like cooking in someone else kitchen. You don't know where anything is, how all the appliances work and what spices are in the spice rack. To make the experience all the more fun, my current school starts it academic year when year 11 leave, so the Year 6 start as year 7 sometime in June and each year group moves up, so all but two of my classes are already well into their current projects. To keep with the kitchen analogy it's like walking into your friends kitchen as they're halfway through making spag bol and them leaving for half an hour whilst you finish the dish. Now you know how to make spag bol, however, how much garlic did you friend put in? How long has the spaghetti been simmering for? Where is the strainer? So for the non Design and Technology specialist that have stumbled across this blog, that what my first week was like.
So back to the topic at hand, how to survive your first week in a new school:
1) Routines, routines routines.
We'll get onto the classroom routines in a moment I mean your routines. What time do you set the alarm clock for? Likely your new school has a different length commute? How long does it take you to get yourself set up in your room ready to teach? How long will you spend chatting to your new colleagues? You need to set yourself up morning routines to stick to so your not running around like a headless chicken trying to find which room you are teaching in as the buzzer for P1 sounds.
2) Classroom Expectations
I was in the very fortunate position last academic year of being able to mentor a fantastic NQT. I'm currently practising the same advice I gave her in her first week. "Don't worry about the students learning anything this week, just get the routines and expectations down." It doesn't matter if you have to get your class in and out of the room for 15 minutes during your first every lessons to establish clear routines for entry, taking the register or simply gathering around the front for a demonstration. The minutes you invest now will save you endless hours and stress later in the year. I had one class repeatedly move from their benches to my demo bench five times in one lesson because they were taking too long, I only then moved on with my demo once they could do it under five second. This was a year ten class...
3) Learn their names
If your'e like me you'll leave learning student's names down to osmosis, you'll learn the trouble makers names first, then your star students next and those that sit in the middle ground at some point during the year. You'll probably have been caught out, as I was a few years ago, discussing the wrong students work at a parents evening because you didn't bother to make a conscience effort to learn the students you teach name's. If you were wondering how the parents evening went, the student's work I was discussing was significantly better than the student's sat in front of me, the student had twigged onto this and kept schtum as I praised her excellent graphics work. It was only by sheer coincidence that the parent in the queue next then sat down and opened with "Excuse me Sir but you've just shown that parent my daughters work." Lesson learned! Learning the students in you're classes name's early on will really make a massive difference to the initial relationship, addressing them by name later when you see them in the corridor and when you work with them individually in class has a huge impact. Also there is nothing worse that shouting 'Oi you' across the classroom to reprimand poor behaviour to have the perpetrator completely ignore you as they have no idea your'e speaking to them.
4) Know you SoW
This one is aimed directly at the Design and Technology specialists. I don't care how long you have been teaching or what kind of complex joints you can cut. If you don't make the projects you are going to be teaching yourself, you're letting yourself in for a fall. There is not much that will undermine the respect your students have for you than bumbling through a demo and getting it wrong. If you're experienced you might get away with this once or twice but the students will soon suss you out and go running to your technician for help.
5) Pace yourself
Your first term In a new school is a marathon, not a sprint, it's an old analogy but it rings true. You'll be desperate the get those new displays up, set up some extra-curricular and start suggesting some new department wide initiatives. All in good time! My first week I made a conscious effort to avoid anything Faculty Leader related. All those emails from SLT were starred and left on the back burner until I was ready. Lucky the two subject leads in my department are excellent leaders and allowed me the courtesy of just being a teacher in my first week. This really helped me get settled in. Don't feel guilty for leaving early so you can go home and relax. You need a chance to unwind and subconsciously process your first few days of teaching.
6) Don't beat yourself up if you make an honest mistake
You're new! Cut yourself some slack. We all make mistakes, it isn't your first and it won't be your last. My first major blunder this week was known by the whole school. I'm new to using SIMs so haven't quite worked out the ins and out of it just yet. Whilst I was looking for a new way of getting myself organised, booking in meetings, duty times etc I stumbled across 'school diary'. Now being extremely naive to SIMs I assumed this was my own personal diary that I could use and set reminders for myself. So I blissfully started to fill in all the meetings etc that I had for the rest of the week. Satisfied that I had myself well organised for the upcoming weeks I went to join my new colleagues at break for a cuppa. Fives or so minutes passed until someone asks "Who's been putting all their personal meetings and stuff on SIMs, did you see that all staff email that went out" After suppressing my mouthful of coffee from being ejected across the room I swallowed and went bright red as I admitted to my new colleagues that It was me. All that was left for me to do was laugh it off and of course remove all the events from SIMs. It's easy to agonise over these things and to really worry about what people will think of you, especially when you are eager to make a good first impression. Dust yourself off and move one, no-one will remember about it in a few days, in the fast paced life of teaching people have a lot more to worry about than keeping tabs on each others blunders.
Well I hope you found some wisdom and assurance in my first blog. Have a great week next week.
Stay reflective
DandTBlog
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